Alone And Sunburnt

Is the fact that I am able to write this blog entry whilst sitting under a coconut tree on the beach a good thing or a bad thing?

It seems quite strange, browsing the web in such circumstances and Annika is convinced that it’s a sad state of affairs but you, dear readers, are the lucky beneficiaries of this age of technology so I will allow you to be the judges.

We arrived at our hotel in Ban Krut on Friday night, just in time for dinner and a beer outside our little cottage, yards from the beach. After breakfast the next morning, we made our way down to the sea to find the place almost completely deserted. Grabbing a deckchair each, we began to wonder where everyone was – we’d read that this area of Southern Thailand was quiet during the week but this was Saturday and we were expecting hordes of locals to be fighting for space and shade but there is no-one. Despite a 15 minute wander down the beach, all that was to be found was another two virtually empty resorts, and a strange feeling that this place had been abandoned. And yet the only rational explanation is that the owners of these places are expecting many guests and yet, for some unfathomable reason, precious few have arrived. It is truly superb to have the place to ourselves but there is an odd atmosphere about it.

Annika has used the privacy and isolation to start doing her callasthetics on the beach (no photos allowed, apparently) and we both listened to a podcast about the philosophy of something called the yuk reaction.

In order to preserve the universal truth that the British are really not very good at sun bathing, however, we both managed to get quite burnt after only an hour in the sun so that was nice.

Still, the usual mix of gorgeous food and insanely nice people prevails and I shall definitely recommend this part of the world to anyone who likes peace and quiet and stunning beaches.

This evening, we embark on our first overnight train journey – to Hat Yai, further South – in a sleeper carriage. For my part, I will be trying to find the BBC World Service as our game away at Liverpool kicks off at 11pm (bluddy Sky TV and their crazy kick off times!) but I don’t expect to hear any of it so will probably not know the score for a day or two. This will be the first Premier League game I will have missed since being here – there will be many more so I must get used to it.

Once we get to Hat Yai in the morning, it will be a bus straight to Pak Bara where we will stay for a night before heading off to the island of Koh Lipe on Tuesday for 3 days and, inevitably, yet more beaches, sea and great Thai food.

It’s exhausting just thinking about it.