Rasta Chill Ocean Bar

Day 1

Friday marked the first day of restorations and repairs on the upcoming beachside location of Rasta Chill. It is due to open in the high season to accommodate more people than just the current location. Pi Ning used to have a beach bar before and now he wants to continue operating on the beach. 

Around the time I got there, he was starting work on extending the bai jaak (ใบจาก) roof to cover more space. This was done by putting up bamboo beams and then fastening the bai jaak to the bamboo using metal wires. Bai jaak is a leaf that's commonly used for making weatherproof roofs. It can also be used as rolling paper for smoking.

Ning's dad and brother fastened the bai jaak onto the bamboo. After this part was completed, they ended up extending the roof a little more to cover about half the width as the first part.

Part of the kitchen area was also sealed off using bai jaak.

Day 2

I stopped by the site in the afternoon yesterday and saw that the kitchen had really come together nicely with shelves sand counters. The ceiling of the main part of the beach bar had been lifted as well. They were trying to figure out what was wrong with the electricity because it wasn't working. Ning told me something about how the owners of the land built using concrete, which they later found out wasn't approved by the government. And that, in turn, complicated the running of electrical cables through the place.

Shown above, is a picture of Bird, who helped me with picking up trash and other tasks. 

George scoured the beach for hours and came back with pieces of wood that could be used in the renovations. Then, I would take the wood and remove the nails or otherwise hammer them up against the boards of wood so that the wood could be reused. Taking the nails out was like removing old energies in the wood so that new energy could come in. It was an act of repurposing the wood with new and positive intentions.