So when Steve offers to spend the following day taking me to the best restaurants and showing me around the island it's a total no-brainer...a resounding "hell yeah!'
First we go to Nira's Home Bakery in Thongsala for the best Full English I've tasted in forever - none of the tepid pale hotdogs and sweet baked beans that the Thais class as typical British fayre. This is the place where the in-the-know expats hang, eyeing each other casually over their perfect cafe lattes, safe in the knowledge that no riff-raff holidaymakers will ruin the vibe.
Hangovers abated, we head back out on the bike, me clinging on for dear life as we wind sans crash-helmets around the bendy dirt-track roads, Steve shouting reassurances into the wind that he knows these roads like the back of his hand. I smile through gritted teeth (I dare not open my mouth as I swear I've already swallowed several mozzies) and hope that he's right. I had no such fears the previous day, but it's amazing how emboldening a few Changs and whiskeys can be...
My fears are unfounded and we have a great day, before heading to Peppercorns, the most amazing cliff-top steak restaurant, which I never would have found had I not met him. We enjoy delicious Argentinian steaks as the sun goes down, chatting away about our lives back home, travel experiences, hopes, fears, his German girlfriend, a potential boyfriend for me at home, plans for the future...
The mozzy-swatting eventually become too much to bear, so we head back to The View for a few more poolside Changs, the view again is just breathtaking. Exhausted, we are both yawning and stretching away, so Steve drops me back to my hotel in Haad Rin and returns to his hotel to prepare for the new arrivals the following day. He also has friends arriving from the Ivory Coast, so I only see him briefly in the following days, but we keep in touch via Whatsapp and I may bump into him again when I return to the island for the Full Moon Party in a week or so...
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