Looking
at most people on the train, they looks a little worse for wear as
they've, instead of sleeping, decided to go through a few rounds of
boxing in the night, we laugh deliriously as some people are having
early morning moments and next thing I know we have about 5 minutes
to pack and get off the train.
We're
escorted off the train by random people pointing in different
directions, through the platform, through the car park and on to some
coach, like dumb blind sheep with rucksacks, we (mainly I) only knew
it was the right coach, as after 2 hours of driving on roads through
rural Thailand (I imagine it was rural, as I was asleep for most of
the journey) we got to a place that sounded like the word everyone
had been uttering that we'd be getting a ferry from, my biggest clue
was that it was a ferry terminal called Dansak.
Boarding
the ferry we had another few hours to amuse ourselves before we got
to the island we were aiming for when we left Bangkok 8 weeks ago,
Koh Phangan. Getting a taxi to our hotel, located at the north-west
of the island, we made it to our accommodation, Smile Beach Resort,
at whatever late afternoon time.
After
some mild language confusion with deposits, paying and general what
the fuck was going on, we get led down a garden path and shown to our
wooden shacks where we'd be sleeping; actually shacks isn't fair as
that implies we were roughing it in some dodgy Thailand outhouses,
these shacks were comfortable with a decorated verandah, air
conditioning, hammock, outside wet room (with typically foreign “No
toilet paper in toilet” ruling) and a few beds. The setting of
these shacks were great as well, 2 to a shack and set out quite far
apart from each other in amongst this fairly well maintained garden,
located underneath a tree covered hill and 2 minutes walk from the
beach, it's all you could ask for when you're paying £Sod.All a
night and we spend the rest of the day relaxing
on the beach.
Smile Beach was set within a wide bay,
sheltered by tree-heavy hills on all sides (except for the side with
water) with houses and lowrise hotels breaking onto the sand and
spitting away from the jungle at occasional points, the sand was
yellow and fine with a calm and clear mirror like water lapping up on
it and the water drifted and expanding out into the unknown, coming
to this spot would feel refreshing, even if you'd seen it a million
times.
We swam in the shallow waters of which
was slightly disturbing with it's small infestation of sea cucumbers
or as they looked like, alive crawling poos and afterwards, I went
off to get an hour's full body massage on the beach where I had all
my muscle knots abolished from beneath the surface of my skin, while
I was being picked up, bent-backwards and swung around in all
different directions and having my fingers pulled out, which was
surprisingly, incredibly calming and soothing.
I rejoined my friends for an incredible
sunset and later, enjoyed well-deserved cocktails and fine beach
dining looking out on a fairy-light lit horizon as many fishing boats
calmly overfish and destroy local fish stocks.
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