A WASTED DAY

ISix o'clock Thursday morning here in Kamala Bay, Thailand, and I'm wide awake. I want to do something "significant" today to make up for an essentially wasted day yesterday. I'm a bit disappointed with myself for giving into weariness so early in this trip and feel I need to make up for it. After breakfast (a buffet is planned this morning), I'll go to Phuket Town, the largest community on the island, for a change of scenery. My right leg is feeling much better (although I think I'll have a wicked scar) and the swelling has gone down on my left ankle (plus my face started peeling last night).

I had lunch yesterday at The Pizza Company in Patong. The salad bar, a small pizza (about the size of a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza) and a very large Pepsi cost 217 baht (about $5). I had the Aloha pizza - pepperoni, ham, pork sausage, and pineapple on a thousand island base. It was very good. (I'm in the mood for a cheeseburger today and then it will back to experimenting with Thai food...)

After lunch, I made my way back to the beach where I happened upon a grandstand set up for the AVG Beach Volleyball Challenge. I watched the women's game in the grandstand - Vietnam verses Thailand (Thailand won) - and then Japan verses the Ukraine on a side court (Japan won).

Around this time, I suddenly had an urgent need to find a restroom - the combination of meaty lunch and hot sun conspiring against me. There are no public restrooms on Patong beach (I'm surprised they didn't set up portapotties for the volleyball tournament) and I was too far from the big hotels to go into one of them. I finally ducked into one of those ramshackle restaurant/bars that line the northern beach road and asked to use their toilet. It was in a very hot tin structure but served the use it was intended for. There was, however, no toilet paper so I got to use one of those sprayhoses that every Thai toilet comes equipped with - actually rather refreshing...

By this time, I'd had enough of Patong for the day so I caught a tuk-tuk back to the hotel; this one charged me 250 baht as my negotiating skills were worn out as well. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the balcony in front of my room reading.

The plan had been for Mateo, his wife, and myself to go to FantaSea, a program of Thai traditional dancing, an elephant show, and buffet dinner which runs from 6:00 to midnight. I saw Mateo return about 5:30 and I went down to ask what time we were leaving. He said they'd decided not to go because he was going to get a tattoo later that night. I was disppointed and ended up going up to my room where I soon fell asleep, sleeping until just a short while ago. I think that I just needed the rest and that today will be better.

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