Standstill & Frustration - but one thing checked off…!

I did not sleep well, woke up several times & couldn't fall back asleep, and have trouble getting out of bed… My breakfast makes me feel a bit better about the day ahead. At some point, I gather myself and rush off to the emergency service: the usual scene, no one there. Except for a cat that cheekily ignores me because it’s hunting a rat, I don’t encounter anyone. I photograph everything that looks like a phone number, which Cam had asked me to do.

After that, I decide that's enough: I am on my fourth (!) day in Thailand and haven’t even been fully in the sea once. I enter a beach that was recommended to me and set off on my scooter. By the way - contrary to everything I would do in Germany & always preach - relatively lightly dressed and without a helmet, like everyone here. Top speed 30-40 km/h, and somehow everyone is considerate. I love it, but it can be challenging at times: the tourists sometimes just can’t (yet), and the locals disregard all traffic rules as we know them. And as I said: left-hand traffic! I am not ashamed to admit that there were traffic situations where I initially pulled over to the left & waited for less traffic before I turned right (and on foot, I look both ways every time to make sure I don’t get run over)… But that feeling of the wind in my hair - amazing! (Of course, I wear a helmet when I ride to the police station - and in the center between 10 & 1 PM, tip from my landlord)

Upon arriving at the beach (paradise!), I treat myself to a cold drink and a quick dip in the sea… Finally! Joyfully, I let myself dry in the shade…

And off to the emergency service again, unsuccessful once more. So, back home, and Cam starts to call & research. In the meantime, I am offered a snack: dried beans, and pieces of some type of crêpe, “sweet” lets the older colleague know, sticky, somehow syrup-dipped. And had I known, who knows if I would have tried it: it tastes like fish. And me! But it’s surprisingly delicious, very unusual (fish, sweet?!), and good…! This once again shows me that being open to new things often brings wonderful new experiences.

Cam is apparently pulling out all the stops: she knows someone who knows someone… - in any case, we are now waiting for a callback. And until that comes, I retreat to my bungalow to charge my phone (old battery, and the power bank conveniently gave up the ghost). The callback comes, but only with the information that we will find out tomorrow when I can come by. Somehow, she found out in the meantime that the cooling costs 1,000 Baht per day, and cremation isn’t exactly cheap either… So, I can’t do anything more today (it’s frustrating how exhausted I am, and yet hardly accomplished anything), and I let the day wind down with an incredibly delicious papaya salad and the sound of the sea…