Feeling the consequences

I wake this morning and feel like I've been in a car crash. My left shoulder and back are on agony and as me and the girls are heading to get some strong coffee one of the lads Jo asks if he can join. We share breakfast before i take myself to the pharmacy. I think it's muscular and after my swimming attempts the other day it would kind of make sense. In the chemists here you can literally buy anything over the counter from zantax to rohypnol but I opt for the milder cocodamol and ibuprofen. I also take myself for another massage and tge girls have recommend a place with an older lady who will be more experienced and hopefully do me some good. As I lay on my front she massages me like a man, they are so strong for there size and i can really feel her getting stuck into the knots in my back and when i wince she says "no pain no gain" it really makes me chuckle because she cant speak any other Englih. The next time i look up she is holding onto the rail and literally stretching me out with her feet walking on my back. I come out feeling a lot better. The girls have headed out on a boat trip but Im really not up for it, so I head back to the hostel and across the road to the restaurant we ate in last night as I had dinner envy of maddies coconut curry. The food in Thailand is on another level and for Under a quid you can eat things that will blow your taste buds away. I get chatting to Chalita the owner of the restaurant and when I ask her how they have survived through covid she explains the restaurant has been shut for two years and they only opened 1 month ago when the tourists started coming back. Until then they have lived off their savings. They are so good at surviving and never take advantage of the fact the at some times the tourists may not be here. They also live very meagerly and when you use the night markets you can eat for 40 baht the equivalent of about 70p. I They are packed with little stalls selling everything from pad Thai to kow soy gui. A spicy broth with vegetables and a chicken drumstick that's been slowly cooked. We meet a girl called Leah who's the first scouser I've met this trip and she joins us for the evening. We all wander round the stalls and choose our dish of the day before sitting down at a group table. I ask lou to grab me a coke and she comes back with a pepsi i really dont care because its cold and wet and the food is really spicy so it does the job. On route back we stop at a little bar for a few games of pool the guy is so good and can play really well 1 handed but i manage to beat him when hes playing 2 handed . We finish the evening on the roof top terrace with our new extended family of Joe and Leah.Louise offers to head down to the 7/11 for toasties and water and we giggle when she gets back because she has 2ham and cheese and one cheese toasties it takes 5 mins to decide which is the cheese one is its a nice end to the evening before saying goodnight..Okumaya devam et