When I went to visit Patong Beach, I was delighted to find the sand teeming with live little clams that could be caught burrowing whenever the tide washed away the sand hiding them.   I happily spent the next two hours digging them up and taking pictures and videos of them climbing back down again.  It was truly an amazing time for me, since I love creatures of most sorts and it was my first time seeing clams in a natural habitat and not at the market.  The next day, I went to check out a different beach with the hopes of finding more of them, but the sand was rougher and there was hardly any life to be found.

After much searching, I finally found a clam, but the waves soon caught me off-guard and washed it away.  Then, I spotted a big one trying to get back under the sand!  I quickly grabbed it and happily examined him, then tried to film him burrowing, but he clammed up and wouldn’t cooperate.  Not long after, it began to rain and we were all chased from the beach by the drops.  As I was making my way towards land, I came across a pointy shell wiggling its way into the sand.  Thrilled, I quickly grabbed it and admired my new prize.  Now I had two of these sea creatures and went to ask for a bottle.  The guy selling drinks gave me a bag, which I filled with sand and water and brought it back with me.

At the hostel, I wasn’t sure about the policy on bringing back such things, so I quietly took them upstairs and went out to find a container to put them in.  I ended up finding a styrofoam bowl and transferred them over.  The sea snail with the pointy shell was an active one, always coming out  to climb around whenever I put him on top of the sand.  He left a little slimey trail with sand clinging to it and made a small indent in the surface of the sand as he moved around.  The clam, however, was super boring and just lay there for hours.  I guess he was trying to get used to the still water and the little bit of stirring I did was not enough to simulate the ocean’s waves.

The next day, I was going to take them back to the ocean, so I put them on the floor of the “bus” (it’s like a truck with seats and a cover put on the back).  As soon as we started driving, they came alive!  The clam popped up to the surface and stuck out his siphoning extensions, then used him tail thing to move around, occasionally jumping too!  The sea snail got back to work trying to climb up the walls of the bowl only to find his shell was too heavy for him halfway up.  He’d fall over and flip himself rightside up again, then crawl along the sides of the bowl before going down into the sand.  It was great for me to watch, especially when the clam would retreat as soon as the car stopped moving.

It’s a pity I couldn’t keep them, but as a fellow hosteler pointed out, they wouldn’t get through customs.  However, Panda is willing to get an aquarium one day, so I can get some then!  I also want starfish and sea cucumbers and anemone and sea horses and sea urchins and shrimp!  It’s going to be one intense aquarium, I tell you.  However, I’m going to have to wait a few years before I can afford to maintain such a thing.  So for now, I’ll just enjoy the life that I can find when I go to the beach to play around.