Nai Harn Beach, Rawai, Phuket, Thailand
Christmas in Rawai, Phuket, Thailand
We returned to Phuket.
It was our last stop before our return to New Zealand.
Restaurants and bars were decorated with Christmas trees and red balloons,
Working girls in bars, wore red miniskirts, red tops and red hats,
Many places offered special Christmas menus.
On the beach, smoothly shaved French and Italian guys
Wore Santa Claus hats and red bathing suits,
Their shoulders decorated with tattoos of stars...
It was Christmas Eve,
And it was visibly celebrated for the tourists, in Rawai beach.
We took it easy, since it was the end of our beach trip and we'd vowed to start taking more frequent beach trips, designed to do nothing but help us step out of our ego structures and to reconnect with our natural and neutral bodies.
There is something very freeing about living in our bathing suits for a whole month....
Suddenly seeing ourselves naked in the mirror, does not feel so strange...
We seemed to loosen up and let go of the silly inhibitions that we'd come with...
Rawai is a bit less touristy and dense than the Patong, Kata and Karon areas in Phuket, and it has some healthy, raw food places, juice bars and small establishments.
Our hotel is small, family owned and very charming.
In the small lobby, the hotel's owner pushed aside her Chinese shrine to make room for a big plastic Christmas tree, with nicely wrapped empty cardboard boxes, made to resemble Christmas gifts.
The owner drove us to Nai Harn beach in her car, pushing aside her child's toys to make room for us.
Nai Harn is a busy, large, sandy beach with clean water
We loved finishing our beach trip with an afternoon dip in the sea
We ate a good Christmas dinner at "Raw Cafe" on Mangosteen Alley.
Fresh fruit smoothies, raw beet salad with a strawberry sauce, a mango salad, raw wraps with avocado, zucchini and cashew sauce...
A raw cheese-less pizza with marinated veg and zesty tomato sauce
A real raw feast...
Thailand is truly wonderful, despite the huge massive influx of global tourists who descend on this country every year.
It is a diverse place... One moment it smells of Jasmine, and the other, it smells of raw sewer.
It is so picturesque and messy, full of rubbish or ugly in the same areas...
The country is tolerant of religious diversity... Or of any diversity and eccentricity...
Gays and lady-boys are fully accepted and embraced by the culture everywhere.
Paradise it is not, if you consider the Thai mafia, the intermittent electricity, the sewer running into the ocean, the prostitution and the endless drunken tourists...
But...
This country can offer every kind of experience for every person....
You can write your own story on the sandy beaches....
Live your own unique reality.....and many people do...
