Coconut curry
36 hours of this:
Equals this:
An eel poked its head out of its craggy coral cave of a home and Christmas tree worms waved their purple, yellow, and orange fronds as I finned by. Last evening I sat on a pier overlooking the fishing boats that brought me the seafood in my coconut curry soup and the papayas for my salad grew somewhere nearby. Laos is on the coast? you wonder. Nope.
After 36 hours from Luang Nam Tha: minivan, longboat, bus, VIP overnight bus, First Class air con bus, songthaew, songthaew, car ferry, songthaew; I arrived at the Cliff Cottages in Bao Bang on Ko Chang Island in the gulf of Thailand. And I am in heaven.
My little bamboo hut doesn't have a toilet but it has a hammock and an ocean view. At night I can hear the waves crashing below and the crickets and lizards produce a happy cacophony in the coconut palms and jungle as well as the shaggy fronds of my roof.
I went diving today and plan to jump back in tomorrow. The orange and black wooden dive boat, Thai fisherman style through and through, chugs through the aquamarine, past the verdant green hills veering steeply into the sea. A dive in bath warm water with the parrot fish, snappers and gobies, narrowly avoiding run ins with the sharp black needles of pervasive urchins, then up to the surface for an amazing Thai lunch and time for lazing on the white sand beach a short swim from the boat. My divemaster Tea (Tee-uh) and I suited up once again for another dive where we found eels and nudibranchs, sea pens and stingrays as we fought a strong current weaving through the coral antlers to return to the boat. An hour goes so quickly underwater!
It is almost the end of my trip, this time, but I have yet to brave the Thai New Year in Bangkok where it is traditional to douse all passersby (especially tourists carrying luggage, I'm sure) with buckets of water. For now, I'll enjoy the New Year being wet, but it will be because I'm among the fish, not the fish markets.
Equals this:
An eel poked its head out of its craggy coral cave of a home and Christmas tree worms waved their purple, yellow, and orange fronds as I finned by. Last evening I sat on a pier overlooking the fishing boats that brought me the seafood in my coconut curry soup and the papayas for my salad grew somewhere nearby. Laos is on the coast? you wonder. Nope.
After 36 hours from Luang Nam Tha: minivan, longboat, bus, VIP overnight bus, First Class air con bus, songthaew, songthaew, car ferry, songthaew; I arrived at the Cliff Cottages in Bao Bang on Ko Chang Island in the gulf of Thailand. And I am in heaven.
My little bamboo hut doesn't have a toilet but it has a hammock and an ocean view. At night I can hear the waves crashing below and the crickets and lizards produce a happy cacophony in the coconut palms and jungle as well as the shaggy fronds of my roof.
I went diving today and plan to jump back in tomorrow. The orange and black wooden dive boat, Thai fisherman style through and through, chugs through the aquamarine, past the verdant green hills veering steeply into the sea. A dive in bath warm water with the parrot fish, snappers and gobies, narrowly avoiding run ins with the sharp black needles of pervasive urchins, then up to the surface for an amazing Thai lunch and time for lazing on the white sand beach a short swim from the boat. My divemaster Tea (Tee-uh) and I suited up once again for another dive where we found eels and nudibranchs, sea pens and stingrays as we fought a strong current weaving through the coral antlers to return to the boat. An hour goes so quickly underwater!
It is almost the end of my trip, this time, but I have yet to brave the Thai New Year in Bangkok where it is traditional to douse all passersby (especially tourists carrying luggage, I'm sure) with buckets of water. For now, I'll enjoy the New Year being wet, but it will be because I'm among the fish, not the fish markets.
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