A Little Slice of Heaven

If you don’t want to hate me, it might be best to stop reading now...

Last Saturday I arrived in Thailand, and so far it has really been like a little slice of tropical heaven. All the pictures I had seen and all the hype I had heard have actually proved to be close to true. I dare not say this of course, because I am part of the problem: yet another tourist “discovering” this beautiful , friendly, inexpensive country complete with fabulous food and fruit. The area suffers from the constant tourist debate—how much is too much? Every tourist will complain about it ironically, but the truth is that the islands of Southern Thailand where I’ve been are so lovely that they deserve to be enjoyed albeit responsibly and some seem to be maintaining that balance for the moment, so fingers crossed. Of course I have to heed my mother’s experience, as she still imagines Phuket as an untouched paradise that she knew 30 years ago, and from fellow travelers I know this to no longer be true and in fact the opposite.

I arrived in Krabi, Thailand, from Penang, Malaysia, by minibus which came to fetch me from the doorstep of my guesthouse at 5am. Sometimes as a traveler one just goes with the easy option—this was such a time. I had far flung dreams of visiting the Perhentian Islands on the northeast coast of Malaysia or heading up by ferry hopping to Langkawi , another popular Malaysian resort island, but the minibus was a straight shot up to Krabi to meet a girl I’d met in the Cameron Highlands, and I just got lazy frankly. I rolled onto the minibus with sleepy eyes, and nine hours and one border crossing later, I had arrived in the seaside town of Krabi. But this was not my end destination. I then had to hop on a longboat—literally a long boat—the only transport to Rai Leh Beach, a gorgeous beach at the tip of the peninsula that is surrounded by steep limestone cliffs and thus only accessible by boat. That’s right: there are no car or motorbikes on the island which made it a very laidback, pedestrian friendly place—a nice change after months of feeling like target practice for cars after my glory days as a pedestrian in NYC. The Westside of the peninsula has the nicer beach and highend resorts, and the east beach (which at lowtide tends to look like a very unparadise like mudflat) has the more budget accommodations—yep I was there! The girl I was meeting, Kim from San Fran, was doing a three day rock climbing course, and had booked us for a place that ended up being a bit sketchy (ie lots to be desired in the bathroom especially!) and so upon discovering this, we made plans to switch to a much nicer bungalow resort for the next two nights.

I spent my first day lounging on the beach, after a hardy hike up with Kim, her climbing classmate, Deb (also a New Yorker!), and instructor Tex (pronounced Tek). I’m a big wimp clearly, so I was impressed with myself for taking the steep jungle trek up to the lookout where they BEGAN their ascent. Geez, these girls are hardcore. The next day Kim and I hiked up a treacherous climb and then back down a similar descent to find a lagoon that had been talked up by various people on the beach. They were not kidding: perhaps one of the most beautiful and unique places I’ve ever been. Even though you knew many, many people had been there, it felt very untouched. Then it was time to meet Deb for another lazy afternoon on the beach. After a cheap pedicure with (too bright?) pink polish, a nice dinner of padthai (amazing) and some beers at one of the very chill bars strung with lights and complete with a nine year old putting on a fire show, we packed up our bags to head to yet another paradise destination that is raved about: Koh Phi Phi (pronounced, Koh Pee Pee) where the film “The Beach” was filmed.

We arrived via ferry and then boarded another longboat to travel to one beach over from the main port called Hat Yao, or Long Beach. Our accommodation was up approximately 100 stairs, no joke, but the bungalow was affordable and surprisingly spacious and clean, and the view from the restaurant was spectacular. We ordered green curry and pad thai for lunch along with the most delicious shakes yet, huge and made with fresh fruit mango. Then we lazed on the public beach and I rented a mask and snorkel to explore the shallow reefs just off shore filled with colorful fish. Then came the best hour in Thailand yet: a coconut oil massage. After a riveting sunset complete with some rain and rainbows, we booked massages at beautiful thatched roof huts hidden behind mangrove trees just a few metres from the lapping tide. For the next hour, I was in heaven—and I cam e out of the whole thing smelling pretty excellent as well! After a healthy dinner of fried rice at one of the few beach bars which was strung with lights, we called it a night to be up early to do some more snorkeling. Unfortunately rough seas made the snorkeling less pleasant, and as we had felt bold to only get masks and forgo the fins (read: too cheap) we tired out quickly and had to calm ourselves to make it back to shore. Good prep however for our next activity: a PADI open water scuba certification course in Koh Tao on the east coast for which we were heading that evening on an overnight ferry. After a couple more fruit shakes (pineapple, banana, watermelon, gosh they were good), we took a longboat to a ferry to a bus to a shuttle to Surathani, the port town, where we boarded our 11pm ferry along with 50 some roommates. That’s right—it was certainly the biggest dorm I’d ever stayed in. Thin, narrow mattresses and tiny pillows lined the circumference of the top floor of the boat, and we all slept like sardines lined up in a can. Very cozy, as a New York apartment advertisement would say! We had filled our bellies with delicious food from the nightstalls lining the port which had a great atmosphere, and perhaps the best mango and sticky rice dessert I have ever had the privilege to eat. If you don’t know what that is, go to your nearest Thai restaurant and beg them to make it for you—you won’t be sorry.

I slept like a baby actually, and woke the next morning as the boat was docking at the port on Koh Tao. We took a free taxi shuttle provided by one of the dive resorts to check out various dive and accommodation options and settled on Ban’s Diving Resort which we had heard good things about and which gave us free accommodation during the course. We settled into our room, grabbed lunch at one of the cute beachside cafes with pillow lounge seating and hit the beach for a bit before it was time for class orientation in the late afternoon. After an incredibly boring 2 hour intro video to diving (how am I going to go back to school, yikes), we adjorned until the next morning, when we had more class-time with our instructor, Flav, who was much more animated and interesting in an airy classroom overlooking the beach. That afternoon we did our first dive, a contained one in the pool where we reviewed equipment and practiced skills such as taking off our mask under water and subsequently emptying it and working to regulate our BCD (buoyancy control device, basically an inflatable lifejacket) and control our breaking through the regulator in order to maintain our position on the floor of the deep end. There were moment of panic (am I breathing? Really? Underwater??) but the class of 7 of us all prevailed. So Kim and I celebrated with sunset snacks and beers on the beach on bean bags at one of the chill bars strung with colorful lanterns, lights, and candles.

The next day we had our first two open water dives! We boarded the shuttle boat at half past seven, set up our gear, reviewed the basics, donned our wetsuits, and just after 9am we set off into the murky depths of Mango Bay for our first dive. Unfortunately the visibility was horrible, but we reviewed important skills and tried to work on our orientation in 11 meters of water, weightlessness, strange sounds, objects appearing larger and closer. After a requisite service break for an hour, we were off to another dive site, Twin Rocks for our second dive. Here the water was incredibly clear and we saw bright fish, coral, sea worms, etc. There were more skills to practice, before it was back to the island for more classtime.

Then yesterday morning we had our last two dives and saw many fish, a Moray eel, beautiful coral, and played around in the water feeling the glory of being weightless as if in outerspace. Then we came back dry land to take our final exam--I passed with a 90%, not too bad for a rusty student! In the afternoon we went snorkeling at a nearby bay where we saw over a dozen black tip reef sharks swimming just a few meters away! In the evening it was time to celebrate with our scuba group--the best one ever of course. After watching the video they had made of our dives (embarassing!) we hit the bar for dinner, drinks, and dancing.

Now begins yet another journey and yet another challenge. Today, Kim and I take a ferry to the mainland and then head to the small town of Chaiya where we will be registering for a 10 day meditation. Oh, did I mention it's a silent retreat! Yowzas. I've set my goal for 5 days but of course will try to make it all the way. In any case I'm hoping that it will be at the least an interesting experience and give me a better sense of the culture here as spiritualism and Buddhism plays a huge underlying role here. At best maybe I'll gain some clarity. Click here to see details: http://www.suanmokkh.org/ret/ret-sm1.htm. Wish me luck, and I'll be back in 5-10 days!