Day 21 - I’ve got a New Year’s Pompadour

Jackie & I were both awake around 4am fighting over the one double sheet that we had on our bed. Basically the air-con that we had paid extra for was too cold. The disagreement was resolved by adjusting the temperature to 23 degrees & Jackie putting on a fleece.

We got up at 9am & had the shock of my life to find a saucer sized dark hairy spider on the wall in the bathroom. I told Jackie not to enter & I backed out of the bathroom to fetch my camera. It was at least 10 seconds before I could return to the bathroom by which time the huge spider had vanished into thin air. This didn’t help Jackie!

I am not exaggerating when after googling Thailand spiders I have identified it as a black tarantula. We still haven’t found or spotted it since. Sadly I have no photographic evidence, just my eye witness testimony. I now have to thoroughly search the bathroom every time before Jackie will enter.

We went to breakfast for an ‘American’ of eggs, bacon, chicken sausage (they can keep) toast, as well as banana muesli, fruit & coffee. It was pretty decent.

After breakfast we sought out Lucas the resort manager to tell him we would like to have the New Years Eve dinner for two. It was something Lucas had offered us when we checked in. It was not cheap at £43 each for a 5 course meal, but our research showed that our restaurant, The Hill, was No. 1 on TripAdvisor out of 81 restaurants on the island & previous diners had described it as the best meal of their lives. On the downside the first 3 courses were fish or seafood that I don’t eat. I explained this to the incredulous Lucas who said he would try & work out some meat alternatives & to come back after 4pm to check his alternative menu for me.

We dilly dallied on our balcony & Jackie hijacked the cleaners for an extra pillow & an extra bed sheet. We hit the beach close to midday & realised it was a small but perfectly formed beach. I had a deckchair, whilst Jackie lay on the sand until lunch, beer & some dodgy crackers with pork floss on our balcony.

The afternoon was cloudy but we were still catching it. At 4.30pm we returned to Lucas who told us that the restaurant kitchen was too small for the chefs to cook additional dishes, but he had arranged for us to go to an Italian restaurant where they had both a fish & meat set menu. I told him that Jackie had set her heart on his NYE feast & I was prepared to sit out the 1st 3 courses if he reduced the price. He (nor Jackie) was having this & he said they would rise to the challenge & create some ‘special’ dishes for me. I suspect the chef’s will be really happy with this decision after already telling him “No chance” or probably something stronger.

Jackie & I then grabbed a bottle of Hong Thong & some cokes from our room & sat in a deckchair to watch the non-existent sunset on Sunset Beach. Once it was clear there would be no sunset (we still haven’t seen a good one yet on this trip) we showered & headed into town.

The Box restaurant we had earmarked for that evening’s dinner was full, so feeling brave (the 4 Hong Thongs probably helped) I ended up in the barber’s chair. I selected the ‘Pompadour’, which I now know to be a hairstyle named after Madame de Pompadour, who was a mistress of King Louis XV of France. The barber’s incredible attention to detail, including the use of a cutthroat razor, meant my haircut lasted about 40 minutes, despite a queue of customers forming. I walked out looking & feeling a million dollars for just 300 baht.

The Box was still busy so we went to the Banana Tree restaurant where I ordered a NorthEastern Thai dish of minced pork & Jackie had chicken & cashew nuts. It was nice but not special. We managed to stay awake long enough to walk home.

Song of the Day: Pompadour by Tim O’Brien.
(The lyrics are brilliant. Exactly how I felt when I looked in the mirror this morning!)”Read more