Out of the frying pan and into the fire…
Since recovering from the heavy night on our balcony we had with the lovely Jo and the lovely Nicole, which took an entire day of lying on the beach, we have had many adventures! The day before yesterday we went for breakfast with Jo and Nicole and then trotted off to the other side of the island where they had discovered some gorgeous deserted beaches and showed us the wonders on a short but invigorating sea side hike. Its was a beautiful walk and apart from two apparently gay dogs, that followed us all the way from where Jo and Nic live, we were the only people for miles.
All that exercise had made us all a bit hungry so sticking with the role of tour guide, Jo took us on a short taxi ride to Tone Salat, I think there is a beach there I’m not sure we only got as far as a sublime restaurant who served me up the finest bacon sarnie I’ve had since England…
By this time it was early afternoon and the recent stint of cloudy weather was beginning to break, so Georgie and I headed as quickly as we could back to our Haad Rin hut for the last few hours under a blue sky and hot, lovely sunshine. As is normally the case with places like this everyone is passing through and if you dwell for long enough like we are then neighbours change every few days. We had new neighbours to both sides and they all turned out to be top notch, one side are an American couple the other a group of Australians… All nice and all respectful of their own, but most importantly my boundaries, as far as sand and hut frontage goes. Obviously the usual exchanges went on, where you from? Where you going to? And how long? But due to it being their first night on the infamous Haad Rin they were all keen as mustard to get on a bender… Georgie and I had already made plans with Jo and Nic but we could hardly refuse just one bucket in the interest of forging new friendships or whatever… We don’t really need much of a reason to visit our fiery bucket seller Sanny.
We slid off to meet up with Jo and Nicole at a nearby rasta bar, a definite change of pace but a welcome one too. A few quiet drinks and some amazingly comfy bean bags eased the process. The beach was dead by the time we got back because there was a dark moon party in full swing and it seemed everyone had gone there, we weren’t as keen on it and all called it a night… Obviously after a pit stop at Mr K’s…
Yesterday… Oh yesterday… I opened my eyes at about 8am and from my pillow caught a glimpse out of the window and up between the gently waving fingers of a palm tree leaf in the wind to a clear blue sky. I sprang from my peace and without any regard for my personal appearance or dignity dashed out onto our balcony, luckily it seemed that everyone was still recovering from the party the night before and as I wandered down to the beach it was almost apocalyptic… I was the only soul on the entire beach and it was one of the most beautiful mornings ever, as I walked back to the hut to wake Georgie I realised that it was a fucking good job there wasn’t another soul about… Lets just say morning glory sums up yesterdays beginnings in every sense of the word!
By 9am it was really hot, hotter than I’ve ever felt the sun in England! And with coffee and breakfast out the way the next step was of course to get greasy and get brown, Georgie was practising her poi besides me as I laid out with the rays beating down on me… It was the very definition of beautiful.
By midday the sun was hotter than I have ever experienced and I was very aware that I was burning slightly. My reaction to this was more oil and hike my pants further up on the legs as close to the point of groin-al exposure as I dared. I was also aware that my face was beginning to burn too so it was at that point we went for a swim, Georgie A.K.A poi girl master had also worked up quite a sweat so hand in hand like on a movie we sloped off into the sea. And don’t even get me started on the sea. It was the calmest we have ever seen it and there is rarely a wave at the best of times here, but yesterday it was like glass, clear and warm and shimmering as if it were filled with gold. The day continued much like this until the sun fell behind the palms that surround our hut at which point the beach seems to come alive with Frisbees and volley ball… Obviously not for us! We sat and read our books feeling warm and nice and maybe a little burned until the afternoon gave way gracefully to evening. As is always the case with sunburn, it manages to hide itself quite well until you get in the shower… But its not too bad and because I was already pretty damn brown I’m now somewhere between chocolate and crimson.
Georgie however seems to be a little slower on the uptake but at least not burned. In the evening after some dinner we arrived back at our hut with no plans with the girls and all the neighbours seemed a little jaded still from the night before so Georgie and I headed out down the beach alone, which here is never a problem. We sat at the Cactus bar watching fire shows and drinking beer and a few young Thai boys were trying their hands at spinning the fire staffs, we decided that they must be the happiest little boys in the world because surely it’s every little boys dream to be up at midnight, with loads of pissed adults playing with fire and being applauded for it! Next came the balloon game, where each contestant has a balloon tied to one foot and has to pop all the others, Georgie was about to participate (and surely win!) When we remembered the whole broken toe thing and sensibility told us NO. It got very exciting and came down to one of the small boys who had been playing fire and rather large and far too competitive Israeli bloke. Im not sure who won but I think the crowd united in cheering on the little Thai lad of no more than 8 years old. We left as all the drunks were trying and mainly failing at fire limbo and of course went via the awesome food God, Mr K’s…
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