30 May 2011

Crusoe

It was dreamlike. Poda I mean. I can't tell you how lovely it was though I guess for some people it would have been like hell on earth.

When I arrived, I discovered that I was the only guest booked into the "resort". So there was me and at least fifteen members of staff. Some day visitors came to snorkel, lounge on the beach or have a meal in the island's only restaurant but they were gone by late afternoon. So effectively I was the King of Poda for the three days I was there.

They call it a "resort" but it's basically thirty "bungalows" and the restaurant. Here are some things the island doesn't have - cars, motorbikes, dogs, roads, a swimming pool, souvenirs for sale, internet, television and electricity (between midnight and 6pm). Here are some things the island does have - coconut palms, monkeys, a curving white coral sand beach, two cats, a few secretive monitor lizards, electricity between 6pm and midnight, blue birds that squawk and a huge lump of limestone "karst" skirted by impenetrable jungle growth.

I walked a path through tropical greenery that led to the southern shore and laid my towel under the shade of an overhanging tree. There I continued to read "Bangkok - A Cultural History" by Maryvelma O'Neil in two long afternoons that were punctuated with swimming and snorkelling sessions in crystal clear waters that were so warm I was never driven out by chilliness. I collected a piece of old rope from the shore and gathered choice bits of white coral in a plastic bag I found in my knapsack. I was planning to make a wind charm. When pieces of coral clunk together they can make musical sounds.

Sadly, even on Poda the detritus of modern day life is visible on the beach from bits of broken fishing net to Coca Cola cans, food cartons and Old "Singha" beer bottles. I scoured my section of the beach and filled a large sack with flotsam and jetsam that I later returned to the dump near the restaurant. On the first afternoon, in six peaceful hours, I only saw two other people on my bit of beach - a couple of American girls in bikinis who congratulated me on my good citizenship.

Back at Bungalow C one of the resort workers - a young man called Bouw - assisted me with my coral knotting as the windcharm took shape. In return he gave me a chunk of his dried squid. He had caught it himself and dried it slowly over a grill. If you find the soles of plimsolls tasty, you'd probably enjoy dried squid. No doubt the British TV chef, Rick Stein would have been in raptures about the stuff. In spite of it, I finished the wind charm and was rather proud of the end result. I tied it to the lamp bracket outside my door and left it to posterity.

On Poda I took various photographs, including some pictures of Sunday's sunrise. I left in the early afternoon on a motorised longtail boat that whizzed me back to Ao Nang on the mainland and I looked back through the salt spray to gorgeous Poda, a tiny place in a turquoise sea that I will never forget - unless of course Alzheimer's creeps up on me! For your curiosity and visual titillation, here are a few of my best snaps:-

Sunrise
Southern shore
Resort bungalows
Andaman Sunset

8 comments:

  1. It looks amazing, YP. A perfect place to get away from it all and relax in peace.

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  2. Hello YP,
    I'm just catching up with all your posts. Seems you are really getting around and enjoying your visit. You are finding some real gems and it sounds like you enjoy the heat too. Are you missing home at all I wonder?
    Glad it is all going well for you.
    Cheers
    Helen

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  3. Jeez that looks idyllic. I could do with a month there. Great pics too.

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  4. you are having one amazing period of self reflection and adventure pud...

    sheffield may seem a bit flat when you get home
    x

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  5. JENNY Again, you are right my dear.
    HELSIE I read your English posts and it was good to see my country anew through an excited visitor's eyes. Sometimes we don't appreciate what is right in front of us.
    OCCUPIED STEVE Glad to see you are out on remand from Strangeways and for you to admire my photos is praise indeed sir.
    JOHN GRAY You're right Mr John. It will seem flat in spite of the hills but I don't regret this unexpected Thai dream. I will just have to cope and readjust as I plan my next big adventure - with Shirley - hopefully to New Zealand.

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  6. Would you return to this paradise Mr YP? or is it a 'once seen...' kind of place?

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  7. LIBBY I never meant to come to Thailand - it happened accidentally. Realistically, I see this five month sojourn as a one-and-for-all visit though it is possible that the school could ask me back at some stage if there are oersonnel problems in the English department.

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  8. If the school but knew, there are already oersonnel problems in the English department. (just kidding!)

    What wonderful photographs, YP! I'm glad you have shared with us your making of memories on the other side of the world.

    Silverback, Daphne's friend, has landed in the "Top 25 Retirement Blogs" list. If you change the title of your blog to "Yorkshire Pudding, Retiree" you are a shoo-in.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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