What I see around me

This was written while sitting on the beach

We are sitting on the shore on the Gulf of Thailand. The beach is lined with small opensided restaurants, and each one you pass a woman comes out saying, "you sit here today?" For the price of a cup of coffee or a bottle of water you can spend all the time you want in a padded beach chair with a free towel to use. Down the shoreline is a group of Dutch people smoking heavily. The old men are in red speedos. All things on the beach are not pretty. There is a pot-bellied man with blue flippers and a yellow mask snorkeling. The vendors troll back and forth trying to sell sea shell bracelets which they carry on a clothes hanger. They greet you with a lilting "madame, monsieur. " When you say no they say "maybe later, 1 o'clock?" Some of the vendors, sadly, are very young, about 4 or 5 years old, in tattered clothes . They spend the whole day on the beach. The youngest don't sell but pick up cans and plastic water bottles to be resold. Women wearing long sleeve outfits that look like PJ's come by in the hot sun with baskets of pineapple, watermelon, and bananas balanced on their heads. One, a 15 year old, asked us the first day where we were from, ever since then she sing-songs, "Hello USA. Why you not buy?" Today we bought some fruit from her.

The waves are a little higher today because of a nice breeze. There are green islands in the distance and a narrow red bottomed, black lacqured sided boat moored 20 feet off shore. It has the red and blue Cambodian flag, that has a picture of an ancient Palace on it, rippling in the breeze. Ahead of me is a Cambodian man, believe it or not, reading the Zondervan published book Purpose Driven Life while sipping juice from a coconut.

We have our Viet Nam Travel Guide, crossword puzzle books, a book of essays and a non-fiction book of amusing travel stories with us.

Yesterday a large group of Cambodians were at the beach, maybe 40 of them. Way over-dressed for the beach according to Western styles. They swam and played badminton fully clothed.

Well, the guy reading the Purpose Driven Life has left and I think I will get back to my book. Maybe I'll get a snack soon.