Koh Jum Day 3: Kitima

Today we met the nicest lady on the face of this earth. We left this morning to look for a new place to stay, and we thought maybe the north would have something worth looking for, so that's the direction we went. We couldn't have been more right. After some time on the road on our moped, we stumbled across Le Banyan Bungalows. From the road we could see that some of the bungalows were quite sizable and expensive. Out of curiosity we entered and found reception. A very pleasant looking Thai woman was at the desk, she happened to be the owner, and said her name was Kitima. I proceed to ask her if she had any rooms available tonight. She was happy to say that she had 3 available for a short period of time. It seems that her clients stay here for quite some time, along the lines of a month or so. She asked if we would like to see each one, and Anthony and I happily replied yes. Each was amazing, and quite large. By far the resort is the best I've seen in the island. During the tour Anthony and I kept looking at each other because we knew we had been outclassed. Two college kids, wearing swimming trunks and without a shower for two days (I happened to have goggles around my neck like a dork), were touring bungalows that were nothing short of luxurious. We were way over our heads. The price, while fair for an older customer, was way over our budget: started at 2500 baht per night. There are 30 baht to 1 US dollar so, in USD, it would cost us about 83 bucks. Way too much for us. We had stayed in a bungalow last night for 500 and the night before for 800 baht. They were very nice, don't get me wrong, but these Banyan bungalows were on an entirely different level. After the tour had finished we discussed how we would proceed, and then headed to reception to enact our plan. We wanted to make sure we didn't offend her, and, before the tour began, she stated that she was very very very flexible with the price. She had made it clear that we could name any price, but still we felt uneasy. These bungalows were very nice and we weren't quite sure how she would react to our plan. When we met her again, we started by saying the bungalows were incredibly nice, but that they might be out of our price range. She urged us to give her any price at all to work with and specify which one we liked best. We were both were hesitant, but then Anthony proceeded by saying that we had been staying in bungalows for around 800 baht in the past, and that's about where we'd like to stay. "Deal!" she said, "it's yours for 800. Which one would you like?" We were completely taken aback, and I didn't know what to say. We had nabbed a beautiful bungalow with an incredible ocean view for less than a third of the price. Amazing. Her generosity continued when she noticed our squid fishing rigs. She urged us to go fishing with one of the kayaks while her amazing staff readied our bungalow. "If you catch anything, we'll cook it up for you!" We headed straight to the beach, hopped in the kayak, and began fishing. We ended up getting skunked, and after we let her know, she translated a couple of our staff her Thai staff members, who apparently are great at squid fishing, that gave us instructions of how to catch squid. So tonight, we plan on heading back out and catching some. Hopefully fresh squid will be on tonight's menu!