From the dirt path, there is a steep set of five wooden stairs leading up to a wide porch, complete with two stout wooden deck chairs and a table to match. As you stand on the porch, take in the view of the beach, which is only about twenty feet away. Palm trees tower above you and the water is various shades of blue and green depending on where the reef runs. You might want to stop right there and sit down awhile, I know it can be overwhelming. When you are ready to continue, turn around and open the double doors that resemble a giant wardrobe, secured by a not yet salt-water-corroded padlock. You see a wooden room, full of a waist-high platform on which the firm mattress sits. The sheets are ancient, an old seventies pattern of orange, yellow, brown and white stripes and flowers. The bed is so wide, it requires three pillows across the top, each with a colorful plaid flannel blanket on top. That's all you get though: fitted sheet, pillows and a flannel. I wonder how many people get to Thailand without travel sheets; they would be disappointed.
The hut is very tall, with an honest-to-god thatched roof bowed far overhead. Taking up most of the headroom is a baby blue mosquito netting, tied up above the bed and knotted out of the way for now. There are also shelves in each corner (a very nice touch and rare among bungalows we have seen), no spaces between the floor or wall slats and windows on every side. All the windows have nifty fasteners to lock them open and the back "window" has handles to slide it horizontally open, aligning the vertical slats so that there are large gaps between. There are three bare fluorescent bulbs on various walls, but don't bother with the switches now, there is no electricity during daylight hours. The island resorts (each of the four) run generators in the evenings from 6:30-9:30p so you can have light. After that, you can borrow an oil lamp if you have pressing business that needs illumination. Maybe the lack of electricity scares people off.
Not as spectacular, but completely adequate are the bathrooms. There are communal bathrooms down the way where you have your pick of squat or western toilets and cold showers. The squat toilets have only a bucket flusher, which I haven't braved using to clean my bum, but the western toilets have a sprayer (think kitchen sink squeeze sprayer) for cleaning. Drying off is the real trick and reason we have been buying our own supply of tp. Using the bathroom is usually an adventure for me in Thailand, if you want more details you can ask, but I will spare the rest of you here.
Today's activities included three square meals, two snacks, one trek through the jungle, one trek down the coast, hours of reading, 1.5 games of cribbage and snorkeling! We braved the waves and went fish hunting. Visibility was low and you felt like you were swimming through a washing machine, but the giant spiky sea urchins (I think?) made it worth it. The coral reef is right off the beach, so even notices like ourselves can get to it without a guide. We saw striped fish, black fish, spotted fish, fish with fluorescent green flippers, shiny schools of bait fish, wavy sea anemones and clam like things that pulled shut when you swam past. Unfortunately the displaced sand covered a lot of the coral, hopefully not killing it, I don't know how fragile coral is other than "very."
Although I'm sure other things happened today, but they seem very far away. It seems like time has slowed to a comfortable crawl here as we bob along in the surf, quite content with the pace.
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