Jeff's Log ~ Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Last night I was invited to a party at the owner of Coconuts Bar’s house. The bar was closed for the elections that are being held. Pretty silly law, but what can you do? I taxied into Chalong and picked up my laundry and a bite to eat. At the restaurant, they had wi-fi, so I downloaded the soft ware necessary to make my new phone work as a modem for my computer. Then Keith picked me up and we went to the party together. She worked hard and had a lavish buffet with roast duck, pork loin, scalloped potatoes, and a lot of other goodies. I was well fed.

After dinner and chatting, there were three girls visiting from Oot’s original village, and they were trained Thai masseuses. Oot asked me if I would like a massage, and I jumped at the chance. I got worked over for an hour and a half, and found out that I had muscles that I never knew were there. The girl was only about 4’10” tall and just a little thing, but she sure can crunch some bones. After it was done, I felt like new and went for a walk to let things settle down a bit. Keith then took me back to the boat. When I left, I had checked the tide chart, and high tide was as two AM. I did not pull the dink all the way up knowing that, so I only had to turn it around and push it into the rising tide, caught a wave, and I was afloat and paddled out past the surf line. What a treat! The easiest beach launch that I have had and only got wet to below my knees.

When I wrote about the King’s Cup, I forgot to tell about one of the highlights at the Chalong party. There was a fellow there that was fixed up to look like a statue. When I came through the entrance, he was standing there. He is one of those guys that doesn’t move or even blink for long stretches of time. Later, he moved to the stage area wine counter, and we had some fun with him. Cindy figured that she should tip him, so she folded twenty baht and stuck it in his pocket so that it stuck out like a fan. It was breezy, and he didn’t want his tip to blow away, so he did a real quick grab and tuck, and then struck another pose. Someone else gave him a cigarette, and lit it for him. He was smoking with hardly any movement. It was really quite cool. A lot of people posed and took pictures with him.

This morning, the weather is warm and quite breezy. I have seen gusts to 32 knots. Thank God that I’m here and not in Chalong Bay. The boat is moving around a bit and dancing on the anchor line, but actually very pleasant motion. Today, the floors come back up as I am working on the hoses and fittings beneath it. Happy B-Day to Clara's brother Doug, hope he's still keeping track of me with google earth.