March 24, 2009: Breakfast on the beach and an after-dinner fire dance

We woke up today after a very rough night of sleep. We both tossed and turned in the heat all night long. I woke up to see that I had been bitten on my arms and legs by bedbugs and ants. Sarah fared better since she had the wisdom to apply bug spray before going to bed. Needless to say, we were anxious to get out of the bungalow and get breakfast.

The Dining Room

Breakfast was very nice. We had some amazing homemade Thai pancakes with honey. Our waiter was probably seven years old.

Our waiter

He and his brother, who was probably about nine years old, worked the small restaurant while their mother did the cooking in the nearby kitchen. They were really cute and it seemed to be a family-type gig, so it didn’t give off the child-labor vibe or anything like that. They were good at their jobs, too!

After breakfast, we did some exploring up the beach and then did some snorkeling. The water was very clear and beautiful. After we had our fill of snorkeling, we ate some lunch at the little restaurant again. Once again, it was very good and very cheap.

Afterward, we checked out of our bungalow, took a water taxi, and made our way back around to the main village. It’s not very big and the majority of it is made of small shops with clothes, artwork, souvenirs, and handmade jewelry, along with several restaurants and tour guide places.

One of my (Sarah) favorite places to walk by was this art gallery.

No matter the time of day, an artist would be diligently working and creating a masterpiece. This was my favorite painting.

We even considered buying one of them, but it would’ve been too difficult to lug around. Remember, traveling light was the key! I had to keep reminding myself of that.

It didn’t take us long to indulge in another Thai massage; this time, head to toe. Total cost: $6 for an hour. You can’t beat that. We walked into their small air conditioned entrance way and followed two small Thai women to the back of their place and up a flight of stairs. They led us to an empty air conditioned room with several futon mats on the ground; we were their only customers for the moment. We left our hiking pack downstairs and our backpack next to us (considering we couldn’t easily replace things in our smaller backpack). We completely enjoyed our full body rub down, but we constantly kept our eyes glued to our bag. Luckily none of our stuff was stolen during our entire trip; however, we were always on the lookout for thieves.

After stepping off Cloud 9 and back to reality, our next task was to find a place to stay. We decided to cave into and accept an offer from one of the hounding salespeople. The village is swarming with them and anywhere you walk, someone is trying to get you to buy something “You need a taxi?” “We can find you a place to stay!” “You want a cheap hotel?” “Do you need directions?” ( the directions question was a common tactic from one scuba diving place who ropes people in by trying to be helpful with directions). Anyways, Brandon, found a deal at a small hotel with an inexpensive room. It was refreshing because it had air-conditioning, a shower with hot water, a big comfy bed that we could both sleep in, and even TV with English channels. After a short rest there, we set off to exploring the village again.

At every meal, we treated ourselves to fruity drinks.

We came across a restaurant where some chickens were being barbecued and decided that we would eat there. The food was great and we both got stuffed. It was funny because there were some cats milling around who would just sit and watch us eat the way a dog would. The people next to us even let a cat sit in a chair at their table as they shared some table scraps with it! It was funny to see, but I hate to think about the sanitary effects of having mangy cats wandering around the restaurant.

After dinner, we went to small seaside bar where we sat in lounge chairs and watched a fire-twirling show. The first twirler was probably 8 or 9 years old (the rest were much older), but I was really shocked that the performers didn't have third-degree burns after this. Pretty incredible!

After the show, we made our way back to the hotel where we enjoyed a shower and collapsed into our soft bed. We both slept peacefully in a cool, bug-free room.

-Sarah