Thoughts from Ko Pha Ngan

(Be sure to check out Megan's post below as well as the photo post)

Travelled from Phuket on the west coast by bus to Surat Thani on the east and caught a ferry to Ko Pha Ngan; home of the full/half/dark moon party. We used booking.com to set up our guesthouse before we got there. Nice to arrive in town after dark and already have a place booked; first time this trip. :)

I have a mission: to find a nice and quiet part of this world where there is a beach not peppered with speedos or people trying to sell you stuff. Where there is a beach with a view devoid of boats, seadoos and paragliders.  Where there is simply the turquoise ocean, a nice place to sprawl out, the rolling of the waves and perhaps a cold drink at hand. Ah, paradise. Let the mission begin!

This is not my first visit to Thailand. In 2003, I had spent a month travelling around, half of that time with a friend of mine, the other half alone. One of the most relaxing spots I visited was an island called Ko Lanta. (Ko actually means island). There I haggled down the price of a bungalow on the beach to $1 a day. There, I would lay swinging in a hammock, go swimming in the ocean, or walk up and down the long, mostly-deserted beach. You met people, nay kindred spirits, who wanted to strike up conversation, not watch a rerun of Friends on the bar’s television set. Fantastic. This was paradise.

Since being back, Megan and I have so far visited Phuket and Ko Phi-Phi, some of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand. They are absolutely filled with people and the prices are higher. My Lonely Planet guide (love those) talks of a time long ago in the 1970s when there was only one guesthouse to be had in Phuket. Back then, Phuket was special. It was off the beaten path, a little hideaway. Gradually, over time, more and more guesthouses came, and with that came the western themed restaurants, the tourist stores selling weird trinkets and the tourist themselves. The people who wanted a quiet slice of paradise had to search again, and found it, for example, in a place like Ko Phi Phi, but then again, the guesthouses accumulated like a virus and the tourists flew in and set up shop.

Phuket and Ko Phi Phi are beautiful, but there’s so much ‘junk’ in the way. I would say Ko Phi Phi is the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited. It’s an island with two peaks and a beach in between connecting them. You can walk from the south beach to the north beach in about 5 minutes. However, again, there is so much stuff crammed into such a small area, it’s amazing the island doesn’t sink.

Don’t think I’m complaining. I’m just being critical.  The backpacking bible ‘The Beach’ has a similar theme. A group of people find a secret paradise in Thailand and try to keep it secret from the tourists setting up shop. Ironically, we visited the beach from ‘The Beach’ the other day; it’s in secluded Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi. There were about 30 tourist speedboats lining this beach, with a small itty-bitty swim area for tourists. This place was busier than New York City. Beautiful, but crowded. No guesthouses yet because the area is a national park, but who knows what the future will hold?

I love it down here backpacking. All your possessions on your person. Always determining what you’re going to be doing tomorrow. Breaking the routine of life. Who are you going to meet? What are you going to do? What surprises are in store? The air here is filled with a mix of incense, sweet chilli sauce and open sewer; interchangeably intoxicating, refreshing and revolting. Your daily goals are small: finding an updated Lonely Planet guide for Thailand is my present one. Sometimes the simplest thing, like a cold beer at the end of a hot and tiring day of travelling, is magic. I’m excited to show Megan some of the places I visited in 2003. I love sharing this adventure with her. To quote the book ‘Into the Wild’ I’m reading:  “Happiness unshared is not happiness.” I’m very lucky to be sharing this happiness with Megan, my kindred spirit.

One last word to all of you readers out there. The book ‘Into the Wild’ is a book about Christopher McCandless a young man who left behind his car and savings account, and hit the road and nature. He left behind a life of security, routine and material goods for something else: a life of adventure you could say. There was a passage that particularly moved me the other day, and I want to share it with you. It’s set in a chapter where Chris meets an eighty year old man named Ron; they become great friends, and the chapter had me close to tears (if you’ve seen the movie based on the book, it’s the story with Hal Holbrook). I’d like you all to heed it in some small way. Some of you already do. Here it is:

I’d like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.