Last Night in Koh Tao

Tonight is our last night in Koh Tao.  We've made a lot of short term friends, not least of all the gecko in our hut that chirps at us as he builds a nest in the rafters.  He's making a mess with all the shredded straw, but I'll still miss his early morning wake-up calls.

Also our dive instructor, Andy, who helped me learn to stay underwater without floating away, to adjust my mask properly, and to say, "I'm shit drunk," and "I don't have a drunk cat," in Thai.  Well, sort of.  I'm still learning all these skills, but I'm one step closer, thanks to him.  And one step closer to more fully appreciating the aquatic world, to relaxing while diving and enjoying the beauty of the fish and coral as my concerns about breathing, depth control, ear pressure equalization, and leaky mask fade into the background of automatic skills.  Before our last dive,he excused himself to the side of the boat where he enjoyed a hit.  Quite a lifestyle, to stare at the beauty of the underwater world.

But also I've come into contact with many anonymous friends.  The people who serve us curries on our veranda overlooking paradise; the truck driver who has impressively mastered the tumultuous rocky ride to our resort; the man who drove after me to deliver bottled water I thought I had absentmindedly left near the shop where I'd purchased it; the workers on the boat who hold our tanks before we step out into the water, take our fins as we climb the ladder, and chop pineapple for our break between dives;  the girl who serves us breakfast in the cafe across from the dive school.  How many people do they see come to their little island?  How many people do they serve?  For us, the cost of paradise is unvelievably cheap.  So little for what we experience, what we see, eat.  And for their service.  How does one fill the gap between what is paid and what is received for that payment?  It doesn't seem commensurate in my view of the world.  But neither is tipping appropriate in theirs.  A smile is an easily rendered item, doled out by many before and after a complaint, before and after an additional requested service.   Perhaps to stack the plates, to at least say "Thank you," in awkward Thai, to ask for less.  To ask for less.  Paradise is so easy here.  Perhaps it is too easy.  

Tomorrow we will catch our last pick-up truck shuttle to the dive school where we will chill in Koh Tao manner for a few hours before getting a lift to the pier to catch a ferry back to the mainland.  We'll then catch an overnight train to Bangkok and check out the city a bit before checking-in to the hotel.  

It's been amazing to realize that this experience exists in the world.  Such an interesting culture of international transience embedded in the constancy of the some of the richest people of planet earth's beauty.  Such a strange blending of wealths, disparate as language, universal as appreciation.