A piece of me

I woke up at 5 AM this morning, waiting in bed for the sky to turn on its lights.  I needed to go get the last swim on the island in before we return to Bangkok.  Yes, the last swim is a necessity, not just desire.

When I was in the ocean this morning, I intentionally looked at the mountains and its trees closer, observed their colors and forms.  I paid closer attention to the sun and how it radiates and illuminates the sky.  I listened more intently to the sound of tide splashing when it reaches the shore and the crackling noise within the ocean.  I took in deeper breath of air than I normally would have, I floated and observed the clouds longer than I have been, and I stopped myself from brushing salt water off my face as much as I could bear…  I made an effort to see, to listen, and to immerse myself for the last time on this vacation at this beach.  Realizing that the end of this wonderful vacation has finally arrived, I decided to make the effort to enjoy and soak in what was there to experience.  I saw more, heard more, and dunked my head in the water more…

The speedboat arrived as I was watching a father dive in the water to catch the Frisbee from his young son.  The way the father dove, put a smile on my face, but watching the Lima Coco staff off load other guests’ luggage made me a little melancholy knowing that it was our time to go…  As we walked out of the lobby / restaurant, we said goodbye to Noy and others, it was a sad moment knowing that the vacation at this magical place had to end, at that moment.  I stepped onto the speedboat as the Frisbee landed right next to the boat, I looked up and saw the smiles on all of their faces, I knew that they must be having just as much fun as I did over the past week.

Pathetically, we were the only two returning to the pier where Jok awaited.  Yes, I wish we took others with us – hey, misery loves company right?  As our speedboat chopped through the waves, the water beneath lifted up the boat and dropped it almost simultaneously as if we were going over the very uneven bumpy road to the other side of the island.  I looked back, we had already made the turn where the Ao Prao beach was no longer visible.  I saw only mountains, white caps, and the emerald green ocean.

As our licensed boat driver kept his course, I realized that you probably shouldn’t visit Koh Samed, soak in the sunset, enjoy the sea breeze, and get accustomed to its beautiful nature if you are not ready to leave a piece of you there.  The boat propelled forward with its noisy engine cutting the ocean behind it into a large triangle with the white caps falling and rippling into the ocean…  Underneath my straw hat with my hair flaunting in the air, I knew that I will always have a place for Ao Prao’s sunset and that I have left a piece of me somewhere on the beach…

SEA-food

Last night, we had our first ever dinner on the beach, unplanned.  You can say that it happened by accident.  We sat down by the dinner table and then Noi (our waitress) told us that we could enjoy our dinner on the beach, so we moved. 

Honestly, it was on the beach.  The real estate where we had our dinner table set up last night no longer existed this morning because of the tide.  Apparently, the seafood feast on the beach is a custom here at Lima Coco on Friday and Saturday nights.  After sunset, staff here brings out samples of raw seafood plates, fires up the grill, sets up the tables and chairs on the beach, and then, the feast begins.  The feast last night was not your typical Hollywood beach dinner.  It was family oriented, casual, and not-at-all pretentious.  Families gathered around the bigger wooden tables and lovers the smaller ones.  Kids played with their pails, buckets, and shovels on the sand right next to the parents’ tables.  (What a great way to get them to not run around but still have fun.  Let them play next to your tables on the ground, what a novel idea!)  Staff of the resort was jotting down orders, making delicious seafood, and running around the sand beach delivering food and alcohol to hungry, thirsty guests.

Everyone was busy and we were no exception.  Clams, prawns, mussels, scallops, and white wine were all amazingly fresh and tasty so we swallowed everything with ferocious speed.  When we ordered our 3^rd and 4^th seafood plates, Noi hesitated in disbelief! While waiting for more delicious seafood, we grabbed our wine and strolled along the shoreline completely mesmerized by the beauty of the beach, how lucky we (and these kids) were, and contemplated on when and how to get our parents to come enjoy this magical experience.

The exquisite feast lasted for a couple of hours followed by a fire show performed by Ball.  The kids were in awe and the adults were fully satiated and entertained.  Our evening ended with tropical cocktails, light music, and ocean splashing in the background.  I thought to myself, “I can really get use to this.”  

Paradise Lost

It was 4 in the morning.  I woke Jim up and he told me it was only 4.  I have been lying there for about 30 minutes with my eyes wide open before I woke him. 

As I lay in bed, I wondered if it was time for the sunrise and the morning swim.  I can’t believe that the first thing that crossed my mind every morning on Koh Samed has been “is it light enough to go swim yet?”  I had to go this morning because I floated in the ocean yesterday, as an experiment, to see if the tide was pulling or pushing harder.  I concluded that it was pulling harder in the morning as I floated away.  The experiment has to be repeated and the same result has to be drawn to make it conclusive.  I have to try again this morning.  My thoughts ran wild. I am obsessed with having the ocean all to myself.  I was in bed, the sea was calling.  I was powerless, just waiting for the sun to light up the sky.  “That’s why Lima Coco’s slogan is ‘the sea is calling’!” The lightbulb went off in my head!  It brought a smile to my face in the dark room.  

All of a sudden, I saw something moving on the wall.  Maybe it was just a shadow.  But it moved again and curled itself around, underneath the air conditioner.  The black wall-crawler was probably 8 inches long.  I stared in disbelief, scared that it would head over above our bed or down the wall.   I turned on the air conditioner, hoping the commotion will scare this animal to the right direction – away from us.  I have always been deathly afraid of reptiles - the kind with four legs that crawls like a confused marching soldier with same arm and same leg in synchronization – in this case, all legs.  No matter how beneficial these little (or big) creatures can be for the environment, please just stay away from me and don’t let me see them doing their thing!  (Needless to say, I will never switch to Geico insurance)  Did I say I am deathly afraid of reptiles?  After I turned on the AC, the reptile went behind the overhead AC unit.  I got up, turned the light on, woke Jim, and told him about the reptile.  He looked, there was nothing!  He fell back to sleep after he told me the time.  I can’t go get help if it’s only 4am.  Defeated, I stayed awake, read my book, surveilled the AC with my peripheral vision.  But seriously, what was I going to do if the animal emerged?  I made up my mind that I was going to scream to wake Jim but I was going to head for the door flee to safety.  As I battled with my sleepiness, my paranoia, and my fear, I woke up late and missed my morning swim.

We went kayaking after breakfast as I asked the staff on the resort to check on our AC for the reptile.  I settled back in the lobby / lounge of our hotel after kayaking which almost killed Jim from the sea sickness.  Maybe it was breaking of the rituals yesterday and that the reptile was an omen?  Yes, I am paranoid!  Deathly afraid, I said!  I will follow the rituals for the rest of the day, so please please please, no more reptile on the wall.  

Guests

A boatload of tourists just arrived by the Lima Coco speedboat.  That was how we got here last week.  I didn’t understand what the staring was all about when we arrived, but now I do, as I fixed my gaze on those lucky guests of paradise.  The beach got busier the past 2-3 days as the weekend approached.  The guests are greeted with a mobile dock that’s attached behind a truck.  You can see everyone focusing their attention on the arrival of new guests, maybe because the ocean is so peaceful without the speedboat, or maybe because everyone reads the future of these newcomers and secretly wishing that it was them that just arrived, in envy, possibly jealousy.

Our guest of honor didn’t arrive on a speedboat last night.  He was born and raised here on paradise, I assume.  The little island cat was quite rude and a little intrusive, I might add. 

It was our second day watching the amazing sunset from the restaurant/lobby.  Where we sat, was directly across where the spectacle happens day in and day out.  The guests that have been here longer knew about the show and we compete for the best seats in the house.  The orange bright sun starts midway in the sky by seducing the clouds to turn orange, gray, and purple as it prepares itself for the dive.  The clouds seduced, tinted themselves.  The ocean glistened at the first opportunity to entice the sun to take its plunge.  From where we sat, people on the beach turned dark with only their silhouette visible as to avoid competition.  The dance and contest for beauty didn’t last long.  The calm, sparkling, red ocean wins.  It had swallowed the sun and the clouds dissipated in dusk.  As we watched all of this happen from our front row seat, we spotted this long legged cat that roamed the beach chasing little animals, possibly a crab, minding its own business ignoring the spectacular sunset.  He has probably seen too many of these same shows.  It gets old after a while even the sunset here on Koh Samed…

As our dinner arrived, the tiny cat, our guest of honor, decided that he would not only share a table with us, but my chair with me.  I fed him our leftover steamed fish.  He ate, and begged for more by jumping on to my lap.  I laid down the rules – nicely.  I asked him to sit on the other chair – incentivized with more fish of course.

Our guest was tired.  He laid on the chair next to mine after his meal.  He closed his eyes, dozed off, and showed no interest on what was going on around him.  More guests came for their feasts as we concluded our dinner. 

In the darkness, more speedboats pulled up to shore with glaring lights as more guests arrived for the weekend.  I stared them down, envious, and a little jealous.

Island Excursion, Heat Exhaustion

We wake at dawn and eat at dusk.  Doesn’t matter the time, it has been our routine since we got to Koh Samed.  Call it a “rut” if you will.  That’s what Mike always says, “You are in a freaking rut”.  We wake up early to dip in the sea, shower, and enjoy our breakfast.  After that, we read, I write, we drink, and we nap.  We don’t leave our room until it’s later in the afternoon for either a massage or for more drinks, then it will be dinner - served by the ocean.  In my defense, on this beautiful island, I call it a ritual not a rut.

To break the routine, we decided that we’ll go explore the rest of Koh Samed like we planned to do when we first arrived. The relaxing life at Lima Coco has made it hard to have the incentive to go anywhere.  Keeping our word, we called for a “taxi” to go to the east side of the island after breakfast.  The road was not paved; it was bumpy and filled with big, deep, and unforgiving pot holes.  They definitely need a Jeep on this island, this road is the only reason why a Jeep should be driven.

Our island excursion started out fine with the 200 baht taxi ride.  Although the road was bumpy, the taxi driver spoke sufficient English where he directed us to different places.  He dropped us at a tourism center that was a short distance from an east coast Koh Samed beach, a street where we could shop with farlung pricing, and a road to the other resort that’s owned by Angela’s friend.  We were set, and the taxi driver was going to pick us up in 4 hours.  Jim wanted 3 hours and I wanted 4, unfortunately, I got my way…  We checked out the crowded beach where all the younger tourists go (our beach had a lot more families whereas this one was an obvious single and farlung filled party beach) I shopped for clothing and accessories, and we checked out Lima Bella that’s on east side of the island.  By this time, all of my ambition to learn more about the east coast of Samed was all gone.  Sweat was not dripping down my face, but it was pouring from everywhere.  Jim and I had to visit the 7-11 twice to cool down, an ice cream and ice tea later, still didn’t solve our problems.  When we arrived Lima Bella on foot through more dirt roads, we didn’t look very “bella” at all.  The staff on the resort laughed at us in Thai.  Yes, we looked that pathetic while they were working in their black long-sleeved shirts.

Thank God that they were serving buy 1 get 1 free Barcardi breezers by the infinity pool.  The vast difference in living conditions between the town and resort was our saving graces.  Splashing water all over my face, sitting in front of a fan, downing several not so breezy Bacardi breezers, and rubbing ice everywhere (including my head) were not taking the heat away at all.  I think this is my first heat exhaustion on the trip.  Seriously, who’s idea was it to leave the comfort of our resort for this excursion?  Oh, it was mine…  I was so hot, dizzy, and sweaty that I had to take a taxi back to Lima Coco without finishing my breezer, playing with the long leg Thai cat, or Jim…

In the comfort of our air-conditioned bungalow, I decided that tomorrow, I will honor our ritual instead…