Monday, December 13.
One week and I'm homeward bound! As has become our trend, we succeeded in saving money on our return trip to Bangkok, which ended up being extremely fortunate when it turned out that we would otherwise have run out of cash before reaching an ATM in the city.
On Sunday, we had a great early morning snorkeling adventure. We swam out past the pier where we found a large coral and lots of colorful fish, worms, and urchins. Apparently, the snorkeling off of a nearby island is far more diverse and rewarding, but, not knowing what we were missing, we had a lot of fun.
Once sufficiently water-logged, we came back to camp for breakfast and tea and then took some footage for a silly video idea we'd had. Then we got our stuff as ready to go as we could and hung around until dinner, which Lacey and Austin made with a squash, rice, beans, coconut milk, and a whole lot of sugar. We also had some more sweet coconut banana mush for dessert before bed.
At 4:30 this morning, I was woken up by rain. I scrambled out of my hammock, donned my pack, and carried my liner and blanket and other things we wanted to keep dry to the open-air, covered eating area, where we all tried to fall asleep on a wooden table until our alarms went off at six. It was go time. Austin cooked up our remaining eggs and veggies for breakfast, we had the last of our tea, returned the blankets and food box borrowed from the resort, tossed our waste, packed up our wet hammocks, and by 7:45, we had said goodbye and many thank yous and were on our way up the road to meet the truck on the other side of the bridge. Our generous host, so understanding of our financial restraints, had booked us tickets for the hundred baht cheaper local boat, instead of the 350 baht tourist boat wd'd taken to get there, and we piled on this ferry by day, fishing boat by night with a couple dozen Thais.
After grtting a truck to the bus station from the ferry pier, we waited at the "food center" for the next bus. The charge three baht for the station's only bathroom, and by the time we'd payed for our one hundred baht meal, all in change, and had bought three bananas for the ride, we had 2.25 baht left, so the woman gave us one baht back so Lacey could use the bathroom. Austin and I waited till Bangkok. If we had spent any more on those motorbikes, or had to pay a rental fee for the snorkeling equipment, or bought one more mango on the island, we wouldn't have made it. Hallelujah. Now we know: If going to a remote island with no ATMs, bring way more cash than you think you need.
We got to the Ekkamai station at around 6:30 and carried our packs--lighter without all of that food--back to the apartment. Then we ventured to Soi (lane/street) 2 to find some dinner, which we brought back to the apartment to eat. i had an interesting green veggie with rice. Lacey and Austin had several seafood items and some pork that apparently reminded them of home. Matthew got in late and took a red eye bus down south for his couple days' break from traching, so we were on our own for the next couple of days.
No comments:
Post a Comment