Holiday

We had arrived in Phuket, finally. Now there was some business left to do, we needed to get paid. The day of our arrival we'd gotten only a small part of the agreed amount and the rest remained quite uncertain. Additionally, Charly had not nearly lived up to his promises. There was no hotel booked, no three days party and feasts, but rather a hamburger and a friendly goodbye. The careless way we were being treated had gotten to my brother and robbe his sleep. No one seemed interested in finishing the trip by means of payment.

We fetched our captain at the immigration bureau, where he had to return to the day after our arrival, to set everything straight. As we asked for the payment his careless reply was he didn't know how to organize the money. We were eager to leave Phuket and so was the whole family with us. So it turned out, we didn't have to set things straight, but rather just the captain, and we sure did. His pure shock was as surprising to us as our change from friendly to determined seemed to have come for him. I'd rather not mention what we said, but it did the job, the captain gave in and final arragements were agreed upon. Now we were ready to leave for a family holiday.

We followed our initial plan and aimed for an island. We thought of tropical white sands and crystal clear water, sun, snorkelling, relaxation. Years ago, my brother had been at some island, but he just wasn't sure which one. We went with his best guess, Ko Phi Phi.

The boat left half an hour after we'd done our booking, and it was already overdue. Ninety minutes later, we arrived at the island jetty, a crowded place packed with farang tourists. From the pier, we followed our baggage taxi through the narrow alleys of the main village towards our accomodation. The place was made up of a myriad of shops, some in simple concrete buildings, some not more than shelters with sheet metal roofs. Even though there was no piles of trash and most of the way was paved, it somehow appeared confined, dirty, noisy, and extremely busy. It was the typical tourist location, a party place with fake European eateries, and an abundance of bars, internet cafés and souvenir shops. It was a world of its own, we had left Thailand and had entered the strange world of day tours, overpricing, street flyers, and booze buckets. As the local addition, the Thais had added the massage parlors they are so well known for.

Fortunatly, it was small and we soon left the village behind us to go up a small hill to the Bamboo Lodge where we had booked two rooms. They were pure disappointment, bamboo huts, built sloppily with the aid of plenty of ugly blank concrete. The walls had gaps everywhere to provide easy access for the masses of mosquitos that seemed to prefer the environment of the huts. There were two beds in each room, big enough to easily sleep two, but every single spring could be identified when lying on them. While we were only dissatisfied, Tuk was rather angry. Whatever the place we slept was like, but this one had definately been too expensive and that bothered her, as it was a mistake she seldomly made.

I had put the disappointment about the rooms and the shock about the crowded island, so far off from our vision of a tropical paradise, aside quickly. I would just take the chance to once experience Thailand, or whatever this place really was, like the millions of tourists that came here. Finally, I didn't take it. Within hours after we'd arrived I met the person to change my whole stay on the island.

Safeerah gave me the most beautiful smile as we passed by her little shop during our quest for an affordable yet good restaurant to have dinner at. I just couldn't help turning back a couple of times giving her a smile in reply. None of the family had even noticed and we were soon out of sight going towards the beach and that small moment could have easily stayed a singular moment between me and her. But as we were strolling along the beach unsure were to head, she crossed my path again already, still waving her big smile at me I couldn't resists returning. I used the opportunity and went to ask her for restaurants. She was taking to me in a broken English while I kept with my broken Thai. It seem the wrong way around somehow, but it did work. And it had its effect. After she'd left surprise behind, she quickly agreed with her friend I spoke too much Thai. So now it was too much already, after I didn't even feel I'd actually really started, yet. We didn't listen to her recommendation and that is how we came to run into her again minutes later in the village, enough for her to instantly pick up the conversation again. We finally introduced and exchanged numbers. She'd help us find a good trip for the next day. That was the official reason. We'd see each other again, so much was sure, unofficially.

At the end of a rather long and exhausting day, we spent the evening by the hotel swimming pool. Safeerah and her friend came to join us after she'd closed her shop at ten, two hours early. She brought some incredibly tasty pancakes to complement our drinks. She couldn't swim and it was for me to try to teach her. I got as far as having her paddle like a dog for three or four meters before she'd eventually go under. It must have been way after midnight when we retreated the party to our rooms. When we parted the next morning it was a bit like Safeerah had become a temporary addition to the family. She had offered to organize a half day trip to realize our vision of the tropical beach. With a local managing our stay I felt in good hands.

The longboat left early afternoon. We had met at Safeerah's shop and until the last minute it had seemed that she wouldn't be able to join us, but then she had found a friend to look after the shop for some time. We were going to a small island right next to Phi Phi to swim and relax at the beautiful Ma Ya Bay, the location where the movie "The Beach" had been shot. It was only some boats there and we took a deep breath having escaped the tourist crowds. We had finally found the embodiment of our vision, fine sand, few people, clear waters and a scenic tropical island with palm trees and aloe atop massive rock walls safeguarding the small bay against the rage of the open sea. Picknicking at the beach, snorkelling and exploring the green interior of the bay made time pass quickly. Only a few hours later, we were covered in the salt water spray of the waves hit by our longboat on the way back to Phi Phi, all relaxed and tired. Safeerah had to get back to her shop and we were heading for the showers in our rooms before having dinner.

I had thought about calling, but as I had found myself only a hundred meters from her shop I had changed my mind and just dropped by. Safeerah was happily surprised. She sat with some friends playing a card game I would need some hours to barely understand its basic concept. It wasn't that the game was complex by any means, it was actually rather simple, but they were playing so quickly and paying out so fast, I never seemed to have enough time to look at what was happening. I had gotten stuck in the round using all of my basic Thai knowledge to make conversation. So here I was, not chasing tourist girls as I had already envisioned myself, but sitting with the locals trying to understand one of their card games. I stayed until late and finally it was only me and Safeerah sitting next to her little shop exploring our two different worlds by the simple means of communications we were given. We parted knowing the next morning would bring departure. She'd go to Krabi, home of her parents, while we'd return to Phuket to head towards Sukhothai.

The hotel required us to check out until eleven. Getting up well past nine, that would be right after breakfast. The boat wouldn't leave until early afternoon and we would spend the time at the beach, but we were unsure what to do with our luggage. Luckily, my new friend, Safeerah, had left her shop closed for the day as she was on the leave for Krabi early afternoon, and we were able to store our belongings at her place for the meantime. While the family went to the beach, I was invited for a second breakfast with Safeerah and some of her neighbors. After that, she and I went for a massage, a thing that had been in my mind for weeks on the sailing boat as the back pains I occasionally have had worsened considerably during that time. It felt amazing how relieved and relaxed I could be after a full hour of dedicated back massage. It was a thing to do again some time.

I had to say goodbye to Safeerah in a hurry, but there was nothing much to say. It was uncertain, if we would ever see each other again, but I sure liked the thought. We had joined my family at the beach after the massage, and then Safeerah was only just in time to catch her boat. We had half an hour more to catch hours. Our baggage arrived twentyfive minutes before our departure, but one bag was missing. I raced all the way back through the little village and got it, returning at the pier covered in sweat and just in time to board the boat. The payment for our sailing trip had arrived and we were good to leave Phuket right after landing at the pier. When we crossed the bridge to the Thai mainland we could almost feel how we left a different and strange place behind, owned by tourism and far different from the Thailand we'd knew.

The holiday and its expenses were over. We stopped at a little restaurant in Muang Thai, a small place a few dozen kilometers north of Phuket Island. The drive had been enjoyable exploring the somewhat unique CD collection we had dug up in the car. We had decided to create a CD of our own and went to buy CDs at the internet shop next to our eatery. That's were it bit me, sneaking up from behind a dog snapped my leg, driving its teeth a good centimeter into my flesh. It belonged to the shop and was leashed, but had just been able to reach for my leg for a short taste of it. Blood ran in a thin trickle down from the bitemark as the shop owner came to clean the wound. Well equipped as I had been for the sailing trip, I went back to the car to aid the wound with antiseptic, before returning to the restaurant, where the women had been waiting. When they heard what had happend, they went to clear the situation. I had my meal to fight the shock that was now getting to me, giving me a sweaty pale face and making my blood pressure hit the floor.

The dog wasn't unknown for biting people and I had now been its mort recent victim. It seemed, it had vaccination, but we decided on seeing a doctor for safety. A small hospital was less than a kilometer from the shop and I was with a docter a short time later. It now proved useful to have rabies vaccination myself so I would only have to get two booster shots, one immediately, another one three days later. It wasn't the shot, but rather cleaning the deep wound with its small entrance that turned out to be quite painful. I got antibiotics and some instructions as well as a small bandage that would soon bleed through. Back at the shop, minutes later, we argued for the amount of the bill and were paid unwillingly also the amount we had added for pain relief and the next booster shot. By then it was time to end the day and we soon found a cheap bungalow outside which we sat to recapitulate the day's events before falling asleep on a soft mattress. It was the first comfortable bed I lay down on since I had sold my own bed two and a half month ago.