Safe and Sound in Koh Samui

Wednesday 20 September

Today I am back to blogging late in the evening, as we are off on a trip around the island tomorrow and have to have completed our morning routine by 08.30! We are usually just waking up at that time, and its mid morning before I finish the blog.

Our first task this morning was to find out how the coup in Bangkok was progressing. It appears that the army only wanted to remove the Prime Minister and his associates from power and intend to appoint a new Prime Minister in the next couple of weeks and arrange for new elections within a year! Bangkok itself seemed fairly quiet on the news, although the military are expecting a bigger back lash from the country and outlying districts where Thaksin Shinawatra was more popular. A Public Holiday throughout Thailand was announced for today – a bit late for some people who had already arrived at work when they heard the news, so had to pack up and go home again (this is what was happening with Victor at the Bophut Property Shop when Juz phoned this morning about 11.00 – he had just heard that he had the day off and was about to return home). Luckily for us, this Public Holiday did not affect any of the services we wanted throughout the day. The latest Foreign Office news said visitors should ‘act with caution’, particularly in Bangkok, but not to stop traveling to Thailand. We are acting cautiously and not traveling outside Bophut today!

The Moslem insurgents are still causing some problems in southern Thailand, where it is not so safe to travel – we are not due there for another month, so hopefully the danger will have passed by then.

Having satisfied myself we were not under direct attack or enemy rule, I emerged from the bungalow this morning to find the paths wet and it still spitting with rain (not sure how long or hard it had been raining during the night) – the first time since arriving here I have had my first swim of the day in the rain – albeit not even enough to wet my hair after forty lengths. Once again the sky was overcast, but the temperatures were still up in the high 20’s. On our way to breakfast we met Ray, just venturing for his early morning swim – it is a rare occasion that we are up and breakfasting before the “Oileys”. We followed our normal morning routine and joined Ray and Jean at the pool around midday, having blogged and dealt with eleven new emails - some from England expressing concern at the news of the coup and asking how it was affecting us, others with news from home and abroad, and two with information regarding our impending tours – firstly Australia Pacific had forwarded the itinerary and everything we need to know about the Cairns to Sydney tour recently arranged, and secondly a revision of the stopping off places on our cruise at the end of March next year - swapping Recife in Brazil for the Cape Verde Islands - but we will still arrive in Barcelona on the same day.

It had become even warmer during the morning as the sun shone down brightly from a now cloudless blue sky and we had to have several dips in the pool during the afternoon, just to keep cool enough to read our books. Around 16.00 Jean and I decided to go for a Thai body massage on the beach – the foot massage last night had motivated us to have another go at getting ourselves into shape. As all the beds were in use (there are about eight or ten in a short stretch along our beach), we arranged to go back in twenty minutes. This just gave us time to walk along the beach through the edge of waves to the Bandara hotel, to show Jean the position of Juz and Dave’s villa, and back. It was still hard work walking through the sea, and gave our calf muscles a good work out even before the massages started. We stretched out on mattresses on a small stage built on the sands and two young Thai ladies got to work on our bodies pinching, pulling and pivoting our muscles and limbs into positions we haven’t been in for a long, long time. This time we had the full works – not the “Granny” version - and at times it was quite painful. By the time they finished we were feeling pummeled and quite exhausted (similar to how you feel after a strenuous work out) but euphoric too.

We arrived back at the bungalow to find Ray and Colin had started on afternoon snifters already (malts – we’re not sure how many) and within minutes Juz and Dave arrived too (Dave didn’t want to miss out on the whiskey). They had been to an inaugural meeting with a couple of Thai architects and a site visit to The Plot. They revisited the million GBP dwelling to see how the plans here were working out and for a check on sizes – the two properties offer a similar width of beachfront. From their descriptions they are asking for some fantastic features to be included in the plans for “Chez Milton Keynes” – including the Penelope Pitstop Pink pool, with chrome rail (for Auntie Jean who needs this for swimming) and seats and a table in an offshoot at end of the pool for cards and drinks. Inside, the house will also feature many weird and wonderful ideas from Juz’s creative mind!!! I am looking forward to seeing layouts when they arrive.

After hearing all their news, it was time for a quick shower and change before ambling to the village for cocktails. Ray also had the final fitting for his new suit (it fitted perfectly this time, so he brought it away with him), and we collected even more brochures for a trip round the island. We have been going to do this almost every day since the “Oileys” arrived - its about time we got it sorted – which we did whilst sitting in the Happy Elephant Bar sipping an array of blue, pink and lemon alcoholic mixes. We selected a tour with “Funny Days Safaris” – I hope it means “amusing” not “odd” – that seemed to offer all the places of interest we had hoped to visit including elephant trekking, the crocodile farm and swimming at the waterfalls. Dave managed to do another “deal” and get us a good price. So we are all off tomorrow morning around 08.30 provided the alarm clock works.

We chose to eat dinner tonight at the indoor restaurant of the Happy Elephant, just across the road from the bar, because of its convenience and choice of fish or asian food – I had to promise Juz that we would visit Mr Tandoori again tomorrow night! Three of us (Ray, Dave and myself) chose Stone Age steaks (cooked in a sizzling dish with prawns, tomatoes and onions) with mixed vegetable salads (turned out to a form of coleslaw) and fries or rice. Colin and Juz shared some fresh squid and king prawns with noodles and rice (and some of my fries!) – similar to my feast last night, and again very tasty – and Jean chose shark! (she said this was very meaty and tasted good). We had a few carafes of red and white Italian house (?) wine and a whiskey sour for Colin (he had missed out last night) before finishing with coffees, tea and an amoretto (guess who had the amoretto? – not me). It had been another splendid meal (happily much better than our last visit to the Happy Elephant more than a week ago).

Dave took Juz back to their abode – might not have been an easy task – and the rest of us retired to bed – well except me who had to write this blog. Will I get my early morning swim tomorrow - we have set the alarm for 06.30 so we shall see. It’s just about midnight, so just six and a half hours till get up time.