My Philippines adventure with ‘my boys’ Rick and Louis came to an end at Hong Kong airport where we parted ways. They returned to Amsterdam where a new chapter of their lives would await them (moving to the suburbs). I continued the travelling lifestyle and made my way to Bangkok, Thailand. I spent the night at Suvarnabhumi airport to take an early-morning plane to the island of Samui, which, I had been informed is rather touristy. I knew I would be arriving during the hottest time of the year, but how hot that time actually is, I never would’ve guessed. Koh Samui, ‘koh’ meaning ‘island’ in Thai, has the cutest and most idyllic airport I have ever landed at. After disembarking you are taken to the arrival hall by a vehicle pulling different carriages as if you were making your way through an amusement park. Before you enter the arrival hall you find a couple of ponds with some greenery on either side of a small bridge leading from the tarmac to the baggage delivery belt. The arrival hall has no walls, which gives a very breezy feel and a real sense that you just arrived in an island paradise.
Hell are the Others (and the Weather)
Samui island can certainly be considered a paradise for those masses that want a tropical, yet safe and terribly mainstream travel destination. The island has lovely beaches and beautiful nature. There is a fair amount of entertainment to be had in addition to working on your tan, snorkelling and getting shit-faced, yet don’t expect mind-blowing off-the-beaten track stuff. In addition to foreign tourists, a lot of westerners live in Samui, the vast majority over 50. The island has very little edge and I am not sure if my decision to come here was out of stubbornness or more out of desperation.
Apparently not that long ago, Koh Samui was a cute island, where the locals lived of fishing, that turned into a backpacker’s hub. Considerably less polished, it had far more edge back in those days. Now the island is filled with resorts and far less hippy-like than neighbouring island Koh Pangan, that I visited last year.
To move away from my einzelgänger’s mode towards a more communal life, I decided to do a three-months’ writers residency based here on the island. I have a room in a big, colourful house shared with eight other residents. I definitely feel part of a community of lovely and highly interesting individuals from different corners of the earth. As I mentioned, it’s hot. Now, I can deal quite well with hot weather. I definitely prefer it to the cold, even when it’s slightly too hot. However, this month has been the hottest April since living memory and I am not enjoying myself. The house I am residing in has not been built for the heat, and as it’s so hot, I don’t sleep well, despite a large quality fan blasting at full power. Generally, I don’t like aircon; it might be cool, it is also distributes stale recycled air that dries out your skin and can give you a headache. Yet, desperate times call for desperate measures. There is one room in the house that functions as an office, that is air-conditioned and that’s where you will find me the whole day. My friends wherever in the world know that I like hot weather and since they have heard me complain about the heat, they realise that ‘that place’ must be really hot.
A few days ago we didn’t have any electricity in our neighbourhood from 8.30 in the morning until about 6 in the eve. This was announced beforehand, so we had made plans to spend the day elsewhere. It was decided to go to a beach resort where there would be wifi, so we could work, and food so we wouldn’t starve. For some reason, I had some sort of laid-back hippy beach resort in mind. However, our open-air office for the day was a resort popular with Eastern European families with young children and elderly Brits working on their tan. The food was rather average, yet quite expensive, but the wifi was solid, a lot better than at our Castle and despite screaming children I had a very productive day.
So, from an over-hyped tourist destination with great surf, I moved to a sweatshop with dodgy wifi in a lame tourist island in Thailand. At least I am boiling with wonderful people.
Dark Fairy Adventures 