Koh Chang Perspective

I currently find myself sitting in Keereeta Lagoon (more recently renamed as 'Watercolours'), a rather charming hotel (for lack of a better word) that wields access by lagoon only. The breakfast sitting space overlooks said lagoon with a view to a charming Thai Restaurant roughly 50-meters, by boat, away. I should mention that I'm on Koh Chang, Thailand's second largest island, a short distance away from the border to Cambodia.  It's been touched by tourism but with 70% of the island covered in dense jungle, it's not nearly as busy, crazy or bumping as Thailand's other islands.

Today I kayaked to Kai Bae Beach and Klong Prao Beach, two two-kilometre-long strips of sand bisected by the lagoon. I parked on the sandbar and meandered slowly into the sunshine. On my beach walk, I ran into maybe 100 people all afternoon. They wandered the shallow sand bars way out into the sea and dipped toes into ocean water warmed to bathtub temperatures. When I returned four hours later, my kayak was gone. Tides, go figure. All came good; there's only so far a renegade kayak can make it in an enclosed waterway.

Tonight, after dinner, I joined a Thai family, grandparents included, on a nighttime boat tour to peep at the fireflies. Yes, fireflies. It took me back to Michigan summers and I swear I could smell the dying embers of a childhood August in my parents' backyard.

Both yesterday, today and tonight, I continue to marvel at this place, this island. I haven't had one of those simultaneously sublimely happy with everything moments in a while. When I have felt them, it's usually for a minute or two. But this feeling's lasted through yesterday's literal kayak into the sunset, through sitting on the dock and watching the world go by, through firefly hunting and a meal of black peppered soft shell crab.

Nostalgia is powerful and being on the water reminds me of summers at camp, pure happiness with a pay check attached. With mountains in the distance and even a sign pointing to Frontage Road (home of said summer camp), I have distilled the chaos of life away or perhaps sweated it out after a particularly spicy Tom Yum.

I can't stop smiling. And to me, that sounds like the perfect way to end a two-week Thailand trip.