The Beach

Having arrived in Surat with a few days to spare before training got under way the group (those of us who'd made it to Thailand so far) decided to pack up once again and take an hour bus to Khonom beach for a couple of days.

After arriving and working out our housing arrangements we found the beach completely deserted, the water clear blue and the sand a powdery white that stretched at such a gently slope one was 30 or 40 meters out at least before the water was past chest height and by the time you had to swim to stay afloat the entire beach from end to end (framed by magnificent green mountains) was almost entirely in your field of vision. As we lounged in the sand, on the benches and hammocks and drank beers in the pool we all got to know each other and bond as a group.

Later Annie, Jackie and I went on a stroll to the end of the beach where we had spotted a pier earlier and were told that pink dolphins (yes, pink dolphins) could be spotted off of it. Before we got to the end of the pier (which looked much more industrial and was guarded on closer inspection) we happened upon by a group of kids chilling and playing guitar who brought us over with shouts of "Happy!" and "One Love!". The teens, Nat, Muang (Mango), Monkey, Gay, and Mai were giggly and cheerful and after some broken conversation invited us back that night to what was apparently their camp-site for dinner. On the way back we would end up meeting Rosie and Nath, who live on a house by the beach, as I vainly tried to get a coconut (scarily reminiscent of my last trip when I was 10). As we sat there, drinking coco milk and chatting with Rosie we caught sight of the rest of the group who'd followed us out and waved them down and shared more coconuts and chatted till we made our way back to Nat's camp.

At his camp we met the mother and father of two of the kids (not all related) where they had a huge bonfire going and a feast of grilled fish, shrimp, a bunch of other foods and sticky rice which we all shared with a bottle of rice whiskey that we brought for them. We ate and drank late into the night, chatting, playing music and saw a literal storm of falling stars that seemed to cap the night with their brilliance and unexpected arrival. When we left, the group escorted us back to our resort with flashlights so we could see (and in doing so saved us from potentially stepping on a squid, a jelleyfish and a live sea-snake).

The next morning we all wandered around sleepy and a little hungover (I was sunburnt to a crisp) and after a last dip in the ocean made our way back to the city.