All by me Onesy

I love that part in pirates of the Caribbean. Where jack tells what a man can do and what a man can’t do. He could let Will drown but he can’t bring the ship into Tortuga all by his onesy. Savvy? Sometimes I wish I were a pirate. Then I could say savvy in everyday language.  Sorry. I’d just thought I’d give the background for my title choice. Moving on. 

Day 2 at the beaches consisted of a 4 island tour. I opted for the 4 island tour rather than the james bond island tour. (golden gun)

For breakfast I had a mango shake. (just mango and ice and awesomeness) and an egg pancake. Basically a crepe with an egg cooked in it. Oh and butter. I think I forgot what real butter tasted like. The day before I had a banana pancake with ‘milk’ on it. And by milk they mean sweetened condensed milk. Best thing of my life. Also only 20 baht. The mango shake was 25 baht. So breakfast for a dollar fifty. I may or may not have had a banana pancake everyday I was there. (oh and just an fyi, watermelon shakes are a bit trickier because they usually don’t seed them well, so you get bits o’watermelon seed shooting up your straw)

After my breakfast of champions, i got picked up for my tour and then waited for the whole group to get there. I befriended an English couple. Wendy and Aaron. They were nice. And about the only English speakers there. We got onto our little boat, and I moved to the back to be closer to my new found English friends. Big mistake. We were right next to motor, which put out a horrid smell of gas and was super bouncy. Normally I do pretty well with boats and don’t get motion sickness. However, the windows were blocked and I couldn’t see out. Yikes. I was not feeling well. To make matters worse, this is where I had the dreaded I’m my mother’s daughter moment.  When we pulled into our first island, I had to get off. HAD TO.  But I was in the back. Behind 22 people, mostly Asians and not a fan of water, so taking forever to get off. I became really claustrophobic and anxious and pretty sure I was going to be sick if I didn’t get off. I needed land and fresh air.  (my mom is terribly claustrophobic and hates being in small spaces. One time on a trip, my sister was suffering from motion sickness so my mom was going to ride in the back of our Toyota sienna and let my sister ride in the front. And by back I mean very back, not the captain seats. We had our doubts but she started back there so I started climbing in after her, she made it two seconds before she literally pushed me out of the car, so she could get out) I felt like shoving people out of the way to get out. Pretty sure I did a bit. Once out and I breathed. I felt much better. Still slightly unnerved that I am getting older and can’t handle certain situations anymore. Oh and am becoming my mother apparently.

The first thing I did on the island is jump into the water. I love water and swimming and would be a beach bum if it were a respectable profession. I then walked around and looked at a cave. Then went and lied in the sun until we had to leave to the next island. Pretty sure this is the best weather I had the entire trip. Blast the wet season.

We loaded back into the boat to head to Chicken Head island. There is a rock formation that looks like a chicken head. Having learned my lesson, I sat in the very front slightly outside the covering. Fresh Air. As we are leaving, the guide says ‘now we go into where the rain is, it will be fun’ I look ahead and there are massive rain clouds. As we got closer to the island it started raining. At first it felt good and a welcomed relief. Until the wind plus the speed of the boat made it so the rain was viciously pelting us. And since I was at the very front, I got quite a beating. I took refuge under a lifejacket and only occasionally looked through the armhole to see where we were. By the time we got to island the rain had passed and it was time for snorkeling!

Everyone was putting on lifejackets so I thought it was mandatory. The lifejacket lasted about 10 minutes before I did what every good lifeguard does… asked if I have to wear this… I didn’t. good thing too. I don’t know how to swim in them and every time I’d look down in the water and come up the life jacket would almost push me down back into the water. It was too big. Once I ditched the life jacket, snorkeling was much more enjoyable. There were lots of nemo fish and dori looking fish.

After snorkeling we had lunch and walked across the sandbar bridge (only possible at low tide) to the next island where we caught the boat to the next island. There we just walked around a bit before we headed back to the main island ready for a warm shower.

I love all things water.