We wake this morning to a very dark sky. The weather predicted a short rain storm around 11am. After breakfast Ju turns up early for my massage. I thought I’d give it another go, give her the benefit of trying to cure my pains. I told her my age and asked her to go easy. She started on my foot and I squealed a bit but she perseveres, the other foot was more comfortable. She worked her way up my legs which was firm & strong and in places slightly painful. Then she starts on my arms. When she gets to my bad shoulder, which has been much better for 24 hours since the last massage, it’s ok until she pokes under my armpit again and insists on holding the tendon until I scream in agony. The rest of the massage was lovely. She insists I will benefit from it. I book for tomorrow at 10am, I am a sucker for punishment. Gary Jooles Mike & Celia also have massages on their deck today. Then it starts to rain heavily, a storm starts to blow and the rain shield has to be lowered on our deck. The rain is torrential. We enjoy watching the storm and the waves from the comfort of our deck. After an hour or so it clears and leaves beautiful sunshine. We are all totally chilled. Around midday Roger takes Gary for a beer in Flipflop. Followed by Joolia. The maintenance man comes to repair the ceiling on my deck which has blown loose in the storm. Aspen who has been bitten by mosquitoes badly has been drugged by Joolia on antihistamine and sleeps most of the morning. Celia and Logan keep me company whilst the man does his repairs. We then catch up with the boys along at Flipflop whilst Mike does his daily exercise walking up and down the beach. Aspen wakes and joins us & we have a few silly hours in Flipflop downing, pina colada’s, mojitos, beers, Burmese meatballs and spicy nuts. Leaving the bar we all meander tipsily along the beach back to our bungalow. Suddenly Gary and Roger dive into the sea, it’s very inviting and before long we all strip off and join him followed by Celia and Mike. A sobering swim , we all dry and pop into the village for a quick Thai supper. A very early night. 9pm. I do not sleep well as the sand flies have eaten my back and despite Roger applying the local Snake Brand talc I’m struggling to get comfortable.
Thursday 30th December. 30c
I always wake and draw the curtains at around 6am so we can watch daybreak. It’s raining and humid. We leave the doors closed and the aircon on. Suddenly it starts to rain very hard almost horizontally driving rain which comes under our doors! I am surprised when we get a knock at the door at 7.30, it’s Ju the massage lady insisting I booked a massage with her at that time. I would never do this so early as I take a while to focus in the mornings and Roger and I like to read the papers on line whilst having a cuppa, same ritual as at home. She is soaked through and seems quite agitated ( high on something) so we tell her to go away and cancel the later appointment. She then walks next door and starts on Joolia who uses a completely different massage lady all together. Really weird. Gary pops round and asks if we would all like to go to the other side of the island for a change. We are all excited and pile in the truck for our day trip. We head north toward Thong Sala as this is the only road that will take us to the west coast. We pass the big tree and the garage where Gary stops to book reconditioned tyres for Dong’s truck as one at the front is almost bald. We also pass the funeral crematorium which looked like an open air concert establishment. We drive through Thong Sala and we head to a new beach club Joolia has sniffed out. If it’s somewhere exclusive and posh my daughter will find it. So we pull up outside Kupa Kupa Beach Village & Spa. It’s literally just reopened since March 2020. We are welcomed by the owner’s son/manager – a handsome Italian chap. The place is practically empty we think although all the villas are occupied. Most have private beach and pool access. We are quickly served mojitos and cold beers and settle on sun beds overlooking the sea. Us girls carefully climb down over the rocks to the private beach for a swim. It’s warm and welcoming. We spend the day there and have a superb lunch in their restaurant. After a few zzzz’s on the day beds, we girls use the facilities to clean up and dress as Gary is keen for us to climb up to the nearby Amsterdam bar to watch the sunset. Gary drives most of the way up the hill. We are amazed at the hundreds of motor cycles in the car park and can hardly find a space to park. There are 20 or 30 more steps to the deck which is teeming with youngsters. There’s a DJ booming out rather fab house music and a bar. It’s a great photo op and we stay until it is well and truly dark having watched a spectacular sky! Driving back home we wanted to try the local Italian which we feel needs our support and are very surprised to see it packed. So we head back to Thong Mai beach to the Italian restaurant we went to earlier in the week with great staff. Their wine list is a bit limited and they run round to the local supermarket to get our wine. We stuffed our faces then left for home but not before the kids insisted we stop at the Pancake man’s cart. The guy was asleep at the side of the road but soon woke up when he smelled cash! We all had amazing pancakes, Mine was lemon, Logan had Nutella and banana, Joolia & Roger had evaporated milk and cinnamon, Celia had huge mango job, they were all delicious. Mike abstained as he already had a dessert both at lunch and at the Italian. Mike is partial to icecream and is not able to pass anyone selling it as my readers will know from previous travels!
Friday 31st December. 20c Hot Sunny Windy.
The sea is very rough today. The wind is welcome as it keeps us cool. It’s so windy we have breakfast inside for the first time all holiday. It’s great to hear a little background Jazz playing after all the Christmas music. After breakfast Gary , Joolia & Mike have massages. Roger decided to clean up the debris on the beach, this always encourages the staff to follow suit. We have the cleanest part of the beach this morning, the storm has brought up fresh plastic along the shore line. It’s so very sad that plastic from our so called civilised world is ruining their natural and otherwise pristine beaches. Our holiday is sadly nearing the end. Tomorrow we will start the paperwork and tests for our return back to the UK hoping we are allowed through Schiphol airport without hindrance. But tonight we will party on the beach at the Flip Flop bar.
Liquid Tales 