That moment when you realize somehow you mistracked time and are actually in a different day, ya that's what happened to me today. I was standing in the ocean when it dawned on me -- today is Tuesday, not Monday. Instantly I felt panic flood over me. In two days I will be standing on the scale for weigh-in yet I haven't been able to check my weight since Saturday.
...and on that note, I decided to swim until exhaustion.
I am now jokingly referred to as "the girl who swims to boats" by the staff at the neighbouring resort, nice. Today one waitress joked to me about swimming out to a particular boat and, upon realizing it was Tuesday and not Wednesday, I channelled all my anxiety and frustration into swimming out to it. It was twice the distance as yesterday's boat and upon looking back at it from the shore I realize it was rather dangerous for me to have done it.
I am now jokingly referred to as "the girl who swims to boats" by the staff at the neighbouring resort, nice. Today one waitress joked to me about swimming out to a particular boat and, upon realizing it was Tuesday and not Wednesday, I channelled all my anxiety and frustration into swimming out to it. It was twice the distance as yesterday's boat and upon looking back at it from the shore I realize it was rather dangerous for me to have done it.
I had ditched the rest of the crew and grabbed The Kid to join me for swimming instead of heading off with the rest for fishing. Fishing wasn't going to get me any more ready for my game. I couldn't think of a creative way to turn it into exercise with out burning my shoulders to a crisp and leaving me with smelly fingers. So off the two of us went swimming while the others rode off on our rented scooters for fishing. They left us around 9:30am and by 11am we had stepped out of the ocean, totally water logged and totally hungry. I had somewhat anticipated this so I had snuck a water bottle from the club manager's stash and had brought along some edamames. The Kid was hungry though and my food just wasn't enough. I had ignored my own urge to exchange money at the airport because Tommy Toes said he would take care of me and he has but now he was off fishing. I had my AMEX card in my bag along with 50,000won (~$50). So we walked the beach and went in and out of every little beachside shop and resort, hoping to exchange my won for Thai baht or at least be able to use my AMEX card. No such luck. All the stores accept cash only and no one knew what Korean won even was. By 12:30pm we were now on the point of desperation. Our crew had now been separated from us for 3 hours and we had asked so many people for money exchange.
"Let's go back to the first man," I told The Kid. Located at the end of the beach road by our villa was a man who I had originally asked. He had said he couldn't exchange it but had told me if I needed anything else than "he's my man". I was going to test that out now or at least beg in the process of trying to do so. So that's what we did. Apparently he had watched us on the beach go to so many other shops and then walk barefoot down the street, trying to hitchhike a ride to the front gates. As soon as I approached him he reached out his hand for me to hold and said "I know, I know...come inside." I went inside with him.
MONEY EXCHANGED!!!
Turns out a woman there with him is heading to Korea in two days to stock up on cosmetics she buys there and sells here. I met her and we chatted about Innisfree which as it turns out we both love. I showed her my Innisfree lotion and offered it as a thank you gift but she smiled and refushed. They then gave us Thai baht -- he have me almost a straight exchange, no service charge or extra taken for him. I would have sold it to him for next to nothing, I just so desperately wanted some loose change to buy food. I was so happy, so incredibly relieved. It was as if I had a million dollars in my hands. Honestly, I have never felt so rich and so free as I did at that very moment!!! Getting that currency exchange from the goodness of that man's heart may very well be the happiest moment of this trip and I am ever so grateful. After I said thank you about a zillion times, I then left them and skipped on the beach, jumped up and down, and kept on screaming "so good, so happy" in Korean. Next thing to do was spend it! I desperately wanted fruit and veggies and I had seen a lady walking down the beach carrying some kind of travelling kitchen on her shoulders.
VIOLA, I FOUND HER!!!
In addition to roasted BBQ chicken that she cooks right there on her travelling kitchen, she also makes papaya salad. I had no idea what that really consisted of but it surely must be better than the cup ramine and cola my crew keeps on cooking up. I've yet to join them in their nasty ramine eating ways but must note corner store shopped meals aren't so much cleaner or better. And don't even get me started on the whole what-were-they-thinking notion with them feeding us professional athletes such trash.
But anyways... back to my happiest of happy moment.
So the travelling kitchen lady said she could make me a papaya salad. She went through all her ingredients and asked me what I wanted. "I want it all", I told her, "all except the small fish and crab!" And on that note I watched as she threw numerous ingredients into her clay pot and smashed it all together. "You so happy!" she told me and she was right, I was so happy. But I must note here, when I got back to my private villa house and ate my papaya salad and side Thai rice, I was even happier than before. It was absolutely delish, so delish in fact that when we were going to leave the villa and head to the boat for the mainland, I insisted they wait. I ran down to the beach, found my travelling kitchen mama and bought two more bagged papaya salads for take out. That's when the older man with the sweet tooth for me took it upon himself to wave the lady over so that he could pay. "Save your money", he told me. "You're going to need it to buy more salad on the mainland".
No one but The Kid knows that the man down at the beach had a sweet tooth for me and helped me out, that's our little secret. But when my other crew members asked me how I got food knowing full well that I had no money (no baht that is) on me, I simply told them "beauty is power".
Part of yesterday's discussion regarding boxing had to do with money and it ended with someone blurting out "money is power". I added "but there's a difference between power and respect. I want respect and money can't buy me that". My money bought me my papaya salad but it wasn't what got me the money in the first place. The older man fancied me. I think it was my daily overdose of swimming that impressed him and convinced him to help me out. So maybe charm and determination was my weapon of power in this case but I'll never tell my crew how I managed to get that salad. Instead I'll let it serve as a lesson that you simply can't lean on money. Money isn't everything and it can't buy everything. And as for my papaya salad, oh baby, at 2pm when I took my first bite of it, it was my everything to me and nothing else in Thailand at that moment mattered.
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