Ao Mae Hat

10:30
We agree a 10:00 alarm, but I’m awake around 08:30. Our room is pretty basic. Clean, comfortable, cool etc etc - but it lacks some fairly straightforward amenities - like curtains. I often wear an eye-mask to sleep during Summer, so that I’m not woken by light. Don’t know if I’ve had a particularly vigorous night’s sleep, but it’s on the floor when I wake. The exertion of trying to reach it from my prone position, without falling out of the bed, means that I’m more than awake enough when I finally grab it that more sleep is not an option. Merde.

Now I’m awake, I realise it’s also pretty noisy. Our room is RIGHT next to the bar area. I can hear the water gently lapping- at the shoreline, which is an incredibly soothing sound. I can also pretty clearly hear other guests’ conversations in the bar area and in the property next door to us, which conversely means they’ll be able to hear ours. Noted.

Vicki continues to sleep next to me. Her ability to sleep through pretty much anything, but even more impressively - to wake, and then fall back to sleep in these conditions, is just astonishing. When the alarm goes off at 10:00, she declares more sleeps are needed, and who am I to disagree.

I write this from an increasingly sunny and warm decking area next to the bar. Koh Tao is famous as a diving destination, and there are countless diving boats heading off into the distance. I gave up on diving when I had terrible balance issues about 10 years ago, and haven’t been tempted to give it another go since. I can just about cope with snorkelling to a few metres deep, but not sure my vestibular system will cope with anything deeper than that.

Oooh, 10:30. Time to check on Vicki…

18:00
It’s been a stop/start kind of a day. Vicki agrees to some limited waking up at 10:30, and has had 10+ hours of sleep (again). I need to wash the travel off me, so have a quick shower before we head out for some breakfast. We find a cool little café where Vicki can quench her thirst for eggs.

She’s feeling a little delicate though. I suspect a combination of heat and travel have caught up with her. We agree it makes sense to stay within dashing distance of a decent dunny for the day. We spend a very relaxing bit of time down by the beach, watching the world go by. Around 14:00, I feel like a nap, so have one. There’s no way I’m letting Vicki have a full two hours more of sleep than me.

We’re both feeling a little peckish by 16:00, so head out to grab some food. There’s a great little Thai place just down the street from us. Ultra basic, but very tasty. They manage to cater to Vicki’s need for plain - with an omelette and some steamed rice. I’ve not had a curry yet, so have the green chicken curry. It’s superb. Her rice finished, Vicks decides to head back to our room while I finish up. Having finished my rice, and with half a bowl of curry sauce left, I opt to drink it from the bowl like a soup. The cunning cook lady has cunningly hidden three cunning birds-eye chillies at the bottom of the bowl. Thankfully, I only eat one of them before I realise. It’s a bit of a shock to the system though.

We repair to our guesthouse, and grab a drink by the beach as the sun starts to droop towards the horizon. Vicks heads off for a rest/nap, and I contemplate just how much effort it takes to do as little as we have today. Honestly, it’s not easy…

23:30
Vicks sleeps for a good 90 minutes, and I find her curled under a bath towel when I head back to our room. We’re both ready for a snack, so head out for some food. She’s not quite in a place to extend beyond steamed rice and water. I, on the other hand, have some fab fried prawns, and a slightly weird noodle ‘salad’ that is neither cold, nor strictly speaking, a a salad. A brief pit stop at the 7/11 on the way home for some more water and a couple of beers, and we spend the rest of the evening resting up. I finish a book, while Vicks watches a movie.

I’m conscious I’ve not really taken many/any photos today, so here are some taken by our lovely cat sitter, Kristine, of the boys at home in Brighton.Read more