Day 87

Thursday 27^th January 2011

Much to Franky’s annoyance I’ve set the alarm this morning…. I want to get out and enjoy my day at the beach doing absolutely nothing. I’ve set it for the respectable time of 10.00am so I don’t think he has any grounds on which to complain.

We check out the hotel breakfast which is standard fodder and then go back to the room to get our beach gear before heading the 50 yards or so from our room to the soft golden sands of Chaweng beach. The beach is pretty narrow but we are lucky enough to commandeer 2 sun loungers on the edge of the sea.

I throw my towel down and jump on. It’s pure bliss lying toasting myself in the sun, cooled by the sea breeze and listening to the lapping of the waves at my feet. This is what I’ve been dreaming of.

We spend a lazy day at the beach dipping into the warm waters of the ocean whenever it gets a little too hot on dry land. I start and finish my next book. A who dunnit set in the 1930s called ‘The tale of the 39 cuff links’ which is easy going and entertaining.

By 4pm the trees are shading our patch and so we head up to the room where Franky immediately falls asleep after his exhausting day of relaxing at the beach.

By 7.00pm though we are refreshed, showered and changed and ready to hit the town. The internet at our hotel is diabolical. It’s also astronomically priced. 600 Bhat for 5 hours. That’s about 12 quid. We had conceded we were going to have to pay for it as Franky is still waiting to hear about interviews and Garlick, the rhythm guitarist from his band, is on the island with his wife so we need the medium of facebook to arrange a meeting. However, after paying for the internet we discovered it worked for about 10 minutes and then cut out, then worked for 10 minutes then cut out. At reception they brightly informed us that this was usually the case. I couldn’t believe they were charging so much for internet that was essentially useless so we got our 600 Bhat back and headed out to the local internet café where we got done what we needed in 20 minutes for only 20 Bhat (about 40p).

Just as we were leaving the internet café a couple walked past – none other than Mr Garlick himself! Remarkable considering they are not even staying in our resort! They were headed to Prego, an Italian restaurant, which is where we had been planning to eat on their recommendation. However, first they were going to the swish Amari hotel as it was happy hour. We were more than happy with this plan so we reserved a table at Prego and then headed to the Amari.

The Amari had the beds that we had so enjoyed lounging on at Nest in Cambodia and all 4 of us dived onto one of those for a catch up over a drink or 2 (OK 3!).

From there we went to Prego for some good Italian food. It seems that the Garlicks are a lot like us in that they enjoy good food and good wine and so we were having a lovely evening with plenty of both.

After Prego we headed to another regular haunt of theirs, Legends bar. The music was right up our street as were the 100 Bhat cocktails. Although the Long Island Iced Tea nearly blew my head off. I also sampled the Mojito and Strawberry Fields Forever. We were eventually thrown out as the bar closed around us and the evening was beginning to get a little messy.

Further down the road was a truly terrible live band with two Thai girls as the lead singers and a band behind them of dubious sexuality. The bar was busy, although I think this had more to do with the novelty value rather than the calibre of music. We decided to join the throng and get a few more beers in there.

When this bar closed around us and we were thrown out for the second time that night you’d think we’d get the message and head on home. But no! Another trick the Garlick’s were keen to teach us was that

a)      you can walk back to your hotel down the beach – which is far nicer than the road which runs parallel to it

b)      You can buy beer at the 7-11 to accompany you on the journey.

We stopped in the 7-11 and bought a couple of 4 packs and then headed down to the beach for a couple more beers before calling it a night and going our separate ways. I’d love to tell you we sat and had scintillating conversation about world news and current affairs but sadly I can’t remember and I imagine we just babbled nonsense in the way that 4 drunkards do at the end of a good night.

And then Franky stepped it up a notch. He decided that the sea looked truly inviting and he was going for a dip, naked. We sat and laughed as all we could see was my husband’s white bum reflecting the moonlight as his frolicked in the waves. It looked like fun…… so after a little deliberation all 3 of us were stripping off to join him!!!!

Sorry Mum (AGAIN)!

After our dip we’d run out of beer and realised that it was really time to call it a night so we parted company and went our separate ways to our respective hotels. I can’t speak for the Garlick’s but after a shower to remove the sand and salt, which Franky has absolutely no recollection of, we fell into an alcohol induced coma.