Thailand part 2

Well I'm glad to say that things improved greatly in Chumphon. My 'down at heel' diving resort turned out to also be an eco-resort, and although not spit-polish new, was certainly a more than adequate resort. 


No water transport is allowed at the beach so no jet-skis, banana boats, para-sailing or other beach nuisances allowed. Just the way it is meant to be.

I spent Christmas here and we had a special turkey dinner on Christmas Eve and five minutes of Christmas carols between 7-7.05pm on Christmas Day. Carols were mostly sung in Thai.

I spent my days walking on the beach, reading, eating, having massages and swimming in the pool. A hardship I know, but someone had to do it. Quite literally, someone had to as I was one of the few guests for most of the time I was there. The only negative was that I came out in a rash all over my arms and shoulders. It appeared that their environmentally friendly laundry detergent was not so Aly friendly.

Being an eco-resort, there were some critters around the place including a number of these little fellas. One that hung out by the pool was very human-tolerant however this guy was very shy. This is a shot of him coming out of his underground burrow. I had to sit quietly on the path while he inched his way out. I also met my first snake in-the-wild, so to speak. It was on a wet path that I was walking along. I looked down to discover that I was straddling a 4 foot long snake, partially coiled. It looked at me and I looked at it and we both moved off in our different directions. Later when I described it to the staff, they informed me that it was most probably venomous and were amazed that I took my snake encounter in my stride, so to speak. Apparently, I was supposed to scream and jump around, and probably also get bitten.