We are at Koh Phangan for almost two weeks. We rent a house together with a car and a motorbike in a combined deal from a family that went on a vacation from their vacation. This allows us to roam the island looking for a house and checking out the beaches. Here is one for example:
To answer readers’ question: yes, it is as good as it seems. Clearly, not everything is glorious, there are moments of gloom, but generally speaking it is very pleasant and calm here. And it is not just the magnificent scenery that makes up this ease atmosphere, it is essentially easier here. Why exactly, is not that simple to explain, but I am here to try.
There are the obvious things, like the fact that everything here is just very cheap. So, if a rich and delicious feast for six costs around 15 US$, then there is no reason to buy ingredients, cook and wash dishes. Similarly, there is no sense in doing your own laundry if for 6 US$ you can get your family’s weekly laundry looking like this:
Or the fact that everything is so highly available. For instance, you would find food stalls in every street corner that sells fresh and diverse food that is so tasty it would bring tears to your eyes (and if it doesn’t – the chili will take care of that). And everywhere, any time day and night, you can find a convenient store that will supply your immediate needs such as beer, snacks, sim card, nails cutter or a computer mouse. Even fruits are served here peeled and cold on a wooden stick.
But there is more, there is the fact that everything is simply simpler here, just because it is less complicated. Lighter. Take, for example, the incident I had the other day with our loaned motorbike. So, its switch looks like that:
Next to the place where the key goes, there is another hexagonal dent and in a spectacular coincidence, the key itself contains a bulge that exactly matches it. And I, when encountering spectacular coincidences, must figure out whether there is some secret meaning for that. So, I tried – I placed the bulge in the dent and turned it around. I found out that what it does is hide the keyhole behind a metal cover. Cool. The next thing I discovered is that you can’t open it back. And immediately after that I learned that in this specific motorbike, you can take out the key when the switch is still on. And this is how I found myself with a motorbike of which lights are exhausting its battery, and I have no access to its keyhole. At that point it basically turned from a vehicle to a massive, ineffective flashlight. Oops.
The first thing I did was to call the motorbike owner. He mostly made me feel dumb as he told me he never considered using this hexagonal dent as everything always worked perfectly well without it. Later, it really became embarrassing as I failed to find a proper explanation to give Shai as to why I had to try the mysterious hexagonal dent. But then she recalled me resetting the router in the Bangkok apartment in the previous week and it became somewhat clearer…
So, what do you do? The mind defaults to home-style solutions – either I call a friend that is a motorbike mechanic to come over, or I would have to rush it to a motorbike garage. Since I don’t have the first clue of how to do any of those here, I called my local all-in-one-on-call-support – my friend Moshe, just because he owns a motorbike for many years and maybe he can uncover some of the deepest secrets of hexagonal dents. He could not. But he unambiguously proposed the following: “just grab the first Thai person you encounter and let him solve this problem for you”. Interestingly, that was the exact proposal I was given by the motorbike owner who lives here for a while. So, that I did. The first I tried was the owner of the restaurant where we ate lunch. Without further ado, he left the comforts of his hammock, went onto his motorbike and drove us both to our house. He made some attempts with my hexagon and some with his and eventually determined that I would have to reproduce the key in town. I thanked him and went for another attempt. The next Thai I tried was another restaurant owner, 50 meters down the street from the first. He as well rushed to help, not before letting me know that I am at least expected to dine at his restaurant. Just like the first, he too tried all hexagons he could find and once giving up, said he would come back in the following morning. I thanked him too and continued trying. Not a quarter of an hour had passed and back he was, followed by another motorbike ridden by who seemed to be an expert of the matter, as he wore glasses and arrived armed with a bottle of bear. I would guess that a screwdriver or a wrench could be of help here, but who am I to make suggestions regarding motorbike mechanics? Like any other expert would do, he started with analysis of the case and tried all hexagons that were now present in the scene. There were quite a few at that stage. Allegedly, he did exactly what his predecessors did, only with expertise and while sipping bear every now and then. For some unknown reason, the expert never moved beyond the analysis phase. After some time, another motorbike arrived, ridden by who didn’t seemed to be an expert in any sense as he was young with a bow in his hair, did not wear any glasses and brought a screwdriver with him instead of bear. Even I could think of that. The expert stepped aside and let the youngster show his skills. Like all others, the youngster started by trying out all hexagons he could find but soon enough he moved on to using his screwdriver. After figuring out the nature of the problem, he started dismantling parts from the motorbike’s front. Not long after he reached the borders of the screwdriver capabilities, said something in Thai and left. A few minutes later he came back with a single fixed-size wrench. He continued with the dismantling labor. In the meantime, the expert had drained his bear and was left with no choice other than leaving the scene. The youngster, though not an expert, exhibited impressive proficiency and quite quickly he had the metal block, in which the switch normally resides, in his hand. The switch was in its natural location, bare from all sides. The motorbike was once again functional, though not the most esthetic in the switch area. The event manager explained that now the youngster will take this metal block with him, fix the problem and bring it back, if not during the next hour, then tomorrow morning. I thanked both of them and went inside. Not two children fights had passed before knocks were heard from the door. The event manager and the youngster came back with the fixed switch block. A few minutes later the motorbike was restored to its original state. I paid 1000 baht (approx. 30 US$) and thanked them. They thanked back and smiled at me, and I, not knowing whether I should feel sucker for paying above expectations or a cheap bastard for paying below expectations, decided to feel happy with the deal.
To the motorbike owner I just told that the problem had come to a resolution and his reply nicely captured the essence of the point I am trying to make here: “In Thailand you can resolve anything cheaply”.
Even the jellyfish are photogenic here