Island Tour

This trip has worked out well. Next month will be my one-year anniversary in Bangkok, but I’d yet to visit the islands. It’s not that I haven’t been travelling – I’d spent parts of the first four months of the year on four different continents - but that was also the problem, too much long-haul and not enough exploring in my new backyard.  So knowing I wouldn’t be needed in the office for a span of two-weeks, I bought a one-way ticket to Krabi and ended up with a pretty diverse adventure.

Koh Phi Phi

First stop was Koh Phi Phi - made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio and The Beach – and my quest to finally get dive certified after talking about it for years.  The island didn’t disappoint in terms of beauty, but I felt like I met my 20-year old self there laughing at my wheelie bag and refusal to get on the bar for some shots and drunk dancing.  Of course I mocked the jar of peanut butter she still carried to make up for all the 10am breakfasts she could never get up for. We battled over her disappointment of my private room devoid of bunk beds and a litany of European languages yapping from corner to corner.  I asked if she ever wore shoes, she asked if ever wore a bikini.   In the end we made peace and parted on good terms – her wishing she could afford the dive class and me photographing my certificate. 

I overnighted in Phuket Town, a former Portuguese trading port with colonial architecture, quirky shops and art galleries. This was my city stop and my B&B was one of the funkiest I’d ever stayed in. http://www.quiphotel.com/  It was full of whimsical furniture (think Alice-in-Wonderland), Americana collectibles and electronics that could have been pulled from my parent’s basement – rabbit ear TVs, short wave radios and turntables. The reception desk was a converted car. Hanging on the wall outside my room was a giant aerial photograph of the New York skyline which made me wonder if somewhere in Manhattan there sits a hotel boasting photos of Phuket. It’d be like some alternate universe with really nice symmetry.

Paddle!!

Next, I headed out on a two-day overnight kayaking adventure in Phang Nga National Park. We paddled on flat waters circling limestone islands, explored hidden lagoons full of mangroves and battled a monkey who stole pineapple from our lunch. Just me, the guide, two British med students and random encounters with fisherman, heron, egrets, kingfishers and a rare white-bellied sea eagle. Oh yeah, and the fruit bats who attack the local’s mango and rambutan trees at night then dangle in their secret bat lair by day.

After five days of physical exertion I booked myself into a 4-star luxury resort on Phuket’s Panwa Cape.  I was upgraded to the Honeymoon Suite  on arrival (don’t know why) and entered as the sun was setting across the bay. There were fireworks and a giant Buddha statue, a la Christ the Redeemer, sitting on the hilltop opposite. It was so perfectly relaxing I immediately extended my stay and never left the grounds, refusing to commit to anything more than daily spa treatments. Of course that was really my plan from the start, to do nothing... I was in the islands just to trade my dining room office for a sun-soaked balcony with sea view work set-up…. And yes, I got stuff done. I learned that to-do lists melt like ice cubes in the tropics, vanishing with ease under solar powered dedication.

I arrived at my last stop today – a small beach community at NaiYang wedged between a National Park and the Phuket airport. (That does sound a little counter-productive, but it's really nice to enjoy my last few days without stressing over potential traffic jams on the way to the airport.) The town is really just a single lane road following the shore, canopied by trees and buffered from the Andaman Sea by a beach of golden sand.  Restaurants and huts line the road with women offering outdoor massages along the beach.  I love the vibe and simplicity – it’s probably the last scene I needed without really knowing it. All in all a well-balanced trip.

Update: I wrote the above section last night but didn’t get a chance to post it.  Below is an update from today…

I’m in a little bungalow that steps right out onto the beach.  I took a walk along the road today and found an old dilapidated hotel across the street.  It was some big Miami style art deco construction from the 80’s with giant balconies that the jungle had reclaimed. It was beautiful in a haunting way and eerie how some of the foliage looked like planned window boxes with flowering greens spilling over the edge.  I wandered around wondering why it was abandoned and wrote it off to the same economic collapse that’s left hundreds of half-finished buildings littered through Bangkok and the hillsides of Phuket.  But the longer I stayed the more uneasy I felt. It was obvious that this hotel had been finished- there were light fixtures, teak wood ceilings and the hotel’s name in grand, but fading letters.  This place had been finished, this place had had life.  There was something unsettling about the way tiles and wiring peeled from the ceiling like water damage….

Crown Nai Yang Suire Hotel

Tsunami.  A quick google search confirmed it.  The water had risen to the second floor and standing before it made the magnitude of devastation so apparent. I saw the water so high, the force of it so strong. Superstition and a lack of funds prevented the hotel from being either renovated or torn down.  So now it stands as a ghost hotel tangled between nature and development, a tragic reminder. 

Ironically, at least one current listing for it still exists. Would you like to book a room? http://www.sbyphuket.com/hotel/phuket/naiyang/crown_naiyang/crown_naiyang.htm