Quiet Days around the Island

Today is February 12th a cool, blustery day for Koh Lanta. While the morning started out like any other, by early afternoon the sky was patchy and overcast. We were enjoying our afternoon coffee when it actually started to spit a few drops of rain. Being that it was still relatively warm we scurried back to our room, put on our swim suits and headed to the beach to walk in the light rain. It hardly rained at all but was really nice to stroll along the beach with the sun tucked away behind the over cast sky. We stopped in at the Sunset Hotel to visit with a couple from Sweden and then headed back to our veranda to read. It is now 4:30 PM and the bluster has turned into an almost cold wind, causing Marie to wrap up in a towel trying to keep warm. I too am feeling the chill, especially after two days in the mid thirties.
The last couple of days have been rather routine starting with our walk along the beach in the morning. After the beach we try to entertain ourselves by picking different places to breakfast or for coffee. I read of a restaurant cafe called "Peak" with good reviews for coffee and fresh baked breads. Having decided it was worth a try we jumped on the scooter and headed north. About a kilometre from our destination the scooter started to feel a bit wobbly, oh oh I thought, we are getting a flat. We pulled over and sure enough a low front tire. We started to look around at the shops to see if any of them had an air hose. I went I to a hardware store and after a few minutes of playing charades the woman directed me across the street. In this shop another lady came out with a hand pump, probably because my charade routine was me puckering my lips and blowing while moving my torso up and down with my arms straight, as if I was working a tire pump. lol
The first lady (no not First Lady) was shouting at the second lady and then pointing to the shop next door. After much confusion I spotted a dirty yellow compressor sitting in front of a laundry shop. Next door was a mechanics shop with a lot of bikes around that looked like they needed a lot of TLC and some new parts. I pushed our scooter, now with a completely flat tire, (the tire was ready to roll off the rim) up to the compressor. The laundry lady, dressed in muslim garb, grabbed the air hose and proceeded to try and put air in our tire without much success. There didn't appear to be anyone in the mechanic shop and the only thing we could decipher, after more charades and a bit of strategic sign language, is the shop is closed. We just then remembered it is Sunday. OMG. Okay, we decided it was best to leave the scooter at the shop and they could fix it first thing in the morning. There just happened to be a phone number for the laundry shop on a sign out front. Our brilliant minds quickly realized it was probably in our best interest to remember where we were about to leave our scooter. Click, we took a picture of the number and shop name with our camera.
Since our scooter failed us we were determined not to have the day be a total loss and walked to our original destination, the Peak Cafe. At least we could relax and unwind over a fantastic cup of coffee and some great home made bread. A rustic little cafe emitting the heavenly aroma of freshly baked bread. Yummy! We sat at a table and our hostess came out, not only to greet us but to crush our excitement. Bam! She told us "bread done for today", to which I stammered,
"but I can smell it baking and it smells so good", taking an exaggerated a deep breath at the same time. She just smiled and said the bread was baking for tomorrow. Marie and I looked at each other and said, "ok let's just have a coffee". But that was not going to happen either. "No power", she said. What the heck, our day is jinxed. Defeated, the only thing left to do was tuck and curl our tails and head home.
Back at our beach we stopped in to share the story of our adventure with the rental guy. He seemed unsure about our thoughts but when we assured him we were Okay about the incident, he called the number and within minutes had arranged for the tire to be fixed. The shop wasn't actually closed, the mechanic just went to town but would be back and could have the tire fixed by five. Two hundred and fifty baht later and we were mobile again.
Next morning we decided breakfast at the German Bakery was a good idea. After carefully checking to make sure our tire was still fully inflated, we drove into town. Roughly 12 kilometres door to door, a pleasurable ride, rewarded with a scrumptious breakfast. We were lucky enough to get a table out front as the bakery can get very busy with almost no place to sit.
Waiting for our breakfast we watched a lady pull up to the driveway. We thought she was going to turn in, however, instead of braking she suddenly accelerated, driving across the driveway and into the deep V ditch on the other side. The scooter dove into the ditch and she was catapulted in after it. OMG! The ditch was deep enough she disappeared from our sight. Several people, myself included, rushed over and thankfully, other than a few bumps and a bruised ego she was ok. The bike survived as well. This lady (probably in her 60's) is not the first tourist we've witnessed wiping out on their rented scooter. There are a lot of minor crashes/wipeouts mostly because a lot of the tourists have no experience whatsoever on a motorbike. The evidence are the bandaged knees, elbows, hands, and even faces, some displaying scrapes and others limping about. A common error is turning the throttle instead of applying the brake.
The fellow in pink on his pink bike, we thought, was very fashionable and worthy of a place on our blog.
We ventured south one more time to roam the beach in the bay and stop in at a couple of places we spotted on our last ride. The photo of the beach was taken from a small shanty restaurant built on stilts allowing it to hang out over the cliff and look down to the beach.
We also wandered up a side road, just to see where it went, and ended up at a spectacular resort. Baan Kan Tiang See Villa Resort is more than amazing. Situated on the crest of a hill with an infinite view are several very attractive and comfortable two bedroom villas, complete with kitchens and living rooms. A very inviting infinity pool is in the middle of the villas. A mere 7000 baht per night ( divide by 30 for Canadian currency).
The last place I wish to mention is called The Drunken Sailor, a cafe with food in Ba Thiang. It is a very cozy atmosphere with the bean bag or hammock chairs. If you wiggle your butt just right you can get the perfect position in the bean bag to sit comfortably while enjoying a refreshment.