Sawasdee Pi Mai – Part 3

The last day of the year was blissfully incongruent with the rest of 2021. A year with COVID, stress, home learning, returns to school with numerous modifications, a new company to get used to after an acquisition and then a job transition by the end of the year – a year of tumult and numerous small to large challenges to navigate. But today was doing nothing at the beach, all day in a blissful tropical spot with food and drink brought us at our convenience.

"I am just mesmerized by that horizon," someone in the row of beanbag lounge chairs said to a friend, "It's so rare to see a clear defined line like that." 

How true that is. If it wasn't already rare, COVID made clear, defined lines exceedingly rare. Of course, any defined line is really an illusion just as it is in the Ko Samet horizon which makes the world look like everything on the ground and ocean is flat and that the sky forms a dome over it. Not exactly how it works. And that's the thing, right? Our world is really made up of so many little nuanced details, shades of gray and varying perceptions. Something about our times has multiplied or intensified these and it has come to feel weighty, confusing and often absurd.

But today, sitting on our bean bag lounge chairs at Jep's Restaurant on the beach – the world felt simple and right. Emily managed to get there early to claim our seats that we not only enjoyed for our day at the beach, but into the night for dinner and a New Year's celebration. After her research yesterday, Emily discovered which of the restaurants/bungalow hotels along the beach would be hosting New Year's festivities and among them, Jep's on Ao Phai had the best mix of music, fire twirling and vibe. That we were also able to spend the day there enjoying the beach from their lounge chairs was an added benefit. Luckily, she wasted no time getting over to the beach this morning and getting us set for a great day.

For the purposes of a great blog post, I wish there were more great stories – but the white sand, ideal weather and warm, calm water are almost everything anyone needs to know. Sure, there were some great coconut smoothies and massage on the beach. Sennen spent his day alternating between digging in the sand to create "oases" – holes with water in them – and swimming in the water.Ailyn was still a bit afraid of the water after yesterday and claimed her cuts stung when she went in which we all doubted until I went in and indeed, my cuts hurt worse with time in the water. Instead, she played in the sand and then along with Bailey. – got a henna tattoo and massage on the beach. She also played and laughed with Bailey frequently.

I suppose the point is that we did next to nothing and it was perfect. Sure there were interesting people to look at, food to taste, powdery sand to appreciate, questions about what we might do tomorrow, sarongs and fresh-cut fruit to purchase from the itinerant vendors. But these are things that are part of the fabric of Samet life and not to be noted as actual activities.

Once evening rolled around and the last person changed into dry clothes (Sennen), we enjoyed dinner to the performance of a live band which really nailed their Thai songs and had one of the worst accents I've ever heard in English. Frequently, they misunderstood or just butchered lyrics. But who cared? It was New Year's and the butchering of Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson's "Valerie" was just part of the fun. There were two fire twirling performances – the first of which the kids very judgmentally found less impressive than yesterday – to the point where Sennen went back to his fried rice. Emily had to remind them that they don't know anyone who could do what those fire twirlers can do – even if they were less exciting than the group last night. Her argument didn't resonate much with either kid. Bailey power napped more than once along the path to midnight, once falling asleep inside a restaurant menu which brought no end of amusement to her cousins. Throughout the night, fireworks from the Samet Villa Resort down the beach  lit up the night sky and people shooting off their own firecrackers created surprising bursts of noise and light often scaring poor Ailyn. she also suffered some extreme disappointment when the floating lanterns we bought from an itinerant vendor turned out to be illegal to use on Ko Samet (unlike Khao Lak where we used them for New Years 2019 and which she had her heart set on doing again). And at the end of the night, they all three got to shoot electric light-up toys into the air and then enjoy a final, extremely impressive fire twirling show.

But the best part of the last day of 2022 was letting go. For a day – and I hope for a week – the cares we've been carrying around seemed to dissipate. We were present. There was lightness and fun. Conversely, there was nowhere we had to be, schedules, deliverables or pressure. We weren't trying to be in two places at once or feeling there was more than we could handle. There was just us, Samet and that clear, defined horizon.

Sawasdee Pi Mai (Happy New Year) to everyone we know and love.

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