Day 8, January 26

The boatman was not at all surprised by our moped. There was more than an hour left before the boat’s departure. We went wandering around the village. We had a snack of rice.
At the appointed time, the boatman himself rolled our little moped onto the wooden boat along the gangplank, along with 2 other mopeds. In addition, mountains of food fit on the boat. Together with the local people, we sat down on the benches and set off. It took about 40 minutes to get to the island.
The island is not big, but without a moped it would have been dull. We easily found our little houses where we had booked accommodation. The house turned out to be very simple inside, but it had a veranda. The grounds of the complex are very beautiful, and most importantly, it is located on the ocean shore.
We went swimming; the water here is murky, nothing like the turquoise color imagination had painted. But swimming is still great. The sand is soft and clean. Lots of amazing shells. It is very beautiful here. You can see the mountain in the north of the island.

Then we went to the south of the island — there’s an old village there, and even a post office, according to the map.
The village turned out to be very small, but very colorful. There are little cafés and shops with all sorts of goodies. In general, the little island is very nice — jungle and palm trees all around. There’s a lot of wildlife — birds, some kind of insects. It’s all very undeveloped; there are tourists, but not many. Most of them are older, apparently young people get bored here.
We bought ant spray — we have them all over the bungalow. We also bought puffed rice — a treat from childhood. The rice wasn’t quite like the kind we’re used to, but it was tasty too. On the way home we ran into the Frenchman again, who helped us find a boat at the pier. We saw the villa he’s renting — it’s big, though it’s right by the road. He says he writes music here and is planning to throw a music party on February 1; too bad we’ll already be leaving by then. The Frenchman is funny; he gave me a flower.

In the evening we went to have dinner at our restaurant. The prices there turned out to be quite reasonable for a place like that. We chose the best table with a sea view, so beautiful. We ate rice with gravy and drank beer. Well, Thai cuisine doesn’t really stand out for its variety — rice, rice, rice. Good thing it’s at least tasty. We sat in the restaurant until it got completely dark. It was great.

Before going to sleep, Volchiy found a little lizard in our bungalow. We had already seen many of these, especially in Bali — white, semi-transparent creatures. I don’t know how he managed to drive the lizard into a little box. Later, we took it outside and set it free.