Hard and soft

The water in Railay was very hard and got even harder following the rain. The shampoo and soap I had brought with me from Saudi was useless there; it felt as though you were rubbing yourself with a tablet of plastic. I eventually bought some local shampoo, formulated I guess to cope with the water, for it worked well. Whilst it cleaned my hair satisfactorily, it produced a ludicrous amount of scum as the calcium carbonate came out of solution. The hotel was a little lax in cleaning my room (they didn’t bother) and so by the time I left, the tiled floor was staring to look like the floor of a cave as the deposits built up.

Using Railay shampoo here in the exceptionally soft water of Georgetown is quite a different experience - producing enough lather to fill the bath. Meanwhile, my hair feels like straw.