Definitely bit exactly what we could chew today, no more, no less. Did a bit of homework during breakfast (we have some schoolbooks for the kids, the same ones they are using at their school for these two trimesters). Lucas was very chuffed he had done the "ll" page before anyone else, as he is 6 hours ahead of his classmates. After a very late start to the day we wandered out again in search of Khao San road. Still no luck, even though we swallowed out pride and asked a couple of times, but Lucas had his feet nibbled on by some fish (they feed off dead skin, which is good for you in some way) and we had a lovely lunch at one of the street restaurants in a very similar road. Esther is now pissed off with Khao San and refuses to step into the god-forsaken tourist-trap hellhole.
Today's main mission was to go on a boat down the river. Extra points for visiting Wat Arun and/or going on the skytrain (we actually have a ticket we managed to buy yesterday before we ran out of change and patience), but neither was mentioned at the morning assembly (in the morning we do an assembly like at school, and each day a different member of the family is "in charge"). As it turned out we went the wrong way up the river. They told us to take the boat with an orange flag, which we took to be something to do with whether it went upriver or downriver. Soon we learnt they all have orange flags (except the private boats) and the clue to whether it goes up or downriver is the direction it's heading (we aren't completely dumb, we thought they would turn round for some reason, like it was the end of the line). No harm done; we ended off the beaten track, away from all the tourists, at a lovely temple called Wat Soi Thong. Got a couple of cakes and tangerines given to us by one of the janitors into the bargain.
On the way out from the hotel we had noticed people putting up stalls all down Pra Athit road and by the time we got back from the boat there was a night market in full swing. Saw some local dancing (it actually had the kids mesmerised, and Aisha spent the rest of the evening swinging her his and waving her arms around, and she wasn't the only one doing so either). Got a few munchies from the various stalls, a pretty hit 'n miss experience but such is the adventure of not being able to speak Thai. Lucas had a great experience with a "real" rifle shooting for fluffy toys (with daddy carefully holding the damn thing and moving small fingers out or harm's way from the flying latch). Didn't actually hit anything but they took pity on us and gave us a toy anyways. We named him Furby.
Lesson learnt today: don't pass by a 7-eleven without dumping your rubbish there.
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