Today was recovery day from our trek, and we all chose different methods to do so. I got up early, called Mom & Dad, did some reading up on the island I want to go my last week here, and then walked around for a few hours. Maggie/Robbie slept in a bit then headed to the pool, and Neha had just woken up when I got back around 3:00. We earned it.
Harry Potter has been a sort of fixture in the house to pass the time, as Maggie is reading the series for the first time and just finished book #5. We, of course, have been watching the movies and just got books 6 & 7 today to complete the experience. Last night was the showing of #5, which was accentuated nicely by the torrential downpour happening outside. It's been raining more frequently the past couple days, and the resulting cooler weather has been a most welcome relief. It's still hot walking around, but there are these brief, blissful pockets of cooler air that you can just get a taste of in between the steam coming off the streets.
It struck me today as I was walking how colorful everything is here. Maybe it's the plethora of scooters in every color you can imagine, the silk and paper umbrellas hanging in the shop windows, or the awnings that tout each store's wares, but it's a bright and cheerful rainbow everywhere you turn. I'm also grateful for the dozen used bookstores that I've found while walking around the city. I haven't bought many, but I did snag a Thai guidebook pretty cheap and managed to buy and sell another book, making reading less expensive than it can be. Movies are also extraordinarily cheap here: there's a DVD store on our street that rents for 15B or 30B and sells for 50B. Most of the DVDs are actual copies of the legit versions, with menus and everything. Some of the cheaper ones are bootlegs, and most interestingly, they already have "Wolverine" on the shelf. We're wondering about how they managed that one.
I passed some men doing maintenance on electrical wires today. Their methods were quite scary, as you can see below. This is definitely something that would never happen in the states.
Last night we passed the time we didn't spend watching the movie on attacking the filth in the kitchen. I don't think the refrigerator/kitchen had been cleaned in about a year, so we defrosted the dirtier of the fridges, washed it out, and purged all of the shelves, containers, appliances, and food that were disgusting, rotting, and unclaimed. It looks so much better and I'm sure it will help with the ant problem. Thankfully the rain has driven away most of the black beetle-like bugs that were plaguing the rest of the house. We have a theory that they only come inside like that when the ground is too hard for them to burrow. Hopefully they will stay away.
Side Note: **Have finally managed to upload trip pictures to facebook! You can view them here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2153672&id=4703285&l=0b5f4b7a7f
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