The Return To Ton Sai: Dijeridoo'd

The name Ton Sai might sound familiar to you if you follow this blog. It was the site of probably our worst experience in Thailand. Something like 3 months ago we stayed on a beautiful beach called West Railay. We stayed for a week and on one particular day we decided to make a hike through this mountain. We had seen many people appear from inside its crags. So we hiked through, not big deal, a couple huge cracks, some razor sharp coral, snakes and crabs and other creepy crawlies; no sweat we made it through without a hitch. We ended up on a small beach filled with climbers and hippies. It was a nice little trip. Then we had to make the trip back, not thinking that the lack of sunlight would be an issue for crawling through the mountains.

Long story short, we tried to make it through a couple times and eventually had to be saved by a lovely Spanish couple with a headlamp. We stayed the night on Ton Sai in a lovely bungalow built from 4 pieces of plywood and mosquito netting, while out other, far more expensive and luxurious room on Railay sat unoccupied.

ANYHOW- Maris's Yoga instructor told Maris about a Didgeridoo concert. I am not going to get into the description of one of these things, I will just post a link to its wiki page and show you a picture because describing it is just about as boring as hearing one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo

So we decide to give Ton Sai another try. We left on a beautiful sunday afternoon, right when the sun started its descent behind the mountains of Kloh Muang. The longtail boats were on our beach in full effect.

We took a 10 minute boat ride around a cliff and hopped off in Ton Sai. It turned out to be a great time. We spent more money on the room than was necessary, but we were not going to stay in one of those bungalows again, Maris might have left me if I tried to get her to.

So the didgeridoo guy comes out and plays for like 15 minutes around a bonfire at a bar called Chill Out Bar, right on the beach. The bar was on sand. It was nice and very very hippie. People were doing tribal dances in facepaint around the fire. I felt like I was in Lord of the Flies and these kids were going to start eating each other, but to our dismay canibalism never surfaced, but canabis did however. I noticed that Ton Sai was like the potheads paradise. A guy singing Reggae, bon fires, bars that play only Reggae with bartenders who light joints and pass them to their patrons. They sold cookies called "Magic cookies" that supposedly had mushrooms in them, so I was actually a bit shocked that the night didn't get weirder than it did. We stuck to beers and walking on the beach.

There was one sight I will never forget in my whole life. I had my camera on me and decided not to take it, because I don't think any semblance of justice could have been done for this beautiful sight. We stood on the beach, a very soulful reggae singer is singing on the stage to the left of us. The stars are as bright as I have ever seen them twinkling like they got paid money to do so. Beneath the stars and on the shore is a cliff the size of a medium sized sky scraper, shaped like a huge surfboard of ancient stone sticking out of the sand, illuminated with an orangish light for the climbers who dared brave that mountain at night. I will never forget that image in my mind because it was one of the many beautiful, memorable sights I have seen here. I think out of everything, those images are what I will take with me as long as I can. Oh, and the experiences.

I have a job interview tomorrow at the Sheraton. Wish me luck!

Til Next time.

_Brock