John Denver seemed to have thought West Virginia was almost heaven, but I have to think he’d never been to islands in the Gulf of Thailand. We’ve been on Koh Tao, just a little island north of the bigger and allegedly more fabulous Koh Samui, for four days now. We were originally scheduled to leave today, but we’re staying two more days before taking a boat on to Samui.
Happy Mark
It’s really a simple recipe: an early morning run, breakfast, at the pool with a book by 8:30 or 9:00, off to lunch at a beach restaurant, late afternoon on the beach. Mark goes off to a massage – at $8 to $10 for an hour, it’s not a big splurge – then it’s a stop for a drink before dinner. Rinse and repeat. Food, beach, books – really a good life. I finished a biography of Douglas MacArthur (freak!) a couple days ago and today finished And the Mountains Echoed, a fabulous novel about Afghanis from a fictional village. Really amazing. One of my goals in traveling was to read more fiction, and so far it’s working!
It gets easy to understand how the older, skanky guys get stuck here – and a little scary to think how easy it could be to end up to become one of those guys who’ve been here too many years. I think we’re going to resist the temptation though, moving on to Koh Samui for a few days and then on to a beach near Krabi before flying to Singapore to meet up with Mark’s brother and father.
Here are some pictures of life on the island.
On the boat from the mainland to Koh Tao
The lunch view on day two on the island. We don’t really miss the winter…
View from lunch on our third day on the island. This has become pretty much our new standard.
Mark playing fetch with a dog that just didn’t get it. The dog really wanted to play – we’d watched him walking up and down the beach trying to get people to play with him – so Mark found a stick and threw it. The dog just looked as if to say “YOU go get it.” So Mark got it and tried it again…
Mark’s still trying to explain to the dog how this “fetch” thing works…
Finally, Mark just gives up and gets the stick himself. That was the end of fetch, and the dog appears to be too embarrassed to come back – we haven’t seen him on the beach since that day.
Thai food is spectacular and we’re really enjoying that part of our experience here. This was dinner last night, a great big seafood extravaganza. It was as good as it looks!
Our happy bartenders at Simple Life. They make a great Johnny Walker on the rocks!
Koh Tao is a small island, but big enough for a nightly drag show. The funny thing is that women on the island don’t actually wear hats like this very much.
There’s nothing like hanging out on a Thai island. I imagine the two of you are deeply rested and discovering the joys of finding out who you are when you’re not spending all your energy working. Hurray!
Btw, I love the book And The Mountains Echoed. So well written and a fascinating story.
Sending love,
Mark & I are thinking about doing the Zephyr bike tour in Provence in April. Wanna join us?
In the words of Ava Sullivan, “totes jelly!”