I’m off to the land of sun, sand and sea! Yes, it doesn’t take much to guess, it’s a beach, and it’s vacation. I don’t know why it’s been like this all my life, but I have lived in a go-to-the-beach for vacation world for as long as I remember. Me and my friends always had great fantasies of vacation in a soggy tent in the lush jungles of Thailand, leaches our constant companion, or even in the mountains of Chiangmai, where we would take early morning walks through the rice fields and see our breath for the cool weather.
But no, we never dreamed of the beach, simply because we went there every single time. Of course the scenery changed often, and I can pride myself to say I have been to the choicest beach paradises in Thailand: Phuket, Koh Samui, Jomtein, Cha’am, Rayong and more, and these added for a great experience and memorable sunny days.
But still, it did not change the fact that I never dream of the beach before vacation. It is simply too common an object to me now, to regularly tied in with my idea of vacation it just sits there, past up for more interesting thoughts. Such as, do they have a large variety for buffet breakfast? What channels do they have on the hotels TV network and what size is the TV for that matter? Do they have a pool table, regular foreigner guests, a large parking lot capable of being turned into a rollerblading rink? So you see, that’s what I am thinking about now as vacation approaches.
But the purpose of writing the post is to bring the beach into focus instead of lose it. Why? Because of memories. Memories that will always be with me. Memories of vacations and the fun times with friends that are now gone, of sand fights, beach races, shark scares, pool basketball and the slam dunk competitions, intense makeovers because of great sunburn, long beach walks to visit a home near to the hotel, dead fish, grouchy fishermen, gorgeous foreigner girls with not an iota of shyness, beach soccer and volleyball and the subsequent being covered with sand, cycling races, bumping into other family members, and oh I could go on and on …
The beach will always have a special place in my heart, not because the sand and sea has so much appeal to me, but because of those special ones of times past and the memories shared that made it special.