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Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Pha-Ngan
December 14th 2007

Published: December 14th 2007

1 bus, the back of 3 different pickup trucks and a ferry ride later i arrive at Ko Pan-Ngan (pronounced ko pan yang) a southern island in the Gulf of Thailand. the journey has taken 18 hours and was well worth the trek; in 3 directions i see luscious, green trees that cover the surrounding expansive mountains. in the 4th direction is the ocean. the water is a clear, light green and reminds me of my bathwater after a long summer day of bike riding when i was a kid. this is the Thailand i came for, or, at least a sliver of it. its drizzling and there is a bit of overcast, not ideal island weather but the sweet demeanor of Cha who works where i am staying compounded by the elephants we passed on the drive ensure that nothing can kill my mood, not even my immune system. having dodged the dreadful "Bangkok belly" aka travelers sickness/the runs i had started to feel invincible; i was living life on the edge, taking ice in my drinks, using tap water to brush my teeth and eating raw fruits and veggies, all a no-no from the doctors at home. i scoffed in the face of bacteria and after a week + something scoffed back. only the attack was on my ears/nose/throat, not my tummy. i arrived at the island congested as all hell, my sinus was killing me and it felt like i might have an ear infection. it wasn't terribly unbearable but it did mean no scuba diving as planned. given that i was in paradise it gave me the perfect excuse to do what i went there to do, relax. luckily my mother and sister sent me packing with a first aid kit fit for a doctor. a small sampling includes syringes, rubber gloves, 3 different antibiotics and an unbelievable amount of antihistamine. seeing as how i was in the hills of an island it helped to be a walking pharmacy.
most cities, towns and even islands have different neighborhoods that attract similar types of people, call them scenes if you will. Ko Pan-Ngan was no different. the southern end of the island has a rep for wild parties and girlie bars. its also the home to the infamous full moon party, a massive rave which attracts some 13,000+ party goes each month. if you cant make it to the full moon mash no worries, they conveniently planned a party the week before, after and when the moon is dark (or new) which happened to be when i was there. admittedly i was a bit curious but having hung up my glow sticks years ago + knowing that wouldn't really party all that hard (in Thailand drugs are no joke, they have been known to shoot dealers and EVERYONE has a story about someone they know getting jail time and a giant fine for something as simple as a joint) i decide to pass. I've opted to stay on the northern part of the island at a beach called Hat Khom. its a fairly remote part of the island and seemed to draw mostly couples. (even when i do "make the scene" i still never quite fit in) on an average day my path crosses with about 10-15 people or so excluding staff. the place i am staying gets electricity from a generator and they only put it on between 6PM and 1AM otherwise its all daylight/candlelight/flashlight. its all very down to earth.
after some time at the beach i become interested in exploring other parts of the island and contemplate renting a motorbike but considering 2 people i spoke with had minor accidents due to the poor conditions of the roads (it looks like the "city planners" threw down some sticks of dynamite and called it a day) and recalling how i almost drove a quad off a bridge in Costa Rica last year (and Tommy isn't here to save me again) i opt to explore by foot. i hike, and i mean HIKE into town intent on figuring out how to get to the eastern shore to a yoga class. everyone i ask tells me the roads to that part of the island are too raw to navigate and I'd need to take a water taxi but the waters are pretty rough right now. its been almost a month since my last yoga class and i was starting to foam at the mouth, my skin felt all itchy, i needed a fix. i wandered into a bar called "the lost dog" desperate for a ride. i figured if i couldn't get a lift to yoga maybe a drink would take the edge off 😉 the owner of the joint is named David, he is an expat from Wyoming and tells me i would need to take a boat but thinks he knows of another studio 2 towns over and offers me a lift. i gratefully accept and tell him that yoga is like anti-depressant medication for me and when i go off of it not only do i suffer but so does everyone around me. he takes me in his tuk-tuk (something like a 3 wheeled golf cart with manual gears and a hell of a lot of horse power) and drops me at a gem of a studio that isn't listed in any of the guidebooks. i attempt to pay him for the ride but he seems genuinely insulted and refuses. later he will tell me that there is something of a cabbie mafia on the island and he never takes $$ for lifts. apparently competitors have been known to pull guns on each other on more than one occasion. i tell him i will stop by the next day to give a full review of the class, today i detox tomorrow i retox. class doesn't start for another hour so i end up sharing an herbal sauna with one of the owners Jin who is from Britain. he too has a head cold and the tincture he prepared for the steam room, menthol, comfry and ginger clears up my nose better than the red curry i had for dinner the night before (and it doesn't burn my mouth). we talk yoga for a bit (everything has a scene) and he tells me that him and his wife run the studio 6 months a year then go to India for 4 months and if it was a good season they head to Europe for a bit. i get the distinct impression this man owns his life, meaning he dictates (barring no unforseen life circumstances) what he will do each day. now, in theory we all own our lives but it seems all to easy to sorta partition off parts like small plots of land and barter it away in exchange for other things. for a while i had been working at a less than satisfying job. i wouldn't go so far as to say that i sold my soul, more like it was on loan at a pawnshop sitting between a vintage guitar and an engagement ring patiently waiting for me to come buy it back. i did finally buy it back about 3 weeks ago but part of me wonders (or is it fear?) that one day i will have to hock it again. *****
after the sauna i head to the studio which sits just above the canopy. i take the most delicious yin yoga class and leave feeling refreshed. the following AM i wake up early and trek over an hour for another class deciding along the way that my next trip should be to an ashram in India. after class i head over to the lost dog to thank David for his help. i end up chatting with his wife Patcharee who is from a small town called Kalasin not too far from Cambodia. she tells me most of her family is still back there working in the rice fields. we talk for a while then she tells me the restaurant is closed the next day and she would love to tour me around the island. i had been planning on heading back to Bangkok to go up north but realized i had no reason to hurry and agreed to stay.
i wake up late the next morning and scramble to get out the door. its a 25 min. walk into town and i am going to be late to meet Patcharee. i begin the steep hike to the top of the driveway, a workout in and of itself. the sun is in full effect and droplets of sweat have made their way out of almost every pore on my body. i hear a motor coming from the west and book it double time in hopes the vehicle has room and is willing to pick me up. a motorbike rounds the bend and it turns out to be my yoga teacher from the other day. god i love this island. she scoops me up and we coast right along. i gush to her about the class, she gives me tips on Laos, it was an equally great ride for us both. she drops me in town where Patcharee, Ay (Pat's cousin) and David are waiting to go to the market. we hop in the tuk-tuk and stop along the way for a quick snack. Patcharee tells me this place has the best pork and i have to try it. "oh, i don't eat meat, would you mind just ordering me some rice please?" Patcharee is clearly confused. "just rice?" she says. i repeater myself, "i don't eat animals, kinja." kinja is a term i learned from lonely planet which means i don't eat any animal products including egg and dairy. i am not vegan but apparently there is no word in Thai for vegetarian. Patcharee still doesnt grasp the concept and David tries to explain then tells her to just order me some rice (its an authentic Thai place, they dont speak english.) she orders for me but still doesn't fully understand. "why would you not eat meat?" she asks. i had a choice at this moment to give her the get out of jail free, standard travelers answer, "i am allergic" but felt she deserved the truth and figured David would know i was full of crap. "it makes me sad" i tell her, "i don't like to pass the cows and chickens on the road and then eat them later on." she accepts this but doesn't fully absorb it. (total side note here, Thais don't use chop sticks unless it is for a food that they picked up from China. they also only use forks to push the food onto the spoon. in Thailand its considered strange and rude to put a fork in your mouth.)
after the snack we head over to the market to pick up some odds and ends for the restaurant. i fully appreciate being with Patcharee because i have spent much of my trip wandering markets wondering what things are and she has become something of a guide for me. she explains what the different foods are and gets me some fruit to sample. after a bit we head back to the lost dog and Patcharee tells me she wants to prepare a traditional Thai lunch for me. 4 women (excluding myself) buzz around the kitchen grinding herbs in a stone mortar, cutting cabbage, boiling clams and frying fish. David comes in, "Patcharee, Kathleen doesn't eat meat remember?" "but it is fish" she replies. (can you see where this is all going?) "i don't eat anything with a face but its ok, i will eat the noodles and sauce" i tell her. she still can't get it though her command of the English language is pretty damn good. on the upstairs deck that overlooks the water she sets down two floor mats for us to sit on. in the center she places a plate of noodles, fish, clams, lettuce, cabbage, parsely and 2 different kinds of sauces. both are peanut based but only one is colored with red and green chilies. they prepared a toned down version of the sauce in case my farrang pallet cant handle the spicy kick. we sit cross legged and Patcharee shows me how to build something of a mini wrap. she picks pieces of noodles, parsley and clam and tops it with sauce before wrapping the sides of the lettuce. she hands me the roll. she is really soooo sweet, her main objective all day has been to make me happy, "i just want you to smile" she told me earlier. she really wants to please her guest. I've gone without meat for almost 11 years and i always assumed if i did break the spell of vegetarianism the scenario would be very different. either i would be stranded in the wilderness starving with noting but a wild boar to roast or i would be with child and the doctor tells me the baby needs more protein and thus i forgo my belief for junior. never did i anticipate it would be because a new friend had a wanting and sad look in her eye. i take the lettuce wrap and put it in my mouth. the sauce is delicious but the clam feels squishy and slips around on my tongue. i attempt to justify the whole thing by telling myself a clam doesn't actually have a face, that it is almost like a plant in that regard but i don't really buy it. now, of all the times I've craved meat over the years, and there have been PLENTY, never, not a once was it shell fish i yearned for. it was almost a let down that it wasn't steak or chicken parm sitting before me, clams have never really been my thing. i begin building my own concoctions and purposefully leave out the clam, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Patcharee realized i wasn't going for the clams and assumed i was having trouble opening them so she busts a few open onto my plate. i end up eating about 3 or 4, figuring that is enough to satisfy my host. i don't go for the other fish because it still has its eyes in its sockets and that's a little too much for me. we finish the feast and head out to explore the island. Patcharee and her cousin Ay take me to a waterfall most tourists don't know about. having lived in Oregon for 2 years my standard of waterfalls might be different from most peoples. to me a waterfall is a massive and powerfully gushing body of water that could crush you if you got under it. the ones on the island are little baby waterfalls that trickle down and spill into small pools. what is nice is that unlike the giant ones in Oregon you can swim in these. we keep zipping around the island, pass cliffs with exposed roots from the trees that sit above, pristine beaches and small bon fires. mosquitoes have their feasting frenzy at dusk so many people build fires to keep them at bay. all in all my stay on the island was pretty sweet. there was a part of me that didn't want to leave. life seems so simple there and its easy to see why quite a few expats stay longer then they anticipated. not to mention all the hiking/yoga/swimming has been doing my body well and i consider staying here the full duration of my trip if for nothing else but to work off all the pad Thai I've eaten and get in shape. but SE Asia is a large place and I've barely scratched the surface. i have plans to head north to Chang Mai so i grab a ferry the next day and head back to Bangkok. on the ferry ride i strike up a conversation with a Canadian girl and we decide to meet up for a drink back in Bangkok. the night ends with a Pat pong show. i am going to keep this blog as PG-13 as possible here. for those of you who don't know, Pat pong is a show where women do some interesting things with an interesting part of their anatomy. I'm talking about pulling out razor blades, shooting darts and even cracking an egg. ya know what they say, when in Bangkok...

*****i would like to apologize here. i know that the best travel blogs are the ones that separate church and state, meaning there is a differentiation between a description of the country/experience and the emotional barometer of the traveler. originally i had the intention of doing that, trying to create an understanding of the place i am in without adding my own less interesting psychoanalysis but that just aint happening. not right now anyway. most times i loose sight of the audience and aim to only please myself instead of the reader because this is really journalying.

pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21472267@N04/

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