I was in Emma’s dad’s shed trying (unsuccessfully) to identify some animal droppings, feeling perplexed. It was dark but there were lazers of light shining in through the gaps in the planked walls. I did not know what the droppings were and was frustrated and disappointed in myself. I stepped out into the sun and joy had brought a plate of melon with light purple flesh that tasted of parma violet. Cold sweet and delicious. I closed my eyes and when I opened them realised I had been dreaming. I was now staring up at a parma violet coloured mosquito net that was draped over our bed and had successfully saved us from insect attack for the second night in a row. Lasers of light sliced across our bodies shining in from the gaps in the plank walls, adjacent to the bed was an unidentified animal dropping. A mild annoyance at not knowing who it belonged to washed back over me. I bent my neck and looked out through the open shutter above the bed and saw the palms swaying above the beach. I let the dropping frustration go. I tuned into the sounds, waves gently lapping the shore and the strange and unfamiliar bird and insect noises. After spending 50 years in the UK this was like waking to the sounds of an alien planet, which I guess in some ways it was. Lonely beach is a marmite place, I think you would love it or hate it. I like marmite. I like lonely beach. We took it in turns negotiating the Khmer bathroom mobility assault course and then swam a length of the bay, there was a bit of wind and chop so it was bouncy like home but crystal clear and luke warm bath temperature.
Island life is pretty easy. Chill in a hammock, eat, get eaten (mozzies), swim with the fishes, drink, doze, sleep repeat. Today’s swim in the aquarium uncovered 2 new things. An alive version of the previous clam shell I found, bright neon blue clam flesh radiating from the wave like opening between the two shells, like something out of avatar. I stared at it in wonder for at least 10 minutes. It seemed so unlike other bivalves (shell fish living inside 2 shells linked together by ligament and muscle) the flesh was so big it was unable to fully close the shells as a protective measure and this answered the question that had puzzled me when I found the empty shell yesterday……that when pressed together the two shells did not seal perfectly as you would usually expect. I also found some whelk like shells that when you picked them up had a ‘stopper’ that resembled an eyeball, mother of pearl with blue green it looked like some kind of horror gobstopper.
We had lunch, tofu and island salad sandwiches (lovely home made flat breads) and then repeated the above island rota. At this point we noted a giant orb spider had spun a web across the path to the beach bar. Not far off hand size and chilling at face level we made note of its location as neither of us wanted that on our faces. Evening came and we chilled on the verandah and watched the sunset thought the palms and chatted about this and that. After a Khmer shower we walked to the beach bar in the dark, phone torch on, looking for the face clinger, there he was same spot and we leaned and ducked past him. That is not something I would have thought I was capable of, old me would’ve had to find an alternative path! Dinner arrived and the owner and chef tested a new dish on us they were thinking of putting on the menu. A fusion type of lentil dhal, it was very tasty indeed and was a nice change to the stir fry style curries.
Emma finally got to taste the Caiprinha as the missing ingredient that had prevented such an occurrence since our arrival had just arrived by boat. She enjoyed that. We chatted with the owner who was a very interesting man indeed. He seemed to be fluent in every language, had built the entire place and lived here for 16 years and had been everything from a martial arts specialist and teacher to a professional diver. The type of person who could enthrall you with his life story every night for eternity.
Eventually we headed back to our hut, the spider had gone, whether he left of his own Accord or on someone’s face we will never know. There was a cooling breeze that slid through the open shutters and swayed the parma violet mosquito net like a visual lullaby as we drifted off into dreamworld.
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