Sunday At The Beach

I woke up this morning and finished the latest Harry Potter book after starting it yesterday afternoon. (Not bad, all in all. Kind of predictable writing though: Just follow the casual mentions of people and things which lead to the plot twists later on, and then on to the final bringing together all of the clues at the end with a big finale.)

Anyway, today we were off to the beach. We packed all of Pot's floaty toys from the pool along with towels, soda, beer, and then drove down to the beach where we hired a speedboat to take Pot on his first boat ride, and along with Pui and me, to the beach out on Ko Larn island.

It was a nice day. I had batter-fried squid. Tui had her fiery glass noodle concoction. Pot had some pork fried rice.

The problem with Thai people is that they have no idea how to go to the beach. I've seen it every single time. They dress in stifling clothing that they think will protect them from the sun, and then sit down in the heat and eat heavy foods with just a little bit of water, and then complain when they get a headache and stomach ache from being dehydrated.

Well, fortunately/unfortunately, as soon as we got to the beach and ordered food, I told Pui what she needed to be doing to keep Pot from becoming heat-sick: Drink lots of water. Have a soda. Eat some pineapple. Splash around in the water. He's going to be throwing up in 10 minutes if you feed him hot fried rice.

"No... Thai people... we don't do that. We no like. We like rice. No problem!"

Pot's puke landed right on her thigh.

Pui quietly took the cold Pepsi I offered her and gave it to Pot. Pot gave me a grateful look like "Thank Buddha at least YOU know what you're doing, Farang." After that, it was all smiles all over, as we ate lots of popsicles, drank Pepsi, and put away a whole pineapple.

Unfortunately, Pot was too scared to get anywhere near the water mostly thanks to his enabling mother. Patting him on his head and saying, "Oh... he's too scared of the water." Well, finally we got his little innertube on him, and carried him down to the water, got to knee deep and set him down. The little bugger was off like a fish. After that, of course, it was damn-near impossible to get him out of the water.

While we were at the beach, one of Thailand's top movie actresses, Mew Lalita, sat down with her friends pretty close to us. I didn't think she was all that stunning, but makeup and Thai girls get along exceptionally well together... and of course, at the beach, she wasn't all made up. Quite tall though, and half Farang... "look kreung" they call them in Thai... "half child."

I told Pui she should say hello. She didn't think that was proper. I figured they sat down next to us, and not the other way around, so it wouldn't be rude or anything, but she wasn't up for it. No big deal either way.

Anyway, we were back on the boat at 2:30 after our 3½ hours of fun in the sun. A most excellent day all in all.