January 8,

I awoke and looked out of the window… I had to pinch myself.🏖️🌊 It is so beautiful!!! Lipa Beach Residence, our place for the next 28 days, is right on a narrow swath of beach in the Gulf of Thailand.

We got around and went to walk the beach, choosing to go south. The water is so warm and multi-colored: hues of greens & blues. The sand isn’t “squeaky” or white, but it is clean, tan colored, and feels good. Also we only saw one shell, but there are many palm trees lining this band of beach. In the water a ways out were two cruise ships anchored up and a ferry coming in to go somewhere on the northern part of the island – where we are – faces west. We actually “lost the beach” one place – as another resort was jutting out over the beach, and we had to wade in the water knee deep to get around. We walked about as far as we could go, around a mile. There was a couple of Navy ships docked just beyond us. It is probably a base and the reason it is blocked off. Anyway, right there was a restaurant, Think & Retro Cafe. It was not tied into a resort, so we stopped and ordered. We had one American Breakfast: omelet, bacon, toast with butter & jam, and mango juice; and one Asian Breakfast: boiled rice (think porridge) with chicken, green onion, lemongrass, fried shallots, & a fruit plate of watermelon & pineapple, and coffee. It cost us total of 400 Baht ($11.53), obviously, touristy pricing.

From here we walked the road back to our place. I started sorting and unpacking, as Jeff tried to get pricing for a scooter rental. It seems no one is interested in renting for one month, because they can rent daily or weekly for more profit. We still have not met the owner. Around noon, we were getting ready for a swim in the pool right out our door, when the owner showed up. He made sure everything was okay and would be able to take us for a scooter. We took him up on this and quickly changed as we had not got into the pool yet.

He drove us about 15 minutes to scooter row… it was shop after shop of scooter rental places. He took us to one in particular, called New. Jeff and the Thai lady were talking prices and the owner guy stepped in and said, “One month is 4500 Baht.” She lower the price from 5000 to the 4500 Baht ($129.71). Glad he came with us! (BTW, the owner is Russian and he & his wife have been here for 10 yrs.) Jeff paid the lady, but the owner guy took pictures of Jeff’s passport.  Anyway, we have a newer scooter from New. 😂🤣 It is white – a 125cc Honda Click. We got our helmets sorted and we thanked our guy and the scooter rental lady. We left and set out to explore. First we went up the hill on the main road to make sure the scooter can do it – it is a steep grade. The scooter did fine so we continued.

We went to the Big C Supercenter. It is a mall with a Big C store. With our list in hand, we entered and checked it out. We found some things, but had to stop,… because only a scooter to take stuff back! But we did get a membership card. Also, we decide to get lunch here at a food court right outside of the Big C. We opted for one Pad Thai with Chicken, and one Stir-fried Yellow Noodles with Pork. The dishes were fuel, not that great. We also had a water & a lemon tea. It cost us 180 Baht total ($5.19).

Now we, went back to our place. We finally did get into the pool and relaxed. Then we went back to the beach overlook area and watched our first sunset 🌅 over the water. Then back inside and had French supper: cheese, bread and wine! A good-good day!