Living in a dream (Part 2)

Eden

The Black moon party (run by the Thai Mafia) was taking place beside us, and the 5000 people that were expected, hadn't arrived by the witching hour. It was $20 to get in and the music, was pretty shit. We were sitting on the beach watching the dried palm leaves and dead branches turn into roaring orange flames, with the distant lightening storm over Koh Samui adding the odd flash. I'd been given a tip to head to Eden by a fellow traveller who'd escaped the full moon party in search of something a little different, so we spent that $20 on transport to and from the party, which involved a tuk tuk to the other beach and a 10 minute boat ride. Our tuk-tuk was full of drunk Poles that were leaving the Black Moon party in search of something cheaper, and after a slurred, excited conversation, J and I hopped on a boat in the dark of the night, to find solace. The boat pushed out into the blackness, and just for our amusement, the engine decided not to work. So we waited as the boatman lunged his anchor millimetres away from our heads, trying to hold on to some form of positivity as I let my head fall backwards and take in the glorious expanse of stars above us. 'If you see a shooting star tonight, everything's going to look up' is what I kept saying to myself. 5 minutes later, the engine was working (due to the help of his fellow boatmen) and not 1 but 3 shooting stars orbited through the night sky, I smiled to myself as the sound of the engine roared above all thoughts, tonight was going to be amazing. The boat arrived in a secret cove, and we started walking along the sand towards the giant rocks, the rickety bridge, jazzy-house-techno beats (played by the incredible resident DJ's), costumes, water, gum, magic balls and trippers. Police were banned from the beach so 'anything was possible' with a bit of moolah and a good attitude, the party went on till 12pm the following day, and everyone was still dancing like no one cared at 11am - with a quick break to watch the sunrise together. J and I lay on shark-rock looking at the clouds blow across the sky as it changed colour from black to yellowy blue. We spotted animals and objects in the clouds and another thought came to me. When I was younger I used to believe each animal you spotted was from the spirit of the animal that had died. So to my excited inner-child, I've now learnt how that can be explained, scientifically (because that's what gets credit now, right). When an animal dies it's recycled back into the earth as it's body deteriorates and it becomes part of the soil again, which in turn feeds the growth of new seeds, that turns into various plants; their moisture evaporates and rises, due to cohesion these evaporated particles all condense as they get denser with atmospheric pressure and they form clouds (excited squeel) which turns into rain, that waters the plants, that animals drink and the cycle continues.. As the temperature rose that morning and the energy wore off, we left our new French friends, with the gift of a pheasant feather in my hair, a drunk Aussie falling off the side of the boat and a grimy couple with their eyes rolling, still causing glares on the dance floor. That day was named zombie-day as it always is, we showed our faces spontaneously to buy food at the local market, spotting the other zombies from the night before and crashing out as soon as sunset wiped the light away. 

The morning after our all-nighter

We spent the next day exploring the island. The sea at night was deceiving,  as by day it was barely visible and took a good few hundred metres to reach (over the coral reef), so we went in search of a more accessible sea and hopefully an idyllic guest house to accompany it. Riding up and down the hilly terrain, looking at guest houses, checking out bars and dive shops, swimming in the ocean and seeing familiar faces, we returned that evening to Sea Love bungalows. The room slowly began to spin uncontrollably, with my eyes open and shut, until something (dinner) gave way, all over the plants next to our balcony :s. 

Hat Yai, just before we realized what time it was..

We learnt that Koh Phangan has long been where the heart of the Thai King lies. A spiritual hub that's been partly taken over by the full mooners but still retains it's beauty. Haadrin beach, the host of the notorious FMParty, has a different vibe, and neon shirts that read 'drugs saved my life' and 'let's get f*cked' litter the shops along the sand. Horny dogs ran around humping whatever they could see, the difference between teenage boys and dogs suddenly seeming less vast..
That day was pure adrenaline, for the second time round. Breakfast, tickets to Koh Tao, room paid for, clothes packed, lunch, trek. It was only $7 to get to Eden by boat, but there was supposedly a path that lead through the jungle to the other side of the beach where Eden was located. We'd only heard one story so far about that trek, a guy had done it at the last moon party, and was found where he'd begun, having made no progress, covered in scratches and armed with one lighter. He'd sat on a giant rock all night, staying elevated from the floor that crawled with snakes and insects before he managed to find his way back in the morning when daylight came. The story didn't put us off trying, and in an effort to prove everyone wrong, we set off, with 1 hour of daylight left, a head torch, clothes for that night and a strong sense of willpower. The first few locals we asked for directions all laughed 'it's hard man, it's really hard' was the general response we got - but we set off anyway. The first 15 minutes were spent heading in the wrong direction, and when J asked a group of local lads for help, he ran back shouting 'he's got a knife' - deja vu?

Koh Phangan

So we scrambled back down the hills we'd just walked up, and began again, 45 minutes till darkness fell. The path was tough, but manageable, we followed the water pipes knowing that if someone had built these, they had to lead to a way out. We ended up at a small, concrete bridge that lead nowhere. Via trial and error we tested every possible path, and with the light fading and our water volume decreasing, panic began to rise. We decided, that no matter what, we had to keep moving, the millions of mosquitoes could no longer get to us, because of the dense jungle that left them with no room to fly. The water pipes were gone, the floor was crawling with tropical tings, we had no clue what direction the sea was and the only visible sign was a patch of sky, to tell us what time it was. J kept his cool and put on the head torch, my breath started quickening as I asked our surroundings for help and looked at the giant rocks in front of us. My plan would've been to somehow climb up a rock (with huge drops on either side of it if you fell), and scream for help, or jump into the water and swim to land, wherever that was. J was contemplating spending the night in the Jungle, and working out how much water we had left, so my plan went out the window. I felt a drip of water, and before we knew it, the rain began to POUR. Hanging onto branches, like Tarzan and Jane we swung, slid and ran through that jungle, in whatever clear space we could find, following the dim light from the headtorch. At last, after 3 hours, we spotted a plastic bottle, a sign of civilization! We followed the bottle and slid down the face of the mountain, landing on a dirt road - whaaaaat.

Crazy roti man

Nearby was a wooden house, we knocked on the door, drenched in rain, trying to keep anything in the bag that was'breakable' dry, by wrapping it in my half drenched sarong. A group of men came out, a look of sympathy evident on their sun kissed faces. We asked where we were, 'Haadrin' they replied. That definitely wasn't possible, we hadn't just walked in a loop - that was where we'd started. We soon realized we'd been asking for directions to the wrong beach, the entire time. 'Eden?' J. asked with arched eyebrows as we held on to the tiniest bit of hope, 'oh just over there!' they pointed to the other side of the beach. We were amazed and still shaking from our 3.5 hour adrenaline rush, we walked into the nearest restaurant that was screening the movie 'couples retreat' on a projector. We jumped into the sea, shivering from the cold but washing all the grime, insect bites, scratches and jungle off of us. We sat down with wide eyes, still in disbelief at being in a completely civilized setting where everyone was calmly eating their dinner. As we sat down, the scene that played in front of us made our mouths hang and our eyes bulge even more. The couples in the movie were on a holiday together and had all just gotten lost in the jungle, only to stumble across an amazing party where everyone was reunited, but get this, the party, was called 'Eden' - talk about synchronicity. We raved our well-deserved night away and I happened to bump into a mate from my yoga retreat who lived around the corner, and a very old friend who I hadn't seen in 6 years since high school in Sri Lanka - strange coincidences made that night incredible, and our story was appreciated by all who knew the land. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlNzGC49-jg  was the song that came on at 7am as everyone's dirty side emerged. The energy began to lapse so we made our way over to bamboo hut for a morning ice coffee, coconuts and tea with my old friend from high school. I looked out over the rocks with the naturally carved faces all over it, feeling a tinge of deja-vu, I'd been in that exact spot about 6 years ago with my family, how times had changed.

Eden

We had skipped on accommodation that night in favour of dancing, but the lovely manager gave us back our room for a shower and a chill-out, before out boat to Koh Tao left at 12pm. Being our usual selves, we were the last ones on the boat, with -1 minute to spare - running along the deck, with our backpacks on, trying to stop our eyes from closing and craving a glass of water, as the boat driver screamed that they were leaving, we somehow made it. I closed my eyes for a second and we were in Koh Tao, with tuk tuk drivers all screaming down our necks 'TAXI! TUK TUK! WHERE YOU GO!? I TAKE YOU!' Oh godd. 

Right after our last dive!

We walked through the crowds and sat down to eat our first meal, at about 3pm. Our free pick-up arrived on time and we were whisked off to our sterile room in the middle of a little village, close to DJL diving centre, where I spent the next 3 days getting qualified to dive. Koh Tao is the cheapest place in the world for diving, hence why a million dive shops litter the area, but once you're away and in that underwater world, listening to the rhythm of your breath, watching the bubbles from other people's regulators below you race up to the surface, turning into silver plates with the water pressure. It's like you're on the moon with no gravity, floating up, down, hovering above the surface to watch the symbiosis between a crab and it's guard-fish, the beautiful coral gardens, the odd sting ray and shooing away the annoying blue fish that nibble at any cuts or dead skin. The weather was a means to an end, we were caught up in a week-long storm, but as a first diving experience, it didn't really matter as the excitement trumped all other emotion (after the cringey 80's diving video had passed through our system). It did make J's life slightly harder, staying entertained on land. But when I finished my days work, we'd drive up to 'high bar' that looked out over the island and the sea, or play backgammon at a sweet local cafe, or light candles and read in the room. We walked through stumbling, drunk teens with red eyes, to get to the roti stall where a mad-man flipped around his rotis. He moved with precision, flare and a touch of violence, causing everyone within a 2m radius to take a step back. That's one of the things I can appreciate most about SEAsia, it may not be the most developed region in the world but the little things are done to perfection and with such admirable skill.


Suddenly, like a slap in the face, the last day had arrived. We somehow had to cram in 3 dives, as the previous day, my diving buddy's hungover dad had passed out overboard, meaning a crew of about 50 divers had to leave the site early. So we soaked up every minute that we had, exploring all the cracks and crevices of Mango Bay, Koh Tao for hours. I watched a parrot fish rip apart a sea urchin, hearing the crunch of it's spikes as the fish ruthlessly ate away - it was no different to watching a dog rip apart a piece of meat.. fascinating. We arrived back, paid for our room,, collected our passports, inhaled our last delicious Thai meal and jumped on our sleeper boat for our 35+ hour journey home. All the beds were lined up next to each other, and just as my eyes began to droop, a shriek from a French woman nearby made us all jump. A dead gecko had fallen onto her shoulder, leaving a nice yellow smear on her T.Shirt and stinking out our area until the sea breeze blew it away. A live alarm clock bellowed 'everyone get off! We're here!' 6 hours later, so we wiped the sleepy dust from our eyes, and headed to the bus station to wait for our bus to Hat Yai. Into a mini van we squeezed, picking up various people that had all been on our sleeper boat (and scammed into being driven to the 'correct bus station' when we hadn't paid a thing). With not enough sleep, J and I rowed over my bladder control as tears were shed and hair was ripped out.. in the least violent way possible, so we kissed and made up and arrive in Hat Yai. 

Sleeper boat

Hat Yai is a maze, a gridded city where I'm sure everything was designed to look the same. We were given one hour, so we headed off to wander the town, making sure we had a landmark to return to (the 7-11 on the corner..) An hour later, we're running around like headless chickens, asking everyone 'Is there more than one 7-11??' and getting a laugh in response, followed by a little nod of the head 'yes, only one'. So we circled this one 7-11, sure that it wasn't the right one but going by the word of the locals. 30 minutes later, we'd jumped into a tuk-tuk and instructed him to drive us around to every 7-11 he knew, turning each corner to see a new one, much to our frustration. Soon enough we spotted the right one and ran into the travel agent with a look of total hopelessness, preparing to argue our case. Much to our surprise, we got the immediate response of 'You got lost? Don't worry we've booked you another bus for 3.30' phew, I guess we weren't the only ones who'd done it... 

Nasi Kandar in Penang :)

We wandered around talking and playing backgammon to kill time, before being put on a bus loaded with a family from Indonesia who were all wearing matching T.Shirts and excited to share their stories and hear ours. We made it through immigration, had a little snooze, played a bit of wordmole and arrived in Georgetown, Penang for dinner. Nasi Kandar! Roti Cannai! mmm, it was good to be back, and the hospitality was more than we'd experienced in a while. We filled our tummys and wondered back to the bus, half an hour early. We weren't going to take our chances. We hopped on the freezing cold sleeper bus, and passed out until arrival in Kuala Lumpur. J told the taxi driver his address and we rode along familiar roads, passing the twin towers, the billboards and the Nasi Kandars. Hopping over the fence wasn't an option this time as J's new dog righteously barked at the strangers with backpacks until his parents came to the door. We shared a few stories and laughs and crashed out in a luxurious bed, with hot water in the shower and clean sheets. Wow. We're back, and I can't help feeling that the last 6 months was all a dream..

(A little verse of summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkDDRdKaN8o)