Did It Anyway

Thank you for joining us today, as we continue our trip through Southern Thailand. We head up from Hat Yai to Koh Pha-ngan. This post is a day-in-the travel life snapshot.

The city of Hat Yai turned out to actually be fun for a stopover. Arriving from Malaysia’s Langkawi via fast ferry and a very slow, local-stopping minivan, we were happy to find our hotel was: 1) very modernly comfortable and 2) very close to a large air-conditioned mall. Now, we have been to Hat Yai before 21 years ago, and that challenging visit filled us with dread about Hat Yai. But instead of encountering a jaded, worn-out center of international vices, Hat Yai welcomed us with gentle kindness.

First up was the owner of a quiet cafe. Perhaps surprised at our arrival, he slowly explained his various offerings, then asked about us, introduced his family via phone pics, and eventually got around to giving us much more than we asked for. He even treated us to some cookies that his 3 girls had baked. He was lovely and charming with us, and we set out for the mall in high spirits.

The mall, you say? Let me say that we don’t usually spend much time in malls anywhere, but the heat wave gripping SE Asia forces us to avoid grappling with busy streets and crowded markets sometimes. So between 7-11 stores and malls, we have taken refuge in these cool places just to get through the days. With yesterday’s real feel at 42C / 108F, going to Central Hat Yai mall was a no-brainer. First up: a lychee tea with salty cheese topping. You read that right, and it was delicious! Then we both grabbed some replacement clothes at UniQlo, wandered awhile, then got boat noodles at Larn Tar Piean Boat Noodle. Here we were teased at every turn, as often happens when we try to speak Thai, and chowed down on delicious Tom Yum, and seafood broth noodles, until a final round of goofy teasing when we paid. 555 ( thai for LOL, pronounced “ha ha ha”).

Lindsay was pretty tired at this point but she lovingly agreed to wait while I power-walked the 3rd floor electronics section. Electronics malls have been a bit of a hobby for me, ever since our Taiwan visit opened my eyes to the whole culture. The e-mall at Central Hat Yai was extremely tidy, and like other e-malls features many clone mobile stores, as well as stores of the big 4 – Xiomi, Oppo, Samsung, and an Apple re-seller. There are 4(!) big camera stores, where I was able to lay eyes on most of the Pro OM System lenses that have been calling out to me during this trip. There is also a huge e-tailer store called Power Buy for TV’s appliances, and such. Missing were the accessory hawkers that line so many other e-malls, and there were no specialist vendors for led’s, components, or 3D printing. So those must be somewhere else in town with lower rents. Requisite massage chairs for disinterested shopping friends were by the toilets for 20, 50, and 100 -baht sessions, and they looked brand new. A very complete e-mall experience!

Power walk over, we caught a Grab ride back to our hotel, a 3-minute ride worth every baht. Passed out on the most comfortable bed since we left home. Woke up to a gorgeous sunrise over eastern Hat Yai, again waaay better than we dreamed of.

One thing about travelling with a partner: negotiating the timing to catch transit. At first blush, an easy thing. But our experience has demonstrated that reality can toss a wrench or two into every carefully considered plan. So today Lindsay agreed to a half-hour buffer in our plan to catch the minibus very close to our hotel.

You see, minivan stations exist in a definite uncertainty space. When, where, who are all in flux, and it’s often challenging to identify an authoritative person to get you sorted out. There are signs posted, but those may or may not be current. The minivan you seek might have the english name of your ticketed carrier on it, but even if it did, that wouldn’t necessarily be your bus parked under a sign for your destination. So you have to allow time to figure it out. Even when, like today, we already purchased tickets, and there’s a photo of the ticket counter on the actual ticket. But once you’re organized, every minibus station deserves a trip to the snack stands to find the local treats. How much time do you allow for all this? 10 minutes? 30?

The other big uncertainty is taxi or ride hail service availability. In Thailand, Grab is the main hailing service. Trouble is, the availability cars can go from a one-minute wait to a 30-minute wait in a very short time. Taxis likewise can disappear suddenly right when you need to leave. So how do you plan for that? Add even more time before leaving the accommodation.

We were rewarded for our early arrival by getting to talk for a while with a Buddhist monk also headed to Koh Pha-ngan. This a wonderful thing, since monks don’t engage westerners in public very much.

After talking about his ongoing travel challenges, I asked how long he had been a monk and what he finds he is still learning since he joined the monastery at age 21 (he looked maybe 30, but implied he was much older). After thinking a moment, he said, “Ah…Fire. Touch it?” and here he tapped my arm. “Hurts. Even children know this. Anger. Like fire. It hurts you, inside. When you angry, you hurt. That why we meditate.” And here I suspect he was reiterating something I’d heard from another monk, which is that a senior monk’s duties can actually lead to frustration, trying to meet expectations for rituals or events, or taking care of younger monks. From the outside monks generally appear serene as they perform alms on the streets or go about duties at the Wat. This is supported by a long practice of meditation several times a day. Maybe I’m reading too much into this short chat, but it gives me hope that the meditation I’m doing will help maintain an even keel in my daily life.

Suddenly the P.A. crackled to life with song and the monks slowly stood, along with most -not all- other people at the station. Ah, the daily 8 a.m. national anthem! Stop everything, stand still, bow slightly at the end. Just afterwards, the monks suddenly departed for their bus.

Then we were corralled into our minivan, where I’ve written this post as we tear up the eastern seaboard via Songkhla, and probably past Khanom, our destination after Koh Pha-ngan.

This being a day-in-the life post, I’ll share the joy of a 10-minute stop at a 7-11: packaged burgers and toasties. These are legend in the traveler world, for times when all the eateries are closed, like mid-afternoon nap time. My personal go-to are the Oishi Eato Ham and Cheese, as English a version as you can imagine. No crusts, plenty of mayo, one triangle has one slice of ham and cheese on the other, 22 baht or about CAD 0.82. Lindsay loves the lemongrass rice burgers, which are delicious. But having only ten minutes, there was no time to heat it up in the microwave, so it’s cold ham and cheese and back on the road!

The hat on bench photo at the top of this post? A play on words. Yai means big in Thai. I left my “Australian Big Hat” on the bench in Hat Yai on purpose, because it was, well, too big and awkward to carry around anymore.

Thanks for reading! A variety of different kinds of posts coming soon!