We did a few things today. We started off by changing accommodation, followed by returning the bike, and relaxing by the pool. The highlight of the day however, was exploring the beach right outside our resort. I could leave it at just that, and to be honest it would reduce the amount of time it takes me to complete one of these posts considerably. But I won’t. I’ll now spend the next hour or so going over the finer details of the day instead.
• WHAT!!!!! Come on. For the second day running we woke up early. 8:50am to be exact, granted my mother would consider that a lie in, but for Sarah and I that may as well have been the crack of dawn. We wasted half an hour or so watching tv shows before going downstairs for another disappointing breakfast. Sarah was so disgusted by hers that she refused to eat it. When I’d finished mine we went over to the pool.
• I didn’t stay with Sarah long before returning to the room to pack my bag. We decided to move accommodation because Sarah wasn’t a fan of where we were, but in her defence we were constantly bitten by Mosquitos. Rather than find somewhere new, we simply went back to the first place we stayed. After Sarah returned to the room to pack her things, I checked us out while she booked us in online. It was still cheaper to book through Agoda than deal with the owner herself. I had to make two journeys. I first rode to Suwan Palm Resort carrying both holdalls, then returned to fetch Sarah and the day bags.
• Rather than keep the bike for another day we thought it best to return it and save some money. We stopped in the rental place en route to hand back the key, then walked the rest of the way to Suwan Palm. We were given a room on the top floor. It wasn’t as big as the previous one we stayed in, which I guess was good in a way, as it meant it the a/c cooled the room down a lot quicker. When we were free of sweat, we applied some suntan lotion (by now we were using only factor 15, something I’d later regret) and headed for the beach.
• It was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Just the two of us and a sunny beach. Much like the white sand beach we visited yesterday, rather than sit twiddling our thumbs we took a stroll instead. Our footprints looked like Bigfoot and his child had a day out – Sarah has unnaturally large feet you see. I kid, I kid, she has small dainty feet. Mine on the other hand (or foot) looked like some sort of dinosaur had stomped through. It was extremely hot, and remained so until sundown. Not a single sign of precipitation or thunderstorm occurred all day. To take a break from the heat we stopped in a beachside restaurant for a couple fruit shakes. Sarah was quite peckish by this point, on accounts of skipping breakfast, so we ordered a plate of French fries as well. We sat in the shade for about half an hour before paying up and continuing our walk.
• It wasn’t much beyond the restaurant that we had to stop. In front of us was a rather dirty looking stream of water coming from a nearby resort. We presumed it was probably connected to the resort’s sewage system somehow, and thought it best not to cross. When we turned around to see how far we’d walked it looked to have been around 2 or 3 miles. We deemed that enough for one day and began making our way back. It was then Sarah felt the need to point out how red my shoulders were. I’d just like to say at this point that it was Sarah who chose the factor 15. I only wanted to go as low as factor 20, we are after all English roses and our skin can’t handle the sun!!! Well I say that, but Sarah is now browner than a Spaniard. For the rest of the walk I had to listen to Sarah say:
“Ooh hoo Ben, your back is very red!”
Even as I typed that sentence I could hear her saying it.
• I was glad when we got back as I was able to cool off in the large pool. It was the perfect temperature. We spent the next hour or so messing around in the water. Where such activities included the great handstand competition of 2013, and it hurts me to say this, but Sarah won… hands down! – pardon the pun. Sarah was the first to get out as she wanted to Skype her parents. I went back to the room to grab some things then I joined her in the pool to chat. After the phone call we sat in the remaining sunlight for as long as it lasted, then returned to the room when the Mosquitos came out to play.
• We took a couple showers and watched some tv shows, then around 6pm we went out for food. It was a pain now that we didn’t have the scooter, as it meant we had to walk everywhere. This in turn made the town seem really far away. We went back to the cheaper place to eat, and we both enjoyed the same meal, a satay chicken burger with fries. As soon as we’d finished, our good friend Brandon FaceTimed us. It was lovely to catch up, although he gave us the sad news that their cat was still missing. I know this is a REALLY long shot, but here it goes anyway. If anyone reading this lives in Buffalo, New York, and happens to see a black and white cat roaming the streets, that responds to the name Quattro, please inform the barrel chested Superman: Brandon Zarbo. As I know he’d be very much appreciative of any information, and he might even give you a signed photograph of his moustache. I feel as though Sarah and I cheered them up a little bit by describing a list of various activities Quattro had been up to. These varied from a Homeward Bound style adventure, to the more surreal declaring herself dead… only to reemerge 7 years later as a Batman like crime fighter. Eventually Brandon had to go to work, so we said our goodbyes to both him and his girlfriend Steph, settled the bill, and left the restaurant.
• We made our final Thailand withdrawal, only getting enough to cover our shuttle to the airport and our last meals, then returned to our resort. Sarah did something productive when we got back, she used one of the resorts computers to work on her cv. I used the other to transfer photos from my phone to my memory card. Before going into the computer room we sprayed the place down with pest killer. There were usually countless Mosquitos flying around, so by spraying that we hoped to eradicate the issue. However the plan backfired, and probably did more damage to us than any insect. After a while of breathing in the fumes we were left with a funny taste in our mouths. While I was going through my photos the computer died on me. My heart stopped when I thought I’d lost all my photos. I quickly grabbed my phone to check they were still on there.
THEY WEREN’T!!!!
“Phew”, I was just looking at the wrong screen. The iCloud was selected, a place where I have zero photos anyway. I selected the “albums” option and discovered I still had over 800 pictures. I couldn’t hack the fumes any longer though, so I decided call it quits and go back to the room to work on the blog.
• For some reason I couldn’t write a thing. Wether or not this was the results of prolonged exposure to the pest killer, I don’t know, but I felt very disappointed with what I’d written. I can only apologise if it has been a boring read, I just couldn’t get into tonight. I’ve managed to write 203 posts with no issue, but on the 204th I get writers block? What’s that about? Today’s post has been the epitome of rambling. Two hours later Sarah returned, disproving my theory about the fumes. There must’ve been no side effects from them as she managed to complete her cv in that time, whereas I was still struggling to finish the post in our fume free room. Now I am going to spend the rest of the evening watching tv shows, hopefully an episode of the “Mentalist” will get my synapses firing again!
The Erratic Ramblings of an Uneducated Daydreamer 