The Hangover…..
The strangest day after the retreat was the 11th day when we broke our silence. The previous night I had panic attacks about coming back into the “real world”. I’m pretty sure that prisoners being let out feel a same sense of anxiety and feel the desire to practise the good they learned. As soon we broke the silence we could’nt hear anymore…we were talking for the sake of talking. I did’nt know anybody except Anna and Claudia who I had met in Chaiya the day before the retreat. All the others where faces with smiles…few with some voices as we heard a few in the talk and tell session the previous night. Now I could put real names to “Julia Roberts smile”, “The guy with one sock on his foot”, “the girl with the hairy legs”, so on and so forth.
I had decided that I would stick around with Anna and I was not prepared for the bombardment of the senses by my self. We were quickly adopted my a Krissy and Bob who took us all the way to Surat Thani so that we could make our way to Kho Phagan. In Surat, Anna and I stared in the convience store with strange expressions as we could not make up our mind whether we wanted something to drink or not….we had the freedom of choice again but we still could not excercise this. After a 3 1/2 hour trip on the ferry during which we pretty much shared our life stories we reached Kho Phagan. It was a strange landing as we did’nt know where we were going and looking at our guidebooks or listening to the touts made us more miserable. We took one step at a time and finally followed a drunk English guy to his guest house which was right on Hat Rin beach. One could see the beginning’s of a “Half Moon Party”.
We talked right through the night..about everything under the sun moon and stars. Few prostitutes passed us by and adviced us not to sit where we were sitting!..we got the hint but still we could not leave our spot. We were transfixed there…but finally instead of waiting for the sun to rise we left for a few hours of zeez. For some reason we wanted to see the sun rise in Hat Rin…it was as if we wanted new beginings and Hat Rin was the answer. Not! Its a beach which reeks of urine with remanants of rave like parties.
Since we had mentally promised ourselves a sun rise we came to the beach which I have to say looked better in the neon. Its like a aging Blanch trying to cover her wrinkles. I totally ignored some of the staggerring drunks but Anna left to check the pulse of one..I knew he was alive but she had to make sure. Peter was fine and his buddy too but we were like little mother hens silently watching in case we were needed. Hat Rin was perfect for us as we still were reeling from the meditation hangover and the gluttony of senses was perfect as we saw but did’nt see, we heard but barely, we ate but did’nt taste.
That morning we took the suggestion of a English couple we had met in the Tuk Tuk and went around the cove in a boat far way from the beach umbrellas and sun bathers to a small beach on Haat Thien. Again we were adopted by a lady from SF who had been living there for 8 months and we found a great bungalow, a hammok and 2 spiders. I loved the place..it was a Thai coconut farm with “farang” bungalows and time spent there seemed like weeks instead of days. Every moment stretched..every second we discovered we were slowly recovering. I was getting my bearings and no longer falling on the sand…the water was heavenly and slowly but surely I felt the desire to continue on with my travels.
Everything seemed to work for us…we did’nt have to wait more than 5 mins for our boat ride to Hat Rin and then the Tuk Tuk to Thong Sala…another 10 mins later we were freeing our butts in the speed boat to Surat. I thought I was going to die of Sunburn but instead I was getting a frost bite. Another 10 mins later we were on the train to Bangkok. One look around and I could not make myself stay another second..Anna headed to Pattaya and me I boarded a train to Ayutthaya. Once again am the solo traveller again and the comfort of having to bounce ideas with somebody is gone…maybe that is the reason why am sitting in an internet cafe instead of going around the temples…which I did in the morning in the company of David and Kristen, 2 brothers from Germany. I know more about Germany than I did before and am curious Kristen asked me whatever he could about India in the short time. I saw David’s first love letter from a Thai girl…she fell in love with him at the first glance after serving him a fruit shake. I could’nt help laughing the whole time but it was so cute.Of course I will remember them as we were the center of attraction in the small food court as David broke a concrete table with his elbows…but apart from a laugh and few giggles from the school girls we escaped unharmed.
What a interesting few days! Hope these adventures continue….now have to step back into the real world to see what awaits me.
Tags: Thailand
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Madhu