Mosquito heaven
(Man fishing from rocks on the East coast: Ko Samet, Thailand)
The past two nights have been spent with Pete on the beautiful island of Koh Samet just off the coast, relatively near Bangkok. Unfortunately we took very few attractive photographs of the island as we were simply having too much fun relaxing, eating or sleeping… or pretending to. The island is really amazingly beautiful and the beaches really do have almost white sand and predominantly crystal clear waters – and it’s warm! Ying pointed out to me (being from Singapore) that sea is supposed to be warm, but being from the UK, I have never experienced much other than the iron-grey saline that graces the British coasts and to swim in it is to experience your lungs being crushed by the shock of intense cold inside your chest. The sea is warmer than the air and has pleasantly cooler currents running through it that tickle my legs. I particularly enjoyed the underwater aspect of this island since, to my chagrin, mosquitoes bit me at least forty more times since our arrival there, through all manner of repellents. How they managed to puncture the sole of my foot, I cannot fathom. It must have been when I was lying awake, feeling like my legs were on fire. Pete managed to be bitten through trousers and underwear – these insects are nature’s marvels.
This image was taken less than twenty minutes from the elevated wooden bungalow we were staying in; it sits just back from a secluded beach behind lush forest foliage. Just after I took it, we walked further into the forest in search of a restaurant and were ambushed by mosquitoes large enough to kill a dog with one bite. The island was a bittersweet adventure for me; never have I lain awake for so long with such a fiery itch in my feet and legs. In the darkest part of the night and with the openness of the bungalow, I spent the night swatting actual and imaginary insects, burning through the thin sheet.
I can hardly believe I’ve really spent over two weeks in Thailand and now it is already time to return to China. (That was another example of the now commonplace sentences I never thought I would write, but do now on a daily basis!) So this morning I catch my flight and reconvene with Ying in Shanghai Pudong airport once more.
