So began our time on Otres Beach. We settled into a very nice pattern and our initial 3 days turned into 2 weeks. Our beach hut was a structure that we never wanted to enter, but we couldn't bare to leave. Mien Mein's staff was to customer service what Hitler was to world peace, but we couldn't bare to leave. Every night our sleep was interrupted by the loud music eminating from the bar/restaurant next door, and by the drunk, loud talking of the Russians who were staying at Mien Mien, but still we couldn't bare to leave.
Each morning we were awakened between 6:00 am – 6:30 am by the Mien Mien staff, but we still couldn't bare to leave. Apparently everyone else felt similarly because every person we spoke to had arrived on Otres Beach intending to stay a few days, but had ended up staying a week, several weeks, a month, several months, or had opened a bar on Otres and never left. Phyl described the beach was like human fly paper, once you arrived you were stuck.
G- OMG! Why does Molly have to sweep and rearrange our porch furniture at 6:30 am? (We called her Molly, because she did not seem very bright, and this is the name of our friends' dog, who they also call Box of Rocks. We had asked Molly her name several times but had never gotten more than a giggle. Molly was about 15 years old.)
P- Um, because she's not real bright? Because none of them give a damn that we're trying to sleep?
G- It would help if we could close the window, but then we'd smother.
P- These walls are so thin, closing the window would do nothing but make us sweat.
We never wanted to spend much time in the hut, so once awake, we'd dress, sit on our porch, and watch the morning sun shimmer on the Gulf of Thailand. Each morning we would go to the bar and request 2 mugs of hot water for our instant coffee, and each morning it was like an act of Congress to get the water.
P- Did you ask for the water?
20 minutes passed
P- I'll go see if they forgot about it.
G- No, I think I see Molly putting something on a tray. Maybe that's our water.
P- It's about damn time. I could have dug a well, pumped up water, rubbed sticks together to start a fire, and boiled it in that amount of time.
G- Shit!
P- What?
G- She's bringing our water, but she's bringing it in a tall glasses without handles.
(to Molly, smiling) Ah-coon! (thank you)
(to Phyllis) Now how in the hell are we supposed to drink from these glasses? They're so hot I can't even pick mine up.
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| Perom |
P- I'll go grab 2 mugs.
G- Get a spoon while you're at it.
Every day we went through something similar with the water. One would think that after the second morning, it would be excruciatingly obvious that we want 2 mugs of hot water and, at least, 1 spoon. But no, every morning we'd sit on our porch and either make the request to a passing worker (which they may or may not remember in the time it takes to walk 10 yards to the bar) or walk to the bar to make the request. Never, not once in 2 weeks, did one of the workers see us and acknowledge, before being asked, that we wanted 2 mugs of water and simply get the damn water!!! Not once. It became a joke, because even the other guests would pass and ask if we wanted them to remind the workers that we were still waiting for our water. Several days we'd get the water in a timely manner, sans spoon. One morning we waited patiently for 45 minutes.
G- I really hate to make sweeping generalizations, but we've been saying all across Asia that common sense seems to be lacking.
P- I know. I can't understand it. They can figure out how to move a sofa on a motorcycle, but common sense for daily tasks is non-existant!
G- Like sharing food. We order one dish, they ask if we're going to share, we say yes, then they bring only 1 fork or 1 pair of chop sticks.
P- It's so frustrating!!!
G- Yes it is, but we're in paradise!
P- Yes we are.
