a very good day

The other night I went back to my guesthouse with the mmp (mouse-poo-problem) after walking around the town. As I sat reading my book I started to notice something very nice about the place. Some parts were kinda cheap and crappy, but there were some very nice touches. The bathroom had obviously been re-done, and the cusions on the chair were new. The place needed a paint job, but there were new flowers above the very old dresser. I felt good about helping someone who was working so hard to fix the place up. It was even nicer for the fact that it was the only hotel/guesthouse in town.
The next morning I started out to Songkhla. I was happy to see the ocean from the road. On the map the road hugs the east coast, but you can't always trust that. I was right to be a bit skeptical, as the road did indeed turn away from the sea. But... I did get to eat one of the better meals of my trip. It was seafood and rice, cooked with a sure but light hand on the spices. Fairly simple, but still pretty darn good. Food is often a bit of a gamble. In the cities and where there are a lot of tourists the menus are in English or there are pictures. But on the road and in the small towns and smaller villages, there is no English, spoken or written.
The best way is to go where it is busy, and point to what looks good and smile. Unfortunately you are not always in a town with resturants during lunch or dinner times. The next best way is to go to a place that has large pots on a table. They will usually let you look in the pots and you point to what you want and smile. But what usually happens is you go in, and mime a menu but opening your hands like you have a book. Then you look at the menu and pick something in the middle (middle price, middle of the list) and smile. Then you hope for the best. Sometimes it is recognizable in a good way, and sometimes it is recognizable in a bad way (fish heads for example). But yesterday I won.
I then decided not to go all the way to Songkhla, and stopped at a very nice resort. It was nice too, right on the beach. I drank coffee and read my book and watched a family hunt for treasures and shells in the gathering dusk. Kids and dogs played tag with the waves and even thought it was on the east coast the sunset was still pretty.
I woke up early to watch the sunrise, and then went back on the road. I will have to go to HatYai tomorrow, because the banks here don't have Malyasian currency and I don't want to enter the country without at least a little bit of their money. Apparently it has mellowed some as the people said HatYai, ok, but not to the border.
Till I post again, be good, be happy and have fun.