Beach bums gonna bum

I have always wanted to take a picture like this! Also, weird tan line on my feet because I'd been wearing sandals the entire time. But you should see my face, there is a distinct difference of colour marking where my glasses sit upon this sunburnt face of mine.

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Ok might as well talk about my recent trip to Phuket. It was a pretty nice place I suppose. The first day we were there it was raining like the world depended on it so there wasn't much else to do but catch up on some rest at the hostel, that and reading Never Let Me Go which I'd found in Bangkok a few days earlier. It stopped raining for a while in the afternoon so we made our way to Patong beach because apparently that's the buzz around town. Obviously not at 3 in the afternoon because when we got there, it was so quiet that I almost began doubting people's claims that the beach resembled Kuta and was always filled with tourists who decided to perch in the little town for their retirements. Aside from the men who offered us overpriced seats, para-sailing for 2 minutes and banana boats as well as a few faceless tourists who were deep in their sun bathing business, the beach was empty.

There wasn't much sand and the waves were practically nonexistent so I was a little disappointed but still I wanted to just sit down for a few minutes to take it all in. In fact, in retrospect, I think I would have actually liked it a lot more if we'd indeed stopped that afternoon. Alas we kept walking until the end of the beach. I bought a Thai pancake with bananas and so much sugar that I'm almost recalling this meal with regret, but it was really good. Overpriced, but good. Then came 5 o' clock and we had to make our way back for the last bus to town and then it rained again. I resumed my reading and fell asleep.

The last day we were at Phuket, I thought we should go to Kata beach because I'd heard that it's nicer than Patong. I think we missed the stop or maybe it was still part of the area but we ended up getting off at Karon. And to this moment I still don't know if it's a separate place or not. I'm not sure if it was the beautiful weather that late morning or again the absence of senile tourists but the place was gorgeous. The picture above is actually from Karon. I really wish I had more time there just so I could sit and watch the waves a little longer. I sat on my sarong, writing a postcard for a friend that I'd been putting off for some time, occasionally looking up at the waters and listening to the whistling winds as they rustled the bushes and leaves behind us.

And then there was this weird feeling that came over me, I'm still not sure what it really was. But my stomach sank and my whole body felt like it was overflowing with melancholy. I don't know if it's because I've been away for a while; from home, from the things I'm familiar with, from life in its entirety as I knew it, or if it was just the result the mood my book had passed on to me, but it felt like the sea, despite being only 10 meters in front of me, was completely out of reach. That it was so distant, like a separate thing from my little world. That I could only watch it from afar and it can only linger as a memory to me, never actually letting me be a part of it. I realised I was in a place completely foreign to me. No matter how familiar the sandy beaches felt or how it reminded me of my childhood and how our parents used to take us to the sea almost every weekend, it could never love me back. And then it hit me, however difficult it was to accept, it was time for me to go home.