How can it be almost over?
Sad, but true, I am in Bangkok again… which means the trip is nearing its end.
Two days here and then one day in planes, waiting for planes, hating being on planes, and home to SF (in a taxi, I’m sure, doubt I’ll be in the mood to do public transport).
Anyway, Koh Tao ended up being a lovely place. Day after my last post, I got a bit banged up. I went swimming to see the sharks again. This time I saw seven in a row, with the eighth and largest seeming to be about four feet long, and then one kind of following them, but not in formation with the rest. Hard to say if they were that long, as they were 15 or so feet below me, and with the goggles, I’m not sure if that makes them larger or smaller. I know it makes my feet look much bigger when I see them through the goggles.
So, I swam across our entire cove, which is quite a long stretch, and then went out and around all the big boulders that make up the cove, around to the next cove (which is actually where you do the cliff diving). By the time, I got there, my arms were a bit sore, as the second half of the journey didn’t have much as far as underwater boulders that you could stand on and rest for a bit. Finally, I get to the jumping off point, and the tide is much lower than when I jumped the previous day. And the rocks are slippery.
In order to get up onto the boulder, where I planned to just rest for a bit, then dive in and swim back, you have to get your left foot on one big rock, and then push up and land your right foot in a flattened part of a rock two feet away. (When I jumped before, all of this was underwater and not an issue.) So, I get in position, and when I swing my right leg over, my left leg slips, and well, I can’t quite say what happened, since it was fast. But I ended up on my back on the rock where my left foot was, my goggles flew back behind the rock (thankfully shallow), and I seemed to get rather banged up for such a short time, mainly my left foot (toe especially), and left knee, and a few scratches.
Now, my feet at this point were already rather shredded due to six weeks of mosquitos, wet sandal straps and dancing, sun, sand, and lots of walking, so I figure this was rather perfect timing to kill things off, the day before I was returning to Bangkok.
So, instead of swimming back, (I figured a bleeding knee and toe might be a bit too much, given the shark-infested water), I climb the rocks back to the resort. In my backpack there is a first aid kit, so I do a rudimentary patch up with iodine and band-aids, and the rest of my time at the resort was reading, writing, and relaxing, and hobbling around, I suppose.
Toe is still sore, the rest are doing OK. There are two scratches under my toe, which makes it hard to heal, as well, since my options are walking on the big cut or the minor scratches, and the scratches always win, but aren’t getting any better as a result. Today, I am out of the sandals and in socks and sneakers (for the first time in six weeks), after cleaning everything up as best I could in my hot shower (second in six weeks). I will repay my feet with a lot of Body Shop Peppermint Lotion on my return.
Only real problem with all of this is that I will not probably get another Thai massage here, as I have a few too many scrapes here or there, and as I’ve stated, they love banging you up from the knee down, but since I have done a good job of that myself, I will leave it be. Maybe.
Was supposed to meet with Jeng today, the 20 year-old Thai boy who was the bartender at the place I was at in Koh Tao (not gay), as he moved back to Bangkok to work in a bar on Koh Sahn Road, so we figured we would hang out a bit. I left (or rather had the front desk clerk at my guesthouse leave) a message for him at his home with his non-English-speaking relative who now has my phone number. He didn’t remember the name of the bar, and there are way too many here to check out, especially not knowing his shift. We’ll see what happens, maybe tomorrow.
Today is a bit of a repeat, just for the sake of photos lost at sea. Wat Pho, Reclining Buddha, Grand Palace, etc. Tonight will depend on Jeng. If I hear from him and know where to go, I will hang out with him at his bar. If not, I will go to Patpong, which is, hmm, Disneyland for Perverts? There will be go-go boy bars there, and basically a lot of, umm, shows with boys or girls you can see. No more details here, rent Priscilla: Queen of the Desert if you want to know more. But it is a big place that tourists go and a place you hear a lot of, so worth seeing, might be something I’ll only want to see once, but the one time will be today or tomorrow night.
Still debating about the flight home (I’m taking it, don’t worry), as it is at 7 a.m., which means I would have to leave the guest house at 5 a.m., so I’m teetering whether I should go to bed and wake up on 4 hours sleep (not attractive) or just stay up and head right to the plane (equally unattractive). Have to see what time things die down here and make a decision.
In other non-Thailand news, it appears I will be an uncle next summer, as my brother and his wife just got the good news. So that is a great note upon which to return home, as they wanted to have a baby.
I’m sure there will be more Thailand-related posts from me, even when I get home, summing up, etc.
