Safety Last
Mostly Koh Chang looks like this right now but that’s pretty bleak so here’s a nicer picture of a shrine:
I wasn’t supposed to take this shot because it’s a holy site but I plan to use the image in a shrine of my own when I get home, does that justify ignoring cultural precident?
It is 1am, England just lost to Portugal in the football worldcup finals, I just returned to my beach house walking 2km barefoot and carrying a big heavy ball of wet cloths. The road is so dark I had to walk on the painted line in the middle – I kept going in the right direction by feeling the smooth paint with my toes through water up to my knees. Right before the dark walk I’d been sitting in the lounge at another chill guesthouse on Lonely Beach watching the game (they serve the best tofu sandwiches in town).
I’m staying at the opposite end of the beach where there’s sand. When the sun shines for five minutes I jump off my porch and into the ocean. So an hour ago I was 2km away from home in someone elses pants and another person’s fleece – sipping tea donated to me by an English bloke and eating a Swedish girl’s leftover cashew stirfry. I guess this is what happens at the end of a very long trip on a very medium savings account. Despite the increasingly desperate financial situation I decided to stop sitting around near the beach ruminating on “what it means to me to be an American” and spring $2.50 to rent a motorbike this afternoon. The rental process consisted of leaving a passport at the desk and picking up a key. I didn’t have my passport on me so Tim’s sufficed for the both of us. Basically they let me walk away with a motorbike without even showing them a driver’s license. To make matters worse I didn’t remember to ask for a helmet! That’s right mom and dad – no brain bucket, no motorbike driving lesson. Sometimes being on vacation makes me stupid but happy.
My inaugural bad-ass moto trip began during a patch of sun and Tim and I set out to prove the Lonely Planet wrong on it’s claim that no road led around the island’s circumference. We were an hour away from our beach when a torrential rainstorm began, it was getting dark, and we had to return the bikes in two hours but we pressed on into the sheets of water, sure that just ahead we’d find our beach again. Finally my hands and lips were blue and we stopped to ask directions which seemed silly because there was only one road. Sure enough, we were advised that the end of our road did not connect to the beginning and we needed to turn around.
The dark soon bacame pitch black and the puddles soon became 3 foot lakes and the road soon became a tiny winding mountainous passage winding straight up and down. Two hours later we reached White Sand Beach but at that point we wished we had taken this sign’s advice and stayed in with a bottle:
We finally made it back in surprisingly good health although we were both shivering in our knickers – that’s right, Tim’s English so he wears knickers and he made me wear them too. Next time I go for a moto adventure two mottos are in order: “Drink Don’t Drive” spells “Safety First.”
Tags: ประเทดไทย, Cộng Hòa Xã Hội Chủ Nghĩa Việt Nam, Koh Chang, Thailand
Greta
no brain bucket….no comment.
but glad the brain comes back w/ you.