Traveller

Hi,

The weather in Chiang Rai was cloudy with a chance of rain.  Koh Samui was hot with a chance of tropical rain.  Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened.

A few of you knew this ‘Zany Day’ song right away.  One reader got it from the first line.  Here’s verse two:

“Follow her down to a bridge by a river where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.  Everyone smiles as you drive past the flowers that grow so incredibly high.  Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, waiting to take you away.  Climb in the back with your head in the clouds and you’re gone.  __ __ __ __ __ __….. Aaaaahh.”  Clue: Last word of the title is the thing that is ‘a girl’s best friend’.  What?

Our trip to Koh Samui was an interesting cultural adventure.  From Chiang Rai to Bangkok, the population of the plane was mostly Thai people and groups of foreigners.  From Bangkok to Koh Samui, it was almost all foreigners.  By itself that would seem like an obvious change in demographic since Samui is a vacation destination and not a cheap one.  What we noticed was behavioral things that sometimes irritate us.  For instance, in Thailand there are always seats in domestic waiting rooms that are reserved for monks and novices.  In Chiang Rai, you won’t find people sitting in those seats.  In the waiting room to Koh Samui, all of the seats were occupied and there were no monks on the flight.  

There seems to be in instinctive impulse for travellers to try and get to the front of any line.  Everyone is going to have to wait at some point, and we’re all getting on the same vehicle, going to the same place.  Ironically, we managed to get on both of our planes first without trying.  When we reached Samui, we were sitting in the last row of seats.  I was prepared to wait, but then they opened the rear door and we were right there.

As we departed Bangkok the weirdest thing happened.  The plane taxied to the runway and onboard there was lots of conversation and laughing.  When the plane stopped and prepared for the acceleration, a silence fell on the crowd and then we took off.  I can’t explain it, but we had never seen this happen.   

Most of our flight to Koh Samui was over water.  When the plane began it’s decent, Lisa looked out and saw land and we knew that had to be our destination.  Today’s photo is part of the coastline of Samui.

As we looked down, the island looked rather primitive, except for a few obvious structures.  When we landed all those thoughts were gone.  The little airport is busier than Chiang Rai could ever hope to be.  There were a number of planes on the ground.  As our plane unloaded we could see another plane with passengers streaming out as well.  Then it hit us, this is the end of summer for people from all over the world.  We heard many languages as we waited for our luggage.  Outside it was near chaos as vans jockeyed for position to pick up guests for the various hotels.  We were glad we had made arrangements to be picked up.  It didn’t lessen our sit in the traffic, but we didn’t have to find a taxi and negotiate a fare.  

When you look through the travel magazines on Koh Samui, your eyes are filled with pristine beaches, immaculate hotels and spas and the promise of paradise.  The ride from the airport was through a neighborhood in rural Thailand.  It was not sparkling, just real.  Then we hit the main road to the hotel and it was a typical ‘tourist’ shopping district, complete with a counterfeit 7-11.  

I will continue the adventure tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Have a Thrilling Thursday.

                Peace,

                          Danny

“A traveller without observation

is a bird without wings.”

~Muslih-Uddin Sadi