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Published: January 10th 2011
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I spy
the Texas flag! Our overnight bus picked us up and we got two beds at the very back and put our bags behind us. The bus stopped a few times at gas stations, but I'm glad I wasn't hungry because the options were terrible! Pretty much the only thing offered were either snacks like cookies or a baguette with some sort of mystery meat. Ronald ate one and nothing happened, so they're safe, but gross...We didn't get out at any of the other stops and the ride was pretty uneventful except for the rash I got from the blanket. That will be the last time I wear something other than long pants on a bus in Asia. No more bare legs for me.
We got in at 6 am about and walked to Backpackers House, but it was $7 a person which is sort of expensive, so we decided to keep looking. Luckily for us, Son & Daughter is right behind Backpackers and for only $4! So we left our stuff upstairs, gave them our passports, and headed out for breakfast. I had a salad with feta cheese (I paid extra for this and then they only put like 5 cubes on it!)
tacos
and bean "enchilada" and it was not the best. The fresh coconut juice was nice though. While we were at breakfast, Ronald remembered it was my birthday so we decided to go to the hot springs for the day.
Our hostel called a cab for us and it cost 85,000 to get to the Thap Ba hot springs resort. They try to sell you packages when you get it, but we decided to go a cheaper route and paid 100,000 each (about $5) which got us something like 15 or 25 minutes in a public cold mud bath and then the pools were free. We were actually alone in our cold mud bath, so we got to take some fun pictures (I'll try to put these up later -- they're on Ronald's camera and are too big for Travelblog at the moment) before hanging out by the pools. There were 4 cold pools, two of these with bubbles, and a kiddie pool along with two warm pools, one at about 30 degrees and the other 38. It was nice to just take it easy. We had lunch there (bad pizza, decent lasagna) but my favorite part was watching all the Russians. The women posed all over the place...in the waterfall, under the waterfall, next to the waterfall, next to the pool, slightly in the pool, in the pool, etc. They just had the photographer of the resort take solo photos of them while their husbands and children were away. One child tried to get in the photo with her mom but she was shooed away!
We went home and showered because the showers they had there were also salt water! No idea why, but it was pointless to shower to say the least. Then Ronald took me to the Texas BBQ restaurant for dinner. It was started two years ago by someone from Memphis and they import all their meat and...they have ranch!!! We got two tacos and an enchilada to split and then also ordered the chicken fried chicken with gravy. Pretty decent meal I have to say. After they took away our plates, Blane, one of the guys working there, brought me an ice cream with a #2 candle on top (he said they didn't have any other candles). I don't know when Ronald planned that, but it was really yummy.
While we were in the cold bubbling water, we met a man named Michael and decided to meet up with him later, so we did. He met us outside our hostel and we drank rum and cokes on the beach and just chilled. It was fun and we headed back to bed around 12:30 or 1 and there was hardly anything open besides the Booze Cruise.
Maybe Monkey Island tomorrow?
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