Day 12 - The Fashion Shoot

We both had a decent nights sleep. The alcohol probably helped.

By 10am we were on the beach where the mystery of the taped off area on the beach was solved. A fashion shoot with several models and countless cameramen and helpers was taking place at the end of the beach. The awnings were housing a rail of outfits and refreshments for the crew. It provided the entertainment for the morning.

At 11.45am we went to our usual, Flow Beach Cafe, for brunch. I ordered the smoothie bowl predominantly with mango and banana, whilst Jackie ordered the avocado, pesto and tofu option. Yet again the food was superb and didn’t let us down, however with 3 large Changs it came to just over 800THB.

During the afternoon we walked up and down the entire beach, where at the very far end of Sai Kaew Beach we found the sand to be literally teeming with tiny crabs. We also managed to cut open and eat one of the mangos that Jackie had bought the night before, using a knife we stole at brunch. It was extremely juicy and we put the skin and stone in a little plastic bag and hung it on a tree like a dog poo bag to dispose of later.

Unbelievably, a Russian family sat under that exact branch of the tree with the dog poo bag was hanging less than a foot above their heads. Luckily they packed up and left as the same time as us, so we could retrieve it, otherwise it would have been way too awkward to get it with them still sitting there.

Around 7.15pm we returned to the Gecko Bar to see what it looked like in darkness. Day-Glo was the answer. We thought it would be rude not to have a happy hour cocktail, especially as thunder cracked overhead nearby. We chose a seat undercover near the bar and ordered a banana daiquiri and Long Island Ice Tea. We didn’t realise initially that we were also under a huge speaker pumping out rap music at full volume. Jackie was keen to move seats but I had discovered that the Everton v Man Utd was just about to start on a television behind the bar, so I persuaded her to stay put.

The cause of the day-glo decoration, or graffiti if you prefer, was by customers buying or being given brushes and pots of day-glo orange or yellow paint to daub the walls, floors or absolutely anything else with. We weren’t offered any, probably because we were too old!

The game started in a dreadful manner and Utd were soon one down. We ordered a second, not so ‘happy hour’ cocktail, but when Everton scored a second goal I had seen enough so we drank up, paid up and left.

We went to a little unnamed restaurant virtually next door where we ordered a chicken Massaman curry, a stir fried chicken with cashew nuts and a couple of steamed rices to share. It was all very nice, but in my humble opinion the Massaman curry was not quite as nice as the one I had the previous night. The chicken and cashew nuts dish was the 2nd best that we had had on this trip. Overall, an astounding success and cheap.

We returned home to catch the end of the football (2-2) and the cricket, which England narrowly lost, had a Hong Thong and went to bed.

Song of the Day - The Day the World Turned Day-Glo by X-Ray Spex.Read more