THAILAND

Oh, the sea! That bedazzling, azure, ultramarine vision of picture-postcard technicolour paradise... with a perfect white-sand beach on a palm fringed shore... and we know we're in Thailand!  Grateful for a cooling breeze and the shelter of a beach bar... but otherwise happy to be doing nothing much... a refreshing swim, delicious Thai food and real tropical fruit drinks are enough to keep us happy. This trip with my sister is really to visit her son who lives here, which is a great opprtunity to visit Asia again, for which I'm truly grateful.

Paradise however, does have it's downside... and you don't have to go to Transylvania to get seriously bitten. "Ah, fresh English flesh" they buzz... and flock to feast on me!  It doesn't help to know that Matt is slowly and painfully getting over the Dengue fever... for the second time.   And its not only the mozzies that bite. A stroll along the beach is wonderful, but beware the sand flies!  Then there are ants, so small you only see them when they move... and like our very own midges... they carry a load of venom too.  They laugh at repellant!  However, you may be lucky enough to naturally repel these creatures by eating the right foods... alledgedly... garlic and lemongrass and probably chilli in high dosages if you can stand it.

Breakfast

Actually, this is our usual breakfast of fresh fruit and home-made yoghurt, sprinkled with cinnamon and cardamom and a little local honey... with not a hot spice in sight. The World's End Cafe at Chaloklum, run by Lotta from Sweden, is an oasis of quality home-made food and great coffee.

Thai food is wonderful; so tasty and healthy that we don't eat too much and actully began to lose some unwanted fat.  Keeping off bread and cakes helps and we certainly don't miss that.

Lotta at The World's End

It's the end of summer and beginning the monsoon season so tourists are few and far between... which suits us. We experience a couple of sudden squalls with heavy rain, just enough to cool the temperature a little. 

We've found that half the clothes we'd chosen to bring so carefully are just not light enough for the heat, so have had to buy more suitable attire, contributing to the locaL economy, and we do like to dress up in the evening to go out for a meal with Matt...

Yau

If there's one thing that's been worth all the expense of this trip, it's having regular massage from a wonderful woman who knows more about deep tissue, pressure points, lymphatic drainage and manipulation that any masseur or osteopath that I've ever met.  Yes, it hurt, but after having every joint, muscle and tendon pressed, pummelled, stretched and contorted into submission for at least an hour and a half, I was thrilled to realise that a chronic pain in my hip that's been bothering me for years, had actually gone... and hasn't returned. 

To my mind, the whole point of going on holiday is to leave our usual comfort zone and allow the experience of being in flight from home... adrift in the world... a foreigner in a foreign land... to renew our self confidence and sense of self with acceptance and trust that whatever happens is beyond our control... so better just go with the flow... its all part of the holy-day of becoming whole.