Day 5 - Grey Dreadlocks

I woke up stupidly early again and Jackie woke up not much later to itch her bites. We crawled out of bed around 8.30am and hiked to Ko Samet Beach 2.1 miles away.

On the way we bought a beach mat for 100THB, then settled down in our selected spot. We went for a dip in the cool blue sea where I was accosted by an elderly man with grey dreadlocks, who said “I guess you must be English if you’re wearing a New Model Army t-shirt”. I confirmed I was, then put him right by informing him that New Model Army were particularly big in Germany and Poland. He probably regretted ever saying anything when I told him about my travels around Europe following the band!!

The grey dreadlocked man (I never asked his name) was in his 60s, from Dorset and was travelling alone. I thought I had too many ailments, but he trumped me. He suffered from sleep apnoea and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which was not curable. He was not able to now drink or smoke! We chewed over the fat for 30 minutes or so and exchanged travel stories.

Jackie and I went for lunch at Tok’s Little Hut restaurant. Jackie ordered the Tom Yum soup, whilst I couldn’t make my mind up whether to have yet another Pad Thai or french fries, Jackie ordered both. Lunch was nice, but my Pad Thai could have been a little bit hotter.

We spent the entire afternoon on the beach in the 30 degree heat with a gentle breeze and a banana smoothie to stop us overheating.

We trekked back to our place with bags overflowing with cans of tonic and biscuits, which definitely didn’t do my back any good. We then showered, applied our bite cream and went straight back out to dinner at Samed Thanee. We both ordered curries, I had a huge bowl of superb green curry and Jackie had a spicier red curry.

We ended the evening with the remainder of our duty-free gin.

Song of the Day - Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc.Read more