Thai Journal ‘26 - #9

 

“Come ye apart and rest a while!” That’s what Jesus said, and that was what we are doing for the next two

days of relaxation on the island of Ko Samet. After a week of hard labor in the cornfields and with a bunch of very energetic kids, we (along with our APIU host, Namthip and friend) took a true vacation.  It is an 8-hour round trip by bus to the pier on the mainland, and then a 15-minutes speedboat ride to the island. As always, we were greeted at the pier by the famous Phra Aphai Mani seaorgress statue. It is a character in the epic, 48,700-line Thai poem, which took 20 years to compose (https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Phra_Aphai_Mani). The team had a blast in the ocean (I did not partake. Too cold. Water colder than 80 degrees is too

cold!); on the beach; in the lovely rooms at the Sawasdee Coco resort; eating great food by the ocean; and taking in a spectacular fire show; and just hanging loose! ShelleyB and I visited with Alex, and his Jamaica-themed bungalows. He has never been to Jamaica but, love it from afar! More on our time on the island in the next journal blog.