Coconut Throwing, and other activities

Yesterday exemplified why going on holiday to somewhere like this is so good - not wishing at all to make those of you reading this in the UK jealous! ;-)

After all the walking in the heat on Friday, we decided to just stay around Suchanaree. Hazel mostly got stuck into her book: "The Sea, The Sea" by Iris Murdoch, and I read a few Dick Francis short stories, picked from the book selection here. We finally got to put to use the snorkel + masks that we've been carrying around with us, but the coral and fish we found just a few dozen yards up the beach from us wasn't all that exciting.

The best aspect of the day for me was feeling utterly unconstrained by feeling the need or requirement to do anything. Though it's been almost 6 weeks since leaving Britain, it's only now we've been able to unwind this far! This is what happens when you have nothing to do:

And also this:

Namaste!

del.icio.us Tags: thailand,ko mak,beach

The Perils of Paradise

So we've settled into a very relaxing routine of doing... well, nothing basically.  The only time we feel we ought to be engaging the brain is in or around our bungalow. In the few days we've been here we've been told about a suspected scorpion sting (like a bee sting allegedly), and a spider bigger than your palm calmly positioned in the middle of someone's bed - having crawled inside the not-very-well secured mosquito net. To top it all, last night created great excitement amongst the residents when the French couple in the bungalow next to ours found a snake climbing up one of the supports to the balcony. We're informed by one of the locals that yes, it is indeed highly deadly! Mama Om (the eldest of our hosts) proceeded - with a big stick - to ensure the snake ceased to slither. After an almost military operation to ensure all possible modes of entry to our hut by insect, arachnid, mammal or reptile were sealed tight, we were finally able to fall asleep... Zzzzzz (Ssssssss!)

Though we feel totally at ease in our private paradise, we remind ourselves that we're never totally alone!

Namaste!

del.icio.us Tags: thailand,ko mak,animals

Maak Daddy

We love this place - our own tropical paradise. Our little bit of last-minute research from our brief trip to Beijing paid off, as we are settled in to the nicest (and cheapest?) resort on the island - after stopping by most of the others on our amble today.

"Suchanaree" is on the north (quiet) end of the more secluded beach of the island. Nin, our graceful host, couldn't be more lovely - and she's a great cook. Having only 6 bungalows means it's so much easier to get to know the other residents - including the (in)famous Gary, the resident Northern Irishman who's settled in for the last 5 seasons. Watching Nin and Gary is like some kind of comedy act, as she finds him jobs to do. Our bungalow is on the beach front, is larger and cleaner than the one in Koh Chang, plus it doesn't have a fruit bat in the rafters or an in-house wood munching insect troupe providing an all-night soundtrack! We're going to stay here for 5 nights, to include our 1st wedding anniversary. After this we speedboat it back to the mainland in order to catch the 10-hour minibus to Angkor Wat. After that... well, we'll let you know when we work it out!

Namaste!