The Announcement

Posted by Danae

We had to get ready pretty early because we were off to Phang-Nga Bay that day, which required a fair bit of travel organisation unfortunately. It seemed that there were limited transport options from our hotel at Naithon Beach to anywhere; or at least not at a reasonable cost. Chris had the night before managed to organise a rival hotel to take us for a slightly cheaper price then our hotel, so we had to secretly meet the driver out on the roadside so our hotel wouldn’t find out. Chris had left breakfast early because he said he was feeling off colour and hadn’t slept much the night before – I thought it was because he was annoyed about the transport situation.

After a Grand Turismo car drive experience to the boat harbour of Phang-Nga Bay (120 km in 50 zones, and using every edge of bitumen available), we were flagged down by some sort of crazy man. After stopping about 5 metres later (I was a bit concerned it was some sort of roadworks, given the insistence of the crazy man to stop), we quickly deduced that the crazy man was a boat touter who was extremely aggressive about selling his wares. Not prepared to take no for an answer, we were soon boarding a long tail boat for the fairly reasonable price of 2400 baht (significantly less than what he was originally offering).


The boat was loud as hell, and the driver spoke almost no English, except for “hello, hello!” which he used for a variety of expressions, but most often when he wanted Chris to look at something important. In fact, he seemed to take quite a shine to Chris (funny, cause he wasn’t a ladyboy!).






We first went past the Panyiri fishing village, a Muslim community whose houses are all on stilts in the water. Then off to James Bond Island, slowing down to look at a few other interesting things on the way. Bond Island was as impressive as I had expected, but the 200 baht per person fee to land on the beach was too much for us, especially since there seemed to be nothing there but tourist stalls. We went for a swim by a little beach, which was very relaxing, whilst the captain and his mate had a fish. Chris and Ryan were forced to have a fish too, but didn’t catch anything at all. The captain went running up the side of the very steep hill overlooking the beach, and was stoked when Chris went up with him so he could show him some bugs. On the way back, we stopped at the fishing village for lunch, which was my most disappointing meal yet. I thought seafood would be choice, given the environment, but it turned out my prawns in oyster and pepper sauce were not peeled, so I had to shell them all and get very dirty hands and lost all the yummy sauce in the process. Ryan had the same problem, and we made a big mess of the table until the waitress finally brought a finger bowl.






















We caught a mini bus home for 1100 baht (after more painful haggling with the aggressive boat touter, as the mini bus driver didn’t speak any English). When we got back, I had a very expensive foot massage at the hotel – at Chris’ insistence, which I thought was odd because before he was trying to deny me access to the massages. After a few more hotel room beers, Chris and I prettied ourselves up and went for a walk on the beach to watch the sunset. After a bit of a stroll, we relaxed at some well located table and chairs at the beach (I wondered if they had been there the day before?). As we were watching the sunset, I wanted to go and get cocktails to compliment the view, and it was only about 2 minutes before the hotel waiter showed up with 2 of my favourite cocktails (Spark, sort of like a pina colada with banana in it). It was amazingly well timed and I thought the waiter must be some sort of mind reader! But I was a bit suspicious when he wished me a happy birthday.




After we’d enjoyed the last of our cocktails, we went up to the hotel for dinner. We started walking past the pool, when Chris suggested we go for some more drinks up at the balcony bar instead. However, after sitting up there for a short time and no waiter appearing, Chris thought we should just go for dinner. I wondered why he was being such a flip-flopper in changing his mind. He led me down to a beautifully set-up table, with an elaborate flower arrangement and candlelit, beside the pool. (It turned out later that the reason why we had gone upstairs, was because when we first walked past the table there were some other people loitering there, that the hotel staff had to shoo away so we could come down.) Immediately, a waitress was giving us some more delicious cocktails and wishing me a happy birthday. I know I do like to celebrate my birthday a lot, but I knew something was up. The cocktails were particularly elaborate looking – one was in a pineapple that was decorated with flowers and fruit carvings; a work of art.





We enjoyed an entrée of salt and pepper squid and then rain started pouring down, so we ran for cover to the nearby restaurant. Then it was time for the main course, which was prawn pad thai and some sort of yummy beef dish. Just before I devoured dessert (a chocolate mudcake with nuts through it, accompanied by icecream), Chris told me he had something he wanted to ask me. He got down on bended knee, and asked if I, Danae Jaclyn Waters, would marry him. He also said he loved me very much and produced a gorgeous diamond ring. So of course I accepted his proposal! It was a perfect night, even with the rain, and I was very impressed that Chris had organised it all without me guessing (until the second happy birthday wish!).

When we got back to the room, we had celebratory drinks with Ryan and Heidi. I saw that they had gone to the trouble of running me a flower-petal bath (at Chris’ demand) because I had mentioned earlier that day my Thailand experience wouldn’t be complete without one. I didn’t hop in it, though, because the water was cold and yellow – perhaps from the frangipanis, but more likely from the dodgy Thailand water.