A newly found love

Lonely in Khun Han, I decided to linger there until the October break, when I would do a yoga teacher training, and then move to Taiwan. The last week I found out that the school would give us only one week of vacation, as opposed to the month that the agency that hired me promised. My plan got ruined and my carrot vanished. It was time to strategize plan B.

I decided to buy a ticket to Phuket to escape from my sadness and visit my friends from the TESOL training. I would be there from Saturday through Monday and then travel to Bangkok to obtain my non-immigrant visa to start my working permit process. I thought that being at the beach with friends would be a good break from the cows and the rice paddies. What I found there, was something I did not expect.

I fell in love with Phuket instantly. I had imagined it similar to Pattaya, a cheese vacation spot with no charm. Instead, Phuket inspired a similar love to the one I felt for Chiang Mai the year before.

Even from the air my heart started pumping hard as I approached this beautiful island of lush mountains, peaceful valleys and attractive beaches. At the airport I took a taxi that I shared with a Korean couple and Sam picked me up at the “bus station”. We went for breakfast to a really cool lounge-café called Gallery, where Brian joined us a little later. Then they both took me for a walk around Phuket Town. Phuket Town, the downtown area of Thailand’s biggest island, is an enchanting place of Sino-Portuguese architecture, craft stores, quaint restaurants and cafes, herb stores, art galleries, tattoo shops, beautiful temples and unexplainable magic.

We spent the weekend swimming and walking at the beach, watching spectacular sunsets, having colorful cocktails, going to a full-moon party, dancing at a club where almost everyone but us was Thai, having rice soup at a bar that was about to close, riding motorcycles, going shopping, eating lots… On Sunday evening, Brian took me to one of the island’s hills to visit a bunch of monkeys that shyly approached us to see if we had some food for them. At the top of the hill we saw a most magnificent dusk that turned everything blue and forced the city to gradually turn on all of its lights.

On Monday everything was a lot more hectic. My friends went to work to Kajonkietsuska school and I came a little later for my interview with Michael, a Thai man raised in New York city. He talked most of the time and barely asked me about anything. The he promised to call me with new before Friday. After experiencing the magic of this island during the weekend I am looking forward to the good news of a prospective job there.

Upon returning from dinner with Brian I contacted the woman from my agency ant told her that I wanted to resign my position at Khun Hanh high-school. She was very understanding and, surprisingly, told me the exact same thing that my previous supervisor in Washington said to me when I quit my job: “I want you to be happy”.

Hence, I in the next ten days I will be packing and moving again, this time to Phuket. It feels so right and so much what I really want to do.