It is really hard to self-diagnose on a trip like this. Health, energy and mental health are pretty close together. Which makes discerning between “I am low” from “I might have the onset of dengue fever” difficult. I am pretty sure that we do not have dengue fever, nor any other of the major tropical diseases we are keeping an eye out for. Then again, they all have pretty much the same early symptoms: Headache, fever, fatigue. So far, we only ever scored mild versions of all three – which coincidentally are also the symptoms for heat exhaustion or just low energy levels. 🙂

So we decided to quit whining and get out there. There was a city to be explored here. The Lonely Planet suggests a 5 km bicycle loop –but we were confident enough to tackle it on foot. Especially since the very first suggested stop was a hearty breakfast at a French style bakery one street over from our guesthouse.

The breakfast held true and was delicious. Fresh orange juice and delightfully fluffy croissants. The only small downside was that it also had almost French prices – still worth it, though.

After such fuelling, we got underway. After a couple of more or less impressive colonial villas, some of which were shielded from view by high walls, we made a stop at Wat Si Saket which turned museum. It was a bit worse for wear, but we both felt it had some charm. At the inner sanctum, restaurateurs were hard at work – under competent German guidance, as a sign assured us.

From here we passed the completely walled in French embassy and made our way to the markets. It was a nice change from Indonesian markets to see that even with the same space limitations and hustle and bustle you CAN organise stalls thematically instead of having horse guts drip over the Barbie dolls. 😉

It was nearing noon and we were both feeling worse for wear. After another little accident involving treacherous south-east Asian footpaths, we took a break in a juice bar along the way and calmed down with some lovely fresh fruit juices.

We called it a day then and had a strategic retreat to our room. Nina took a good long nap and I got myself up to date again with the state of affairs in the world. Ok, I mostly watched US late night comedy shows …

The cave of shame was left only once more for lunch. Once again, our first pick had closed down or moved – so we settled for mildly fancy Italian. With the lunch special, the price was actually ok and the pizza was outstanding. Hands down the best pizza since Auckland. It was even enough to eat that we skipped dinner apart from a late night croissant for Nina.