It was another beautiful day and I had calmed down from the condo conundrum.  Thanks to good conversation last night at the Sananwan poolside, it helped put me at ease and de-stress from all that had happened in Pattaya.   

Next was high intensity exercise.  This time the class was an hour long and consisted of a mix of cardio and resistance stations punctuated by two bodyweight marathons.  The second of the two was all core exercises.  At that point I became aware of how this particular muscle group didn't get used all month.  It will get strong again.  Then after class I noticed how much weight I had lost on the trip and could actually see the outline of my abs, so this was seriously motivating.

Thoroughly exhausted after the class, I wanted something to eat right away.  Unfortunately I walked down the wrong soi and stopped at a food table run by an older barwoman.  After a bit of chat, she assessed I was on a long holiday and loaded with cash, then tried everything to rip me off.  The water was 50 baht, then the food was over 200 baht for a scrimpy bit of fried rice.  This was just fucking ridiculous.  Then she offered beer and said, "Buy me drinks", and I told her to buzz off.  Next she tried to buy my wedding ring, and I said, "We don't do this.  If you want to buy something off me, buy my condo in Pattaya."  She had a laugh at that one.  

I was able to find a shop which sold traditional Thai shirts and pants.  I bought some for my father-in-law and will come back and do more shopping for my wife and her other family members later since this place is the best I've found so far.   You can't take pictures of the merchandise or else it's a penalty, so from that it means the shop must have excellent stuff.

I was then extremely tired from the last few days' ordeal and the fitness class so all I wanted was to nap.  On the way back to the guesthouse I finally found it:  Pad Thai on the street with chairs to sit down!  This was what I was waiting for all trip!  Not only that, the whole thing only cost 40 baht, basically 1/6 the price of the earlier ripoff.  That meal was the best of the day, and the budget all balanced out since I avoided taxis after the lunch ripoff and took local buses instead.  

This is another reason why I like to stay outside Bangkok, as the city itself is just full of ripoffs.  

Just before napping, I found a message in my email that sparked my interest:  "Great News! We have received an enquiry for your studio condo.  Our support team is qualifying the lead now and will contact you shortly to arrange a viewing if requested by the buyer."  The agency that listed it online apparently found someone interested.

I won't hold my breath on this, but if there can at least be some viewings that would be enough to make my trip.