Chang O'Clock
I didn't go to Phang Nga as announced.
I was sitting in a riverside restaurant eating my new favourite Thai snack -
kung chup paeng thawt (batter fried prawns with sweet chili dip) -
glancing at a brochure for Koh Lanta and decided to go there instead.
I spent 5 or 6 days there, mostly chilling out on the beach, and have now moved on to Karon Beach on Phuket Island.
In an odd way, Lanta reminded me of Saltspring - except that it's completely different.
I guess there's an Island vibe no matter where you go.
Karon Beach is a delight - I've got the best little
bungalow
set out in a quiet open area with banana trees scattered about outside my door.
I like it here.
But I won't bother announcing where I plan to go next. It seems I'm
better at relaying the past than predicting the future - even that part of the future that allegedly I have control over.
There's endless entertainment to be had reading the English language signs and place names. In Ao Nang the police took a page out of BCBC's book and called their hangout "police service center". On Lanta, and here in Karon, the equivalent sign says simply, and more ominously, "police box".
While on Lanta I went on a couple of dives out around
Koh Ha
.
Ko Hah - which means literally "Five Islands" - is an isolated collection of six tiny islands (well, rocks really) off by their lonesome in the Andaman Sea.
The dives were brilliant.
One in particularly was quite memorable.
We dove into an underwater cave - that is, the cave's entrance was underwater but the chamber was filled with air and about 12 meters high.
It was absolutely magical with this beautiful silvery blue - or was it bluey silver -
light
spilling up from the entrance down below.
But what was particularly striking was this:
As the sea swell would come in we would ride up on the rising water feeling the pressure quite strongly in our ears.
As the sea would fall, the less dense air would become completely mist laden and we could see only the cave walls nearest at hand.
So it went, riding up and down while the air would first mist completely, then clear completely, then mist again.
A very unique experience.
It happens that my favourite beer here is also the cheapest: Beer Chang. For some reason it's not called Chang Beer, it's always 'Beer Chang'. It typically sells for 45 baht per bottle - about CA$1.50 - or 65 baht for the big double sized ones. It turns out it's high-test beer, which explains a couple of things in retrospect.
I've not been much of a photo taker on this trip. While on Lanta, I was sitting in a beach chair drinking a beer just at sunset. It happened to be about the most spectacular sunset of my trip so far. The tide was way out and the sand was flat and wet, reflecting the brilliant colours from the sky and clouds. Into this beauty strolled a very well dressed couple - likely Pakistani or Indian - with linked arms pushing a pram. Not a stroller, but a pram with four big spoked wheels and just a bit of baby and blanket poking above the walls of the bed compartment. Silhouetted against the peak moment of the sunset, it was a picture to remember always. But of course my camera was in my bungalow. The next night I occupied the same beach chair, this time with camera at hand, but sunset did not materialize. It simply got dark, and no perfect scenes materialized in front of me. Another event that again confirms that you cannot retrieve the past.
Just a sec. I need to check the time...
...Ohmigawd! I have to go. It's already Chang o'clock!