Koh Yao Nai - final words on doing unplanned journeys

There were a few firsts here - lagoon, captaining a boat, snorkeling, random island in an unknown country but what stood out is the fact that a journey is a lot more satisfying without a plan. When you plan there are expectations and when things don't go as per that there's pain. When you have no expectations as far as smaller things such as what activity or what location but do have broader clarity on what is meaningful for you, the journey is nicer. Regardless of where we would have gone, we would've enjoyed in a similar way. It isn't the destination per se but the whole idea of exploration and discovery. The joy of the unknown. Of unfamiliar cultures or cuisines or languages. Or about reaffirming that people are the same everywhere. That cities have similar challenges and strains. That the deeper you go inside a country the more real it gets. A clarity that it's impossible to see, experience everything. That who you are with at the moment is the most important person ever. That touristy stuff gets boring after a point. That no one really cares about your pictures or videos. That there's absolutely no correlation between money you spend and fun you have.

Because we were not on some self-created deadline, we were able to soak in everything one at a time without the pressure of getting onto the next because there was really no next. Because there was really no arbitrary goal to get to, we were able to listen closer to our own body rhythms and follow it whethe it was sleeping or eating. It was more natural. Because there was no checklist and because we knew that it would be impossible to experience everything there was, any activity that we did became more enjoyable. I couldn't find the correlation between working hard and setting goals. If I don't think about this like some relaxing vacation but more as something that I wanted to expose myself to and experience, then I think I 'worked' at my normal pace, sometimes more. I think we make plans to give some vague assurance to ourselves that we are in control. It helps us move through risk by thinking that we are minimizing risks. For e.g., the girl in the Nakhon Si thammarat plane minimized risk by making plans to go by ferry once she reached her destination. Technically, both our plans to go to a particular location didn't materialize (risk showed up) but reedirecting to Phuket brought tears to her eyes and joy to mine. Risk exists. Risk doesn't exist. Both are true and it's just a point of view.

Overall, it was refreshing. It reinforced this whole thing about letting go. The solution kept coming to us at the right time sometimes in the form that I foresaw, sometimes in a different form. We came across the right people at the right time who told us the right things to do. We took the most interesting street turns, chose the most interesting venues, destinations - all naturally and in a much better way than any book or website would've told us. Clearly the solution appears. Just as water, the journey flows - it doesn't stop, freeze because there's a crevice- it goes through it. Whether it was figuring out tickets to get back to Bangkok or deep inside the Andaman sea waters where I was seeing fish swim around my legs and arms or figuring out my way back from a jungle to nowhere, letting go is refreshing and relaxing and expands thinking. It increases faith in the natural order of things. It allows you to see everything more clearly for what they are and compels you to put priorities in the areas where they need to be.

Hey, that sounds like this other bigger journey I know...

Koh Yao Noi trip: Kharcha paani

Tickets are costly. Everything else is similar to India. The Thai baht is 30 baht to a US dollar.

Day 1

Visa 1000 baht

Taxi to Erawan 350 baht

Starbucks 350 baht

Lunch at Nara 610 baht for two

Boat on canal 1200 baht

Beer 80 baht

Wat pho entrance 100 baht

Dinner 25 baht

Tuk tuk 150 baht

Hotel stay 1400 baht for two

Thai boxing 2000 baht for ring side

Pop corn 60 baht

Day 2

Unknown Snack 5 baht

Taxi to airport 350 baht

Flight to Nakhon Si thammarat 4300 baht

Lunch 280 baht for two

Coffee and water 60 baht

Taxi to ferry 800 baht

Speed boat to Koh Yao Noi 400 baht

Tuk tuk to pha sey 80 baht

Koh Yao bungalow 800 baht per night for two

Day 3

Koh yao Noi food and drink 1300 baht for two

Scooter rental 300 baht

Boat to various islands 1800 baht

Lunch 310 baht

Petrol 40 baht

Internet 46 baht

Day 4

Tuk tuk to ferry 70 bah

Long tail boat to Phuket 130 baht

Subway lunch 100 baht

Phuket to Bangkok business class tickets 6100 baht

Train to phaya Thai station45 baht

Fruit mango 35 baht

Lunch 120 baht for two

Day 4: No flights to anywhere

Who would've imagined that our day 4 and final day and the day of our travel back to India from Bangkok would be the last day of new year celebrations in Thailand. Who would've imagined that there would be floods in Nakhon Si thammarat and trains and roads would be blocked. Thankfully, we took the first ferry out. We had a choice between Phuket airport and Krabi airport. I chose Phuket to increase our chances.

Once at the airport, I went to Thai airways and saw that there was a really long standby line. Huh. No tickets. Went to air Asia. No tickets. We were first on standby here. Orient Thai. Overbooked. Bangkok airways - only one ticket to pattaya, two hours from bangkok. Some hope. Malaysian airlines. No tickets.

After missing three flights, my standby got confirmed on Thai airways via business class. I flew leaving Pradeep back in Phuket with no idea if would make it. He did via Nok Air. On the plane I met an Australian finance guy settled in Guangzhou. He was reading a book called the next 100 years. He told me about possible war in 2012 and other oil stories. Ahem. We worried some fellow passengers with this conversation.

Pradeep and I reunited in phaya Thai train station. It's the last stop out of suvarnabhumi airport. We ate lunch at a really local restaurant. We walked around and finally ended up at a local mall. Played arcade games with Thai school kids. Then went to. Thai-Korean movie called The Kick. The girl at the ticket booth kept telling us "but it's in Thai" and we said exactly. It was quite an enjoyable movie. We couldn't complete it because I had to rush to the airport to shop for suz.

I managed to anger a tuk tuk driver and he offered "you wanna fight?" No I didnt fight. We flew back and I made it in time to Ahaan's birthday. The inflight magazine had an interesting article on luang prabang in Laos.

Wonderful!

Day 3: Koh Yao Noi the island that got split by the Naga dragon lover

I did kriya at the beach next morning. We had breakfast - egg but it didn't seem like a hen's. We resented a scooter and set out to explore the island. We pretty much covered all roads on the island by 2pm. Some twice.

I think the first place we went to was paradise point. It was a beachy place with a resort. It didn't catch my fancy and we drove back. All the while worrying about when we would run out of gas. We finally filled gas back on e main road at a fascinating, Thai speaking, automated gas station. I filled gas for 40 baht.

For an island of its size, I found it to be extremely well equipped. It has a well functioning municipality. Good roads, gas station, ATM, bank, hospital, school and even a college. It's 90% Muslim population. Women mostly had covered heads. Extremely friendly. Tropical and grows all kinds of tasty fruits. Internet costs 2 baht per min which I thought was very expensive. It's surrounded by beautiful little islands - hong island, James bond island (yes), paradise island...several. The sunrise and sunset is spectacular. It's Andaman sea all around. Amusingly we wee on the other end of the Andaman sea two years ago in Havelock.

Later in the day, we trekked had snails in the jungle. There were hardly any signs but there was somewhat of a path. Muddy. I thought I saw a iguana cross the road. We reached what seemed to be the end of the jungle trek. We got lost. We saw scores of shells that kept moving. I realized that there were snails and stuff in it. It was weird walking on it and having that sinking mars-land like feeling. We got lost there and took some time to find the way back. I also fell and hurt my knees.

We finally drove around to find a lunch place. It was really hot. I can't remember now where we ate but we had yellow curry and fried rice and fried noodles and it was yum. We met a Swiss family there. I asked them how old their three year old son was and that's how we got talking. The husband worked at the UN. Son was Fran and wife Marion was a naturopath. I think Marion suggested that we take a boat and see the islands. That's how we met zak the druggy looking rock climber plus boat guy. He introduced us to the 40 year old boatman called luk.

The boat trip did it for me. I guess that's what I traveled for. The islands were surreal. I think I'd seen them in the avatar - the floating islands in the movie but on the sea here! Wow wonderful. He took us to a lagoon first. I thought of blue lagoon movie that all of us fantasized in our childhoods. The lagoon was a consistent green, beautiful surrounded by the island mountains all over.

Later we went to paradise island where I went snorkeling on my own. That did it for me too. It was wonderful to swim with the fishes. I worried if it would go inside my shorts and also bite on my bleeding knees. It brought my mind to a standstill. Wonderful.

Another first was I drove that long tail fisherman boat. He said, ok you be captain and disappeared leaving it in my control. I was supposed to take it between two islands. Gulp.

We returned while it drizzled slightly and the sun set fully. Beautiful day.

But wait. We had to return to India the next day from Bangkok and we didn't have our tickets yet. After I came to realize (after checking on net and phone) that there may not be tickets available, I knew that would become the crux of our day 4.

Day 2: The flight that didn't land at Nakhon Si Thammarat (it flooded a day later)

I was surprised to find rice and shrimp for breakfast the next morning at the hotel. I slept almost 11hrs and was well rested. We started walking randomly in one of the inner streets. I think this was prakorn area - we were delicately trying to get lost and we succeeded. I wonder if there's really something like getting lost - we like to plan and follow a route to give ourselves comfort that we know where we are going but most of the time it doesn't matter. Nature doesn't care.

So we walked past several locals who were sitting outside their houses. We would exchange greetings. Keep walking. There would be a turn and we would turn. And another turn and we would turn again. Sometimes we would go straight. There was a local shop and we bought some snack whose name we didn't know or cared. It looked like a sweet and tasted so. We talked about random stuff including what we wanted to do next. We got out of the inner streets somewhere and we still didn't know where we were or where we were going and that brought a strange kind of comfort. I took pictures with a scooter taxi guy. He had pretty funky rayban driving glasses and he gave them to me to take pics. Right after, we hopped into a cab and said, "suvarnabhumi airport".
At the airport, we looked at the departures during the next hour or so. After debating on several places, I picked on "N. Sitammarat". I'd nevere heard of it and it sounded good. So went to e orient airways counter and asked if there were tickets to Nakhon Si thammarat. There were and the flight was to leave in 40 min or so. We bought one way tickets and ran to security.

After initial excitement of nakhon, we couldn't find anyone who could tell us much about it. It was an island and seemed to have Hmong people. Most of the people on our plane were locals. There was one european girl who had it all planned out. She was to take a fry at 6pm that evening from Nakhon Si Thammarat. When Pradeep asked if he could sit next to her to know little more about Nakhon, she said no!

Our flight started wobbling. A wobble that brings butterflies and other creatures in your stomach. Pradeep noted that the pilot pulled the ailerons up again and he didn't intend to land. From the window, I saw that it had rained heavily. It was only two days later I learnt from the local papers that a local mountain developed a big crack. Anyways, we didn't land.

The pilot redirected the flight to Phuket. Phuket? How did this happen? So that's how we ended up in Phuket. We convinced the friendly flight agent to allow us to get off at Phuket. They made copies of our passports and let us go.

We went to the basement of the airport and found a small travel agency. I asked the girl there the question that I was now getting used to - tell me of a place that people don't usually go to. And that's how we went to Koh Yao Noi.

When we got on the last boat that was taking us there, we met David - an Englishman who was living there for the past 3 years - teaches yoga, climbs rocks. He meditated during the boat ride. We knew Koh Yao is it.

Once on the island we met Chris who had come from Australia to climb rocks too. He had been traveling for e past several months and couldn't recollect howling he stayed where. His first time traveling east and I could tell.

Once on the island we took another tuk tuk and got off at pha say beach that David recommended. That's how we ended up at Koh Yao Noi beach and bungalows. I sipped Chang beer with Ron the bartender and learnt about the island.

We later walked into the night and ate ice cream at a restaurant owned by a Danish guy. Pradeep and I got into some argumentative discussion. Finally we went to our bungalow that I thought was very luxurious for an island.

I didn't sleep very well that night and kept waiting for the next morning.

Day 1: Thai boxing and reclining Buddha

The on-arrival visa procedures are easy and straightforward. In fact, they have a 3min per person deadline to finish it up. The visa officer even wished us happy new year, the vibe was good. We have a rule that we travel with only one small backpack and nothing else - it's a wonderful rule that allowed us to be free to go wherever during the whole trip.

We walked to the Thai government's tourist booth in the airport and asked the very helpful lady there one main question - show us a place where most people don't go to. She pointed us to Chang Rai, which we decided to go to (but didn't). We then called mammut and family who were vacationing in Bangkok and met them at Erawan. We later took them up on their kind offer and freshened up in their hotel suite and we were ready for Bangkok.

After lunch, we got into the first tuk tuk that came our way. We started a conversation and decided to go for Thai boxing that night. He took us to a really local tourist agency and we purchased ring tickets for Thai boxing, we then took a private boat on the canal (the tuk tuk driver's suggestion) that took us from the southern part of town to war pho and grand palace area. The palace was closed around the time we reached and so we went to war pho temple. It has one of the longest reclining Buddhas in the world. It was fun losing Pradeep at the temple - especially with no working cell phones or hotel rooms. I simply thought like he would and went back and waited around the area that we lost each other.

Wat Pho is a huge temple complex, a university of Buddhist learning. It being new years day, there were a lot of people and several dances, shows and activities. I took pics with two giant walking dolls!

We walked a lot- the whole day. I found Thai people to be mostly friendly and very helpful to travelers. We met a German who directed us to a very touristy street (the starbucks girl had suggested this street to pradeep) where we had pad Thai on the street - pretty good actually. We got tired of walking and got into a tuk tuk who helped us find a hotel and then he took us to the Thai boxing stadium.

At the boxing stadium, we mostly kids punch each other out. It's free style boxing and you gotta be really into this thing I guess. One of the kids who was initially doing pretty well was totally knocked out and was carried away on a stretcher. Guess that was it for me. I also recall seeing an American guy totally infatuated with someone who seemed like a Thai escort - I wondered if I must hand him a note at said 'wake up'. I didn't.

I slept well that night.

36 hours in Koh Yao Noi

It's a few days since am back. Usually I have words before flight and after I return. This is supposed to be that.

To start with I didn't know I was going to Koh Yao Noi, the second of the islands off of Phuket. All I knew was that we (Pradeep and I) were going to Bangkok for 4 days. The excitement was in not planning at all and putting ourselves in a random unknown travel situation where every hour is determined by randomness and randomness only. As for Pradeep, he didn't know that we were traveling at all until the evening of 31st (the night of our travel).

Koh Yao Noi and Koh Yao Yai were apparently split by the Naga dragon that was racing to meet its separated lover in Krabi. Has a population of 13k and some of the most beautiful views, beaches, mountains, lagoons, islands ever. More later.

As with most of my travels, I had minimal thoughts. Just some feelings of missing home. And given the high wire day we had the day of our return, I was simply relieved to be back in time for Ahaan's birthday.