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Unfortunately, however, the number of tourists has fallen once again. They are mainly holidaymakers and overwinterers of retirement age; married couples, small mixed groups; younger tourists still in working life are in the clear minority. Swedes, Dutch, English and several Germans; in addition, three or four French. Of course, it is the plummeting currencies that play the main role in the absence of Western tourists. The US Dollar, the Pound Sterling and our disaster Euro have lost more than a third of their value against the Baht. At the same time, the Baht is also very strong; in recent years, a lot of foreign capital has flowed to Thailand, for example because of the better interest rates. The Thai balance of payments shows a strong plus. The strong Baht is causing great difficulties for the domestic export industry. Thai goods and services are increasingly becoming too expensive. Moreover, neighbouring countries are much cheaper; wage and income levels there are well below those of Thailand. I suspect that the Thai central bank, in agreement with the government, will devalue the Baht by quite a lot in the near future. Due to this unfortunate currency situation many Farlangs cannot come anymore, especially pensioners. Many western holidaymakers are beginning to switch to the neighbouring countries. Cambodia also has beautiful and still largely undeveloped beaches in its south. Vietnam attracts more and more western tourists. The reason might be that these countries are a good third cheaper than our kingdom. But the native Thais are using their beaches more and more. During the weekdays in the late afternoon - i.e. after work - around 5 p.m. some of them come with their cars, pickups, scooters from the surrounding area for one or two hours to swim, picnic; the children play and romp on the beach, live out their urge to move. In the evenings in the darkness there are always a few young lovers on the beach and enjoy their togetherness. The pleasant temperatures of about 25 degrees and the light onshore wind make the evening a pleasure. It gets dark very quickly; when the sun sinks below the horizon at about 6.20 pm, the twilight lasts at most 20, 25 minutes, then darkness prevails. After dusk I often sit at the table in front of the kiosk that my bungalow landlords run. There I have WiFi - internet reception -, read the German newspapers, magazines, blogs etc. and get excited, my blood pressure and heart rate rise ... I close the notebook and go to the next beach bar, watch the pool, chat with the guests about this and that, about all and sundry and drink a Changbier, enjoy the light evening breeze .... My evening workplace in front of the kiosk. The evening beach road, behind it is the beach; a couple of lovers with their scooters, further back a few Thais are enjoying the beach. From the open doors of the pickup truck loud Thai music sounds. It's about 7.30 pm; a few minutes later they were all gone and I sit all alone in the light evening breeze with Changbier and my notebook. Enough for one go. Stay tuned There is more to come Live from Hat Thung Wua Laen - Your voice from the beach PS: I'm going to take a bath now. Only near the shore, of course. The water there is a pleasant 26 degrees. Envious? Get on a plane! Moderator - Khun Sanuk - the program does not let me upload more pictures. It reports with an error message, which is incomprehensible to me. Here should be a picture of the beach in the evening.