Donna Day Four and Five

There are so many things that I haven`t written about because I`ve been too busy experiencing them! After flying to Krabi, we are now in Ao Nang in the south of Thailand and I`m not exaggerating when I say that we are staying in the most luxurious hotel I`ve ever been to – Peace Laguna Resort. Our beautiful room has a porch overlooking a mountain and is surrounded by lush green trees and a lake. This morning I swam in one of the three pools and had the entire pool to myself. It cost us about 20 pound a night.

Ao Nang is gorgeous. Today we had lunch by the sea ( deep fried tofu with cashew nuts and sticky rice for me, Masaman curry for Joanne) and it was stunning and made all the more special byes stumbling upon wedding taking place on the beach which made me and Joanne cry. There were monkeys on the beach too. Monkeys. On a beach.

I had a slump today. Ím not sure whether there is such a thing as traveller`s fatigue, but I felt really flat. I knew what I was seeing was spectacular and a once in a life time experience but I couldn’t get into the groove at all. I felt like my mood was infecting Joanne`s day so I took myself off to the hotel room for a lie down. Well, that was the plan, what I actually did was colour in my eyebrows and have a long-awaited for poo! Nobody tells you about how much travelling affects your `business` but it does and the inability to poop had clearly affected my mood.

With newly coloured-in eyebrows and a cleansed colon, I joined Joanne in `Mañana`’ a beautiful Mexican café bar just outside the hotel. Joanne had made friends with the ladies who owned the bar and one of them,  Anni, had set her up behind a huge fan with a glass of red wine and a water. Jo looked very much at home when I arrived. Anni was a whirlwind of laughter and dance and instantly made me smile. I`m smiling a lot in Thailand and what`s absolutely wonderful is that Thai people smile back!! It`s a very smiley place and I love that. As well as smiling, Thai people also love to party as Jo and I were to discover when we returned to Anni`s bar later that night and got involved in a joyful, spontaneous street party. Infected by Anni’s enthusiasm and laughter, tourists, shop owners and just about anyone joined Anni dancing in the street. I knew that Joanne wouldn’t be able to stay seated. She loves making people laugh and that`s exactly what she did. Her crazy dance moves were met with whoops and claps. When she broke into some kind of caterpillar break dance move, the very handsome, but I think gay, Russian beside me, shouted, Ìsn`t this great!` and it was. It was a really special experience. I felt like, despite the language barriers, we had all connected a little bit, through music and dance and laughter and my friend Joanne busting a move in the street.