Today I went exploring on the beaches of Koh Samet, an island in Thailand a few hours from Bangkok. As I was walking along, I saw these little holes in the ground and I wasn’t sure what they were. Next to them were little spheres of sand; they were perfectly round and very tiny. I moved my head closer to get a better look. Then, a few seconds later, I saw a little thing moving in one of the holes. Suddenly I saw a little crab. Then I looked around me — it turns out there were tons of them! I was kind of scared at first because I thought they might pinch me, and I was pretty overwhelmed by how many there were, but when I moved my feet, they all ran away deep in their holes. It turns out they were more scared that I was going to hurt them! When I inched away, they came out a little bit, then more, and then more, until the whole section of beach was again covered with busy sand crabs.
We sat and watched them for a long time, and tried to imagine what their lives are like. My mom thought that the little spheres were the sand that they dug up while they were making the holes, and I noticed that some of them made beautiful patterns in the sand that looked like things like the sun or other designs. The sand crabs probably thought we were just big stompers that ruined their hard work every day. I felt a little sorry to step on them, but there was not really a way around them.
Here in Koh Samet, we are always going to the beach and looking at different things. The beaches are all connected by small trails through the trees. There are a lot of fish and coral in the water, and the air feels refreshing and hot at the same time. The water is very warm, with little waves. There are a lot of cute dogs here, including one puppy owned by a worker at our bungalow — he’s the cutest puppy I’ve ever seen. I play with him every day. At night, we go to restaurants on the beach where we sit outside. Every night people come and do amazing dances with fire for us to watch: they light sticks and hoops on fire and twirl them and throw them in the air. We can feel the heat from their fire and the patterns they make are beautiful. Koh Samet is awesome. I love it here.
Those little sand spheres — are they like what happens when you make dribbly sand castles (if you know what I mean)?
Great entry, Jonah; I’d be playing with the puppy too.
no the spheres were much more perfect than the dribble sand castles.
That sounds amazing and beautiful!
We wish we could be there with you guys.
We wish you could be here too. Maybe you should come?
cool!
Thanks, Marc. I hope you’re having a good 2016 so far.
Thank you, Jonah. I loved reading this and could picture thousands of sand crabs under your feet! I happy to hear you love it in Koh Samet. I hope that I am able to visit Thailand someday.
Thanks for reading, Sarah! Hope you can come visit us 🙂
Jaina says: HI, say hi to a crab for me! I want to see a picture of you with short hair.
I miss you.
Hi Jaina (and family)–I’ve relayed your message to all crabs. Miss you too.
My dad uploaded some photos of me to my mom’s last blog post, called “Transitions” — check them out!
Jonah – it seems you are learning a lot about observation and empathy. AND – puppies !
Yes I am!
Sounds awesome, Jonah. I’ve seen those little guys. I was worried at first too, but they’re very good at getting out of the way. The puppy sounds so fun.
Puppies ARE very fun!
I love reading about all your adventures. I should have known you would find interesting, cute and delightful creatures.
It’s one of my specialties 🙂
Talk to you soon!
Love this! 🙂
Yeah, it was really cool.
That sounds magical! Wish you had a GoPro! Say hello to the puppy for us!
– Ava and Miles
Ok the puppy says,”hi” right back Talk to you soon