I guess we'd earned our two and a half beach days on the Bay of Bengal at Ngapali and to paraphrase David, this was the most perfect beach ever. A long broad curve of clean, fine white sand, perfect small waves, warm clean clear turquoise water, no litter or detritus, low key hotels, small beach bars, friendly fruit sellers, shady umbrellas, with cooling afternoon onshore breezes to take the edge off the heat of the morning. What more could one want? We had to tear ourselves away.
Despite seeing ourselves as travellers rather than tourists, we must also admit to enjoying the Amata hotel very much, nice bedrooms and bathrooms were a real treat. We devoured the buffet breakfasts, loved the hotel lunches with the wine we'd brought from Heho, and only left the hotel for dinner, because we thought we ought. Ok, so we lapsed, but we're so worth it. Two nights' dinner at The Two Brother's Restaurant and the third, after a long walk down the really dark beach road, at the Ngapali Kitchen. The walk made us realise just how priviledged we were at the hotel. The few shops we walked past were also people's homes. They were dark, dusty, flimsy, wooden structures which must be a nightmare when the rainy and cyclone season arrives and lit only with single flourescent lights wired up to a generator.
Days were spent reading, lounging, walking along the beach, finding a bar for lunch cocktails, catching up with the Archer's via podcast (David), jumping in the waves, watching the locals go by and buying luscious pineapple from the beach girls. We also very quickly got into the sunset cocktail routine (no surprise there, then...) at one of the beach shacks, that managed to produce a random but most enjoyable range of cocktails from ramshackle bamboo huts.
Most of the locals are from Thandwe, the local town. They are fishermen and we'd see the squid boats form a long line of bright lights on the horizon each night. Dinners were therefore seafood focused, and we had our fill of prawn stir fry, squid curry, coconut fish currys which served us all very well, and at 25% of hotel prices, and at the Two Brothers Restaurant, we discovered that we got to share the kitchen with a couple of huge oxen munching lazily in their stalls.
Yet again, all the people we met were incredibly friendly, curious and helpful. We really hope that when this place gets discovered, it doesn't lose it's charm and beauty. Let's hope it doesn't model its tourist development on nearby Thailand, but perhaps that is being a little selfish...
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