I was fascinated by this bird which made sounds exactly like that of a human. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy on the beach later that day when a bona fide Hornbill sidled up next to me. Ooh it were lovely!
The author on a longboat on the journey from Tong Sala to Koh Phangan. The pilot of these ships (below) has to hug the coast so the rapidly changing weather doesn't catch him stranded at sea - and in considerable danger. When the captain picked us up from our secluded beach at 4 pm as requested, he offered to take us all the way back to Koh Samui - a good 15 km in open waters. I assumed he was joking due to the approaching storms, but Lianne assured me it has been done before: several years ago one of her drunk friends decided to make the Phangan-Samui trip in a longboat and made it, though they don't speak anymore.
Our pilot steers our trusty bucket o' rust - "The Thai Princess" - in for shore after a good few months at sea. I really get into it whenever I'm on a boat. I'm usually leading the crew in bellowing out a few favourite sea shanties, teaching landlubbers the lingo of the waves, and drinking rum until ye puke.
What's Thai for "hard a starboard?" The captain sits up front and gives directions, and otherwise helps the pilot negotiate tight spots in the harbour by using a barge pole to push on the dock and the sea floor.
On the Tuesday we caught a fast ferry from Samui called the SeaTran. It plows its way up and down the Gulf of Thailand, finishing its run up at Bangkok after having ducked in at a few places on the way. We bought a ticket for Koh Phangan, an island more northerly and slightly smaller than Samui, famous for hosting its monthly Full Moon Parties on Haadrin Beach. At a recent fixture, Haadrin was host to 30 000 patrons who had come to party it up on its tiny beach. Cruising past in our longboat, I kept glancing around in disbelief that this was actually the beach and felt sure there was a larger one just around the headland. But the one I was looking at was indeed the famous Full Moon Beach.
Tourism is a double edged sword. Every jet that zoomed in over my head as I swam the waters at Big Buddha Beach represented thousands upon thousands of dollars for those working in the hospitality industry on Samui. True, people derive wages and feed their families from this. But the tourists bring their arrogance and their waste also. At high tide every day, all kinds of shit washes up on the shore: fuel cans from boats, beer bottles and potato chip wrappers. We cannot leave paradise alone.I watch in disbelief as a French backpacker throws her cigarette on the ground at Namuang waterfall and smothers it into the earth. Why do you come?
I think this awareness was behind West's request of "if we spend just one day on a secluded beach with no other tourists around I will be happy." So we set out for Tong Sala on Koh Phangan and connected with a taxi bus across to Haadrin. There are no roads on the east coast of Phangan so connections are made by these longboats, and after looking at a map we chose a beach called Wae Nam. The sand was coarse, and so hot that the only sunbathers ran for the limited shade on offer. We swam and lay around and read and it was idyllic. At one point 5 workmen came over and cut some bamboo for a bungalow they were making. I wondered what Stephen Bryant of Montage Interiors would say about two guys working and three supervising. Briefly. Late in the day a hornbill swept over the beach and landed on a branch right next to the cafe I was sitting in. Funny that I happened to be reading a book on the birds of Thailand at the time, my interest having been piqued by that cheeky talking bird at the cafe we had breakfast in earlier (which turned out to be a mynah). So rather than running for my camera I was leafing through my book in an attempt to identify the bird of paradise in front of me. In a future age, it is my hope that I will just enjoy looking at the bird.
On the way into Wae Nam Beach. It had a cafe and some bungalows, but no one was making noise or asking anxious questions about getting the best deal or otherwise talking about themselves.
Having made it back to Haadrin, the heavens opened. Within 3 minutes the roads became rivers, but it all subsided just as quickly.
On the night before her departure for Bangkok and Incheon, West and I drank wine on the beach and compiled a Top 5 of the best things we did in the last week. In my list, there was a mix of the random and the organised. This adventure to Koh Phangan was partly organised and partly making it up on the spot and it made the Top 5. In fact in the near future when I am faced with 35 screaming Koreans every 40 minutes I will look back on this day and remember the peace and adventure of when we hired a longboat to explore a tropical island. But perhaps the most impressive thing of the entire week was the most expensive and most structured activity we took. On the Thursday we joined a diving crew and journeyed to Ang Thong Marine Park for the day. The next entry will be about snorkelling in paradise.
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