Day 14 - A Visit from Lovely Chanika

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 9.45am, then had a coffee & some left over mini doughnuts on the terrace. It was very pleasant with small birds & butterflies flitting about in the lush green foliage. At 10.30am the cleaner arrived, so we relocated to the sun beds around the pool.

Again we had the pool to ourselves. With the benefit of decent WiFi, I booked a pair of Stone Valley Festival music & camping tickets for Jackie & I. To celebrate, I cranked up the volume with some Big Country on my speaker.

For lunch, we bought a couple of beers & some sour cream & onion Lays from a tiny shop opposite the hotel. Our lunch on our now nice clean terrace was disturbed by a WhatsApp message from Chanika. She had sent us some information on trips to the Similan Islands that we had asked her to research & at a price considerably cheaper than the brochure price. We WhatsApp’d back that we would like to book it & she said she would be with us in 15 minutes to complete the paperwork.

Twenty minutes later, Chanika arrived bearing homemade Christmas gifts for us. She gave Jackie a beaded chain to clip to her mask (all the rage over here), me a packet of nicely wrapped banana crisps & for both of us a bar of soap using ingredients from her garden. I’m hoping she hasn’t gone all Gwyneth Paltrow on us!

She then pulled out her ticket book, which she said hadn’t seen a single booking in the last two years & completed the necessary documentation. We didn’t have enough cash on us so she gave us a lift to the money exchange to change up some more cash to pay her up front for the trip. Let’s hope this is not some elaborate scam!

We finished the afternoon with a little siesta until the peace was shattered by the sound of loud rap music & the grunting & groaning of what I hope was Muay Thai boxers training.

After a shower (apparently the water is now too hot & too powerful for Jackie) we were having a quick ‘livener’ on our terrace when I read the information leaflet that came with our antihistamine tablets for our itchy sandfly bites. It read that only one should be taken each day, avoid alcohol & they may make you drowsy. No wonder we were tired, we had been swallowing a couple of tablets at a time & washing them down with beer & gin.

We went out for the evening via a shortcut, which Jackie was convinced was someone’s garden, but I saw it as a public right of way. We had dinner at a Thai/German restaurant called Thai Life where we had our tastiest starter yet, satay chicken & a cheeky garlic bread. We followed it up with a lovely Penang curry & Tom Yum soup. Over dinner I discovered my sd card in my camera was full. Bugger!

We sought out Mr Chay Bar only to discover that it was closed & no sign of life. I just hope it hasn’t been closed down by the authorities after the Thai Government issued new Covid guidance including a request for citizens to inform on any bar/restaurant not taking necessary precautions. I’m not sure Mr Chay was!!

Song of the Day: Alone by Big Country.
Tracks of My Tears (Live) by Big Country.

(The words seem all the more poignant knowing that Stuart Adamson committed suicide in a hotel room in Hawaii on 16th December 2001 aged just 43).Read more