A word of advice: if you’re planning a trip to Railay or Tonsai in Krabi, Thailand, don’t listen to Bob Marley – or any reggae music for that matter – for at least a month before your trip.  After about two weeks in Railay, I’ve heard Redemption Song a total of, oh, maybe 25,312 times.  No joke.  Now I love Bob Marley as much as the next dirt-bag climber/surfer/pot-smoker/peace-loving hippie, but when you find yourself at the crux of the day’s first route and realize you’ve been mentally singing Redemption Song in your favorite bartender’s Thai accent the whole time, you start to wonder if maybe you’ve been in Railay a bit too long.

East Railay

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It’s 7:45 am, I’ve already endured a stuffy, 30-minute ride into the city on a packed village bus, I haven’t had coffee yet, and all I want to do is put my pack in the baggage compartment below the bus. I’m in for a 3-hour ride to Ratchaburi and the last thing I want to do is hold my overstuffed pack on my lap, but the bus driver just looks at me and says, “No, no. Water” while pointing to baggage compartment and holding his other hand, palm down, near his knee. It’s too early for me to play the miming game, so I board the bus, pleased to find that I can stuff my bag in the back of the near-empty bus and relax under the air conditioning vents. Thirty minutes later I wake up and realize that all forward movement has stopped, along with the A/C. The flustered bus driver barks something incomprehensible to us, and I follow everyone else off the bus, shouldering my massive pack and smaller backpack. Soon enough, another bus comes for us, and again, I ask the new driver if I can put my bag under the bus. He shakes his head and says, “Water”. Too tired to ask anyone for clarification, I board the bus and immediately fall asleep. About an hour later, my boyfriend, Zach, nudges me awake.

“Jackie, look outside the window.”

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“Tuk-tuk? Hey lady, where you going?”

Valid question. The answer to which is, Everywhere if I can help it.

Every tuk-tuk driver in Bangkok seemed so eager to take me somewhere that I was almost sorry for not taking all of them up on their offers. I’m sure if I had, I’d be the world’s poorest expert on Bangkok’s Wats, tourist attractions, traffic and charming tuk-tuk culture. For those of you frustrated by my frequent use of the word sans explanation, a tuk-tuk is a miniature open-air taxi, essentially a motorized carriage without doors and the charm of a horse and top-hat clad driver. Tuk-tuks are the cheapest transportation in Thailand and many other countries, including India and Nepal, and provide the added bonus of being able to take in the sites, inhale diesel fumes, and occasionally get punched in the chest by small gypsy children, as happened to me in India.

Our first tuk-tuk ride!

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After over 23 months in Zayam, I’ve officially left my second home for an indeterminate amount of time.  Saying goodbye has been a drawn-out and strange process.  Every time I left a friend’s house after consuming the obligatory tea and sweets, it would hit me that that might be the last time I’ll ever drink tea with that person again.  I usually don’t have trouble saying goodbye; leaving Alabama for Azerbaijan wasn’t sad and tearful for me because I knew I’d be able to see my family again sometime and that they’d be fine without me for awhile.  The depressing part about leaving Zayam is the fact that I can leave, but the people I’ve come to know and love will most likely live out the rest of their days in the same place, the same situation, the same life.  I get to move on and see new things and experience life, but my friends will stay trapped in the same small world that some would rather escape.  All I can hope for is that I gave them some reprieve from the monotony, hope that they can make the change they want, and knowledge that someone else out in the world loves and cares about them.

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…I have a blog!!!

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