Oh man! Oh man!
I went, I saw and almost conquered (my urge to settle down there! by the beach in a hut) Thailand and months have passed since I wrote about it!! In between I had an eventful time working in OIMR where I encountered my creating-designing-conceptualizing-ladder-climbing-fabric-chopping-idea-hopping-
floor-scrubbing self in a maroon avatar working 7 days for 4 months, sleeping little and dancing lots.
So the question of the moment remains: where do I start from? Do I even remember how I got to that island on the far east of the wonderland-called-Thailand?
Well to start with, it could have easily been called Thigh-land. The number of beautiful, picture-perfect, peaches-and-cream complexioned, petite and pretty women you see there, in the little-est of skirts and the slick-est of outfits, is breath-taking or breath-stopping (for men I reckon). Bangkok is the East-meeting-West in a dizzying combination. Age-old temples stand next to expressways and corporate high-rises, vendors selling walking-sandals park themselves outside shopping-malls selling Lamborghinis. Bangkok is a ready reckoner of how much westernization the east has experienced in recent years.
And then there are the islands: From the loud, chaotic, polluted city of Bangkok, to head for Koh Phangan (Ah now I remember how we got there… the Train Station takes you on a bus, yes that’s right, from the ‘train’ station you board a ‘bus’ that takes you– at breakneck speed, I feel compelled to add - to Surat thani from where a ferry - playing Thai pop music and Pirates of the Caribbean at the same time- brings you to Koh Phangan, and then non-hagglable-taxis deliver you to the beach of your choice) is a treat unto itself.
Haad Thien is a lesser known, lesser frequented, lesser partied-on beach in Koh Phangan and is one BIG postcard.....Everywhere you look, you will find the perfect composition for the perfect picture!
And once you’re there, your itinerary gets decided pretty much by itself :
Sleep
Swim
Eat and
Read (not necessarily in that order)
And that’s exactly what we did there. Trekked to the neighboring islands to explore eating joints - where I learnt that mushroom shakes are not REALLY funny-tasting milk shakes with mushrooms in them!!- swam to the little floating open-air platform a few hundred feet from the beach with a hammock, plonked on it and just relaxed till hunger woke us up.
And no, you don’t get bored because every time you look up, the sky is a different composition and every time you look down, the sea is a different mood. And if you look down-er, you will also spot schools of fish that are happily going about their business, sporting snazzy colours and designs. And this I could do, I discovered, for hours.
I went, I saw and almost conquered (my urge to settle down there! by the beach in a hut) Thailand and months have passed since I wrote about it!! In between I had an eventful time working in OIMR where I encountered my creating-designing-conceptualizing-ladder-climbing-fabric-chopping-idea-hopping-
floor-scrubbing self in a maroon avatar working 7 days for 4 months, sleeping little and dancing lots.
So the question of the moment remains: where do I start from? Do I even remember how I got to that island on the far east of the wonderland-called-Thailand?
Well to start with, it could have easily been called Thigh-land. The number of beautiful, picture-perfect, peaches-and-cream complexioned, petite and pretty women you see there, in the little-est of skirts and the slick-est of outfits, is breath-taking or breath-stopping (for men I reckon). Bangkok is the East-meeting-West in a dizzying combination. Age-old temples stand next to expressways and corporate high-rises, vendors selling walking-sandals park themselves outside shopping-malls selling Lamborghinis. Bangkok is a ready reckoner of how much westernization the east has experienced in recent years.
And then there are the islands: From the loud, chaotic, polluted city of Bangkok, to head for Koh Phangan (Ah now I remember how we got there… the Train Station takes you on a bus, yes that’s right, from the ‘train’ station you board a ‘bus’ that takes you– at breakneck speed, I feel compelled to add - to Surat thani from where a ferry - playing Thai pop music and Pirates of the Caribbean at the same time- brings you to Koh Phangan, and then non-hagglable-taxis deliver you to the beach of your choice) is a treat unto itself.
Haad Thien is a lesser known, lesser frequented, lesser partied-on beach in Koh Phangan and is one BIG postcard.....Everywhere you look, you will find the perfect composition for the perfect picture!
And once you’re there, your itinerary gets decided pretty much by itself :
Sleep
Swim
Eat and
Read (not necessarily in that order)
And that’s exactly what we did there. Trekked to the neighboring islands to explore eating joints - where I learnt that mushroom shakes are not REALLY funny-tasting milk shakes with mushrooms in them!!- swam to the little floating open-air platform a few hundred feet from the beach with a hammock, plonked on it and just relaxed till hunger woke us up.
And no, you don’t get bored because every time you look up, the sky is a different composition and every time you look down, the sea is a different mood. And if you look down-er, you will also spot schools of fish that are happily going about their business, sporting snazzy colours and designs. And this I could do, I discovered, for hours.
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