Ah, sweet constant 50kb/ps. We finally got our satellite connection installed today and at 1/5th the advertised speed, it still rocks the pants off our temporary cell connection. Actually, I lie: it was low earlier in the day, but now (10:30 at night) it has flown up to 175! A good time to download some more Battlestar for Colin I think. I don’t know if we have a monthly download limit, but by god we are going to find out!
I’ve heard, since we are actually bouncing back down to a network in Bangkok, that some sites are blocked and some ports unavailable. So far we haven’t run into any…
It’s low tide again and those guys with the flashlights are back out there in the water tonight. Waay out there. We learned from a local guy that they are looking for shrimp by reflecting the light off their eyes that poke out of the mud, then stabbing them with a stick. Colin and I went out there ourselves but didn’t spot any (and didn’t know what we were looking for at the time).
Oh! So this local guy owns a restaurant up the street, and he and his wife have an amazing garden and grow most of the vegetables, fruit, chickens and herbs that they cook with. Colin went around asking “what is this tree?” and “what is that bush?” and they were happy to show everything off then just shoot the shit for awhile. We took home a papaya from them, and Colin ate a chili pepper right off the vine and declared it (once he had chugged a beer and could breathe again) “the spiciest thing so far in Thailand”.
We shared a table there with some fellows who are renting bungalows on the property. Friendly german guys (Colin used “köstlich” to describe a drink we were sharing).. divers I think. LOTS of divers on the island: probably half the people we’ve met here are divers including our next-door neighbor. I’m still digging the snorkeling right now; I’d like to see what our reef looks like at low tide, and head up to the point at Chills which has a little picture of a snorkle in some maps. Then maybe a boat trip to Koh Tao!
We went up to Chills (a small, relaxed nearby resort) for their monthly barbeque the night after Full Moon. They’re mostly vacant now so it was very relaxed, a bunch of hung-over and tired people like us swapping stories and eating a delicious buffet.
GREAT food here, have I mentioned? Spoke to someone today who gave us some pointers on where to find good baked goods on the island. We’ve found a place that does rye and multigrain breads, but Colin is in search of the elusive croissant. What’s next – Thai doughnuts? As for me, just keep those curries coming!
The shrimp-finders are still at it, despite the lightning and occasional rainstorms. At least the jellyfish seem to have moved on before they got too large (if those knobbly guys ever get big enough to sting a human… although we did spot a couple of a different species that looked more traditionally stingy and stayed out of their way)
Mmm-kay I should head to bed now. Check our Flickr gallery again if you haven’t in awhile. I’ve been trying to use their semi-crashy “Uploadr” (heh) to put some new stuff up but I’m not sure if it’s working.
Okay, forget their uploading tool; Flickr’s interface for renaming photos and adding comments is COOL!
