30 March 2022 - Phuket, Thailand - Day 2
Morning has broken, and we are greeted with a cacophony of sounds of frogs, birds, scooters, planes, and the sight of a negative Covid result email! We are free, we have made it, we can see Thailand.Appreciating my new sense of freedom, I sat on our tiny balcony and regarded the scene around me. The air has a faint smell of woodfire and in the distance, over countless little double storey houses, and green lushness, I can see smoke rising into the sweet early morning air. The air that is brimming with the promise of heat, humidity and adventure!
In the quietness of all the sounds, I am reminded of how much God loves us, and that He wants us to live life abundantly, even in the tough times, He gives us what we need and that as His children, Jesus is our portion, our inheritance. In that moment, I felt incredibly favoured to have Him love me, and knowing that He loves me, and accepting His love for me. Enjoying it, and knowing that I am His daughter - favoured and cherished.
We go down for breakfast and feast our eyes on beautiful platters of fruit, an array of bright colours, and tuck into the sumptuous deliciousness of papaya, water melon, rock melon and dragon fruit.
Dragon fruit... I wasn't too keen to taste it, as my only experience with it was in the form of room spray, which reminded me of the smell of self tan lotion, not a particularly pleasant smell to me... But hey, I am in Thailand, here to have new adventures, taste new things, experience a new culture... So, dragon fruit WILL be eaten. And what a pleasant surprise, it's as tasty as it is pretty. Reminiscent of kiwi, pawpaw, rock melon... I will be having that again, and I am thankful that I had my first dragon fruit tasting in Thailand - it just seems right.
We opened little banana leaf parcels and enjoyed the authentic sticky rice with toasted sweet coconut. It was seriously tasty... Should have had some more of that!
After a bit of civilised disagreement between myself, my husband and the wisdom of the Thai people, we decided to trust the receptionist who organised a taxi drop-off, at the Police Booth Highway, which we had no idea of what she was talking about. Her wisdom got us to a bus stop where we bought tickets from a little spaza shop/shack from a lovely friendly Thai girl.
We melted away whilst waiting for the number 5 bus to Surat Thani, and chatted to a local, not local American.
On a bus filled with locals, including a monk and a Thai soldier in uniform, we enjoyed practicing our Afrikaans and appreciated words like "branderplank" and "bromponie". "Bromponie" directly translated into English, means buzzing pony... If you still don't know what I'm talking about, Google Translate is your friend... On that note, Tony thought that the word for buzzing pony in Afrikaans is "poegie"... I, as an Afrikaans speaking person, have never heard of the word before. Any other Afrikaans people ever heard of the word?
We are thankful for the air-conditioning in the bus! And not so thankful for what sounds like outback ozzie songs sang in the local dialect... We feel strangely at home, like we are back in South Africa, where hooting means Hello, Watch out! Get out of the Way!! and some other unmentionables...
About an hour into our trip, we stop for a bathroom break, the toilets are in the ground and the men's urinals have a great view! For them and for others
The food that is served, is beautifully displayed and if we weren't strapped for time, would have been good for another authentic experience. A litchi juice with floating jellies and an oolong ice tea for Tony had to do.
Through my curtained bus window, I catch glimpses of pink and turquoise houses, bright colours competing for a place with the jungle. It takes me back to southern Mozambique again... So many palm tree plantations everywhere you look,which reminds me that we are in palm sugar country.
Our bus driver plays delivery boy, loading off loads of blue cannisters, before we finally get dropped at a bus station in the middle of Surat Thani. The bus driver/delivery boy now introduces us to (read: pointed to) a lady who will help us with the next leg of our journey and proceeds to hop back into the bus, and disappears into the distance.
We feel like little lost children but hope that the nice lady will wave her wand and that all will be alright again. Our plan is to get a ferry to Koh Tao, her plan is different...
We are told the next ferry only leaves the next day and we should go to the Night Boat Port to book our tickets. The friendly Thai boys there is kind enough to type in the destination for us into Google maps, and we are once again, out and about, prowling the sweltering Surat Thani streets, looking like seasoned travellers, searching for a place that we are not really sure of...
We stumble upon a booth that says Koh Tao on the sign, and with some help from a local, heard that there is a ferry leaving at 10pm,and it arrives in Koh Tao the next morning at 6am. She said that there are mattresses to sleep on and even chargers for our phones... We had no accommodation booked for the night and it kind of made sense to kill two birds with one stone, to have accommodation and get to Koh Tao :) I had no ideas of grandeur when we booked the tickets, as the boat was right next to us. Let's just say, it has a lot of character.
So, with tickets in hand and 8 hrs to kill, we have a quick toilet stop. I'm happy to find the rest rooms in clean and tidy condition, but was rudely awakened to the fact that they don't have toilet paper, that they don't believe in toilet
paper, that they have a little shower head, that is supposed to clean the areas that should be cleaned!! Thank goodness I only needed a wee, and put tissues on a high priority shopping list!
After the terrifying experience, we proceeded to get familiar with our surroundings. We gape at temples and frown at signs meaning nothing to us, as we wonder what kind of food they are selling, cause it doesn't resemble anything we know. Google Lens tries to be our friend, and we try to be Google Lens's friend - it's an akward kind of friendship...
The vendors are getting ready for the night market, and we are aimlessly wandering around in the pressing heat with 10kg backpacks... Our attempts at Sawadee Krap/Kha and Khap Kun Krap/Kha gets smiles and nods and prayer hands from the locals.
Then!!! In the distance, we saw a beckoning oasis... Was it real? Or just a cruel mirage conjured by the shimmering heatwaves? A coffee shop, Need Espresso!! We could read it, and we knew what it meant, what it was!! We found coffee, or coffee found us. We walk into cool, blissful, air-conditioning! Our spirits soar as we scrutinise the interesting coffee selection. I have a coconut milk ice coffee and Tony goes for the orange ice coffee. I don't think I've ever had such a good coffee! Maybe it just tasted extra nice, because I was tired and hot, and could put my backpack down for a while in a cool area. Tony's Orange coffee was sorely lacking, and we decided that orange and coffee is not a combination that we liked! We order some more exotic coffees and sipped away with not a care in the world, whilst playing our favourite card game, and listening to the local chatter.
We walk back through the now congested market, people everywhere, selling and buying, shouting and laughing. Enjoying the freedom, that doesn't come with covid. We see what looks like meal worms and crickets, proudly displayed next to fried chicken and pork. We decide to try what looks like a corn dog, some fried crumbed chicken on a stick. The chicken is tasty, very tasty, and very crunchy! We decide to try cute little pastries, that resembles a little custard tart, but I think they call it an egg tart. It's goooood! A sign with a very interesting dessert on it, caught my eye and we go into a shop, and I eat mango sorbet with green, sticky pandan rice on a bed of snow ice and frozen bits of wafer. Vey interesting, and very refreshing.
At the ferry, the Thai boy stripped us from our big packpacks and proceeded to stow them away. I'm not too sure about this, as my brain is trained to think that it will not be there when I come looking for it. Hoping for the best, we take our important things like electronics and passports with us, and then have to leave our shoes at the bottom of the steps leading to the sleep area. I don't mind, I have cheap plastic slip slops (or thongs for my Australian friends). Tony has really nice, leather sandals... He gets a bit worried about them... but the Thai boy refuses to let him take them to his mattress. We are still hoping for the best, and just go with the flow... Not wanting to offend these quiet, friendly people.
We proceed to get comfortable for the night. My pillow could be a stone. No blankets, as you don't need one. It's hot and humid. I'm hot and clammy. We play some more cards to while away the time. I lay down for sleep, as more passengers board and chat and laugh. The ferry starts moving, I start sleeping... Tony tries to survey the dark scene but I don't even try. I'm tired, I'm uncomfortable, in a strange country, doing strange things... I'll look when I can see something. I know that I will appreciate this experience...
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