Happiness is A Beach

So, the good news is that I am reunited with my passport once again. I didn’t mention it in the last post because it would cause people to worry. I knew where it was, it just wasn’t with me. Now I have it back from the previous hotel and all is good.

As soon as we got to our island guesthouse I made the disconcerting discovery that my passport had not been returned to me by the last hotel. We had gotten in from Bangkok much later than expected and none of us were any too awake. At least I left it in a town in which I had to pass through to get back to Bangkok.

After a quick trip in a motorcycle sidecar of sorts, we boarded another slow boat to Koh Samet. It wasn’t supposed to be a slow boat but it was, in fact, slower than our slow boat. We opted for the further away from town and less crowded beach. Not many amenities but we have always been able to get a comfy lounge chair by the water and a steady supply of fruit smoothies and beer.

On the beach you see western couples, Thai women with western men and Thai couples. With the western and Thai woman/ western man couples you see the women doing a lot of schlepping up and down the beach. If there is a Thai man involved you can be sure the woman isn’t carrying a thing. He has her purse, her umbrella, all the kids and anything else she wants brought with her. I can only imagine white boyfriends have a lot of status (or money) if you’re throwing that gallantry away. Thai men are also cute af. 

Even aside from the lack of restaurant options on this beach, food has been one of the disappointments on this trip. I love Thai food and had such great food the last time I was here. Laotian food is also supposed to be tasty and spicy. The high end restaurants we went to in Luang Prabang provided amazing eats, as did the Elephant Conservation Center, but otherwise it’s been a crapshoot. I have been finding it difficult to find authentic food that is also vegetarian and, when I find veg food, it’s really bland. Even when I ask for spice they hold back. K says her meat dishes are pretty tasteless as well. On Koh Samet I had broccoli on white rice, hold the oyster sauce, with a mojito which cost $25 Canadian.

As a Cancer, I feel a real affinity for this beach. There are little sand coloured crabs scurrying everywhere. Late in the afternoon the whole beach is just little moving bodies and suddenly appearing holes. They are very busy rolling little balls. Seems like a lot of work. 

At night sandworms burrow into the edge of the water and when the sandy water comes in they strain the microorganisms through their bodies to eat and the sand gets pushed out the other end of them, leaving spirally poo balls on the beach. It’s funny watching people poke them with their fingers or bare feet. I wanted to yell, “you just touched worm poop,” but I was on the patio of a classy restaurant, so I refrained.

Our guesthouse has a Beware of Dog sign, plus a warning to keep your shoes in at night because dogs will bite them. The only dog I’ve seen here is an overfed pekinese with a permanent sploot spot in front of a fan. I can’t imagine he could be bothered to walk over to our bungalow to bite our shoes.  

Cats we see everywhere, but only in 2 variations. There are black cats and there are torties. Did they eat all the tabbies and orange cats? Torties can be like that.

There are a lot of kooky sounding myna birds here and loads of geckos. Last night we were awakened by a kerfluffle on our roof. There were geckos screaming “Gecko! Gecko!”and a fierce banging around on the metal roof. It sounded like the weight of cats or small monkeys thrashing around but no vocalizations. There are macaques, squirrels and flying foxes on the island but 2 of those are noisy buggers and the other doesn’t eat geckos. Could a monitor lizard get up on a roof? 

They were going at it a while before I got up to see if I could spook them. Our bungalow isn’t well sealed so I figured turning on the bathroom light would visually surprise them, and then I flushed the toilet for additional sound. Everything stopped dead and didn’t resume. They didn’t, but a heavy rain started thereafter so we got to hear that bounce off the roof instead. We were also instantly reminded that our bathing suits were outside to dry, presuming the critters didn’t steal them. I liked the thought of a macaque wearing my tankini around the island and was a little sad there was just a wet suit waiting for me. 

The swimming is just gorgeous here and it makes me ask the same thing I ask anytime I get myself to warm turquoise waters. Why do I live in Canada where the water is cold enough to curdle the genitals when you wade in? I am 5000x happier being warm to hot and able to hop into water warmer than my bathtub can manage. Give me an ocean I can bounce around in until I’m seasick and I am thrilled. Damn my need for political stability, infrastructure and universal healthcare.