WHAT TO DO TODAY?

I've made it as far as Patong so far but I'm not sure what I'll do.  My right leg is giving me problems — I think it's just a case of overworked muscles and not the motorbike exhaust pipe burns and sunburn.   I hobbled/limped as far as an Internet cafe on the northern end of Bangla Road before deciding sitting in air-conditioning sounded like a good idea.  It's still a bit too early for lunch but I'm very close to The Pizza Company so I'm sure I'll end up there.

I'm tempted to go to the hospital and see what they can do (I would think all they would do would be to wrap my leg in a gauze bandage which I don't really want since I've been wearing shorts or swimming trunks almost all the time).  Perhaps I'll do that tomorrow if my leg doesn't get any better.  Ironically, the left ankle is extremely swollen and the top of the foot is badly sunburned as well but hasn't given me any problems whatsoever.

Since I'm moving very slowly today, I'm finding it difficult to move quickly enough past the touts and tuk-tuk drivers so I'm having to wave my hand "no" more often this morning than I usually do.  I think I'll wait until tomorrow to drop off my memory stick.  Perhaps I'll see if I can find a good book at Bookazine (I almost put my Travelers' Tales Thailand into my pack this morning but decided against it at the last second).  Then, perhaps I can find a nice place in the shade and spend some time reading rather than walking all over creation.

I did have a nice breakfast at the hotel &@8212; chicken sandwich on toast with onions, lettuce, and some sort of dressing along with coffee and juice.  I'm turning into quite the coffee drinker on this trip.  Haven't had any beer for the past couple of nights, but I've decided I like Singha better than Tiger.  Apparently, there's several wineries in the area and I'm tempted to see if I could buy a bottle of Thai wine to take home to Marilyn and Keith.  Might be kind of difficult to carry it with me on all the flights home, but I'll see if I can get a special box for a bottle.

Well, I better sign off now because I just found out that this particular cafe charges 2 baht per minute, rather than the one baht most of the others charge.  At least I think I'm rejuvinated enough to be able to hobble to my next stop...  And I also (finally) figured out how to change the post times of these blog entries to local Thailand time (so don't be surprised if suddenly you think you've been transported to the future because it's 13 hours ahead of Albuquerque time).