Koh Phangan Landing

Well, I’m finally here. With all the preparations for this journey I was so busy in the last two months that I didn’t have time to get excited about what I am about to do. The realization finally hit me when I finished packing my things and headed out to the airport. And now I’m here, sitting in a restaurant of a beach resort near Thong Sala on Koh Phangan Island.

The ride to Bangkok was pretty smooth and I didn’t even have to confront the TSA folks because I wasn’t made to go through the X-Ray back-scatter machines that I was determined to refuse. I got to Bangkok in the morning and had time to book a next day flight to Koh Samui, get a local SIM card, walk around the infamous Khao San Road, and hang out with my friends Shlomi and Tal who have been here for many months. Thanks S&T for the many useful tips!

The journey to the island was also very smooth and in the plane I was seated next to a very nice guy that happens to live in the same resort that I was going to! We got to talk and it turned out that he is an engineer from Belgium that’s living in Thailand during the high season, and working in China the rest of the year. This is exactly the kind of things I need to see and get inspired to find my own balance in life…

Being from Israel, where many Thai people come to work illegally at construction and other manual labor I had a vision of the country being very poor. This is actually not the case. Sure, there are definitely many poor farmers but overall the country seem to be developing steadily and it looks like the middle class in Bangkok is doing quite well. Thai people seem to be proud of their heritage and they have a reason to be so. Unlike most countries in the area Thailand was able to resist western colonization and succeeded in retaining it’s character. The people are very nice and are really into Buddhism.

After catching up on sleep last night (missed the half moon party) I finally feel like exploring the island. Tomorrow I think I’ll rent a scooter and go for a ride. I am actually a bit scared because I’ve never ridden a motorcycle before.