There is a monkey, small, cute and wide eyed, in the roof of the restaurant. She escaped last night and they have been trying to tempt her down with bananas, cooing noises and a kitten (a friend, not food) ever since.
It has rained again all day; it’s cold too. Bored, I tried to change my flights, but is particularly difficult as I am returning to England with two separate airlines. There are connecting flights available, but I can only make changes from KL or Bangkok. By the time I get back to KL, Clive (my travel agent) thinks that all the seats on the Bahrain - London leg will have gone.
I’ve decided that I don’t travel well by myself and this might be the last time I do it.
I swam in the surf this afternoon, the sky almost black and the on-shore wind strong enough to blow leaves from the trees. I checked out local diving courses, but they are expensive - an introductory ‘open-water’ PADI course costs US$300. The water here is very cloudy at the moment - full of sand. Everything in Railay Beach is expensive, apart from food. Hiring a kayak for half a day is US$27 for example - a lot for a bit of tatty blue plastic.
The monkey has just pissed on me.
Maybe a large pre-dinner Singha beer wasn’t such a good idea. I had been chatting on line with Sue, way beyond the time when I should have headed for the bathroom. Travelling alone means that you can’t just drop everything and, well, go and drop everything, and expect things to be still on your table when you get back. I paid, made short, excruciating small talk with the waiter who, fascinated by my ability to speak Thai, takes every opportunity to chat, and then left for my hotel. Or actually, the wrong hotel, but I only realised that half way up the hill. Talking to myself (and telling myself that I must stop doing this), I changed direction. Half way up the hill to the right hotel, walking with that tight buttocked, staccato trot that only a particularly urgency produces, I tried to remember why I was heading back to the hotel instead of using the restaurant bathroom. I’m still not sure. Hopping on one leg, for it is difficult on two, I made it just in time.
It has rained again all day; it’s cold too. Bored, I tried to change my flights, but is particularly difficult as I am returning to England with two separate airlines. There are connecting flights available, but I can only make changes from KL or Bangkok. By the time I get back to KL, Clive (my travel agent) thinks that all the seats on the Bahrain - London leg will have gone.
I’ve decided that I don’t travel well by myself and this might be the last time I do it.
I swam in the surf this afternoon, the sky almost black and the on-shore wind strong enough to blow leaves from the trees. I checked out local diving courses, but they are expensive - an introductory ‘open-water’ PADI course costs US$300. The water here is very cloudy at the moment - full of sand. Everything in Railay Beach is expensive, apart from food. Hiring a kayak for half a day is US$27 for example - a lot for a bit of tatty blue plastic.
The monkey has just pissed on me.
Maybe a large pre-dinner Singha beer wasn’t such a good idea. I had been chatting on line with Sue, way beyond the time when I should have headed for the bathroom. Travelling alone means that you can’t just drop everything and, well, go and drop everything, and expect things to be still on your table when you get back. I paid, made short, excruciating small talk with the waiter who, fascinated by my ability to speak Thai, takes every opportunity to chat, and then left for my hotel. Or actually, the wrong hotel, but I only realised that half way up the hill. Talking to myself (and telling myself that I must stop doing this), I changed direction. Half way up the hill to the right hotel, walking with that tight buttocked, staccato trot that only a particularly urgency produces, I tried to remember why I was heading back to the hotel instead of using the restaurant bathroom. I’m still not sure. Hopping on one leg, for it is difficult on two, I made it just in time.
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