February 14: Valentines Day at the Beach

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I’ve taken these last two days to do what I do so well at any beach/seaside resort — take in some sun, swim, walk along the shore. I feel guilty for doing what I could do in Florida or California or Rhode Island while I’m here in southern Thailand but the following forces were at play, and are helping to alleviate my guilt:

1. The resort I selected is north of the nearest town by several miles, so in order to check out the local scene would require a plan and a taxi and both of those seem like too much effort.
2. I am alone, so navigating the local scene would require a plan and some effort on my part and that seems like too much work.
3. I feel like I’ve absorbed about as much Thai culture as I need to, and frankly a beachy town isn’t likely to be high on Thai culture anyway.
4. This relaxing bit — doing what I really enjoy doing, and which brings me peace and joy — is okay after almost 6 weeks of sightseeing and temples and biking and walking and exploring.

So I read a book (“Burr” by Gore Vidal), and picked up some lovely little shells, (most of which I will leave behind), dealt with an adorable cat who insisted on joining me on my beach chair, and walked the length of Tubkaek Beach overlooking the Hong Islands, ensuring that I avoided the couples who had found a patch of privacy when the tide was out. The tide always enthralls me. I went down to the beach this morning at 7:30 and did some stretching and yoga and the water level was quite far out. By 11AM, it was up at the beach chairs, and as I left this afternoon it was on its way out again. Mother Earth is quite amazing.

There is meant to be quite the Valentines Day buffet dinner on the beach tonight — I overheard the manager telling staff when to light the torches, and the tables were set with white tablecloths and chair covers with red ribbons. I’m personally hoping for a quite bite at the cafe place near the lobby! And there was a lovely sunset. Since the tide was out, it was neat to see all the beautiful designs that the crabs make in the sand. And after a room service dinner (couldn’t deal with the sunset beach love fest dinner gala), I found a lovely note from the staff!

So I’ve given myself permission to have had these two days. Tomorrow I leave for Singapore and after a long layover at that airport I head to Sydney. I suspect that with that long layover I may have some time to to write a “So Long SE Asia” post — might be a good way to cap the last 6 weeks.