The day was bright and scorching. The wind died considerably more than the past few days. We tanned and ate through our novels, each of us with a book count between 4-6 over the past week and a half. Since our travels to the south there has been a lot more time for reflection, relaxation, and discussion of our thoughts and worries. We feel lucky and really very blessed to have had an opportunity to discover a country that allowed for exciting cultural shock, exotic adventures, and the calming moments we've been yearning for years, a breather before plunging into the next chapter of our lives.
Yesterday, Adam, while I was calling you I came down to the beach for some space from our drunk and loud Norweign neighbors, and tonight we explored what I had described to you about the recessed beachfront after the tide had really gone out. This is also what had prompted Brittney’s discussion with you john, about the movement of tides. we know it has something to do with the gravitational pull of the moon, but perhaps what affects the degree to which the tide goes from the shoreline, like phases of the moon or the seasons, is what we're wondering.
Today was pretty closely a repeat of the previous day except for a few things...
This morning I killed an entire ant colony. We’ve noticed that there is a slightly more aggressive ant problem in phangan, which is welcomed since our lizard and mosquito escapades. The ants are more of an annoyance. Especially when we absentmindedly forget to remove empty drink containers on the floor, they crawl on everything, infiltrating our bags and clothes. there is a system that I haven’t felt the need to interrupt that runs from the door of our bungalow, through the middle of the walking space, to the bathroom, along the sink wall and into the holes in the wall that are used for the sinks draining pipes. That is where they live. I was in the shower this morning, and out of sheer annoyance I sprayed the ones crawling along the want and flushed them down the shower drain, and just like when a bee hive is kicked so did this hole in the wall erupt, with ants. I had turned away to scrub night sweat from my body for probably 1 full minute to look back the wall was swarming with [hundreds] of ants. Recovering from shock and picking my jaw up off the shower floor I again sprayed and flushed them all. All of them, to their death.
I feel pretty bad about.
Brittney tells me not to be, because they were in fact chompy ants and we carry with us the itchy red bump evidence on our feet every day. But still...
Elena finally was able to venture out into the sun again, we laid out for probably around 3 hours, and she burned again after using SPF 70 and two applications... poor girl.
We had another dinner with the locals. We love these dinners, and they’re so cheap! if I’ve done my calculations correct it costs us $1.25 to get into town from our bungalow "resort" and our meals, I’ll use Brittney and my meal for example, $0.60 for two chicken egg rolls, $0.30 for a shish skewer of chicken, $1.25 for a container of chicken and noodles (that Brit and I share) $0.65 for a grilled corn cob, and $0.70 for a pure fruit slushy. Plus $1.25 to get back to the bungalow, the grand total and transportation: $5.30 per person. That is awesome...
We also got to watch, to our amazement and horror, a type of performance on stage at what seemed to be a section of carnival vendor set up with stringed lights and performers in full body costumes with what looked like tinsel glued to them. it was an extraordinary experience to say the least...
We started our day with breakfast and some tanning. What is funny is that so much of today was based about blind visual images committed to memory, and for today I have no actual images to show for our day. What is so gorgeous about our new location is made from the wind. It’s choppy and fast and angry, and makes fantastic choppy waves that are perfect for kite boarding, of which there is a lot: little people gliding on top of the water, using a large kite to direct and power their journeys in large zig zags across the bays. it reminds me of what people describe about ponds in central parks, the children in little khaki shorts and sailor hats and boat shoes controlling their little boats with while sails across the pond water, except, this is a much bigger and raw experience as the sun burns your eyes from water reflections and the sun bakes your skin on the shore.
my favorite is being so conscious of the sun through my red eyelids, watching the sun blindly wander through clouds, trying to predict when it would come back from behind a dense puff, waiting for the burst of light that sometimes made me think, could this be the second coming of Christ revealed behind my closed eyelids? ...until the sky turned blue and the winds angry, pelting us with grains of sand, dried seaweed and abandoned water bottles. We ran to our bungalow as it rained. It is a slow day, reading, blogging and relaxing until our adventure into town for the evening market...
--which was awesome!! We found a couple of bookstores where, as usual, we spent more than an hour perusing all these sacred treasures of thought and story. It feels so good to be back to reading novellas instead of textbook. The new books we picked up were actually a steal as the owner told us he had a bookstore in Bangkok and the books on the outside, the ones we wanted, had experienced a blanket of soot on their top spines when a fire took place above his shop, so everything was moved to ko phangan...
Then we ate locally from street vendors and sat outside in the warm dark blue atmosphere. We had grilled corn on the cob, a shish of chicken, a small bowl of noodles and egg rolls...and Chang! A local beer that is advertised EVERYWHERE. Turns out, it tastes just like keystone. Well, glad that curiosity is smothered. After 3 weeks in Thailand I couldn’t stand it anymore as I saw countless others suck down legitimate fresh smoothies. So I had one. With fresh bananas, strawberries, coconut and watermelon. So far, I have not gotten sick from consuming local ice water... but it was absolutely delicious.
We left lizard and poopoo water bungalow for ko phangan around noon. It was a half hour ferry to the new island, and our accommodations are about 5 minutes from the pier. We are going to be in phangan for about a week, and we absolutely love our small room and bathroom, for that literally is what we are in, two little boxes with 3 beds. But the water pressure in the bathroom is fantastically normal, there are no mosquitoes and lizards in the bathroom, and the walls are painted yellow: so sweet.
adventuring to a new island...
little fish at the dock...
our new beachfront...
our bungalow...
Brittney and I once again ventured out into the town as Elena laid down in the bungalow, reading and feeling nauseous from what she thought was her motion sickness medicine, but what we were convinced was dehydration, hence the immediate trek into town for affordable chilled water.
While we were there we poked around the super fun and beach trendy center of town and scoped out the evening eating market where we decided we were going to be spending a couple of our dinners.
