……..on a bus was the plan for today?  We did not have a late night the evening before as we decided that we would go to the ‘night bazaar ‘before our dinner………not really knowing what a night bazaar was but thinking there would be a little shopping involved and hopefully a few deals to be had.     Poor Jim, who doesn’t like to shop, found himself in hell as there were literally thousands of stalls and after you visited the first hundred things began to repeat themselves so much so that Marilyn and I got tired………there were so many people, so many things to look at, so much stimulation it was unbelievable.  However we had heard that ‘fisherman’s pants’ were the thing to be wearing on the boat trip down the Mekong which we are planning on doing in a couple of days and that all the young people were wearing them on  the boat so we thought we better have a look…and we did.   There was this little Thai woman selling them so I stopped to look and she very quickly spotted me and insisted  that I try them on over my shorts so I agreed because they looked neat…………….on young people………not on older women but she was convinced that I should have them for 350bhat($13) but they were awful and then she said she had made them herself (all 500 pairs) and was showing me her label but because I didn’t have my glasses on I could not see a thing which really didn’t matter anyway because it was obvious they were factory made………so I quickly tried to get them off, was smiling and thankful and was trying to get away when she kept shouting at me and dropping the price to less than half……..and I realized we had an audience of young Thais who were pointing either at her or me, I could not tell……..so I got myself out of there.

         Met up with Marilyn and then Jim and went to a great vegetarian restaurant for a super meal and now I have a totally new respect for tofu………..some good!      As I said we crashed early because we still had not caught up on our sleep given it had taken us almost 27 hours to get to Bangkok from Tidnish.  So last night when I was sleeping I was out of it and must have been dreaming thinking I was still on the train……rocking back and forth, back and forth and kind of woke up in the morning to Celine Dion singing “my heart will go on” and immediately thought where the hell am I…………and was relieved to know I was at a guesthouse in Thailand and not on the Titanic!        I suspect the owner was treating us to some of our own music because he just smiled as I left our room and seemed pleased.   So today we’re headed to Chiang Rai which has a population of about 60,000  and many temples……..all of which are fabulous and it reminds me of when we first movd to Nova Scotia and one day when we were driving around Jim commented on the fact that every city and little town and village had so many churches in them………..and as they say here “same, same but different!”……………Fill you in on our bus trip tomorrow…………have a good day and hope it doesn’t snow.