Like any good potential visitor to Thailand, I had of course seen the movie “The Beach”, based on Alex Garland’s novel, and secretly (or not so secretly) dreamed of heading to my own tropical paradise or “parallel universe”.
Due to a lack of planning, I hadn’t actually expected myself to end up in paradise myself. We had left it too late to organise the customary compulsory jaunts to Koh Tao or Koh Phangan, but after several days of trash novel reading, Mai Tai sipping, hamburger eating, fellow traveler meeting, pool swimming and sunbathing, I was ready for something different. Ora spent the day on a day trip around the Island, watching a monkey show, doing some elephant trekking and checking out the waterfalls and rocks that make Samui famous. I wanted to do something focused on water, so found myself in the lovely Awe’s travel agency on Saturday night, booking a jaunt to the Koh Ang Thong Marine Park.
Chaweng’s main drag is full of travel agencies - small, dirty storefronts filled with mothers and babies, smooth talking young men and grandmothers, all pushing the same five day trips available to island visitors, proffering brochures that could have been created on Adobe’s Print Shop Deluxe in the 1990s. On entering, its customary to take off one’s shoes, so the doorway is littered with thongs belonging to the tourists who enter to book their ferries and trains; select day trip options; or use the Internet services. We selected our travel agency randomly, and walked inside the cool air conditioned room to meet Awe.
Awe was describing to me the day trip when I noticed next to her computer the book, “PS, I Love you.” I asked her how she was enjoying it - let’s be honest, the book wasn’t all that fabulous but damn that movie made me cry - and she told me her husband had given it to her.
Awe’s husband is an Englishman currently looking for work in the UK, while she stays in Thailand, managing two travel agencies and looking after their three year old daughter. They met when they both worked for the same property agency years ago, but the boss had been shot, the business collapsed, and now she and the boss-wife were both struggling to make ends meet.
She assured us she was better off than “boss-wife”, who had no husband - I didn’t get it exactly but he’s either in hospital or no longer alive - and at least with her, she has her husband, and her baby - he’s just far away. They’re in regular conversation on Skype and they’ve taught their daughter to recognise her father online, so that when he arrived for his yearly visit recently, she giggled and jumped into his arms at the sight of him.
Chatting with Awe took close to an hour but she gave me a look at Thailand most of us don’t see - the way that tourism shapes the industry and how it impacts on the daily lives of regular Thai people.
When Awe told me her husband had given her the book PS I Love You, it was time for us to explain what that mean. “It means he, like, really really loves you,” I summarized for her. “The husband in the book, he passed away, but he still loves his wife and thinks about her and leaves her letters,” we explained.
She laughed, that explosive Thai laugh and waved her hands. “We’re ok, I’m telling you, we’re ok! We already have baby! It’s been so many years!”
The tour she sent me on was fabulous, as you will see in the next post. And for now, here’s the plug:
Awe: 081-1872060
The Best Samui Travel
14 Moo 2, Chawang Road, T. Bop hut - right near the Ark Bar.
Email: awebasia2007@hotmail.com
www.thebestsamuitravel.com
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