South East Asia on a Hamstring - February 6

Dawn of Happiness Resort, near Krabi, Thailand
February 6, 2000

I woke up to the flavor of raspberry codeine. I could barely speak. I walked to breakfast in my sleeping shorts and t-shirt and told Peter that today’s snorkelling expedition would have to go on without me. I went back to sleep.

Late in the afternoon, I caught a ride into Krabi with a resort employee. I went back to the travel agency - they didn’t take Mastercard and I hadn’t brought a Visa. I was going to have to take the bus instead of the the plane to Bangkok. It was an air-conditioned “V.I.P.” bus and left at 4pm the next day, arriving in Bangkok at 5:30am the following morning. The cost was a little over US$10.

Getting back to the Dawn of Happiness turned out to be difficult. I knew it wouldn’t be easy and so had memorized the route and had the return songthaew

pointed out to me by the resort employee. It didn’t help. The songthaew driver motioned me onto the back and drove me to a travel agency, where he had a travel agent come out and translate. I was on the wrong songthaew, but if I caught the white one in front of the 7-Eleven - that would get me back.

I walked towards the 7-Eleven, passing the motorcycle taxis as I went. I wondered, “how much?” I stopped and inquired. The motorcyclists all grouped around me and I said, “Dawn of Happiness.” There was much discussion and finally, they dragged a newsstand vendor into it to translate.

“Dawn of Happiness is 17 kilometers away. 150 baht. You want taxi?”

“Yes,” I replied.

Next thing you know, I was on the back of a motorbike, hanging onto the sissybar (I’m too shy to just grab a strange man around the waste). He had a helmet - I had none and I tried hard to remember the etiquette of motorbike riding.

“Don’t fight me on the curves,” my friend the Bucce had said when I rode on the back of his bike in Los Angeles (I had a helmet then, not to mention a bike I could ride myself, but never mind that).

So when the biker leaned, I leaned too. There were no incidents and I was able to use my hands to guide him back to the Dawn of Happiness, to a suitably awed

audience of Westerners. I walked to my room and looked back. The biker was standing there looking cool for the Westerners. He’d lit a cigarette and was just posing, looking like the Marlboro Man.

At 7pm, we all met and went to the nearby town of Ao Nang for dinner. I was in no mood to go, sick and alienated, but I knew that it would be good for me to get out.

Dinner was a disaster for me, as it was primarily a seafood restaurant. I’m allergic to everything but tuna, and to make matters worse I had another coughing fit after I ordered.

“Do you want some water?” asked Pratima.

“Nod yes or no,” suggested Lorraine.

I nodded and Pratima rushed off to get me some water. I had been very lucky in my traveling companions for once. It was a switch for me to question the leader instead of the local whiner.

After dinner, Gerry and Lorraine went to look at local resorts. Pratima and Jitu went to talk to travel agents about their options. I walked through Ao Nang.

It was a cute little beach town. Every store was dedicated to the tourist community, selling souvenirs, massage, beachwear, food, or internet services. There was barely a Thai in sight - this town, like so many of Thailand’s beach towns, was a town for tourists. We all met at 10:30 for a lift back to the Dawn of Happiness and the waiting pleasures of raspberry cough syrup.

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