where boats, large and small, were still arriving with fish...
and the selection was even more formidable than the smell.
Apart from fish fish there were:
squid...
eels...
a sting-ray - well, half of one...
shrimp...
crab...
other shell fish...
angel fish (sadly)...
conch...
and dried fish...
And now for something completely different - while we were waiting for our ride to the airport Dana got a demonstration of some Myanmar dancing from a bellhop at our hotel...
Quick trip to the airport and a bit of a chaotic scene there with several tour groups leaving, but using some patience and paying attention to what the staff was doing (plus being kind and courteous to them) we got through the process and onto the plane with relative ease.
Same on the plane, where our carry-ons wouldn't fit in the overheads (it was a substitute charter). The stewardess said something about "outside cargo" and left our two bags in the seats in front of us, then forgot about them until the doors had been shut. I suggested to a steward (who seemed to have a sense of humor) that the bags should be strapped in. He liked the idea, and did it. So our bags flew in the two seats in front of us, complying with the crew's safety instructions.
The flight was only about 1/2 hour, but they managed to serve a meal and drinks, and clean up in that time, with extraordinary grace, patience and courtesy. Further proof of my theory that Asian airlines will never go mealless, and confirmation that they are more than capable of doing it.
Dana also had called our Ngapali (pronounced sort of like the Italian "Napoli" - for Naples, but with a "y" after the "n") hotel for transfer, and there was a bus (with AC) waiting for us and a few others. The hotel is a nice, resort type thing on the beach with clusters of buildings...but with a couple of negatives: 1. the room had a strong moldy smell and 2. the wifi sucks!!!!!😝😝😝😝😝. Turned out the whole town has problem 2, so changing hotels would not have helped. I learned that, by checking out a neighboring hotel, nearly twice as expensive as ours. I was ready to pay $220 a night and forego the $120 a night we already had paid, i.e. $340 a night - for a bed. I think I'm supposed to learn something from this.
Anyway, we chose to be positive and headed right to the beach - for some lounging, reading, and even a little swimming.
It is as beautiful as the LP said, a several mile arc of soft white sand, with a flat smooth bottom for wading, and very little surf. In other words, user-friendly and relaxing - and after 15 minutes, a bit boring, for me. So I dove back into The Crusades - 730 pages including footnotes. But I know who Nur-al-din (Muslim) and Raymond of Antioch (Crusader) are, and you don't, do you?
We had dinner on the lovely terrace overlooking the beach, with a nice sunset (highlighted, literally, by the fishing boats offshore)...
and a puppet show...
that had some backstage drama in the middle of a sketch when the male puppeteer went off somewhere and his female partner deliberately dropped the puppet she was working and stopped; and then, after a pause, and without explanation, they went on to the next bit. Bummer for me, because they had been doing a cane ball thing that was my favorite of the evening.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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