Eat Food from a New Primary Source

Yesterday was one of those wonderful days when you wake up without a plan, and go to bed tired and happy after a fun-packed series of activities. We even managed to complete a challenge, though didn’t clock on to this until today.

After breakfast on Bang Bao pier, we decided to take our time trundling to the end of the jetty to see boats leaving for day-trips. We had vaguely discussed going snorkelling for the day, but the weather was overcast and prices seemed to be higher for us farang (slang for non-Asians, usually white people, but also - strangely - the Thai word for guava fruit).

Jonny was just talking about leaving Koh Chang a day early when, from one of the larger boats, a Thai man put out his hand across the wooden gangway and hoisted me onboard. We had found ourselves amongst a large tour group and decided to go with it! Jonny was next. We hoped we were in for a treat but braced ourselves for the possibility that we might be on a 3-month swingers’ cruise to North Korea.

With a bit of sly questioning, which got us talking to some pretty cool people, we realised we were on the exact boat trip we’d hoped to go on: a snorkelling day trip around Koh Rang and other nearby islands! We genuinely hadn’t set out to be naughty, yet here we were on a free day out and no one was any the wiser (note: we booked our trip to Koh Kut with the same company, who massively overcharged us, so guilt levels are low).

After a bit of a saga with my snorkelling mask (it’s a bugger to get on in the sea and left me choking on salt water and feeling a bit pathetic), we saw some beautiful sea life. Jonny free-dived and swam through a huge shoal! He was proud because he’d seen killer whales do the same thing on Blue Planet, and David Attenborough had commented on what clever beasts they were.

Unfortunately, when we took a shore-break and decided to have a go on a 2-person swing, I fell off backwards whilst my clever beast of a fiancé tried to stop the swing and succeeded in dragging me along the floor. However, one tourist put my grazed back into perspective after standing on a sea-urchin. It looked truly nasty.

Back on the boat and we continued chatting to a couple of friends we’d already made. Jim, in particular, was very well travelled and taught us some basic Thai, which we promptly forgot. We all decided to go for a beer after the trip, where we got to know each other with our clothes on.

A beer turned into 2 for 1 cocktail buckets, which turned into dinner. Jonny and I had been craving some fish for a while. We had our eyes on a juicy red snapper, but when we saw the sting ray we couldn’t resist getting some vengeance for Steve Irwin, and gobbled it up! Interestingly, we thought we’d be eating its bulging, rubbery middle but its meaty side-flaps were the tastiest parts (clearly, I should move on to erotic fiction). Jim ordered some incredible prawns and surprised us all by picking up the bill. Top guy (and a very cheap day out!)

After a quick boogie at the local trance-shack, we parted ways. Thanks, Paul, for your ‘eat a food from a primary source’ challenge, giving us an excuse to write up our adventures!