Motorbike Passage

Our time in Bangkok were spent primarily in the mall. Not really what you would expect of yourself, being an ecologist, coming to Thailand to be on a beach and write a book, but this is where we were. It's cozy in here, even though it is highly consumerist. It was nice though looking for some necessary objects that we required for our continued journey.

We met Cory in the mall, a friend of Stephani [from Portland]. Him as his wife Tuk Ta were very sweet and helped us to get a mobile phone and orientate us in the country. Many early nights passed where we were awake most of the night due to jet-lag and as soon as we could we got our flight out of the big city and its luring air-conditioned megaplexes for a new island I hadn't been to before: Phuket.

Since we are planning to stay a year, it made sense to try and investigate places that might offer longer term comforts. Phuket seems to be one of those places where a lot of expats gather, I imagined probably because of all the modern conveniences together with good beaches.

A short flight later we landed in Phuket. Straight from the airport we took a shuttle bus and, can you imagine, at 11pm it stops along the way in the middle of nowhere at a tour agency to try and sell us tours and bookings for the rest of our stay. We didn't ask to stop here, and they forced all of us to get off and talk to an agent… we both found it really rude and annoying, I wish the tourism was as aggressive as it is sometimes; but at least it is generally very safe.

We got to our hotel, quite a classy place compared to bangkok and the next morning we decided to check out the island.

It's a rather big island, so getting around by bus didn't seem easy, and renting a car was expensive: so we did the next best thing. What most tourists seem to do at least once while they are here, and we rented a motor bike.

Now I had never been on a motorcycle before, so I was a bit scared with how I might do, but I know that I have ridden a road/city bike around a whole bunch and I just figured it was probably like a bicycle, only faster and easier on the legs.

The lady who rented it to us was very concurWe took the riding carefully, and I was slow at first, but within about an hour or so I was already feeling quite comfortable with my new wheels. We rode over hills, through rain, past fishing towns and other lost lookouts as we cruised the Thai freeways.

What we saw was very average, certainly beautiful in parts, but never epic. Some areas even looked ruined down, or full of plastic fake hotel-wealth; you know that las vegas faux column art stuff that looks totally cheap even though they charge a fortune.

Overall we didn't feel that impressed. Why would someone fly all the way over from Europe just to stay in Phuket? Knowing what I knew of Thailand from before, it didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

We both really wanted to settle somewhere, almost painfully so. We had been on the road for quite a while now already, but Phuket just didn't seem like the right place to do it. At least that was not my first impression.

Things might have grown on me, and I was willing to try things out up to two weeks to see, but really I wanted to just keep going. I knew things could be more Thai, more pretty, and more authentic than this.

The very next morning we got on a boat and headed to Koh Phi Phi. We hadn't even been on Phuket for more than 36 hours. Koh Phi Phi is another island I didn't visit when I came here in 2004. At the time it seemed like a very small and expensive place to visit, so I went to other islands.

I knew Koh Phi Phi though as most likely one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful island in all of Thailand. So I was sure at least that something here, if not a lot of tinges here, were going to impress us.

From our waving ship people released their sick bellies into bags and ahead of our boat giant cliffs emerged from the sea. Giant waves crashed upon its walls. It looked like a very old place. Through time it has stood and defied the sea with its body. Nestled inside of a protected bay, like an arm that holds a child, our boat turned and a giant beach with five dozen boats emerged.

We looked at each other with glee and both proclaimed: "here we will definitely feel home." We had found a place where we could stop traveling for a while. Just how long that would be, we didn't know yet. But we knew it would at least be until Laura's friend from Spain: Christina arrived.

And so we disembarked full of positive prospects and dreams, to the blue and golden sanded gel of the Andaman sea.