2001-08-06 - 8:20 p.m.

ko pee pee

remember how i said i wanted to go for a swim?

welllll....

i wanted to boat over to a really rollin beach, but as stubborn as i was i figured i'd walk. someone said you can walk the beach. i couldn't get it out of his broken english on whether there was a road or not.

(there are no cars here only foot paths and a few motorbikes. heaven. i love a country that REQUIRES you not to wear shoes in the market. basically, i'm bikini clad and footloose and fancyfr..well you get the point).

so i'm walking the beach,, the beach becomes rocks. i walk around the rocks, well stumble. then there are more rocks forcing me further out. i get stuck.

really fucking stuck! among coral and sharp sharp rocks hidden in inches of water. so i try to climb across the rocks on land, no go. there's crabs everywhere, once over the crab fear, i keep trying on the rocks, but they are so slippering, with sharp knife like edges, that i am forced back in the water where animals are nudging at my bare legs. i thought i saw an octopus. i know there might be jelly fish.

waves are pushing me into the rocks. i'm a fucking mess. i can't flag a boat. by this time i decide the only way is to swim over the rocks, so i tank my book and towel and make a go of it.

horrid. every now and then i get sliced by a coral or rock jutting out at the surface. this is supposed to be paradise. i'm bleeding now and hoping i don't attract little or large fisherino's.

so i develop the mollie one armed, one inch of water swim.

i end up at the amazing beach, bleeding in three places, with a wet towel and book, exhausted, pissed and bruised. i boat right back and shower and lick my wounds.

it's not all butter babies, so don't get so jealous.

cush and i are chatting online and he's asking me to come back after bali and extend my trip with him. defer my loans. everything. i'm very very tempted. i also might get very tempted to drink with him. what would you do?