On Wednesday morning I woke up quite early (as I did all vacation) and I headed to the beach to write in my journal. I sat on a swing and just kind of soaked in the fact that I was in Thailand, on this beautiful island. I had just missed the sunrise, and I vowed to myself that I would wake up even earlier the next day in order to see it. It was beautiful outside that morning, just starting to warm up, but not too hot just yet, to make it uncomfortable.
Most of the day Tuesday we just bummed around the beach doing a whole lotta nothing. Enjoyed being in the sun thoroughly, even though I was slightly burnt from the day before. Luckily, I lathered on the aloe and sunscreen the rest of the week and managed to get wonderfully tan without any burning. We threw quite a bit on the beach (we did this pretty much everyday I think). Drank delicious fruit shakes. Lazed around all day. I believe this is the day I got my first ever Thai Massage. It was AMAZING. Here are some pictures, and a video of the ocean & beach that I took that morning:
Also on Tuesday, I spent some time by myself relaxing and enjoying the island without Bekah and Adam (who spent an awful lot of time sleeping and doing NOTHING on the island). I laid out on the beach for a little while and then headed to the beachside food vendors for a fruit shake. While drinking the shake a young Thai boy came up to me, speaking Thai, and decided he would play at my table. He and I built this rock/shell/extraneous trash pathway. It's hard to explain, but he was adorable and sweet and just wanted someone to play with him, which is exactly what I did. ^^
Wednesday was the most fun day we had, in my opinion. I woke up extra early to see the sunrise, sometime around 6 a.m. Before heading to the beach, I took a quick video of the roosters that woke us up bright and early every morning. You can't see them, but you can definitely hear them. Ignore my crazy voice. I was really tired and had JUST woken up.
I headed to the beach shortly thereafter and sat on "my" swing and took in the sunrise while journaling some more. The colors were beautiful and we had a perfect view of the sun rising over the island cliffs in the bay. It was at this moment that I realized, "oh my god, my life is so good." Also, I thought a bit about how lucky I am with my job in Korea and my overall situation. Some of my friends don't like their jobs, their schools, their apartments, their co-teachers, or whatever, but my life in Korea really is pretty satisfying on the whole. Here are the pictures:
We rented kayaks in the mid morning and kayaked over to Koh Nok, which means Outside Island. It was not too far from the beach where we were staying. It was just far enough to be moderately strenuous to get there, but not exhausting. Bekah and I were together in one kayak and Adam handled the other one.I had to do the steering, which turned out to be much harder than I anticipated, but I got a hang of it about 3/4 of the way through, hah. While kayaking, we saw two jellyfish, one that was super tiny and another that was pretty decent sized. When we got to the island we discovered that it was positively stunning. Unlike the rocky low-tide waters of our "home beach," this beach has perfect sand, and cool, clear water. There was only a small patch of beach, and the rest of the island was bordered by steep, sheer cliff drops into the water. There were two other semi-attached island type things that were also stunning. Shortly after we arrived, Adam spotted a baby octopus that had washed ashore. He was trying to make his way back into the water and we watched anxiously, prepared to help if he couldn't make it. After struggling for about 2 minutes against shallow breaks, he finally caught a larger push of water and jetted off into the great blue sea. It was awesome. Then we waded over to the outcropping of islands to take some pictures and explore a bit. In the water, we saw tons of fish, and even when the water was hip high, we were able to see clear down to our toes playing in the sandy bottom. We also saw numerous sea slugs lounging on rocks in this area. We couldn't go too far because it looked terribly buggy. However, we were able to get some really great pictures:
After that, Bekah and I laid out a bit while Adam explored the island. Then we threw for about a half hour or more. It was pretty sweltering at this point and we decided to head into the shade for some snacks. We ate sugar crackers (big thick square crackers topped with plenty of sugar-- so good!) and potato chips and relaxed for a little while, cooling off in the shade. Then we decided to head back to our home beach as it was late afternoon and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get back and relax. Kayaked home, and returned the kayaks, showered and headed to "The Little Place" for dinner, which was a small roadside outdoor restaurant that was really cheap and DELICIOUS. I had the best fruit shake EVER there, and had the best pad thai of my life there.
After dinner, we headed back to the beach because there was a small beach party going on. They had laid out lots of blankets and tables and set up a makeshift bar, and had music playing and a big fire and tiki lights and the waves were coming in for high tide and the stars (which you never see in Korea, EVER) were out and bright, and it was so cool/relaxing. We didn't stay too long, maybe an hour, before heading back. We were pretty exhausted from our day out.
That's it for days 3&4. Soon I will be posting about the journey back to Bangkok (horrible), and the hat tournament we played in (amazing).
xoxo
A
You photos are gorgeous! Was that an octopus in one of them? Enjoy ever minute of these experiences because you are so lucky to have these opportunities! It looks absolutely beautiful there, i'd love to visit that region someday.
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