Would you like a little trip out?

Today we tootled off to Nathon, a place I like much more than Chaweng on Koh Samui. We're staying at Bophut, which has lots of shops but not the variety you find in Nathon. Chaweng deserves a visit for sure but it's much more touristy as well as more expensive.

We left the hotel mid-morning after waving goobye to these little guys:

They're the most common bird here, called Nok Kaews (pronounced Knock You's) - very cheeky and amusing to watch. I guess they're close to our own blackbirds in the UK.

We wandered along the road in front of the hotel:

And then came across another very common sight here - 'Spirit Houses'.

The house is intended to provide a shelter for spirits which could cause problems for the people if not appeased. The shrines often include images of people and animals and offerings are left at the house to propitiate the spirits. More elaborate installations include an altar for this purpose. You'll find them all over South East Asia and I truly would love one for home - but no way would the luggage allowance cope :(

We then went into Nathon and spotted this building up a side street, not sure if it's some sort of temple, not one I'm familiar with as Thai 'Wats' are much less scarey:

Then we had a good couple of hours wandering and bartering before doing as one should do when it's very hot and sticky:

Len, bless him, with an ice cold beer. He's a terror, always puts on a silly smiles for photos and I was threatening him at the time!

Yours truly complete with the 'lampshade' as Mary Mac called it :) And not a single slick of makeup - it's so hot it just slides off!

And what did we buy? Clothes mainly - these are a couple of dresses for me as I travelled very light 'cos all the shops at home already have their Winter stuff in now and Dumbo wasn't as well prepared as she thought :(

Jazzy huh? Swingy, light and very cool - ticks all the boxes.

That's it for today - tomorrow (15th) is Lens' Birthday so I need to wrap the gift I dragged all the way from the UK and write his card before we shower and go for an evening meal. It's a hard life, but someone has to do it :)

Di
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