The tide!  Wow I have never lived with the tide before.  The closest I have been is visiting relatives in Ventura CA.  Yes I have seen the water higher at times and called that high tide but this was intense.  When the tide is low the hike to and from the gathering is easy, mostly sand and a few smooth rocks.  At high tide you basically have to scale the few rocks still visible.  It is safer to travel to/from the gathering at low tide but the supply boats can only come at high tide.  Also the times change almost an hour each day.  Being this close and living in a hammock brought me so much closer to this cycle.  I feel that even if I was living by the ocean in the states I wouldn’t have this experience because I would hide in my house and not notice as much.  The scariest tidal experience was after the party on Ao Chak beach.  There were large rocks and a small stream when we hiked in at low tide.  When we realized the tide had almost caught us on this other beach and tried to hike back we found the little stream to be a river over 6 ft deep and not even a ledge to try to walk back on.  Mother nature had won.  We slept on this beach in a big rainbow cuddle puddle around the fire.  I was pillow for two at one point and no matter how I tried to keep my hair out of the sand in the end I surrendered and just laid my head down.  It wasn’t the best sleep and also it was quite cold at night even with the fires and friends.  I ended up hiking back at low tide at 4 am.