Day 19 - Neighborhood Exploring

Today was pretty uneventful and relaxing. I caught up on some email, got my next few nights accommodation booked, and headed out to the pool. None of my other places have had one, so it was nice to just kick back, not have to go anywhere, and stay cool. Fairly certain yesterday was the hottest day yet. It's been in the upper 80's/low 90's with at least 80% humidity. Hot and sweaty!!!! So the pool was a great reprieve.

In the late afternoon, I walked up to the corner store to buy a few snacks. The walk is pretty interesting. My hotel is the only one in the area, and it's down a muddy dirt road with stray dogs, chickens, and garbage piles everywhere.

Something that struck me as odd, is that at quite a few locations there have been individuals collecting money to "Keep Thailand Clean" but then you walk down into neighborhoods and see heaps of trash. Trash and a shoes, actually. There are shoes everywhere on the sides of the road. How do so many people lose their shoes??? Lol. It's really puzzling.

It's so humbling to see the conditions that people live in around the world. What we consider to be low income or poverty, doesn't even come close to describing the situation of so many people in random cities across the globe. Here, for example, entire families live in one room garage or storage room type structures with a roll up door in the front. Many of these structures look like they need to be condemned, and they most certainly do not have bathrooms or kitchens. Walking past on 2 occasions, I witnessed mothers both washing their children outside, and filling water pots from a hose to put over an outdoor stove to cook. They all have mopeds though, and seem to come and go to work, etc, so I have to wonder if it's just the traditional/typical way that they live, and perhaps they don't consider themselves poor or out of the ordinary... Interesting thing to think about.

At the corner store, I grabbed some salmon flavored Lays Potato Chips for an afternoon snack. The barbecue squid was an adventure for my mouth, (though mostly unpleasant), but I saw the salmon and had to give them a go. Yummm. They're pretty weird like their counterpart, but really quite tasty. A street vendor was passing by with some type of garlic bread with a fish paste on it, and of course I had to give that a try as well. :)

No dinner tonight after the garlic fish bread and chips, but I did have a beer and watched a little tv before crashing out.

Anxious to get over to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party, and then get away from the tourists and do some diving and various adventure activities. :)