Koh Ya Yes!

The reunion was sweet. I ran into my hobo traveler friend while waiting for Andy to return from her solo jaunt. We continued to ttalk about our blogs and making money on the Internet while I looked down the road patiently. As she walked up the back alley near Khao San Road in the heart of Backpacker Central, I saw her eyes and then her cute face and she did that thing with her smile that warmed my heart.

We kissed and hugged quickly because PDA is a no no in Thailand. The hobo took off and we sat and talked all night and had to force ourselves to go to sleep at 2 am. There were so many stories to tell.

Bangkok had cooled down considerably since October and I’ll say it here, outloud for everyone to hear, Bangkok was pleasant – almost like California in the October. There were breezes during the afternoons and I could sit in cafes without dripping all over the place.

We spent our time in the bustling city gettng new lenses for our glasses and checking out some of the gigantic malls in the downtown area. We are talking six-story malls with tiny shop after tiny shop selling designer knock offs. I couldn’t wrap my brain around the size of the place and felt overwhelmed quite quickly. Andy was much the same. We wandered around each floor laughing at its enormity, especially considering the place was flanked by two other malls of equal size selling the same shit.


(Me, looking as hairy as ever!)

One particular mall was all electronics. Ipods, laptops, cables, hi-def TVs, playstations, pirated CDs and DVDs. Six floors of gadgets. Jason would have loved it. We almost called the Seidlers to see if the prices were good but it was 3 am SF time so we figured he must have just gone to bed. Later that night we went and saw a movie at the fanciest theater either of us has ever been in. Leather recliners, private bathrooms, seat service. It was posh. We saw the Denzel flick Déjà vu. Most enjoyable. And then on our movie ticket it said we could bowl a free game in the bowling alley next door. So we ate dinner and rolled a game. (I won with a pathetic 121, Andy scored 79) It was also the nicest bowling alley we’ve ever seen. Scantily clad ladies helped us get our shoes and we had table service while we played.

What was on both our minds though was the impending arrival of our friend Rachel. She was on her own journey. After 18 hours on the plane, Rachel arrived at our hotel around midnight. She found the place perfectly and the three of us talked into the night. We were leaving on a plane the next morning for southern Thailand so we, again, had to force ourselves to get some shuteye.

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(The ladies posing on the long tail boat from Phuket to Koh Ya Noi. I was going to take a picture of the preggo lady but thought it was inappropriate at the time.)

As we flew south for an hour and half we talked about life back home, vacation time, relaxing, the holidays, things Andy and I had missed, our nephew Adam. it was great to be connected to home and it was comforting to have the familiarity of a friedship. It’s one thing to meet random people and have interesting conversations, however brief during our travels, but it’s an entirely different thing to talk with a great friend about life.

We landed smoothly and snagged a taxi to the pier. We were headed to a small fisherman island nestled in a bay an hour boat ride from Phuket. We haggled for the taxi price and then tried to also haggle for the boat ride to Koh Ya Noi. The ferry captain wouldn’t budge, pointing to a sign on the wall saying the prices were regulated. Andy had just spent a month with a professional haggler in Vered and she taught Andy that ever price was negotiable. Not so in this case. We tried everything and the guy wouldn’t waver.

There were mostly locals on our boat and a few other travellers. One local in particular was an extremely pregant woman who, halfway through the ride, began to go into contractions. We all looked at each other with nervous eyes, hoping that there would be no water breaking or labor screams until we made it to land. She handled it admirably. She layed on the wood planks and like a true Hemingway hero, suffered in silence. We were all quite impressed.

We took a pick-up truck taxi to our bungalow and were pleasantly surprised to find a hillside home perched like a nest waiting for our arrival. It had a nice big porch and a hammock for lazy relaxing. It also sported a fridge and hot water heater. Andy and I were stoked that we could make tea, coffe, and oatmeal and keep drinks cool. It’s been a while.


(How cool are we? Rachel hopped on her automatic bike, dubbed "Limey" for the week. While I chilled on "BeeBee." We were on a pier after making a wrong turn. Hard to imagine considering the island only has one road, one stop sign and no traffic lights.)

All three of us were getting over varying types of sickness for the first two days so we took it slow. But eventually the calm island vibe killed of the germs better than any antibiotic could. We rented mopeds and hopped around the island waving at locals who yelled with smiles on their face, “Sawadeecap!” (Hello in Thai) We saw the rubber plantations, rice fields, ocean views, villa construction and local markets. It is a quiet place that tourism seemed to have forgotten. We barely saw another white face and it was refreshing, especially after our experiences down south in October.

The other night we decided to go get a drink at a bar down the street from our bungalow, wondering if there was any nightlife on this seemingly desolate island. We found a gem. A local man named Mat owned the Pyramid Bar and he told us there were other Californians living on the island. One was a teacher living here for three years teaching the locals English. Another was a man who split his time between Las Vegas and Koh Ya Noi. He was building a dream house on the island and his mother, a 62-year-old tripper from Venice Beach, was here with him to help and supervise the construction.


(Because there are few tourists to this island, the beaches were virgin territory for shell collectors. Andy has a plastic baggie filled with the perfect pieces for the soon-to-be-started mosaic tile project for the cinder block wall behind the hot tub.)

We drank and talked into the night. I sipped my strong Long Island Iced Tea while Andy and Rach knocked back some gin and tonics. It was incredible to hear about the experiences teacher Tim has had living here. He filled us in on all the stories about the Thai king, the local affinity for littering, the types of birds on the island and the best views in the area. He seemed happy to be talking with us and we enjoyed his company as well.

Today is Christmas Eve and we are going to hang on the sandy beach near our hotel during high tide and then go for a hike to pne of the premiere views on the island.

We have a few more days here and then it’s off to Railay beach close by to meet Rachel’s husband and our friend Bryan. Also meeting us there are the traveler buddies we met in Greece, Sam and Brad. We can’t wait for the addition to our trio and it warms our heart to know that we get to spend time ringing in the New Year with our close friends from home and our new friends from the road.