Island Hopping

I took a motorboat cruise of the bay. And it was really beautiful. The tour guide was pretty useless. I realize that as a past tour guide I can be a pretty tough customer. But as we stopped at one of the major island stops on the cruise her imparted wisdom on us was "This is shicken (chicken) head island, because the big rock there looks like a shicken." I do expect a little more than that. But the islands were amazing. We stopped at one in the morning to do some swimming. We went to another with a shrine in a cave, with a pile of phallic totems next to it, and some more swimming. The next stop was for lunch on a private beach inside a big wooden shed. Lunch was mediocre, but the company was delightful. This is when all the guests finally started chit-chatting amongst one another. There were couples from Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg and China. And the weather was nice in the shade, with the breeze and the sounds of the surf. We were all very content just sitting there. But it was time to see some more islands. The next stop was a teeny tiny island where the real interest was the snorkling. I don't think I had actually ever snorkled properly before. But it was wonderful. The fish were amazing. Every size and shape and color. The crew on the boat would throw bread into the water and the fish would just swarm around us. Although I thought I stubbed my toe on a rock. Later I realized I actually had the teeniest, tinyest cut from coral. I don't think I'll die or anything, but it has been much more painful than that small a cut should be. Next stop was an overcrowded small island, where they wanted you to pay for a shade umbrella and chairs. I just sat in the water in the shade of a rock, feeding fish the whole time I was there. Not nearly as spectacular as the snorkling, but still interesting. Then we headed back, as it was 4:30. I was back at the hotel by 6:00. Even though I completely slathered myself in sun screen three times, with an additional 2 times for the tops of my feet and my shoulders and face, and on top of that doing my nose an extra two times, I still came back to the hotel with the beginnings of a sunburn. I treated my sunburn in my usual fashion - a warm bath, no aloe and no air conditioning. I also decided I needed to use three additional tactics - Aleve, alcohol and denial. So I decided to hitch onto the shuttle to Patong Beach again and to have dinner and go shopping. It was better than sitting around thinking about my sunburn. And it worked pretty well. And I had the best meal yet in Thailand - some beerbatter like deepfried vegetables. And booze of course. And shopping therapy. I took a lot of money, but ended up not spending a whole lot of it. By the time I was sick of shopping I had almost an hour to kill. So I found a place that would give me a half hour foot rub. I slept soundly that night, that's for sure.