I got up at 6.30am and the seating area of the hostel was closed off until 8am so I didn't think they did breakfast, which considering the price seems normal, but after Myanmar where every place did breakfast it was a change. Got my stuff together in the dark and left to get the suitcase fixed. Again I took a bus but this time it did go to the right train station, just very slowly as there were loads of cars going somewhere and got in the way of our route. The bus was pretty empty with only about 10 people on board and then I took the train 4 stops and tried to head in the direction of the Mr bag fix shop, but there was no pavement so I had to get a taxi which cost 45 baht which is not too bad. I got there and the woman working there told me it would cost 1,200 baht and take a week. I wasn't sure the wheel actually needed changing and also asked if it could be done today so that I could go to the islands and she got a man to come back to the shop who spoke English and they did the job in 30 minutes for 400 baht which was a great result. As we were not on a main road I used the map to walk to one only I found a dead end as someone had barricaded a doorway so I picked up my empty suitcase up and climbed over the wall with it. After that I eventually got a taxi and decided to take it all the way back as it would mean less changes and hopefully be quicker. The meter starts at 35 baht but the journey took ages so it cost 160 in total so the real cost of getting the suitcase fixed was 3 hours and 640 baht, but I quite like my massive London print suitcase, at least for another month or so. I went back to the hostel and grabbed some pad thai for breakfast before booking the ticket to Koh Samui that I'd been looking at the last 2 days as its cheaper and is at one end so I can end up in Koh Tao after 2 boat hops. I noticed that they store luggage so after I had packed my things back into the suitcase and checked out of the hostel, I went and left it at the agency and went out to visit the national museum. On the way I happened to pass the coin museum way which was free and also pretty good. They had some tie in to the Country's history all translated to English and they even had braile and floor bumps for blind people to follow. Turns out the King (Bhumibol who passed away recently) had received award from the UN for the things he had been doing in Thailand some years ago. they also had a coin worth $100. I went to the national museum next and followed several Thai people to a tent but they wouldn't let me in so I wandered round a bit and most buildings seemed closed until I found one that was open and had people praying before a Buddha. I read the description and 2016 was a special year for the king and queen so in August they had opened this special exhibition with treasures which are normally spread around Thailand. The walls of the room were all murals and there were some other things to see but not much so I left and security for the tent had gone so I walked in and it was full of pictures from just after when the king had died. It was a good thing for me to see and there are still lots of people mourning the death now which is due to continue for a year.
o I went to the racecourse to see some of the many people who go there and they do still get free food and water. I found out later that they queue up so that they can go into the grand palace and see where the king is currently buried and that the palace is also now open to tourists. I headed back and went past a restaurant which looked closed, probably couldn't compete with the free food nearby. Then I used the internet at the travel agents to update this blog, and I went to get some lunch at a place I had chosen earlier as it looked pretty cheap but it was now quite busy and so I waited for ages before one of the women working there looked at me and then I saw her checking my order before speaking to the chef and they finally cooked my food. I'd ordered the chefs special vegetarian curry and it was too spicy which slowed me down eating it. As it was 4.30 there wasn't too much I could do so I just went back to use the internet again and did some more exciting ACCA CPD before we went to get the bus. There were lots of other tourists and we had 3 different stickers depending where we were going. I had one of only a few blue stickers and sat down on the bus and a Colombian girl with a yellow sticker who was going to Koh Tao sat next to me. She was called Andrea and did music promotion and wanted to work in Europe but the visa had fallen through so she was heading back to Colombia in December. We talked until 10, maybe keeping some people awake and then we both tried to go to sleep. The bus stopped at 11pm for a 30 minute toilet stop so most people were woken up. After that I slept until 2.45 when the bus stopped for people going to Koh Tao to get off where they would wait until morning to get a boat. One guy got really stressed as he wanted to go to Phuket. He kept asking people where the bus was going and repeated he wanted to go to Phuket even though the driver told him it was ok. We carried on and as there was loads of room, I stretched out and went back to sleep.
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