We woke up bright and early at 1:30am!!! Had a blissful early morning nap and then went for our breakfast with all the fixins!
We rented a scooter from the resort and went into Ranong town for the popular Provincial Market, which had everything from clothing to toys and household goods and an extensive exhibit of local fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and spices. It covered well over twenty city blocks and was clearly the place locals shopped for all of their food and daily needs. Monday and absolutely packed with little room for walking between the vendors, shoppers, and scooters. We worked up an impressive sweat walking around and exploring all the locals had to offer.
Next we drove to the Raksawarin Hot Springs and went to the free public pools where we were one of very few takers. With the help and coaching of a local Thai woman and her family, we eased ourselves into 40 degree pools for 5 min. increments. It was lovely to plunge into the healing pools and then recover/relax under the beautiful Thailand breeze alongside the lush jungle and lazy sun.
Our lovely hostess Naomi at the Hidden Resort had arranged for a full sea salt body scrub and light massage at the nearby Siam Hot Spa where more hot spring soaks were topped by an incredible 1 hour treatment of detailed scrubbing. We were like two brand new babies!
We worked up a good hunger and with very little available on the main road we managed to find a street-side restaurant (so unexpected and a bit sketchy) and had the yummiest lunch of green stir-fried veggies (including ferns) and rice, and a beautiful papaya salad.
Back to the hotel for rest and relaxation but first I had to do my workout (in pj’s) only to be happily interrupted with a fresh mango surprise delivery from the resort. We matched that up with a wine cooler and reminisced about our day.
As the late afternoon passed and evening came upon us, we decided a lovely dinner at the resort was required. With a healthy dose of mosquito repellant applied, we ventured along our treacherous boardwalk to the restaurant (not so dangerous on the way there, but possible catastrophes could happen if we went over our 2 drink limit!). We pondered over the menu for a long time to create the perfect last dinner in Ranong, and at the same time busied ourselves with concocting the perfect tropical drink. Our creation, now featured on the Hidden Resort drink list, is called “Tropical Madness” and includes fresh pureed mango, soda, Malibu rum, and fresh lime juice (other name considerations included ‘Easy Breezy’ and ‘Hidden Bliss’).
We settled on Tofu Green Curry, Tom Gai Lak (chicken coconut lemongrass soup), rice and a beautiful local green vegetable with egg. We finished the evening off with a Passionfruit Mojito and skipped home to bed, where we stayed up late before hitting the sack (9pm)!