We packed and dumped our bags in the restaurant while we waited for our new room to be cleaned. The beach beckoned so we wandered up to the top and had a nose at all the other beach places. We stopped at a particularly nice place and asked if they had a room from the 13th as our current stable is only for two nights. They were full.
We found a row of shops on the main road (single track concrete slab) and stopped for a lunch of searingly hot papaya salad called som tam. It was delicious.
Then it was time to sort out a room from the 13th. We saddled up the donkey, sat Mary on it and walked up and down a 3km beach trying to find a room. Everywhere was full and one particularly nice innkeeper even laughed at us. We were tense. With no room we could be heading back for 10 nights in Bangkok which wouldn’t be good for us.
A black cloud hung over Mary and Jo. Jo had an ice cold chang in the resort restaurant and Mary took the donkey back to the current stable. Eventually they met on the bungalow balcony. Plan A ensued. To dissolve the black cloud a small bottle of Thai rum was drunk. The sun set and things looked wonderful.
We had tea where we ate lunch and were joined at our table by a couple from brum who are friends with a bloke I work with. We chatted away and followed them to an open night mic in a local bar where we ended up having a very late night.
