Swings, Roundabouts, and the importance of counting to three.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Yesterday held myriad surprises for Lauren and I. Firslty, the snorkling was quite a success, we managed to see some young Black tipped reef sharks, as well as puffer fish and other wonders of the sea. Lauren didn’t come snorkling, of course, but instead sunbathed on the beach, cherishing the last opportunities to do this before we head to monsoon-stricken Vietnam.
The fun didn’t come without cost though, to be precise a 44 pound cost. sigh.
We had rented out mopeds for the day. I am very aware that the main readers of this are mine and Lauren’s families so I’d like to highlight now that we didn’t have a crash, no mum, I’m not lying to spare your feelings, we really didn’t. That doesn’t mean that, while we were at the beach, or indeed, submerged in the sea, that some low-down dirty rotten scoundrel didn’t come haring around the corner and clip our parked moped, sending it skidding down the road. Sigh again.
The bike was pretty scratched up anyway, and we had to leave one of our passports for a deposit, so there was no way we could get around going back and having to pay for someone else’s carelessness. The Thai man who we rented the bike from was not particularly understanding and very aggressive., much to our joint annoyance, but, true to my newfound inner calm, I remained relaxed, and we even managed to barter some of the price for damages down from the initial contract we had signed. Having to pay for someone else’s shirked responsibility is aggrevating, but it is very tough to stay mad in paradise. Besides, its our last full day as Koh Taotioans today, so no worries, right?
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