Life on Sang Thian beach

It only took roughly 8 minutes on Sang Thian beach before Craig and I started calculating how much money one would need to live for a year. The relaxed lifestyle and crystal blue water had us under its spell. Now and again one of us would come up with a "get-rich-quick" idea or some investment strategy to move our residence to the Koh Samet zip code.

Our first night was spent in a bungalow on a hill overlooking the water. We made a rookie mistake of taking the first place we saw, mainly because it was late in the afternoon and I was a little nervous we'd miss out on a place. It wasn't anything to write home about really. Most of the bungalows are on a hill and ours was the furthest up the hill. We were entertained by the old woman who runs the convenient shop though. She's a tiny, sun-wrinkled woman in her late seventies. She was probably the only Thai person who never smiled at us but she would ramble away in Thai at us whenever we stopped to buy something. She did help to mend Craig's barnacle-torn hand with some iodine and, through mime, demanded that he hold his hand flat.

For the last two days we moved to Candlelight resort and a great one-room bungalow just a few feet from the beach with a big porch looking out on the beach. We could hear the waves crashing on the shore at night. The room had a bathroom, shower, fan and even a TV for $20US a night. The manager is a man of very few words that we nick-named the Phantom. He seldom smiled and I don't recall him actually speaking a word to us. I got to thinking there could be a love connectionn between him and the convenience shop lady down the beach! The Candlelight had a comfortable lounge area with beach chairs and covered tables to chill out or sunbathe.

Life is made extra sweet with a Roti Pancake from the beach's pancake vendor. A roti pancake (which I must give my dear friend Amber kudos to for recommending!) is a thin friend pancake with your choice of filling and toppings. On Amber's suggestion, I ordered a banana with chocolate drizzle. Roti pancake man then finishes it off with some drizzle of sweetened condensed milk. YUM! HOWEVER, our roti pancake man must have taken a vacation because he never re-appeared after our first day. We would monitor his abandoned cart from the water during daily swims. We were hooked after the one and had to resort to other beaches for our fix.

In the mornings you could buy fruit from the very friendly fruit vendor. We walked the length of the beach carrying jackfruit, pineapple, coconuts and other edibles on a cane carrying pole. That's me enjoying a morning coconut on our porch. Also, a few yards down was a massage place that offered Thai and body massage in a hut that sits just over the beach.