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.