The beach

I don’t really know much about the Chinese New Year. I know that the Chinese/Taiwanese population wears red. It is the year of the pig. Kids get red envelopes with money in them. And most importantly, I am out of school for a week. Over a week, really. At 3:10pm Thursday afternoon, I was a free woman for ten days. God bless Thailand.

For this respite, I chose to have a genuine rest. A no sightseeing adventure. Fly in, check in, and vegetate. One of my students recommended her family’s resort, Rachakiri, down south on the Kha-nom beach. First question: do I get a discount? Actually, that was the only question after she gave me an affirmative answer. The luxury of a resort and the benefit of a discount—what more can a teacher ask for?

I invited a non-teacher, female friend to join me (a further guarantee that I could rest without being mired in work related conversation). Linda is an expat over here; she ventured over here twelve years ago with her husband’s business and had expected to only be here for two years. How quickly two years becomes five, ten, twelve. Her daughter, Karen, attends VCU and I believe she and Justin are in the same program (though Karen is studying in London this semester and has an internship as a fashion forecaster). It is a small world.

I wish there was more to report, but there isn’t. Kha-nom is a relatively quiet place which is like a mist of refreshingly cool, jasmine scented water on your face after living in Bangkok. Mainly European families and couples vacation here. They are taciturn (unlike their neighbors across the pond) and the femme counterparts don’t give a second thought to going topless. Believe it or not, this is a very UN-Thai thing to do, despite the flourishing flesh trade.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and spent some time at the pool. Sunday morning after breakfast we walked up the beach and took the road back to scope out the local scenery. It couldn’t have been an hour total and my back and shoulders were burnt. Crispy. Red. Infernal. I hadn’t thought to put on sunscreen because we were just going for a short sea shell searching expedition along the sand. (I found four small but unbroken conch shells.) It is two days later and I still haven’t dared go out uncovered.

Don’t worry though; there are plenty of places I can sit and enjoy the shady breeze. I go swimming after the sun goes down. I read during the day, talk with Linda, take naps. We discovered a nearby restaurant/travel place/bungalow rental/internet café called One More Beer, named after a joint in Dallas, Texas. The owner, Boyd Butch, is from Las Vegas and before that Chicago, an interesting guy who seemed starved for conversation with fellow Americans. He took us for a night time tour of the nearby “towns.” Yesterday we had massages at his place. There is a spa at Rachakiri but a massage there is six times as much as what I pay in the city. I had my first oil massage. Holy moly. I thought my first massage here was somewhat…intrusive, but the oil massage is way more intrusive. Maybe because you strip down to your panties and get baby oil slathered all over your body while the lithe little Thai lady straddles you. Once I got over the fact that I was more or less naked on a bed with a woman and a bottle of baby oil, I supremely enjoyed myself.

Linda left this morning; back to the city to do some work. I finished my book yesterday and started a new one today. I’m on a memoir kick. Tender Bar by J.R. Moeringher was AMAZING; read it if you get the chance. Today I started The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I was going to grade a set of papers before I began a new book but I AM on vacation…