Island Adventure
Well I guess its been a while since my last blog... After my massage course, I was led down to the beautiful island of Koh Phangon on the request of a massage buddy to check out a retreat down there. Anyway, I wanted to check the island out before because it is mostly a backpacker's island, and remains yet untouched by the big resorts, Starbucks, and McDonald's. The retreat there was excellent, but after all of these retreats, I was hungry for some fun, so I decided to go visit a friend also from the massage course who was staying on the other side of the island. I got a taxi to Hatt Rin, which is the town where they have the full moon parties, and knew instantly that I didn't want to be staying there for very long...(overall skanky vibe, not the type of place I wanted to be hanging out)...So I got a long tail boat to Hatt Tien where my friend was doing a fast. Anyway, some guy on the taxi had told me that if I was heading to that part of the island that I should stay at Bamboo Hut, "Good luck though, it is usually full." he says..."O.K." I say though. "Thanks for the advise." My friend is doing a fast at a different resort called "The Sanctuary," I'd seen adds for it all over Northern Thailand, but its know to be low quality and expensive, so I want to stay someplace else anyway.
Anyway, it was a cloudy day and waves looked a little rough, but I had nothing to compare it too really, so I told the boat drivers that I wanted to go to Hatt Tien, and they told me to wait a little bit for more people, so I sat down on the beach and waited.
About twenty minutes later, the boat guy comes back with about 10 Israelis, and a bunch of food supplies for the places on the other side, and we set off for Hatt Tien. I guess its only about 10-15 minutes away.
Anyway, getting on the long-tail (basically just a wooden little boat) is kind of an ordeal, I get really wet, but all I'm thinking about is my computer (why am I traveling with a laptop again?) Anyway, we are all loaded and take off when it becomes aparent that we are in quite a precarious situation...the waves are huge, and thank God that this boat driver really knows what he is doing (the boats have a car engine and a rutter to power and stear them) because there were numerous waves that could of taken us all out. One of the Israeli girls starts yelling at the boat driver, "Please, turn around, turn around!"
The Israelis are really dramatic!! Anyway, it would have caused way more problems to turn around, and some other girls told me that there was a beach just around the cove called Hatt Yuan, before the beach I was going to, Hatt Tien, so I decided that it would probably be best to get off there. So we trudge along for about ten minutes, and I'm just thinking, "Well, if it is my destiny to go overboard with my computer than it is my destiny." But I'm also saying lots of prayers that we get to the beach safely (I really like my computer : )
So we get to shore, and the boat driver is yelling to the guys on the beach for a good ten minutes back and forth... I think that they were trying to figure out how to get us and everything off. So after this yelling a bunch of guys come out and start carrying out things to shore over their head, but they are all wet up to their chest. I see my backpack with my computer arrive safely at shore, and take a deep breath of relief. Ahh, its o.k., I jump off the boat, and am also soaked up to my chest, pay the boat driver, and some people tell me that its a twenty minute walk to the next beach over where my friend is.
Anyway, I put on my big backpacker's backpack on my back, and then my other huge back pack on the front (traveling with wayy to much stuff!!) and my other little purse bag on my side and start trekking across the beach, up some boulder stairs, when I die of exhaustion at a restaurant, bungalow place just on top of the hill, situated on these huge boulders overlooking the whole bay. Although its cloudy, its still hot and humid, and I'm way too loaded down to really be hiking up mountains or anything.
The guys working there say "Hello, can we help you? Come in, have something to eat!" They can see how exhausted I am and help me with my bags, and I sit down to have some food. Knowing that I probably won't make it to the other side, I ask them if they have rooms, "One room left," they say. "Ohh, can I take it?" I ask.
"We save for you, you look at it, and if you don't like, then no problem."
Wow, they're nice, I say to myself. So I sit down on their patio which overlooks the whole beach. There are also these brilliant rugged mountains rising from the beach, with lush jungle and forrest on them. It is really breathtaking. There is something so perfect about the combination of beach and mountain, and for a moment I am reminded of Santa Barbara that also has this beautiful combination.
Anyway, I order, and am delighted with the presentation of food that I receive, it's so beautiful, almost too beautiful too eat, and quite a good, cheap price for the islands, and a large serving, quite unusual... Furthermore, I am blown away with every bite of food I take. This food is good, real good, my taste buds are orgasiming with every bite. So I finish, and take a look at the bungalow. It's pretty big, very clean, 24 hour eletricity, fan, bathroom, ocean view for 300 baht a night, (about eight US dollars), so I take it.
Finally, I ask them where I am, I'd forgotten that part, and they say, "Bamboo Hut" and I think, "Wow, what a coincidence, it was as if the universe or God, or whatever wanted me on that beach, at that bungalow resort, and had conspired to anger the waves enough that I would be forced to get off at Hatt Yuan and hike and collapse at Bamboo Hut."
So, I get situated, and trek over to the other side to visit my friend. I am actually quite content that I decided to get a room where I was because the hike is steep and arduous, although its only about 15 minutes, but there is no way that I could of done it with all of my stuff. Anyway, the next beach over is rocky, and has different energy, and it fails in comparison to my beach. I find my friend, and we chat, but she is busy with all of her fasting stuff, so I know that I am pretty much on my own.
So I woke-up the following morning to a beautiful, clear, cloudless day, and walked down to the restaurant, and was stunned by the beauty of this place. The ocean matched the color of the sky: perfect blue, highlighted with the deep-green, jungle forest mountains. This is a piece of paradise, I thought to myself. Everyone at the restaurant knew my name, and said, Meagan, How are you-kap? (They add Kap to the end of every phrase as a polite tense). Anyway, it was so nice, but their kindness almost made me feel uncomfortable and overwhelmed. My ego kicked in, saying, They probably think you are a loser, all by yourself.
About this time, I was also starting to tire of meeting people that I have a genuine connection with, only to bid them goodbye days later. This shyness started to infiltrate me, I no longer had the energy to put myself out there, only to make and lose friends so quickly. I noticed this big thai-style table, low to the ground, with lots of people sitting on cushions around it on the upper-level of the restaurant, but I took a seat at one of the tables on the lower level, by myself. The restaurant is typical thai style, being completely open, giving you a perfect view of the beach below. Anyway, I hungered for company, but was feeling devastatingly shy, so I sat all by myself. The food was again, mouthwateringly good, and surprisingly inexpensive. I ordered eggs and toast: the bread was homemade, and the eggs had to be free-range, garnished with a orchid flower, just to let you know how special you are!
I explored the beach and the two adjacent beaches. The third beach over, was really quiet, and there was just one bungalow resort there. The people were a little rude, and I thought to myself, Ahh, tomorrow, Ill move over here where I can be invisible. If I am going to be alone, might as well be invisible! It was funny, because I ran into some people that Id met a month before in Northern Thailand; I guess there is a specific tourist track.
That evening, I forced myself to go back down to the restaurant at Bamboo Hut. Now eating breakfast and lunch alone, I dont mind, I even enjoy, but there is something about the darkness, eating dinner alone that I do not like, I really prefer to eat dinner with people. Anyway, again haunted by this born-again shyness, I forced myself to go and sit at the bar. As I walked in, everyone said my name, Ahh, Meagan from California (yes, I was born in California, technically I am from California). Again, I was feeling overwhelmed by the attention, but I sat at the bar, walking past this big group of people at the big table. One of the guys who works there, Ya, brought someone over from the big table. Meagan, this is Michael Jackson from California. Not really Michael Jackson, but Michael from California. Anyway, this guy was funny and quirky, in his early forties. Hed made a million in the dot.com boom, and decided to sell his home in the bay area, and retire, giving himself a 35,000 a year budget, plenty of money for a single man. Michael became one of my good friends there.
Anyway, he introduced me to more people at the big table, and I found myself laughing with instant friends, just what the doctor ordered! There were a lot of people who come and go, but more who stayed for long periods of time calling this place home. Everyone seemed unique: artists, writers, yoga teachers, everyone with a unique story of how they managed to travel.
To regress for a moment, Id met this Australian guy the week before on this really isolated part of the island where I was doing my retreat. We shared a brief conversation at a coffee shop. I again was feeling super shy; he had started the conversation, but I could tell that there was something special about him: this brightness in his eyes, he had this really nice, soothing energy, and Id said a prayer, a couple of nights later, the night of the full-moon, that I would see him again, but as I left for this other part of the island, I let it go, knowing that there was no way he would also venture to this part of the island. He was renting a house where Id first met him, playing on-line poker full-time, traveling the world that way. Hed dropped-out of his physics, PHD program to follow his dreams and travel.
Anyway, I was wearing a baseball cap, and had my hair up in it, and I look up and see this same Australian guy looking at me, also part of the big table group. We chatted for a moment before I said, I think weve met before, and he says to me, Meagan, I didnt recognize you!! So that started my first island romance. We were both Leos, both felt out of touch with our Leo-ness, like it was somehow lost, and we were trying to get in touch with it, we were both exchange students in high school, and he had taught English in China, and here I am getting ready to teach in Thailand. But travelers romances seem to come and gohe left to go back to his house/work after a couple of days, and then was off to Europe. I did get a nice date out of it, and made a good friend. I mention it because it was one of many synchronistic experiences.
I left after a week of pure fun, again heading to another part of the island to check out this yoga school. Everything that week was perfect, and I wanted to leave it that way. Everyone told me that I would be back, but I wasnt so sure. Anyway, the yoga was cool, a full day of lectures, practice, and meditation, but the beauty, food, and people of Hatt Yuan called me back, and I realized that financially it was also cheaper to stay there, so I went back, and one week turned into three months
I have lots of good stories, made lots of friends, and learned so much about myself and the world through my friendships, both with Thais and other travlers, but Im saving those stories for later. I felt so taken care of by the staff there, and a lot of my anxiety about living in the east, guilt almost about being a foreigner here disappeared there. The food was really so good, and it seemed to nourish my soul. I got pretty sick one time, and also dislocated my knee. Its always hard for me to accept help, but everyone took care of me. It was a great feeling! I also left once or twice to check-out the adjacent islands, and for a little alone time when I was feeling overwhelmed by knowing absolutely everyone, and when I was getting a little bit of Island fever living on just one beach.
I met a couple of people with these bright eyes, I'll say, people who you can look at just know that you have something to teach each other, people that you know that you have known before. Some of them, I just knew for a day or two, just exchanged a conversation with, and some of them I got to know more intimately. Those rare gems, I'll say people who just, "get it."
Anyway, after three months, a few things made me realize that you cant live like this forever. I started longing for someplace where I would really be able to grow roots, and started longing to work again. So I find myself once again In Chiang Mai, back to plan A, teaching English, with a newfound comfort with myself, with THaialnd, with Thai people, and with the big world around me.
Im signed up for the TEFL course, which is a month long and certifies me to teach English. Ive already got lots of job leads, so I dont think work will be a problem! Its funny, I was signed up to take this course nearly eight months ago, and I dropped it, and sold my car to instead hang-out, take a Thai language course, do meditation, massage, and travel. Id felt plagued with this anxiety, and worry over not having, a plan, over taking this time out for myself, but in retrospect I see how everything worked out just as it was supposed to. I see the meaning in all of that, and see how it was choreographed by the man/woman upstairs, see how it all worked-out perfectly. Im not sure how Ill feel about the teaching English, where it will lead me. I have a lot of friends already teaching throughout Asia, Southeast Asia, and they all say its a lot of work, but Im feeling energized and looking forward to the challenge. I dont see it really being my professions, or see myself living here forever, but I think it will be great experience, a great learning lesson, and see it possibly being a stepping stone somewhere else! Cheers
