Friday
We woke up Friday and packed all our stuff up to move into a different hostel that had been pre-booked for the next two nights called, 'Hi-Ayutthaya Youth Hostel Place'. The hostel was in what felt like a safer location yet the facilities/rooms were again very basic do nothing to compliment. Nick and I did have some extremely strange bedding which looked like the Asian version of carebears....'heartbear', I took a picture of this as it made me laugh a lot and was hard to believe they'd put in an adults room but nothing surprises me in Asia.
We then went onto a little cafe to get breakfast before locating some bicycles. We had upsetting news that morning. I've mentioned how my grandad has been ill in hospital from a fall a few weeks back. The news was completely unexpected after I thought he was improving in hospital from a bleed on the brain, but the early morning text from my mum to ask if me and my sister were together meant something was wrong. I think my parents probably didn't let on to me how serious the whole situation was or maybe I'd been naive to think he would get better because my grandad is a fighter and normally recovers from things even when he's been in hospital, either way hearing the news he'd passed away broke both our hearts and was a huge shock. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur, as Lauren and Nick distracted us, we continued to get bicycles and cycled around some temples and then chose to get a picnic and sit and eat on the side of a river. We appreciated the peace and quiet. Both Lisa and I were teary all day and felt really lost being away from home at a time like this. My parents were due to be flying out to Thailand the following Tuesday to spend Christmas with my sister and I, and none of us were really sure how to manage the situation but knew we just wanted to be at home with the family. Later on we phoned my auntie to check how she was, found out my mum had got a date for the funeral and discussed going home.
That evening we went for some dinner and to another bar where a live band was playing and tried to enjoy ourselves under strict instruction by my mum to be happy our grandad had such a good life and to feel comforted that he passed away in no pain but peacefully in his sleep. We played a game of pool before singing along to old R&B songs before getting safely to bed.
xxx