Well guys, I made it I'm here. I'm doing what I set out to do I guess. As I glance around, I realize I haven't been around this many white people in over a year and I'm not sure how I feel about it, I don't feel like one of them but I'm also a big minority being American. Most people come from Europe or Australia and I've yet to reach that toasty flavor they all have in their skin.
Yesterday I met a couple young brits, 18 to be exact, who are on a round the world holiday before they start college. Really good kids, younger than my sister but they don't seem like it, or maybe she's the same and I don't realize it (very likely). We were on the same bus from Bangkok to That in order to catch a boat to an Island the following morning and started to talk. They had only been traveling for less than a week and were full of questions. We decided to go ahead and try to stick together since we were going to the same place. We found a little guest house that cost 60 Baht, which translates to about 2$. The guest houses here don't seem like hostels in the traditional sense, at least not this one. It was called "Friendly Guesthouse" and was hosted by a small and inviting old man sitting on his porch. Really, it's like they had tacked on a couple small rooms made of cardboard with a fan to invite travelers to. This is a small port town, mainly a layover to get onto the island and not a destination in and of itself. I wandered the streets a bit while Thom and Harriet (yes, Harriet) showered. The walk was a beautiful series of alleyways lit by an occasional palm branch of a fluorescent light. The perriodic rush of a small scooter lighting up the hidden passages and dancing by with kids or adults or combinations of them all on top and alert. To my right Bob Marley beckoned me into a bookstore where french voices overpowered the music. The owner had moved here a couple years ago and decided to open it up, I imagine the 2 year old 1/2 Thai and French little girl had something to do with it as well. I wandered on, discovering numerous other guesthouses with one night stays checking email and drinking beer and even a posh little cafe blaring from a corner with palm branches, full of light and wine glasses. The weather is what you would imagine, tropical, and everyone seems slowed by it in comparison to Bangkok, the streets are wider and less cluttered by cars and taxis. The homes resemble store fronts, and usually are. They welcome the street and the occasional passer by. Mattresses are laid simply on the ground, a tv on the floor provides a hum to what is otherwise are streets that seemed turned off. Wandering through the streets and later sharing a beer with my two companions on the street reminded me of part of why I came here.
So this morning, we awoke and began our journey to the Island Ko Chang. It's the northernmost island in the gulf between Thailand and Cambodia. After being crammed into the back of a modified pick up truck/taxi to the dock, a ferry took us on a slow trip to the island which never seemed very far and seemed not to grow as we approached. From there, another truck taxi for about 45 minutes until we reached the location we had semi-decided on, Lonely Beach. Now 4 of us hopped off having added a brutally serious Swede named Matias (not a typo) on the ferry over who had a couple days before been bitten by a street dog in Bangkok and had to stick around a couple extra days to get the necessary shots.
The housing here, for the backpackers, are small huts or beach bungalows. Some are made of bamboo or wood with thatched roofs. Nicer one on other parts of the island are more heavily constructed of wood and glass and air conditioned. At first I decided to crash with Matias in one of the huts at the end of the beach but found only one bed, no electricity nor fan. Wanting cheap, I needed those two things if only to charge my electronic addictions. I decided to defect to the place the other kids went to next door and pay out the 300 Baht (about 7$) for my own place that has an enclosed outdoor shower and toilet in addition to the fan and electrical outlet. Even though this is insanely cheap, it's actually out of my price range at the moment, In fact, I don't have much a price range, I'm sitting drinking instant coffee while everyone is out socializing and having real drinks because I don't think I can really afford it. I have a tad bit more in the bank, and a little in travelers checks but Japan killed me, largely the 500$ computer repair I had to shell out when my iBook logic board suddenly died. Anyway, I feel so lame talking about money so I'll stop it, it will work itself out.
The water is beautiful, you get waves of slightly cold tickling your feet and warm water massaging the rest of your body. I've never been in this environment, I've never been to Cancun or anywhere in the Caribbean or any of those places people go on spring break or summer holiday with these kinds of waters. It's all so incredibly new for me. I used to joke about not being much of a beach person because so much of my experiences were of tar covered Texas beaches littered with beer cans and jellyfish with showers holding industrial soaps in the showers to scrub off the remnants of oil tanker spills. Here, the sand is postcard powdery soft, coconuts do grow on trees and there are four small islands that seem close enough to swim, one of which might actually be. The water is still only chest deep a hundred yards out and the blue/turquoise color simply doesn't seem real. The meats have all just been grilled over a huge charcoal grill by two performance minded tattooed Thais and are served with pieces of pineapple and a Thai lime pepper sauce. My meal, which was actually more than I needed, cost about 3.50, less than a high school kid spends in the cafeteria. Beer is about a buck a bottle and juice drinks and "backpacker buckets" are popular here which contain a fifth of Thai whisky, a red bull and then topped off with coke, something I haven't indulged in. There must be at least 6 different languages I've heard spoken in addition to another half dozen English accents. So far, I'm the only American.
Each little settlement of cabins has it's own restaurant. The music of choice is chill down-tempo and the one I'm sitting at now has a little dance floor set up for later in the evening. Everyone is sitting on pillows or mats as their food is served. I've seemed to have nabbed the only chair and am sitting in a corner. Things will work out, I can hear the ocean behind me and I should go study some Japanese. Pictures as soon as I can hook up my laptop for a period of time.
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"He had often felt anguish before, and it wold be no wonder if it came at such a moment, when he was preparing , the very next day, having suddenly broken with everything that had drawn him there, to make another sharp turn, entering upon a new, completely unknown path, again quite as lonely as before, having much hope, but not knowing for what, expecting much, too much, from life, but unable himself to define anything either in his expectations or even in his desires."
- Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karmazov
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