Day 26 - spontaneous

05.26.19

Another, rather unplanned day awaits us, starting with driving to the beach around noon, only to be greeted by an intimidating thunderstorm. We anticipate how the clouds move and calculate enough time to walk along the small stretch of beach.

After the short walk, it only takes a few minutes until Petrus (insert religious deity/figure of choice here) opens his floodgates and the rain falls like a deluge from the sky. We find shelter in a beach café, order a cola and an ice cream, and wait for the rain to stop, playing Yahtzee for entertainment. A young cat next to us plays with anything in front of it and provides some amusement with funny jumping attacks on table legs.

The rain stops and we continue on our way, wherever that may be. This time, we simply drive around a bit and later end up on bumpy sandy paths between fields and lakes. (To the scooter rental: The last sentence is a joke, of course we drive on solid roads only. Please don't sue us.) It's incredibly fun to push the vehicle to its limits off-road. We ride with our knees pulled up through large puddles, meter-high bushes, and exposed giant roots.

Fun fact: I've never been bitten by so many mosquitoes at the same time in my life as when this picture was taken. There were dozens of them, and they were so persistent that we ran around hysterically around our scooter.

When we're done with our cross-tour and we safely return to Ao Nang with our scooter, we're delighted to find that a small market is taking place again on one of the streets. Within a few minutes, we stock up on kilos of food (fried noodles €0.55, rice with vegetables and meat €0.90, Pad Thai €1.15, 2 skewers €0.55, mango sticky rice €0.55) and drive down to the water to have a picnic on the beach.

We arrive just in time for the sunset and the entire beach area is pleasantly filled with people. Many had the same idea as us and brought food and drinks to the ocean. Children play in the water and behind us, bars and restaurants lure with relaxed music.

Lulled and drowsy, we're grateful for having the scooter and being able to reach our accommodation within minutes.

- Jonna & Alex