Paradise Where Time Stood Still - Part 1

While most people would take the often travelled path, a friend and I besides being young and idealistic at the time were poor and penniless having just started life in the rat race.

The problem with the rat race is that at the end of the day, you are still a rat.

Rats we were as we decided aimlessly to take time off to find a paradise. Having just read about an exotic place called Koh Samui, we took off taking an express coach from Singapore because it was the cheapest mode. Not only that, Samui had no airport at the time, so in effect it was the only way. As there were no travel agents packaging such a tour, we had to find our own way there and so we landed at Haadyai (a much talked about and dangerous place) after a gruelling 18 hour trip (considered express at the time) through the old Malaysian highway. We dozed off at times when the bus was travelling at expressway speed in the night but only to be awakened on several occasions when we sensed the bus slowing down and we witnessed some of the most horrendous road mishaps - vehicles smashed out, cars that overturned into the river, ravine, etc. The journey was punishing and we have to stop over at Haadyai to find some local travel agencies to take us to Surat Thani the next day from where we would board a ferry.

We boarded an eight-seater small coach with some back-packers including a Swiss couple.It would take us some six hours to Surat Thani. There were times when the driver would be speeding at up to 100kmh overtaking other vehicles from the dirt track where next to it lies a river. Even the seasoned back-packers confessed to me that they were fearful of the mad driver. I thought I saw some finger nail marks on the dashboard when I saw the guy cringed and scared stiff. It took us another 1-2 hours by ferry to arrive Koh Samui or Samui Island.

The island life of swaying coconut trees provided a prelude to the rustic charm we are about to experience. Shortly, we reached a hotel by the beach which proudly screamed: "Aloha" and that was the name of the hotel - built completely on sand on a part of the Lamai beach. We couldn't wait to lead the charmed life of a beach bum. We have to recce the place and right beside the hotel was the sand and the sea. As we walked and combed the beaches, stretches of pristine beaches greeted us throughout next to a sea that was very calm, like nothing we have ever seen before and there appeared to be no currents, just very mild ripples. Few Asians could be found here and there were mainly caucasians from Germany, Britain, Italy, France, USA and Australia. Sunbathers were aplenty including topless ones were common.

Sunrise was glorious each morning as we strolled along the white sands to welcome a new day where some local folks would wade far out to the sea and the water would only be up to their waist or shoulder level and this is where they would fish for the day.We would be back for breakfast and would later join the hotel staffs for beach soccer. The people we met were friendly, sincere and hospitable. The hotel room was a simple and basic one and all rooms comes with a spinning fan attached to the ceiling. We would end the day relaxing at the open hotel bar which is just next to the sea. Very close to our hotel are the cheapest lodgings you could find going for about S$5 per night. Think of a typical attap house on stilts without the side walls and where the roof joins directly to the floor. Occupants have to actually crawl into it for the night's rest and there is a common toilet for showers, etc. In the evening, along the beach, you could find some people selling pancakes and do not be surprised that they tasted fantabulous!

We got a bit more adventurous and went on to hire a jeep - a beachbuggy type with sporty looks and colours for $30 a day, got a map and drove all over the island searching for water falls and all. There were not many vehicles but the road though small was very accessible.

You will find some local folks trying to sell you some low grade gem stones and trying to pass them off as high grade ones by hitting a coin over it or burning them.

The sunset evenings were lovely and this was a place where you do not need a watch as your instincts knew better. There were some caucasians who lived there for months. An Italian guy actually lived in the hotel and he sold pizza at the hotel so as to be able to pay his rent.

This is Paradise! A paradise where time stood still. Think Phuket 20 years before. It was totally uncommercialised and unspoilt.

Can you imagine how one feels after such a wonderful experience and it is time to leave? Throw in the return trip in reverse fashion from how we came as earlier described and we were actually hurting just thinking about it! We vowed never to travel in this manner again!

I would love to have posted some photographs for your viewing pleasure but alas, the cheapo camera that we used (not mine haha) and the poorer quality prints like our memories have faded since. Sigh.

Yes photographs and memories will fade. That's why we need more happy moments in life so that your memories are always filled and flooded with many wonderful moments in friendship and kinship. Think Paul Anka singing Times of Your Life - Good morning yesterday, you wake up and time has slipped away.....

To be continued.....in Part 2