A Treasure Island
When I feel the scorching sun sting my skin, the cool ocean breeze brushes against me, washing away the pain in no time. Sometimes it is the cold raindrops that tap on the forehead and rolls down the body, cooling the hot summer heat that had been trapped for hours and hours. On very rainy days, the sea level slowly rises with the heavy rainfall and everyone tends to stay indoors. Then, the nice beach stretching out as far as the horizon becomes meaningless. However, the sky and the ocean portrays a marvelous scene again where growling thunder fills the entire sky and flashing lightening strikes down into the deep blue sea water. When the rain ceases, the sky gifts another surprise. It is like an endless magic show. Seven colors embroider the sky like gorgeous strips of satin, and the sun peeks out again, warming the world with its smile.
In the middle of this capricious weather stands a huge, white condominium with its outstanding columns, evoking images of Ancient Greek's Ionic architecture. The building is one of the tallest buildings around, upping more than 40 floors above ground level. At the entrance is a small sign with the name 'Sky Beach Condominium, Pattaya.' Enter, and you see the palm trees waving their big, green hands with warm welcome. Right before the building, there is a small golden statue of Buddha placed in a small white temple-like building, decorated with colorful fabrics and scented candles. All of these together create a peaceful atmosphere. It is indeed very silent until when one hears groups of children having fun and bursting into laughter. I was always one of the children. This place was my second home.
The condominium had a small artificial lake where numerous big fish dwelled in. They seemed to enjoy the company of those people who came by with handfuls of fish feed, as they often tried to jump out of the water like dolphins and splashed water all over the place. My shoes and feet got wet. I used to go down to the ground floor whenever I got bored, bought myself a bag of fish food from the supermarket with a single 10-baht coin and just sat there on the white bench, feeding the many fish. The fish really went crazy for food, almost if they were starving every single day. This was one of the ways I used to spend time with my friends after school.
There were a lot more to do at the condominium. At the back side of the building, a staircase made of white marble led to a magnificent swimming pool. The pool had blue tiles and a big starfish pattern engraved on the floor of the largest of the four pools. My friends and I always headed downstairs with our swim tubes, flippers and sometimes even water guns to have great fun in the water. There was even a little bar under a white dome right by the pool, but this was never used as a bar for drinking. When we realized that this wasn't being used, we splashed water in it and made it our playground. We just lay on the ground with our faces down and let our bodies slide around.
And we had our greatest adventure when we finally found a very secret place that we never imagined would exist. Right beside the smallest swimming pool was a small artificial waterfall, created with fake rocks and pebbles surrounding around the tiny lake where the water was to fall down. However, this was never managed properly and it was always dry, missing its most important part: water. So we liked to climb on the rocks as if it were forming a little rocky mountain, but we had never thought of going all the way up, thinking it way too dangerous. However, as with most kids, one day we were overfilled with adventure spirit that one of us actually reached the very top of the waterfall. To our surprise, there was an empty space. It was big enough for us to walk around. This was a very exciting discovery for us. Since then, this place became our favorite hideout and we just spent hours and hours there. We read books, we played hide and seek and we played a lot of other games. None of our parents could find us when we were there. We were captivated in this new world of ours.
At this condominium I spent 5 years of my childhood. I have not had the chance to revisit since I left Thailand, but Sky Beach Condominium will always bear great significance deep in my heart. The truth is that my precious memories still reside in that place, and all the treasures will be brought back to life the moment I visit a most special place to me once again.
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