I can’t believe I am already 7 days on this island. And at the same time It feels like it has been longer. I woke up at sunrise and observed the crabs in the morning. After some meditation and yoga, I had some breakfast (very good eggs! and coffee! Didn’t have coffee in a while, so was very happy about it) and learned something about swedish books from the very cool swedish girl that sat across me. Then I did a little bit of planning and went on a small hike through the forest to reach a specific beach that has a coral island.

The path was beautiful, and not a single person around except some local huts. It felt surreal in a way, how can I be in such a breath taking place and it’s not filled with tourists. I was walking maybe 15 min, but I didn’t really know which beach was supposed to be the ONE with the coral island. How does a coral island even look like? So I went in for snorkling at a random red beach and there were many corals and a lot of fish. The corals were not as vibrant as in egypt, but beautiful and very rich in its diversity. There were also many seaplants around the different kind of rocks and VERY large sea urgins with long needles and something very colorful sticking to them.

But since I was curious if something else is there further on the path I walked a bit more and stopped when the path started to be more difficult and overgrown with plants. And I think that was the coral island was, because the life underwater seemed richer, the corals bigger than on the red beach. And a few times I saw a very bright green coral. And some smaller red and pink ones. And a very large white shell (or coral?) and a very large blue crab.

On my way back to the hostel, my eyes couldn’t believe it: I saw two very large hornbill birds! I stopped and just stared with so much excitement at them. I recognized them instantly because I rememeber painting them in a very detailed way back at home a year ago.

After lunch I spend some time on the beach and tried out a slack line (which went surprisingly well!) before I had to pack my stuff. It turned out that I could pay online when I asked the hostel owner. But since I couldn’t move my tonight’s accomodation at the other side of the island (that I regret booking a little bit, but I did that before I came to the island and don’t want to pat the 10$ cancellation fee). So, I decided that it’s time to leave Lonely Beach.

The hostel owner Danny reminds me of a character that could be in a book. He’s an older and a little chaotic looking, french man who is always follwed by 5 or more dogs. Whatever language his guests speak, he seems to be able to speak it well and makes sure to talk in that language. He called me a taxi bike and with my large backpack in the front, and the sunset in the back, we went through sandy paths, a bit of a forest, passed two very large buffalos and then after 40min on the main road we arrive at Long Set beach.

The hostel I am staying now is a bit of a party hostel, but I guess for one night it will be fine. And since I still have a bit of cash, I decided to not go to the main land tomorrow, but go the next island for one night instead and see from there. Apparently there is a supplier boat at 6am at the pier that goes to the that island, so I’ll try my luck!

P.S. I had some sea food for dinner and it was so delicious. It was one crab, which felt a bit strange after observing them with a happy heart in the wild and making up stories about them.