It was supposed to rain all night and all day, and we had towels and swimsuits on the balcony… Luckily for us, it’s covered far enough out, and paired with the constant heat, everything was dry this morning. It also wasn’t raining! So we ate some breakfast, and decided to walk south today, towards the beach by Chopstick Mountain.
The walk was longer and more tiring than we originally thought, because we walked paralell to the beach the entire time, just waiting for the perfect access point. Here’s the first alley way we tried:
So we kept on walking, and we found where all the tuktuk buses rest when they’re not driving north or south along our strip of road!
Finally, we arrive at the beach! They say to aim for low tide, or declining tide, and we were here about half way between high and low tide. The beach was pretty nice, but the wind was powerful, and so were the waves. There were maybe two other families playing in the water while we were there, so not exactly a busy spot.
We were here for the beach, and so we started walking north, hoping to find that access road now that the water had gone down even more. We didn’t find that road, as the buildings and retaining walls were too far out and cut off access around corners completely.
This was Téa and Maylin’s first time by the ocean, first time on a beach, and we had such a great time! We found shells in the sand, unfortunately a lot of garbage, and animals both big and small (biggest were dogs, and the promised monkeys stayed away). The waves came and tickled our feet, and we stood still and let the water wash the sand under our feet away.
We found little holes in the sand, with what looked like teeny tiny sand snowballs surrounding them, and stood completely still until the microscopic white crabs came out and spat out more sandballs.
It was warm, and it was lunchtime. We picked one of the nearby restaurants (not the one we’d literally have to cross the ocean to get to), it was so beautiful! It was open air, but covered, so no walls, just tables and a roof, which meant the breeze and views were both beautiful and much appreciated. The girls ordered a beef and Thai basil dish to share, non spicy, and Joe and I ordered a seafood fried rice, non-spicy in case the girls needed more food, and a fried shrimp with chili and salt – spicy.
After lunch, we walked the beach one more time before finally putting our sandy feet back into our shoes and trudging back up towards the road. At the tuktuk bus depot, an eager driver tells us to come sit in his empty and about to depart tuktuk bus. It soon fills with more people, I’d say it comfortably fits maybe 10 people on seats and two standing. We have a couple of spots available still, and the driver goes slower than everybody else on the road. Curiously slow. We pick up a few more people along the way, and eventually make it to our AirBnb. We push the button, and he drops us off right across the street.
We’ve had a lovely day on the beach, but a long day in the heat. We go swimming, shower and get ready to go to the market. Now Joe isn’t feeling the greatest, and plans to only just come along and not eat anything. Joe and Maylin sit down at a table while Téa and I go hunt for food. We buy some coconut pancakes and bring them back to the table, when Joe looks at me and says he’s going home. The heat has gotten to him, and he needs air conditioning, water and rest.
The girls and I have a great dinner at the Cicada market! At this market, you prepurchase tokens at a booth, 100THB per set of tokens, and at the end of the night, anything you have left over, you bring back for a refund. The vendors do not accept cash, only tokens. First, we get 3 sets of tokens, but after having spent some on the coconut pancakes, we need to buy more to afford the pizza we just discovered. One of the vendors has a full on wood fired pizza oven at their stall, and their pizzas cost 360 in tokens (equivalent to 360THB or $15.63CA). We get more tokens, buy a half an half cheese and hawaiian pizza, and then Téa spends the rest on a bubble waffle, which Maylin adds crushed Oreo cookies to.
After dinner, the girls don’t even allow me to browse the large amount of non-food vendors! They’re too worried about their dad – or maybe they just want to go home and play video games? In any case, we hurry home, and spend the rest of the evening chilling out on the couch. Joe has been sleeping since 6pm, so we hope he’ll feel much better when he wakes up!
I had never thought of the fact that, growing up in Windsor, the girls not be familiar with the ocean.
I miss getting fresh young coconuts to drink. It was my favourite drink.
I think I had my first ever fresh coconut in Hong Kong (way before I met Joe) back in 2006. And yes, I grew up by the ocean in Norway, I love the salty smell, but we don’t have sandy beaches, so they always feel like a novelty to me. All we have where I lived is rocks and cliffs, straight into the ocean.