On Friday, the day after my snorkel trip, I started the day as I do on most days here with a barefoot walk down to the end of Klong Dao beach and back. Then we went our separate ways: me into Saladan to restock on supplies and Wind to Dr. Thai Massage—but not for a massage!
Koh Lanta Noi
While I was off snorkeling on Thursday, Wind did go for a massage at Dr. Thai. She again chose the same masseuse and after the massage was done, they got chatting. They have a great rapport and Fatima invited Wind to visit her home on Koh Lanta Noi. They made arrangements to meet up the next day.
Koh Lanta is made up of several islands that all belong to a national park, with Koh Lanta Yai being the biggest island and the one that people are referring to when they just say “Koh Lanta”. Koh Lanta Noi is connected to Koh Lanta Yai by a long bridge and is home to many of the local people. Most tourists never see Koh Lanta Noi beyond the drive across the island to get to Koh Lanta Yai. (So, just like our island back home, Noi is Yai’s “speedbump”!)
The next day, Wind jumped on Fatima’s scooter and off they went! They drove about 20 minutes to get to Fatima’s and Wind got to meet her grandson and husband, as well as her niece and her niece’s son who live across the street. Then they went to a seaside restaurant where Fatima treated Wind to lunch.
How cool is it to find a friend on the other side of the world, who’s language you don’t speak fluently, and yet you still find ways to connect with deeply?
Reconnecting With Muhammed
If you read about my excursion to the Phi Phi Islands, you might recall that I got a tuk-tuk ride with a man named Muhammed. I instantly liked Muhammed. He exudes this gentle confidence that you just want to plug into. At the end of that ride, he gave me his card. In addition to tuk-tuk rides, Muhammed offers tours around Koh Lanta in a songthaew, as well as airport transfers in a van. We were interested in visiting Old Lanta Town on the eastern side of the island but I didn’t feel like renting a scooter again. Without a doubt, renting a scooter is the most affordable way to get around the island and see the sights, but accidents involving tourists are common and I was more interested in a laid back excursion. So I hired Muhammed to drive us around for a few hours.
We didn’t know how long we’d want to spend in Old Lanta and didn’t want to tether Muhammed to our plans so when he dropped us off, I paid him for the ride and indicated that we may or may not be in touch for the ride back. But as we strolled along the main street in Old Lanta—visiting shops, buying Thai iced tea, walking to the Wat (Buddhist temple)—Muhammed kept showing up from out of nowhere. When Wind got her sunbrella caught in her hair and I was freeing her from it, suddenly Muhammed was there, leaning out of his cab and calling out, “You OK??” At one point, he said to me, “I do everything for you.” It didn’t take long for us to decide that we definitely wanted to continue our day with Muhammed. After 90 minutes or so of exploring Old Lanta we went back to his songthaew and looked around for him. And there he was, striding confidently across the central turnabout toward us. I called out, “I think Muhammed, I see Muhammed!”
We hopped back in and told Muhammed that we were ready to go back and wanted to stop at a couple of places along the way. As it turned out, those stops weren’t fruitful and I told Muhammed that we could go back to the resort. On a side note, I’d also mentioned that I’d been looking for mangkhud (mangosteen) for the past few weeks without luck. When he drove right past the soi that goes to our resort, I knew he was going to find us some mangkhud! He slowed down at two fruit stands, but nada, then pulled into a third and stopped the songthaew. He opened the back gate and placed his little step stool on the road so I could climb out, then gestured in the direction of the fruit stand. Indeed, Muhammed had found us some of the elusive mangkhud!
When he took us back to the resort, I paid him with a small tip and called him my pheuxn (friend.) This elicited a huge smile and bear hug from Muhammed. He said that when we return to Koh Lanta we should contact him again and we definitely will!