Last night was so much fun, we went to a fabulous seafood diner and mowed down fresh mussels in garlic sauce, fried and stewed blue crab, sautéed morning glory, and a fish bake. We followed that up with a blue margarita (Mindy), and a flaming HUGE B52 shot (me). Yes, I am a severe lightweight, so the shot hit me harder than I wished it had. However, it made haggling so much more fun! I got a few good deals, and laughed at the merchants when they offered me the "special, best summer price" of triple what I knew the item should cost.
The tour out to the James Bond island was so much fun! It's a really nifty inverted triangle-looking piece of land rising up just off a cave-riddled island covered in little stalls selling all kinds of touristy memorabilia. I had to buy a pair of earrings, just so when I wear them I can tell myself they'll give me special powers. I figure they'll make annoyingly vapid women attracted to me (so useful, I know), but Mindy argued that they'll give me the power to not get really tipsy off of just one shot. That would be MUCH more useful.
We explored the mangrove forests in a longtail boat. The trees here grow out of the water on incredibly tall, thin roots. It's an impressive sight, and I really enjoyed the long boat ride. At lunch on a floating "village" (read: tourist trap with a huge market) we chatted with a family from Kazakhstan, and a couple from France. The lunch was blah, and clearly adapted for the bland taste of many tourists. I am tired of that- as much as I can only stand so much spice (my tolerance has increased, Dad, you'll be proud of me!) I find too many restaurants catering to tourists make their food too western by cutting out spices, and adding stupid ingredients (ketchup in pad Thai should be outlawed!!). Luckily I don't mind roaming to find places frequented by locals, which means good real Thai fare can be found.
Last stop on our tour was a waterfall. I was thrilled, I dislike salt water because it hurts my sensitive skin (not that I complain while snorkeling!), so the idea of paddling around a freshwater pool was exciting. Sadly, no one else wanted to swim with me, so after a few moments of overcoming my herd-like thoughts ('well, maybe if no one else is swimming I shouldn't...') I stripped to my swimsuit and slipped down the rocks into a pool between two waterfalls about 2 or 3 meters high. It was great! The water has a fair amount of sediment, but it was slightly cool and the rocks created a nice shelf that had me up to my waist in water, my legs dangling underneath. I was feeling a little disappointed I was alone, and then I noticed a HUGE frog watching me from another rock shelf about 4 meters away. It was a deep brown color, and looked about half a foot long! I figure it just wanted to check out the farang that invaded it's pool, because it just watched me, blinking lazily. According to what I know of northern west coast First Nations mythology, the frog is a symbol of cleansing, and shamanic magic. It didn't look annoyed (can frogs look annoyed?), but I took it as a good omen as I splashed around, sliding off the rock shelf and quickly scrambling back up as I felt that I couldn't touch bottom, and the current was fairly fast. It was a cool moment to myself, before the nice French couple came to tell me it was time to go.
I was sad to leave the south the next day, even with as much sunburn as I had. I'll be back!
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