Today was a typical day on Koh Mak for most people but an unexpectedly fun day for me. Luca invited me to watch him paint the inside of a house belonging to a friend. His friend works for the government and today being Saturday she had the day off to manage the snacks and refreshments for Luca. She came to Koh Mak 10 years ago from another place in Trat province and fell in love with the island.
Her goal is to fix up the house to live in. While we were watching Luca work more friends dropped by. One Thai friend wants to set up a restaurant in the future. Richard, a young fellow from a town near Düsseldorf, arrived in March this year and is planning a long stay so looking for nice, comfortable but “natural” long term accommodations.
Then arrived the family of dogs followed by Mango, maybe from Germany, who decided to open his bar tonight so everyone immediately volunteered to occupy seats this evening. I will report later how that went.
Then I went for a swim at a beach, not the best one at low tide; too much coral close to shore and a long way to swim to deep water. But it was refreshing after sitting around and sweating in the humid heat.
So the evening at Mango’s bar was actually a cover for a birthday party for Luca’s wife. It was very enjoyable, together with new acquaintances, Kim who spent 17 years in Germany and speaks at least 3 languages fluently, Kat who loves cats, and others who came to celebrate or just heard the bar is open. There was a lot of drinking (of course, remember it is a bar), some surprise, very delicious chicken with potatoes and a birthday cake tasting like gingerbread, extremely hard to stop eating, with some hemp leaves (legal) on top. All in all it was a very fun and memorable evening. And of course some young fellows came to understand the effects of tequila shots. Everyone was fun and congenital.
Tomorrow, day 4.