August 23: After a few days in paradise, restlessness begins to show. We decide to take a short trip to the Phasawan Viewpoint. It is about 45 minutes to walk from the beach with a fairly steep climb at times. Since it is not a long stage, we decide to go without packing (except for water), we manage without food for the 2-3 hours that the excursion should take. The red circle shows the viewpoint from the beach.

We leave at 8 in the morning to avoid the worst of the heat. The way up is going well but because of the steep climb, the sweat is flowing and the shirts are coming off one by one. But with a few short breaks now and then we manage the whole way up! The last part of the hike is quite tricky, with narrow paths with lots of roots. There is also some climbing on large rocks to get there.

The view that meets us when we reach the top is incredibly beautiful and it feels like you can see as far as you want! We look down over ”our beach” and reflect on how small it looks. The beach is 500 meters but looks like 5 from up here.

Fact box: The last part of the trail consists of a cliff that you have to balance on at times. It’s a long way down and if you have small children you might want to think about whether it’s a good idea to take them all the way. The lookout point itself is a rather sharp cliff and there are no railings or other safety features.

On the way back we find a small local restaurant that we decide to try. In retrospect we can say that it was a bad idea not to bring any lunch. We actually know that we always get hungry when we do things like this. Anyway it is 10:00 and we are hungry after the hike! Something that we have noticed in the Thai restaurants we have eaten at is that they cook at most two dishes at a time and that it takes about 10 – 15 minutes to make these. This means that we, as a family of five, have to wait 30 -45 minutes for the last person to get their food. By then the two who got their food first have often had time to finish eating. After the long wait and the delicious food it is already 12 o’clock before we leave the restaurant. It was this time of day that we did not want to go because of the heat. It is over 30℃, blazing sun and clear blue sky. We have 35 minutes left to walk to the beach and it feels like we are melting like ice cream as we slowly try to get down the same way we came up. When we get back to the beach with chafing feet and legs worn out from all the ups and downs, there is no doubt about what to do next, we are going swimming!

This is the kind of activity we like. It is not a trip we have bought so we have no times to fit, it is free and we are not part of any group that we are forced to follow. We do it at our own pace, in our own way. The fact that it is physically strenuous is often an advantage. We adults get some much-needed exercise and when the children have to exert themselves, there is often no energy left for fussing and fighting. In fact, sides of helpfulness and thoughtfulness often come to the fore during such activities.

//Sabdreasworld