Song and Dance in Songkhla - Part 4

Last day of the conference. We go to where the children are staying (Vic's parents) and then drive in the truck to the Songkhla Folkore and History Museum. This is on an island in a large inland sea which is home to thousands of shrimp farms. The museum is very good though the adults, us included, linger a bit longer on the exhibits than the children.

 Back at the conference after lunch the children and we are the audience for the teachers practising with the puppets they have made. All in Thai but a lot of laughs. You don't necessarily need the language to understand the humour.

The kids have a swim at 4pm then back to Vic's parents for dinner. Later we visit Vic's grandmother in hospital. There appears to be no limit on visitor numbers as about a dozen of us drop in. The scene is somewhat different from a NZ hospital, with seemingly very sick and elderly patients crowded together with little privacy.

It turns out be a long day and night capped off with a puncture on the way back to Leela. That's me under the van. When the van was converted the hole where the nut to release the spare was covered over. That and having the wrong size wheel brace made changing the tyre something of a challenge but we eventually make it to bed. Next day is the long trip back to BTNC, via a tyre shop when the repaired tyre fails after an hour, and via Trang for lunch with another staff member's family.