January 14, 2023
Thung Wua Laen Beach
Refreshingly Thai
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A nice way to wake up is listening to gentle wave action. We walked across the wide hard-packed sand to the low tide water's edge to wait for and then greet the orange ball rising over the horizon. Three dogs played together nicely on the beach and one of them ended up in the water. The rising sun was rather miraculous and beautiful. I don't know why everyone on that beach wasn't dancing around and playing as much as the dogs were. The orange ball turned the entire horizon orange and our faces glowed.
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Then we retreated to our veranda to watch as everyone began stirring. I wanted to ride back north two miles to the small town we passed through yesterday in order to look for a papaya for our breakfast tomorrow. I didn't have much expectation that we would find one but my ulterior motive was to have more of the excellent cafe boulan from the same vendor where we got it yesterday. The cart had been right next to the main market and the most likely place to find a papaya. The town was close enough and the traffic non-existent enough to just go for it while it was early. Two miles is nothing on a beautiful road right along the beach in the cool morning.
When we got to the market the coffee stand was closed up tight and the market had half the vendors as yesterday. It's Saturday! The Thais have embraced this weekend stuff to such an extent that it was irritating me! Who needs days off anyway!!
We didn't find a papaya but I bought some bananas instead, a different variety than we had been eating. There are 19 different varieties of bananas grown in Thailand and all are worth sampling. These would go into our breakfast bowls tomorrow and for eating whenever, since there were 17 of them. We've eaten a lot of bananas in the past two months and all have been super delicious.
The only other thing we did in the town was ride out onto the pier. There were a couple of guys fishing off the end of it but the main attraction and surprise for us was the clear water. We have had some nice clear water but this was the best yet.
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When we got back to our room there were groups of Thai families arriving and staking out spots on the beach for the day. Again, it was Saturday and things were looking very different than when we had arrived Friday afternoon. We largely did nothing but sit on our veranda, swim and watch Thais enjoy their new-found leisure time. Throughout the day more and more families arrived to enjoy the beach. Almost all of them had young kids.
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A pattern emerged: The men would pick up their youngest child, usually very young, and march down to the water's edge with them and place their feet in the water. Some would run holding their screaming kid and act as if he was going to throw them in the water. Of course he never did that. It seemed the fathers wanted their children to experience the ocean water and to see how fun it was to be in it. It was also the men's responsibility to stay near their children to make sure they didn't get in trouble in the water. The women largely stayed together in their group on the blankets and mats they had brought. They ate snacks and some cooked small things on little charcoal grills. The children ran back and forth from the water to the group. Some kids did a lot of running back and forth and must have been completely wiped out at the end of the day.
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There were also three teenage girls who were obsessed with themselves and making selfies. Their clothing was nice - not beach attire. They brushed their hair incessantly and often went into their bag of cosmetics. Not wanting to have anything to do with their families they hung out not far from our veranda doing selfies for a long time. But you can only do selfies so long when at the beach and eventually they strolled along the shore probably hoping some boys would discover them. When I saw them an hour later it was apparent the lure of the water had won and they were wet up to their knees. That didn't seem to keep them from holding themselves apart from the rest of the beachgoers. They still thought they were models. I thought they were great.
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The main thing I observed was that everyone was super chill. Everyone was having a lot of fun. I've mentioned this before in this journal; there are many more middle class Thais now. More people own cars and many have weekends free of work. These two things make all the difference for them to be able to explore their own country. I have no idea where all the Western tourists went and why such a wonderful beach was virtually devoid of them but I was not complaining. I had entered the area warily yesterday, considering how the sourpuss Westerner that we encountered eight years ago had completely turned us off. We totally expected a similar scene and we never imagined we'd be staying here at all because of all the foreign tourists we expected to see.. But it was great to see lots of Thais and no farang. It was new for us.
It seemed like the perfect situation now: Thais exploring their own beaches, Thais vacationing, Thais doing enjoyable things on the weekends, relaxing. This may seem normal for people reading this journal but these sorts of scenes in Thailand are new and I'm very much enjoying the changes as I'm sure the Thais are as well.
We sat on our veranda for most of the day marveling at these changes in Thailand. I can't begin to describe how happy everyone seemed, how peaceful, how nicely everyone interacted and how much the kids were enjoying the beach. One little girl ran and ran and ran, all day long. I don't know how she had that much energy in such a small body.
The restaurants, which were deserted only 24 hours earlier, were now buzzing. One restaurant we were about to sit down in told us she was overwhelmed with orders and couldn't possibly serve us! But there were lots of restaurants to choose from.
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We observed the way everyone was doing dinner. They ordered a bunch of food at a restaurant and then they went down to the beach and spread their blankets and mats. The restaurant would give them a metal stake with a number on it and when the food was ready the restaurant workers would bring a low round table and the food to wherever they were. If more food or drink was wanted they texted the restaurant and simply told them their number. Payment was done the way payment seems to be done all over Thailand now - by Prompt Pay, a payment app via their phones. Restaurants also had mats and tables available for rent. Thais doing things the Thai way. We sat and watched the well organized scene until the sky had turned a deep dark blue and the squid boats were lighting the horizon green.
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Eight years ago on Thung Wua Laen Beach a Thai would have felt alone in the masses of farang. It was now completely reversed and we felt we were the only foreigners there. I don't know.....for some reason this made us smile. This is what a beach in Thailand should be like. I'm glad we got to witness the change.
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lovebruce
Today's ride: 5 miles (8 km)
Total: 1,002 miles (1,613 km)
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