Sunday6thMay07

Day three

Today I got to see what this place looks like in the day time. I was not disappointed. As soon as I saw it I was making plans to pack up and move here. It has to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's so green and sunny and friendly.

And then I saw a bit of the coastline and that was it. I was in love.

We went there to visit a sea temple which (as the name suggests) is an old temple situated slightly out to sea. To get there we walked through a market and then through the big stone entrance way. These entrances are two big stone pillar type things, generally with a dragon-dog (or something) in front of either one. The animals represent yin and yang and by walking through these you leave all the evil spirits that have been following you behind (or that's the idea.) These 'gateways' are everywhere. They're pretty big on protecting against spirits here.

So anyway, as soon as we neared the gate a slight smell of the sea reached me. I love that smell. I didn't realise how much I did until now. I grew up next to the sea and spent a lot of my childhood playing on rock pools or golden sand in the summer. It has to be the best setting ever for a kid to grow up. In the summer toys were generally ignored so as to go search for buried treasure, dig to China or make a pizza shop out of the rocks (using limpets for toppings). I guess that's one of the main reasons I love it now. Although I'm scared of fish and dark water (I'm always convinced there's a basking shark waiting to suck off my leg or something) so generally don't go in that far. But I love spending time in and around the sea. It's so awesome. I could spend hours looking out to the horizon imaging how much water is out there, or how many adventures have been had, or how many people there are beyond my field of vision that I've never met. Its crazy.

And this sea was no different. (Although a fair sight warmer than the north sea.) It was stunning. So blue and dotted with little people on surf boards. The coast at the area we were at was mostly breathtaking cliffs and tropical foliage. It was beautiful. But unfortunately we couldn't spend all day there.

First we went off to eat and drink from some fresh coconuts, the big green kind juicy kind, not the wrinkly brown ones we get. Either way, it was still disgusting.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon milling around markets trying out the best of our haggling skills. It's a lot harder than it sounds. Everywhere you go, somebody's trying to rip you off. They give you a price and your offer has to start at 10% of their offer. Apparently if you pay more than 30% you're being ripped off. But I'm not exactly the best at the whole hard bargaining thing, me and my friend went round together and were rubbish. We came to the conclusion that we smile too much so tried to look mean but it was just too hard. We did get some bargains but I think it had more to do with the exchange rate than our bargaining skills.

In the evening we ended up at a fish restaurant (big shock). It looked great if you like fish but given that crab is about the one food that makes me want to hurl, and it was sitting alongside lobster and whole fish, my appetite mysteriously disappeared.

Talking about hurling, I think there's something up with me, everyone who shares a room with me gets sick. My roommate here just got really sick today. I mean, you expect a bit of an upset stomach when you go to a new country but this is like, sick sick. Thankfully I don't think it's contagious. I'm rubbish with sick people, I tend to just sit and try to distract them (generally at my expense.) Guess I'm in for a fun night.