Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

Day 1  197 km

Paul got up late so we started late but got the 12:45 ferry from Koh Chang to the mainland. 

Once we landed it started to rain; dry season storm. Then harder and harder and harder. Then the wind blew the rain into the shelter. To save documents and electronics we ran for the dock restaurant area. Completely soaked we dried off as best we could, air dry = no dry. We lost an hour. 

Then on to Sriracha. But, wait, late start and sun going down means tough driving. I will explain in another blog.  

To keep from too much unsafe night driving we stopped in Rayong, 2 hours short of Sriracha. Just driving around i spied a Japanese restaurant with only Japanese signage so i expected good Japanese food. It was good. We met some Japanese customers and Asahi Super Dry beer. I never expected to see Japanese businessmen in Rayong. 

After we drove around and found an inexpensive and nice hotel. End of Day 1.  Then we woke for Day 2. See the next blog.

Here are some sunsets from the same place, Chang Bar on White Sands Beach, Koh Chang, Thailand in December 2020.

And last but not lease a time lapse of a sunset.

Before leaving Japan in January I had explained to some friends in Europe my plans to get rid of everything I own except for a backpack and a small case with electronics and computer equipment. They seemed very excited at my strive for “minimalism“. My goal was to never have to be in countries on visas, except for tourism, never own a motorcycle or a car again, relying strictly on public transportation, and not ever accumulating stuff.

On March 24, when I was in Thailand to dive with my godson Dennis, the second generation of our bubbles dive team, the country shut down and I was “stuck“ in Thailand.  In order to stay I was required to first extend my stay here for another month to the middle of May. But when May rolled around and I found the Thai government shutting me out of provinces on lockdown into a province with open hotels every foreigner here found themselves under a general amnesty for the COVID-19 crisis so we didn’t have to do anything with immigration, just stay in place and wait.

I made my way eventually to an island near Cambodia called Koh Chang. But since I decided going back to Japan was not an option and certainly entering the US would be a very bad decision since I really don’t want to be there and the Covid situation is very bad, my only option was to either escape Thailand to Europe or to stay here.  But then Europe went back into lockdown and they gave me only one option, to try to get a retirement visa (one year) for Thailand, i went with the flow. That was successful.

In order to stave off boredom and to enable moving around my best bet was to rent a motorcycle, A 125 cc scooter.  But since I expected my retirement visa to be approved the 3,000 baht a month rental for the scooter seem to be an expensive option. It was more economical for me to buy a used motorcycle and then sell it when I leave. So I did that, further imploding my “ minimalism“.

Sometimes I like buying food on the street or getting some things in the store, mixing them together and making my own food with my own herbs and spices that are specifically beneficial to my health. So I decided to ask for someone selling a used microwave. I found one for 500 baht.  (30 Baht=US$1). And of course with a microwave, cooking at home, I needed plates, some cooking container, some refrigeration containers and some utensils.  Minimalism Imploding more. 

What to do when the sun is very bright and shining down on your head out of the water and in the water? The best solution outside of sun cream which is only partially effective is to have hats, long sleeve shirts (very cool ones) and long trousers (again cool ones).  All are very bright and colorful, a slap in the face at conventionalism and “anti minimalism”. 

So I am now a resident of Thailand and back to living longer-term, The opposite of my goals I stated at the beginning of this diatribe.  Don’t misunderstand me. I have no problems being happy on the beach and being in generally beautiful, warm weather.  But at least for now my goal of detaching from governments, personal transportation equipment and things has been postponed.

Thailand, as in Japan, allows electoral candidates to use trucks with speakers to support candidates. They are very loud!

This is the rainy season in Thailand so we have had a considerable amount of rain but on the average about one hour a day. The last few days have been very sunny without any rain. The ocean has been alive with a very interesting cycle of life and death which I will describe.

First in the cycle was a kind of plankton. When you have large plankton blooms you can have a very magical experience just by going in at night time and waving your hands around. You will see the phosphorus glow given off by the plankton in the water. There are times we have had night dives when we normally take flashlights but when there is a very active plankton bloom the area we sometimes can swim without any flashlight since the activity of the Divers activates the glowing of the plankton and we can see not only where every diver is within a fairly competent distance but also we see other things in the water light it up by the phosphorus glow. We all look like giant Tinkerbells.

 Then came the very tiny shrimp eating the plankton. You could just swish your hands around in the night waters and you would be touching thousands of very tiny shrimp feeding off the plankton. 

Next on the scene where tiny fish coming to feed off the shrimp. Of course some fisherman came as well and captured millions of little shrimp, useful for making shrimp paste for some delicious Thai food.

Following the small fish we had larger fish coming in to feed off the smaller fish.

The next amazing animal we had were billions of sand dollars. During the day or night time you could just put your hand in the sand at any place and you would be scooping up live sand dollars. They were there for only one day and that was two days ago. There are a few left but a little difficult to find.

Next on the scene were medium sized jellyfish, not to mention the very common very very small jellyfish which are abundant in Thai waters. The photo below was taken today. You can see the size of the jellyfish relative to my hand. The tentacles are very thick and gelatinous. I have touched many of them and not a single sting but there is some orange part of the jellyfish inside I would not touch as a test.

So along with mass murder in the ocean there is also very congenial cohabitation of animals. If you ever have the chance to go through a season even just in a beach area as in Thailand you might be lucky enough to see the change in the prevalent animals.