Swimming pools and night markets – Day 93 – Dec 4, 2025

We slept on real beds – yay! But… Maylin had nightmares all night, and all the airconditioning timed out and it was about 28 degrees in here when we woke up, AND the girls’ bed is probably upside down. It’s like sleeping on springs with a thin sheet on top. Once flipped, it’s better, but we had to wait until morning…

We eat breakfast at home, and do some school work. The girls got to choose today, seeing as this is not a regular week, and we’re not on a regular schedule. Téa chooses English, Maylin chooses math. No options were given other than what we have available in our books and on TVO learn.

We’re also expecting a technician to come look at the girls’ bathroom tiles, the one that squishes water out… A representative for our AirBnb hosts arrive with the technician, and we get to ask them about the issues we have discovered so far. Our toilets actually smell like gasoline (!!) when we flush, and Google seems to think it’s a plumbing issue, so they definitely need to fix that. They come in, they evaluate, and promise to come back later to fix.

After school work is all done, we set out to explore. Our goal today is the closest of the two malls in Hua Hin, Bluport. We cross the street and start looking for the tuktuk bus. It’s a green truck with seats in the back and standing room essentially floating barely over the road. It honks if it sees someone walking, just in case you are waiting for a ride, so you know to stick your arm out. It’s 15THB per person, approximately $0.65CA, and it runs all day long, up and down the main street, bringing people as short or as far as they need to go. The seating area has proper bus stop signal buttons!

We make it maybe three doors down, and Maylin tells me she wants to go home. Her stomach doesn’t feel good. Her and I turn around to go back home, while Joe and Téa grab the tuktuk bus. Maylin’s tummy is not good after the hot and restless sleep we had, and she was sick only two days ago. We head back in to the airconditioned condo, where we can relax in comfort, with clean and reliable washrooms nearby.

At Bluport, Joe and Téa find lots of stores, and grab a whole bunch of things we needed for the condo at the Boots drug store (they even found a medicine for Maylin) and at the grocery store. They have a good lunch in the food court, and Téa continues her craving for Mexican options. On their way home from the mall, they stop at a meat stick stall and bring me some spicy and some non-spicy chicken on a stick, as I haven’t had lunch yet.

I had a nice long cool nap while Maylin played on the Switch. When Joe and Téa get home, we all head down to the pool. Luckily, there are washrooms by the pools, and Maylin especially appreciates their proximity today. We start out in one pool, but move to the one directly outside the washroom after a slippery run/walk along the wet path to get there in time. Thank goodness for 9 pools to choose from!

After swimming, and seeing as it’s Thursday today, we plan on heading to the market for dinner. There are two markets close to us, the nearest one is the Tamarind Market, and the largest one is the Cicada market. The two are essentially right next door to each other, but only the Tamarind one is open on a Thursday. Both are open Friday through Sunday. But Maylin is not feeling great, and doesn’t dare to be too far away from her home washroom. Joe and Maylin stay home, and Téa and I are tasked with bringing back dinner.

The Tamarind night market opens at 5pm, and Téa and I arrive shortly thereafter. The lines are not long, and there are plenty of tables available. We stroll the market, nibble on a Hong Kong style bubble waffle and a mango passionfruit smoothie while we contemplate what we actually want to eat for dinner. There are maybe 3-4 stalls at the market that sell things, and the rest are all food vendors. It is a food lover’s paradise, and so much to choose from, not just Thai food. Most of the stalls are very simple, and they efficiently serve up dish after dish after dish. In the middle of the market grounds, there is a full service bar and a sushi counter that looks like it could be inside any professional sushi restaurant in Japan. Colour me impressed!

Here is what we picked up to bring home:

And yes, of course Maylin had some dinner, but a much less greasy and spicy dinner tonight. Joe bought some pasta and vegetables earlier today, and used the chicken sticks he brought me for lunch to bulk up her soup.

After dinner, I head back out! I love exploring, and I know it’s dark, but I want to try to make it down to the next “grocery store”/convenience store, as we have already explored the one directly across the street and the one by Dough Land, both very 7Eleven-ish. There’s another store further down, and the route will take me past a place called Andreanna’s, a bakery that’s still open! While I walk along, I notice which restaurants have only tourists, and which have only locals, for future reference.

I find the grocery store, and this one feels more like a proper store, albeit still not big. They have more ingredients than grab and go items, and I’m able to pick up a few things we needed. There are still things we don’t know where to find, but that’ll be for another day. On my way back home, I stop in at Andreanna’s and buy some ciabattas. As we don’t have a bread knife at the condo, I ask for them to be sliced, and the clock starts ticking. You can’t keep sliced ciabatta fresh for long!

The art on the walls in the bakery catches my eye, and some of them are even puzzles!

I walk by the fruit lady and buy her last batch of papaya for the evening. On my way back to the condo, I find a gas station:

I get home and it’s late. We all need a good night’s sleep, and we double check all the AC units to see if we can understand why they reset to 25 and 30 degrees last night, don’t find anything obvious, and hope for the best…