Sep/090
The Land of Smiles
The first stop in Thailand was Krabi, a town on the southeastern coast of Thailand. Krabi is usually used as a jumping off point for the east coast islands, but with the reports of dangerous tides and non-stop rain I said contained to day trips from Krabi where I saw bit of earth that were otherworldly. The landscape of south eastern Thailand is covered in hollow rocky mountains, that I was told were originally coral reefs that were calcified and gradually rose out of the ocean.
Helen and I took a kayak tour through the mangroves and mountain caves that were filled with three thousand year old hieroglyphs, and went to a small island with beautiful Riley Beach. While Thailand is famous for being the “land of smiles” the interaction with the local folks always seemed edgy and serious – the kind and warm Thailand where they praise westerners was still elusive to me.
During this time I developed a huge rash from the mattress I was sleeping on that covered my arms, hands and midsection, which was quite an omen for the next few days. The next stop was to be Koh Pangan – an island notorious for hippy backpacker parties, and after the day long journey there from Krabi Helen and I split as she went to visit her friend Elena that was on the other end of the Island from the more populated party area that I was eager to check out. The place is full of places catered to westerners – Italian food, burgers, music shops, back packer heaven. The prices were inflated from Krabi while there were still cheap eats to be had. One surprise is that Israeli’s are everywhere – they have restaurants with Hebrew menu’s and accommodations where all the signs are in Hebrew only.
The other big surprise is that for a place that has a reputation for being very cool and cutting edge, the music that is played at the bars and clubs is terrible - on par with your cousin Michael’s barmitzvah –Brittany Spears, Kanye autotuned remixes, and Akon are blast across the island and fill the tranquil bungalow where I am staying until 6am.
I got a call from my buddy Joel that he was coming to Koh Pangan, and we met up and realized that he had taken teaching classes for the last month with Ellens friend Alena So we got a map and found the beach they were staying, rented a motor bike, and away we went. The only problem was that the map showed roads going to the beach, which was not an accurate representation when the reality was more – dirt, rocks, and ditches. The only thing that really separated the “road” from the jungle was that on the “road” there were no trees, but I think taking a scooter straight through the jungle may have been easier.
The rocky slopes were so steep and so sandy that even with breaks we skidded down the mountains – with me driving and Joel on the back. During one especially treacherous path we took a spill in which the scooter ended up on my knee and left it bleeding. Joel was alright and the bike appeared fine. It could have certainly been much worse. When we arrived at Bottle Beach three hours after our departure we celebrated with the girls with a bottle of wine in the ocean looking at the sunset in the most tranquil peace of earth I’ve found. At that point I was stung in the testicles by a jelly fish which made quite an interesting sight with a rash covering much of my body, a bleeding knee, and swollen balls. It was a lovely night – we stayed on the beach as we couldn’t get back to our bungalos on the other side of the island at night.
The next day when we returned the bike the rental place insisted that has to replace most of the parts on the bike even for very minor scratches, including the plate underneath the bike that is designed to be scratched. Word to the wise – if you are going to rent a bike in a 3rd world country – get it form a place with bikes coved in punk stickers and scratches. We found out later that on the island it’s a regular racket to rent bikes in pristine condition and send tourists out on dirt trails and charge them a lot of minor scratches.
Later in the night was the black moon party – which was a proper rave on the beach. We paid a cabby to take us there but after giving him the money he still refused to leave and when I protested and got out of the car and asked for a refund he hit that gas and drove in my direction, either trying to scare me or flatten me, im not sure. After vehicular attempted murder he agreed to drive and next to him in the cab was his son who suffered from some kind of slowness or autism, and with his son in the seat the cab charged through the small mountain roads of the island with the intent to scare us, which it certainly did. I think Helen Joel and I were all scared for our lives for a good ten minutes.
While It had been a few odd and expensive thirty six hours the party made everything alright. We danced until seven in the morning to very heavy trance music, and when the sun came up dancing on the beach surrounded by smiling faces. The tide was out and people wandered out for what looked like miles on the oceans bottom in the saturated island light.
I’ve slept well for the last few days. Going to take it easy before saying goodbye to Helen who I’ll miss very much. Its strange how close to become with someone in adventures so far away from home. To Bangkok in a few days. Beach for now. An addendum from Ms. Helen:
I'd like to think Jesse's seen Thailand's "land of smiles" but I think that went out of the window when the tourism marketing campaign ended about 10 years ago! So he's now in probably the trashiest touristville that is Haad Rin in Koh Pangan (an island on the west coast), with ear plugs firmly planted after midnight to block out Britney Spears as it rattles off the sea water from the beach sound systems. However, day time is pretty idyllic, sitting here perched up high on the rocks in a bungalow looking out to the blue water and perfect sky. Can't complain really...
We did split for a few days but after a spectacular rendez-vous at Bottle Beach with Jesse driving up dirt tracks on a tiny scootter with another boy on board, he turns up hours later, dishevelled, cuts and grazes, dust and dirt with bottle of red wine in hand to drink in the cool sea waters. I say mission accomplished! Good work Jesse...or should that be 'so AWEsome dude!"
However nice this island is, not sure beach action is so much his thing, especially if there's no WiFi involved for the techno-head that he is. Rather happy to know he'll be hitting hot, sweaty, polluted Bangkok soon for his fix of city life, wierdness, transvestites (and vegan food). Ha, he's in for a treat! Keep your eyes peeled for the photos, I'm sure they'll shock and impress, in true Jesse style.
All the pics on facebook here.