Home sweet Bungalow

When the thought of living in Thailand first popped into my head, I had visions of a little wooden bungalow on a golden sand beach with palm trees swaying in the warm tropical breeze. I dreamt that I would skip 3 metres to the crystal clear water like a little girl in a flowing dress floating through a field of daisies. In the water I would splash about overcome with joy like a special needs kid the first time swimming in the ocean. After all the frolicking I would retire to my hammock that’s strung between two palm trees where a little Thai lady would appear with a tropical fruit salad drizzling with freshly squeezed lime juice. Then the monkey’s would start performing for me juggling coconuts…………………………………………………OK, sorry, I put this rambling down to reading too much Hunter S Thompson (Author of Fare and loathing in Las Vegas) and Paulo Coehlo and having gone 10 days without my laptop for writing.

The reality is that I’m living in a concrete bungalow, which may I add is a sign of affluence in Thailand as the less wealthy use the cheaper materials of wood to build their bungalows – Well done Hap, you’ve made in life if you’re living in a concrete bungalow in Thailand, haha J. The bungalow is not on the beach, this was just a dream, the beaches on the island are taken up by the resorts, bars, restaurants and traveller accommodation.

As with anywhere you call home, you love your home, or in this case bungalow, or we like to call it a Mansion. What I love most about our Mansion is that it only costs us $240 (Australian dollars, as that’s what I’m spending at the moment). Our bungalow is nestled in amongst trees, don’t be fooled into thinking of lush rainforest, no just trees.

As mentioned in a previous post our bungalow is home to all critters large and small. I think with my long hair and “beard” the animals have me mistaken for Noah. The Arc opens in the morning with the cicada and rooster chorus. Following this centipedes, cats, cockroaches, chickens, dogs, lizards, ants, frogs, peacocks, maggots, geckos, mosquito’s, beetles and these little gerbil creatures come to say hi. My personal favourite is Annie, our friendly neighbour who lives next door in the grass. Annie is a goat, he comes over, makes himself at home, walks around the kitchen, head butts the bungalow walls and hangs out. You may wonder why I have named a male goat Annie, it’s Thailand the home of lady boys.

It is no coincidence that in the previous paragraph I mention lady boys and neighbours. On our first day in the bungalow we were lying in the hammock and our neighbour walked past. I said to Mandy, that looks like the ladyboy from the cabaret we went to when we first arrived in Ko Tao. Sure enough, looking back at the photos from that night, it was. That’s me with him/her below. Her/his name is Ban, he/she is real lovely and lives with her boyfriend Tommy. So that’s our interesting neighbourhood.

I have tried to upload a video of our bungalow onto YouTube but it won’t upload, it’s been uploading for 2 hours and still hasn’t uploaded, so will try again soon.