Unexpected

I’m sitting at dinner fighting phantom bobbing and rolling from spending most of the past three days on a boat or under water doing a dive certification. My dinner companion sits at a desk halfway round the world connected to me by the blanket of wifi that covers Koh Phi Phi. I send her photos of my beachside table with its evening views, plastic chairs and floral tablecloth. My pineapple salad, journal and Lonely Planet creep into the shot.  I have traded work-from-home for work-from-beach.

We chat across the miles as I eat.  A Call to Prayer sings out from the neighboring mosque and tangles with the pounding bass of Eminem that escapes from the karaoke club on the other side of me. Unexpected. This is Thailand.

Set among the overflow of tattoo parlors, elephant print pajama bottoms and wrinkle-free backpackers, I realize the shopkeepers all greet me with a Chinese ‘ni hao’ and not the Thai ‘sawadee.’ My feet are constantly wet from sun-proof puddles in rainy season. They navigate an island devoid of motor vehicles where abrasive honks are replaced by the whimsical chimes of a bike bell. Crowded families of three pedal by or maybe it’s the woman with the Pomeranian balancing on the handlebars. Tonight it was a young girl cycling past at bedtime in her nightgown.  Unexpected. Unexpected like the man carrying a monkey dressed in yellow corduroy pants held up by bright red suspenders. Or the endless restaurants offering a mix of Thai and Italian cuisines. Nothing more, nothing less and nothing to explain it.

A man takes my photo and speaks to a friend in a language I don’t recognize. He tells me it’s Nepalese. He grew up there and also Burma. I guess he’s 25.  Now he lives in Phi Phi, runs a small shop and specializes in languages - Nepalese and Burmese, plus Thai and French and Italian and German and Swedish and Spanish and more he doesn’t mention. He says he learns them because not everyone speaks English and that Chinese is a struggle. Unexpected. He deserves so much more for his efforts.