Longest Day
All good things, they say, must come to an end. I don’t know who said that originally, but I still remember it from the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation some 30 years ago (random!) Anyway, it’s usually true, and the time for this trip to end came too soon.
We had a very long day, starting on Koh Yao Noi with some morning exploration (I can’t remember if it was a walk or a run, but I went alone), and then a motorbike excursion with the boys, exploring as-yet-unseen parts of the island. We returned to Sabai Corner and had a large breakfast. Then we all packed our bags. Waiting for our Song Thaew to take us to the ferry dock in the afternoon, the boys and I got foot massages while the ladies went for a last walk along the beach.
The speedboat ferry to Phuket was much faster than the longtail boat we took on the way over. Then we grabbed a taxi to the shopping mall. Thailand is crawling with shopping malls and the Thais really love them, even if I do not. I’d prefer a crowded open-air market over an immense, air-conditioned shopping mall any day. But, we thought we were gonna catch a good family movie. That’s what we always used to do with Javan back in the day. Unfortunately, they had no family friendly movies this time, only horror movies. Disappointed, we went upstairs and had lunch in the food court instead. Some of it was good, some of it was bad. I ran into one of the managers from Tiger Muay Thai, the same one I’d had breakfast with a few days before, so that was cool. Then we headed to the airport.
The airport was so uncomfortably cold that I had to buy a pullover, which ironically, was the exact match of one I’d already bought in Bangkok (and left in Bangkok), but didn’t have with me at this time. I don’t know why I’m giving you so many details, but it was just a short flight from Phuket to Bangkok. Nonetheless, it was 10pm when we arrived and we still had to go to baggage claim and negotiate a taxi ride home. By the time we got to Mandi’s place at Elio Del Moss, it was already 11. I dropped the family off and lugged my heavy backpack next door to the hotel. They had no vacancies and so I was stuck there with my heavy backpack and no place to stay. Oh well, back to Khaosan Road…
I got there about midnight and went through the act of finding a room for my final two nights in Thailand. Chelly’s warned me in the past that going back to the place you enjoyed before usually leads to disappointment. Well, that was certainly the case on this trip. My 3 days in At Home guest house were a total disappointment, and New My House looked like it would be too. Those were very nearly the only two places I’d ever stayed the night in Bangkok in so many years and two very long stays. But, anyway, I really like Soi Rambuttri and decided that was the street I would stay on. I checked out a couple places, many were not open at this time of night, and then I found Rambuttri Village. The price was right, it came with a rooftop pool, and it was actually much nicer than either of the places I’d stayed before. It wasn’t that much pricier than the other two (I think less than $30), and I can’t quite understand why I have always been so cheap about renting rooms. I dropped my stuff off in the room, but before going to sleep on this epically long day, I headed back out into the streets to meet the bredren at the Reggae bar and give him the hard drive (see previous blog).
Last Day
My last day began by sleeping in until a luxurious 8am. Then I had some hot noodles for breakfast while waiting on a load of laundry. During a walk around the neighborhood, I discovered a new Muay Thai gym with a great weight room and resolved to come back there later. Then I went shopping for some swim shorts, returned to the hotel, and had a session in the pool.
After that, I paid one last visit to the Bangkok Stoner, enjoyed a Blue Dream coffee, read a book on cannabis cultivation, and had a great talk with Pi Pruk. Again, I left there on Cloud 9, daydreaming about what I might do with myself on this fine day. I called Chelly to see what her and the boys were doing. They were doing markets somewhere, but they wanted to meet up with me later. For now, I was on my own. So I went back to that weight room at the Muay Thai gym. There were no kickboxing classes happening now, but the gym was not crowded.
High as I was, I wound up spending 2-3 hours at the gym and made several new friends. The first decision I made was that I was going to use every piece of equipment in the gym for at least one set of exercises. And the second choice was that I’d get to know everyone else in the room. It was awesome. I had some great conversations, helped a young man on his first trip to Thailand come up with an itinerary for Cambodia and Laos, learned about the non-alcoholic cocktail trend blowing up in Britain right now, and managed to do at least one set of exercises on every piece of equipment in the gym, including the Yoga ball. It took a lot of time, but I had a great time.
I must have eaten a ton after that, but I don’t remember what it was. I remember showering, dressing, and meeting Chelly and the boys downstairs. We planned to go on a tour of the floating market and the night train market, but it turns out we were too late for those. So, we toured the Khaosan Road and Soi Rambuttri neighborhood, showing the boys the place that we’d met, and where we’d gone, and telling them what used to be where and what happened there. Javan got ripped off buying bootleg shoes (they sold him two left feet!), but we fixed it. During that debacle, I also bought a pair of bootleg shoes, and some matching beach clothes (shorts and shirt). I think we all got souvenirs, actually, but I couldn’t give you the whole shopping list at this time.
Then we went up to my rooftop swimming pool in the dark. In order to get Chelly and the boys access to the pool, though, I had to rent a second room for the night–which seemed like a waste of money–but it was my last night, so, whatever. We used that room to change into our swimming stuff and I moved all my bags over for the night (this one had a bigger bed). Then we swam. After that, I dressed up in my new green outfit and Chelly and I took the boys on one last motorbike ride to Bibi & Mandi at Elio Del Moss, where I said my goodbyes to three of them.
For my last act of the trip, Chelly and Mandi and myself went out to catch a stand-up comedy show. I think this one bears some explanation. Stand-up comedy is not really my thing. I’ve enjoyed a few stand-up specials on TV over the years, but only ever been to see live stand-up once before. But, this was my friend Pule Mapacpac, I had to go and see. Pule and I were teachers together at Chaibadan Wittaya a decade ago, and he was like my best friend for 4 months living in that little town in the country. We have all sorts of good memories together. Pretty much since that time, he’s been living in Bangkok, teaching school, and doing stand-up comedy as a hobby/side job at night. I’ve followed all of this on Facebook, but never been there in person for any of it.
So we found our way to the little upstairs comedy club, ordered our dinner, and settled in. Pule was the last act of the night, the closer, and he was definitely the funniest. A few of the others were funny too, especially the women. I think there were 9 or 10 of them, from many parts of the world (mostly by way of America). Afterwards, we got to catch up with Pule, take some photos, and make conversation with the other comedians. Like myself and Pule (this is something we’d bonded over back in the day), one of them was also into filmmaking. Good conversation. It was pretty fun, but Pule had classes to teach in the morning, and most of the other comics had day jobs in the city and also needed to get home to sleep. Chelly, Mandi, and I returned to Khaosan Road to party.
Well, I didn’t party much, this time. I had an airplane to catch early in the morning. I actually went back to the room early (before midnight), picked out clothes for tomorrow, packed my bags, and went to bed. Of course, there was also a shower in there. You have to shower like 3 or 4 times a day in Bangkok.
Flying Day
Sometime in the night, Chelly and her sister returned. We gave Mandi the key for the smaller room and Chelly stayed with me in the family room. So I guess it wasn’t a waste of money after all. Early in the morning I got up, cleaned up, dressed up, packed up, and left. I put Chelly on a taxi to her sister’s place and put myself on a taxi to the airport.
I ate my last Ka Pao Gai sai kai dao (Holy Basil Chicken with a fried egg) at the airport, met some people from Reunion Island (for the second time in two weeks, and I’d never even heard of the place before), and was soon on an airplane for 6 hours to South Korea. I watched movies on the plane, worked on editing one of my own movies, and ate (of course), then caught another plane in South Korea–this one 10 hours–headed home to Seattle. And that was the end of my trip.
Later Days
In an accident of missed communication, Mandi’s fiance Anwar showed up from Australia like 1 or 2 days after I left. So, I didn’t get to meet him, but the rest of the family did. They sent me a few photos of what they were up to for the next week and a half while they were there without me. It wasn’t that exciting. But how could it be, without me there to spice things up?
Then Chelly and the boys came home and her sister moved to Australia with Anwar like the next day. Seriously, the next day. Now–other than Seth and Pule–we no longer have family in Thailand.
Nic Nakis 