Recreation and thai aerobics

There was a big park pretty close to where I lived. For some reason I don't have any pictures of it, which is really a shame, since it was pretty cool. Kind of the central park of Nong Khai, a place to get away from the not so crowded streets and the pretty slow-paste life that most Nong Khaians (my own word there) experienced every day. Around five o'clock in the afternoon, there would be aerobics in the park. The whole thing was very odd but fun to watch. I remember a lot of people in bright colored jumpsuits jumping along to music I've never heard before. The whole thing was lead by a ladyboy,-kind of the 3rd gender i thailand, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves very much. When there wasn't aerobics there were always people jogging and doing various kinds of healthy activities, and I actually started jogging too, but my newly bought (used) running shoes didn't hold together for more than a couple of runs. Besides, It was too hot to do any exercise anyway and I was pretty lazy. So, I blame it on the shoes.

Thailand can get pretty hot, especially for a Swede coming from a cold, snowy Sweden in January. Since there wasn't a beach anywhere close, and swimming in the Mekong river was neither safe nor healthy, we had to go elsewhere to play in the water. There was a very nice pool that belonged to the Royal Mekong Hotel, a 20 minute bikeride away from the dorm, and we would go there a lot in the afternoons if we had time. The only problem was that whoever built the hotel and pool must have missed that around 3PM the sun would set behind the hotel and that basically meant time to go home. I'm not an architect, but even I could figure out a better location for the pool, or the hotel. Either way, it became our little oasis in the heat as the seasons changed from cold to warm, meaning temperatures constantly over 30 C. Around 90-95 F i think.