The end of the Island vacation…
My last night on Phangan was also the Half Moon Party, so Kang and I went. There was some concern that he wouldn’t be allowed in, since some parties on the island can’t be attended by Thai people, but we checked with some other Thais who all said Half Moon is fine with it.
It was interesting to see Kang be all excited about Half Moon, because I kind of thought of it as a night out, something fun to do. No big deal. But eventually I remembered what he makes in one day working with his friend with the taxi, and realized that we just took a boat trip around the island, ate in nice restaurants, and now we were gearing up for a party with a cover charge. Well, he was gearing up, I was just going…
At one store, he held up a shirt he said he could wear it to Half Moon, and I couldn’t understand why this would be necessary. I certainly wasn’t outfit huntingâ•” ‘Hmm, picture this with me sweating through it… is it a keeper?’ But then I remembered my friend who worked on Samui who said he only has two shirts, and figured Kang didn’t want to go in his normal clothes, but something to mark the occasion, too, since, well, let’s face it, when I go home, he’s back on taxi duty.
I should point out that I am not naive enough to not question whether Kang sees an opportunity to get me to buy him a shirt, as many Thais supposedly see farang as walking ATM machines. But I’m not finding this vibe present. I could be wrong, but I’ll stick with being optimistic about his intent, but it’s just a $10 shirt for a $10 party.
When we get to the party, he is more excited than I’d seen him. He works Full Moon every month, and it seems like the same kind of thing to me, on a smaller, intimate scale. Food stands, bars, day-glo paints, but he is taking it all in and leading me by the hand through it all. We’re there early, too early, so we watch the fire people twirl and juggle their flames until the party kicks in.
From that point on, he was ecstatic. He would tell me things in a tone that sounded like he was amazed these things could happen, but I keep hearing “This girl is from Southern Thailand!” or “She is Thai, but lived in Norway!” I chat people up, too, but he is processing everything at some higher level.
He ends up occupying a corner of the elevated platform that connects to the palm tree that juts up into the night sky, the center of the party, which was appropriate. It looked like nothing happening in his field of vision wasn’t being taken in, processed, and remembered. He was dancing with me, sometimes with me on the platform, sometimes on the ground one level below him, although the platform is only about knee-high.
He was feeling the music, sharing his bucket, taking pictures with tourist girls he knew, and wasn’t very excited about leaving the party, but was beaming the whole time.
So, it was kind of a nice note to end on, that I was giving him sort of a gift of a world without lack of money, where you ask for a drink, bucket, flower necklace, and you get it. But then, the flip side is you realize the gift on some level is letting him take a vacation from his reality, so while I’m celebrating my last night on the island, his vacation is ending at the same time as mine.
The next day was pretty scheduled, as far as what needed to be done by what time to get me on the boat to Samui for 11 a.m. One thing I wanted to do before heading to the pier was to stop at the ATM and get some tip money. I hadn’t decided on amounts, but thought a few people at the resort next door that waited on me and cooked for me, and my resort’s caretaker should get a little something. I hate tipping, since it’s always vague, but I was taking out enough to cover the range I was considering, as well as my Samui-Bangkok plans.
Kang takes me to the ATM, after I finish packing, and it refuses to give me money, saying there are insufficient funds. I do a balance inquiry, and see there is more in the account than I’m trying to take out. I try a smaller amount, same thing. I figure this ATM is messed up, so he drives me on his motorbike to another in Thong Sala. Same deal, contact your bank. The problem is that this is happening at 9:40, before I’ve had breakfast, checked out, everything. It was all perfectly timed, as the ATM on the main road is close enough for a quick visit, but now we’re banging around town.
So, basically, ‘tipping is not expected, but appreciated’ as it says on my information card at the resort had better be true, because I didn’t have the cash to spare, especially since I didn’t know what was going on, so I wasn’t comfortable giving my spare cash away assuming it would all be sorted out in Samui. For all I knew, I wouldn’t be given more money in Samui, and might not get more money until Bangkok.
It turns out, I just asked for more than my daily limit (although insufficient funds is a strange message for that, I think in the U.S. it says that amount exceeds your daily limit, no?), but since I did it in Thailand, that raised a flag for identity theft (despite making small withdrawals there for the past 6 weeks). Then, I tried a smaller amount. Then I went to a different ATM. From Wells Fargo’s perspective, this did look like questionable behavior. So, I guess I’m sort of happy they protect my account like this, but it’s very bad timing. It’s fixed quickly on Samui with a phone call.
So, I go to Samui, and my ambitious day begins with a nap to recover from Half Moon. Honestly, it was just a low-key day. I only went to Coyote again (the Mexican themed chain, where the Asian girls wear Daisy Dukes and big cowboy hats. I wanted veggie fajitas more than the vibe.
Then I got a massage from a ladyboy at the place where Tong works, and he watched both shows there with me (which makes sense that they’d let him do that, instead of clean up, since I’m buying him drinks upstairs). The show was very good, especially considering my last cabaret show in Bangkok, where they didn’t seem to know a lot of the words to the songs and had a strange idea to have three performers at a time, so there would be three Tina Turners, three Michael Jacksons, and such, which sort of ruins the illusion that you’re seeing that person perform live.
So, a very professional show, with good choreography, and all of the shows on the island are free. It’s all about getting butts in seats and serving them drinks. The prices are higher than normal, but not crazy, and the show is enjoyable.
After that, we went to see the show at Boy Zone, which had a different vibe. Initially, it was nice. They had a traditional Thai costume segment, and some other cute, choreographed stuff, the main difference being this was all boys, whereas the show at Stars Cafe was more drag and lady boy lip-synching with just three male dancers fleshing out the show. So, the first part of the show ends at Boy Zone, and the second half features the other waiters onstage, shirtless, wearing little ties around their necks, and dancing. Not choreographed, not enthusiastic, just dancing.
I thought it was a time killer for a costume change or something, but it seems like that is the second half of the show. Oh well… I didn’t get to see the show at the third bar, Male Box, as they were renovating the bar that night, but reopening the following night.
As Tong had a birthday since I last saw him, I told him I’d buy him a new shirt when he was looking at nice shirts in the store connected to where he works (and owned by the same people, so he gets a discount). But then he said, he really needs shoes instead, since they recently changed things at work and he now wears an all black ensemble that’s provided, just not the shoes. And he works there from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. He showed me his shoes, and there was almost no sole left, and big parts of the sole worn all the way through to where you could pretty much see through. So, my last purchase on Samui was made after I left for Bangkok, as Tong bought new shoes for his birthday.
