Sunday – sleep, sand, sea and snorkelling

Morning comes, but my body is still steadfastly refusing to move. I sleep through breakfast, and then Tik and A are going off to see a waterfall, but I think my response is along the lines of “Seen Niagara, seen Powerscourt. How good can it be?”

So after a satisfyingly horizontal morning, I finally pluck up the strength to try some lunch. I’m getting a little annoyed with the food here – there’s no menu, and we seem to get a poor mixture of dishes every meal. There’s always a ridiculously spicy soup that nobody can eat, a dish of unidentifyable meat/veg/gunk in unpalatable sauce, rice, and one dish that everbody likes. So we all eat the only nice food first, then try to force down the meat/veg/gunk by drowning it in rice, then ignore the soup. Still, I cast my mind back to some of the horrific food I’ve eaten elsewhere, and decide that it could quite easily be worse.

Next up, snorkelling. We’re taken by songthaew to the quays, and then it’s on with the lifejackets as a speedboat takes us out to one of the tiny islands off the coast. The water’s even clearer than yesterday, and the beach much smoother, so we have an amazing time. I remember writing about this last year:

It’s the least intuitive thing in the world to bung a piece of plastic in your mouth, immerse your face in the ocean, and take a deep breath inwards #

It’s still true. But it’s so worth it. The underwater sights are a thousand times more exciting than last year, as I find myself inches away from hundreds of different forms of subaquatic life – from schools of tiny bright turquoise fish, to some kind of undulating ray, to the turquoise fishes’ big brothers, to the curious worm-like creatures that crawl along the sea bed (Martin christens these “sea-sausages”), and they’re all so vividly visible in this shallow water, illuminated by the overhead sun in the clear sky. I think my only regret about this whole trip (apart from contracting this cursed stomach bug) is not bringing an underwater camera.

Three hours passes annoyingly swiftly, as is always the case, and it’s time to go. I put my shoes and shirt back on, collect our towels and stuff my posessions into Martin’s holdall, then Martin and I are waylaid by a woman telling us her boat hasn’t come to pick her up, and could we call her hotel when we reach the mainland? Martin and I are just trying to find something to write the hotel’s name on when her boat appears – a relief all round, nobody wants to miss their boat. So it’s with heavy heart that I notice our boat has left without us! It’s not far out, fifteen or twenty feet maybe, and we can still make it. So we slip out of our shoes and start to wade out, and then remember how quickly the water gets deep. I’m trying to keep the holdall above the water level, chiefly because it contains my cigarettes and lighter – I’ve given up on the already sopping wet towel and shoes in my other hand. As the water reaches neck-height I make it to within a few feet of the boat, which has at least had the grace to stop its engine by now. Perhaps we could have waited on the shore for them to notice us missing, but I prefer the dramatic approach. I swim the remaining few feet and drag myself up – not as easy as it sounds when you’re still holding a bag in one hand, and a beach towel, lifejacket, snorkel and a pair of trainers in the other. Safely on the boat, smirking faces all round, it’s back to the resort.

I’m utterly lethargic once again when we get back to the room, and not only sleep through dinner, but prefer to stay in the room rather than hit the town again in the evening. It’s a full-moon party on the beach tonight, but I had a good night on the beach last night, and can’t cope with the idea of another one. I finally finish the book I’ve been reading – the superb Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

Martin returns at 1am or so, laden with goodies from 7-11. We munch Pringles and sip more tea on the veranda, and I’m quite relieved to hear that the “Full Moon Party” was no different to last night on the beach. Although almost worn out from sleeping, I somehow bravely summon the strength to sleep all over again, and hit the sack.