the beach

Leaving Bangkok once again, we spent 4-and-a-half days on the island of Ko Chang for a little "vacation from our vacation," as I called it. We took a 5-hour-plus bus ride from Bangkok to the town of Trat, then a 15-minute-plus sawgtheow ride out of town through the jungle to the dock, a 20-plus-minute ferry from the mainland shore to the island, and a brief rumble along Ko Chang's one and only road before we finally arrived at the Paradise Palms bungalows, where we somehow lucked out and landed their "penthouse," a cozy little beachfront cabin...

...with a postcard-perfect palmtree-framed view of the ocean. The sun literally set over the lapping waves, right in front of our porch, bathing us and our room in orange warmth every dusk.

We came as close to doing nothing as possible for us. We swam in the warm, crystal water...

... (suffering through the occasional little jellyfish sting along the way), ate (lots of fruit, meat, and French fries), drank (Singha beer, and pineapple juice with a splash of rum), watched the sunset each day, and read. I had just finished reading an amazing book, Welcome to Hell, this Irish dude's absolutely gripping, harrowing memoir about his 8 years of wrongful incarceration in a Bangkok prison (while in Bangkok ourselves, Maya and I literally traded off reading chapters, we were so hooked); now on the island, I read another thought-provokingly relevant book, The Beach, the novel-cum-Leonardo DiCaprio flick (which I haven't seen, by the way - I can't stand DiCaprio) about backpackers seeking untouched utopia on a Thai island and finding much more than they bargained for. It's a derivative work - there's a little Heart of Darkness, a little Lord of the Flies - but a good read, nonetheless, and the author really nails backpackers in Southeast Asia: how they talk, brag, and dream, and how ultimately silly and deluded they often are - myself included, perhaps. That said, Maya and I weren't seeking any sort of utopia on Ko Chang, just a place to relax, to catch our breath, to get away from all the craziness of our trip so far. And in that, (despite Maya having to overcome her fear of canines by facing a few of the island's energetic beach dogs, and me getting some nasty coral cuts on my right foot and maybe even nastier sunburn on my back) I think we succeeded.