Photos from India

Monday, February 11, 2008

Arriving in Ton Sai

After a short ferry ride followed by a quick hop around the corner in a local long tail boat, Jeno and I waded through the shallow waters onto the beach at Ton Sai. No piers, no resorts, just a long strip of sand with a backdrop of swaying palm trees and tall limestone cliffs in every direction. My friend Jeno recommended a place to stay so we both checked in and were given the keys to our huts that were tucked up under the trees with the beach just a few minutes walk away. Arriving at the front porch of my bungalow, I found it was already occupied by several monkeys who seemed to be making a lot of noise while standing over the remains of several beer bottles that they had manged to break. After a few loud noises and some flailing of my arms, I was able to run off my uninvited guests sending them back aloft to the trees above and allowing me time for a quick shower before meeting up with Jeno again for a dinner along the beach..
Jeno and I decided to grab a beer and make our way down to the end of the beach where there was a bunch of rock climbers enjoying the last bits of daylight for some difficult climbs underneath an enormous overhanging rock face. As I approached the face of the rocks, I noticed the face of someone who looked familiar. Standing on the beach, enjoying the show that the climbers were putting on was my friend Nina who I had met in Ecuador! I knew she was somewhere in Southeast Asia, but couldn't believe that I managed to bump into her again on the other side of the world! It's always good to see a familiar face somewhere so far away from everything you know and I was excited to have the opportunity to catch up with her and hear about everywhere she had been since I last saw her.
Nina, her friend Michael and I along with Jeno decided to have dinner at one of the little beach bars we had passed that was advertising free bar-b-q. We took a spot not far from the water on some of the large cushions that had been laid out on colorful grass mats surrounded by small flaming cans providing just enough light so that we could barely make out whatever it was that we would be eating. With Reggae music being played in the background we sat back and enjoyed a delicious portion of food from the grill and washed it all down with several cans of Chang, the local Thai beer. Even though this was my first night in Ton Sai, I could already see what an amazing place it was going to be and I was looking forward to spending many more nights on the beach here looking up at the stars and enjoying the cheap food and cold beer.

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