Now that I have allowed ample time
to collect my thoughts on Thailand, the problem is remembering all of them! In
my twenty-odd days of traveling in the Land of Smiles I covered quite a bit of
ground, starting in the southern islands and jaunting as far north as the
Golden Triangle. My trip was
divided by three main destinations: Koh Phangan Bangkok, and Chiang Mai. Accordingly, I have decided to order my
Thailand entries chronologically and according to vicinity.
My journey started on the perfect
note as I indulged in sampling some domestic suds at the Auckland Beer festival
whilst awaiting my departure.
After a couple hours of socializing with boisterous folks of all shapes
and sizes and nationalities I decided that Black Duck’s Porter was my favorite
out of the bunch and headed to Auckland International.
After traveling for about fifteen
hours I finally landed in Bangkok, disorientated and exhausted. My white New York Giants t-shirt was
drenched the moment I stepped off my plane and this moist trend would continue
for the entirety of my three-week journey; Thailand’s apoplectic heat was as
constant as it was unavoidable. My
thick New York blood wasn’t intended for a sweltering climate and my skin and
shirt conflated within moments of setting foot on the tarmac.
Trying
to organize a cab brought me to the infallible realization that I had
hopelessly marooned myself in a country where I had no means of communicating
with the locals. Luckily one of
the members of the group I was meeting spoke fluent Thai and my visceral
conversation abruptly halted as I shoved my phone in the cab driver’s ear.
My first night in Thailand was
spent in Bangkok, gyrating amongst great friends to the pulsating bass that
engulfed us upon our arrival at RCA.
It was a Sunday and the clubs were packed. We had enjoyed a severe
Thonging prior to our arrival and
spirits were high. We marveled at
the fact that we, three UMW alumni, were in Bangkok, reunited over fourteen
thousand miles away from where we first met.
Our
ephemeral reunion ended the following evening, as I had to catch my flight to
Surat Thani. We exchanged goodbyes
and I commenced a journey to Koh Phangan that would take me that evening and
the whole next day.
After my flight I caught a
bus.
After my bus I caught a
tuk-tuk.
After my tuk-tuk I caught a
ferry.
After my ferry I was corralled into
a taxi fleet staging area where countless taxi drivers apathetically rejected
my request. My destination was Mai
Pen Rai, a hotel on the isolated northeast corner of the island that offered
cliff side bungalows overlooking the sapphire blue waters of the Gulf of
Thailand. Apparently the already
treacherous dirt roads had further washed out during a heavy rain earlier in
the week. Eventually I got a nod
and was welcomed into the tin-covered bed of a rusted pick-up by a smiling
English couple that was just as clueless as I was about the maniac who was
about to take the wheel. Within
moments of my butt hitting the raw tin bench we were off, careening dangerously
through the dense jungle verdure atop a rutted orange dirt road.
We laughed to each other through
clenched teeth as we raced around hairpin turns wildly, hiccupping across the
smaller bumps and flying through the air on the larger ones. The driver tried to kick me out at one
point, telling me to walk from there and proceeded onwards down a steep
embankment after I adamantly rejected his barely comprehendible demands.
We drove another half hour until
finally reaching Mai Pen Rai and I couldn’t have been happier. I couldn’t help but laugh at the
concerned faces of the English couple peering out from the gloomy cavern of the
pickup’s bed as they disappeared in a cloud of dust and exhaust fumes. I was inundated with complacency having
breached language barriers via wild gestures and shouting to reach my esoteric
paradise.
Mai Pen Rai translates to “is no
problem” and that couldn’t have been any more suiting. I capitulated all of my thoughts of the
outside world and enjoyed a week feasting on freshly caught seafood and basking
in the sun between meals on the grainy tan sands of Haad Sadet. More often than not, I forgot about my
bed and slept in my bungalow’s hammock with my book on my chest. I had made it to Asia and found myself
lulled into a peaceful trance by the tranquil ways of the Koh Phangan’s
inhabitants.
Only twice did I notice a break in
the islanders’ laid-back disposition; the first came whilst competing in a
soccer tournament where the Thai exhibited a fierce competitive nature. The second came to in a neon-clad mob
of thirty thousand partiers descending onto Haad Rin for a Full Moon Party
where the Thai kept pace throughout the night, dancing with their heads shoved
into buckets. The had sun set and
the moon rose in its glorious entirety.
My soccer team and I howled at the moon and proceeded to boogey the
night away.
Buckets were filled and emptied as
bass throbbed from what seemed like hundreds of subwoofer stacks. Each bar had its own PA system and each
PA system had its own genre of electronic music cracked to its maximum
capacity.
Techno, house, dub, progressive
house, trance, psytrance, electro, euro disco, breakbeat, drum and bass,
moombahton, glitch hop and so much more…
My my, my my. The choices were endless. We danced and sang and laughed well
into the next day where we parted ways after exchanging contact information. I had two more days of tranquility on
the island after the madness of the Full Moon Party and I spent them on a
scooter, dodging the frothing Thai drivers while exploring the island.
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