Mai Pen Rai - No Problem!!! Than Sadet.

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Started the day with the obligatory award winning Jungle Club sunrise, noisy dawn chorus, then brekkie. Bade our farewells to the boys, paid our tab & loaded up the jeep for a lift down the wibbly hill for our mini-bus ride to the ferry. I had to wait for a while on my own looking after the luggage while The Keepers took the posh car back.



Got to Mae Nam for the catamaran with half an hour to spare. Dad went off on a motorbike taxi to play the chip & pin lottery again while me & Mum supped on a cool drink. He was smiling when he got back. Being a little unimpressed with the young lads ability to steer a 100cc Honda Wave, 2 up, on dusty roads, with nothing but canvas remaining on the tyres - He persuaded the driver to sit on the back for the return journey. He's very good on bikes.



After the 40 mins trip to Thong Sala, we wandered around for a bit, lost. Although we'd booked the next place to stay on t'internet, we had been a bit vague about what day we'd get there so we had to sort out our own transport to the other side of the island. The locals were pretty helpful & soon we found "Theeps Than Sadet Travel "office.



(Silent "H" twice there - It should say Teeps Tan Sadet Travel - Whoever invented this English language needs a good kick up the arse. Its hard enough to get my small but perfectly formed brain around the basics of written communication but when they start sticking in superfluous
letters it gives me a migraine.)



They managed to get 20 of us, including all bags ,into a pick up truck for the half hour buckaroo ride across the island to our home for the next four days - Mai Pen Rai Bungalows.This consisted of a very young Swiss family of five with kids so cute and lolling over Mums knees she started cooing, when the young female of 3 yrs old fell asleep in a sweaty and dusty manner in her lap whilst hanging on for dear life. Opposite was a couple from Germany, me thinks, the man appeared to not have any arms, but what a guy as he was so coooool, but later.... and then there was a British family of four who turned out to be the very same family Dad had been talking to ont' t'internet about the pros and cons of Sadet - so they tried to shake hands with another Liz, Darren and kid Kieran (Chelsea supporter-good lad) and the very mature but delightfully intelligent Hannah. What a great crew to be stranded with at Mai Pen Rai, which in Thai translates as "No Problem". Turned out to be no problem for us lot! whey hey ....



By the time we arrived, we were all orange. The bumpy dirt track that they euphemistically refer to as a road, had kicked up enough dust to swamp a small country. We've been here before but not at this time of year. A few weeks of no rain + very hot sunshine had made a vast difference to how we'd seen it before. We scored a bungalow on the beach. Plenty big enough, 4 poster bed with mossy net & a really funky bathroom built into the big rocks at the back. Stylish. Only 400 baht, but no hammock. Next door had one, we had our eye on that as it seemed to be empty. Thrice visit on this occasion and it just gets better.....things ain't changed apart from Fiona the Scottish hostess and Theep the Thai Husband have produced another little darling and the lovely Lilly has become quite a little madam but then again she is the Princess of Sadet...



Two bungalows away from the bar restaurant and we unloaded our orange baggage and showered then went for a session on the beach, they had a bit of a swim in the turquoise calm sea. I got harassed by the beach security dog called Deputy. We lay on the beach with a beer and drank in the beautiful surroundings. Mum works all year for this and her and Dad sat alone and hugged for a time whilst I had an introductory chat with the MAN..ie Deputy, the beach dog that keeps all the humans and all the other animals, in check - big time. No one argues with Deputy. Me, Mum and Dad always did what he said but more details will follow in future blogs..... Well,I got a little burned that day as the humans seemed to be absorbed in to a different dimension and so therefore I was left glancing at rock crabs & talking to a gecko.



After a while we traversed the rickety footbridge that crosses the (now dry) riverbed connecting the fresh water lagoon behind the restaurant to the sea, up the steep path over the rocks & checked out beach next door. Our visit last year had been shortly after a nasty storm & the next bay along had been rather mullered. Most of the bungalows had been smashed in some way, the little beach bar had disappeared completely & the lovely sandy cove had been covered in debris. This year, a great effort had been made to get it back to normal & although still a bit rough, it was like having your own private tropical island beach all to yourselves.



An hour before sunset time we mooched up to Plaas for din dins, I was looking forward to my tea time. Had some great nosh perched on the decking, stilted over a 150ft sheer drop to the sea crashing on the huge boulders below, while waiting for the big orange light to sink and then suddenly appear as the big white light.



Back down to our bar in the dark was an adventure in itself. Although the big moon was plenty enough to see pretty well, the terrain is a little alien. Firstly you need to wobble down around 120 steps, each one varying considerably in both depth & angle, take a path across the rocks which - if its a bit stormy - can be a bit of a hit or miss affair unless the timing between the waves is spot on. Then the path dips down to a 10ft long & very low tunnel. Popping out the other side presents another challenge. The last 50yds down to the sandy bit involves walking on twisted ankles around a big smooth rock at a 45 degree angle.



Best attempted sober.



Chilled out, we all sat on our balcony & listened to some crackly music on the wind up radio for a while then hit the sack.






Early night 11pm.



Mr M. :-)

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