Ko Samui, Thailand

After gym and breakfast we were off to Choeng Mon beach again today as the weather was just great. We had such a great time with Patrick the other evening, so we decided to call him for another get together.

Arriving at the Boat Bar in Bang Rak at the appointed time, I ordered a beer, Adri a Mojito and Patrick a water. Huh ? Patrick reckons that, living on the island full-time, one will consume far too much alcohol than what is good for one’s sanity, thus he always starts with a water and then later may switch to a beer or a vodka. Good advice.

We just got settled in at the bar when in walks Jack Nicholson, yes, from “The Shining” fame. Jack greets Patrick warmly and makes himself comfortable at the bar, ordering a vodka and lemonade. I looked at Patrick with, what must have been a “WTF” expression on my face and he says, “oh, this is Phil, my friend I told you about the other evening, who is a Jack Nicholson lookalike”. We were introduced to Jack, I mean Phil, and what a great character he is, probably much more interesting than the real Jack. Phil was born in America, left on a sailboat when he was 20 and arrived in Australia, via many south pacific islands, two years later. He decided to stay there and only left Australia 46 years later to move to Koh Samui one and a half years ago. If you do your maths you will notice that he is now 69 and a half, and looking bloody great ! He confided that he was actually used as a Jack Nicholson stand-in from time to time.

The four of us moved from the bar to a table closer to the beach so we could watch the sunset. Patrick and Jack/Phil had to meet friends at the Cassidy’s pub and said we should join them there should we wish to. Adri and I settled for another drink and made our way to Cassidy’s thereafter, which is just up the road. There we met another couple of ex-pats, all great people, from all walks of life, enjoying a life of abundance, though much simpler and easy-going than most of us, I expect. I could get used to this, I could get used to this, I could get used to this…

One of the many stories heard the evening which I found quite illuminating was this farang that was visiting his Thai girlfriend’s family. When they heard an airplane take off overhead, one of the family members commented “aah, there goes the farang ATMs” !

After a number of additional beverages we decided to head home after a truly memorable evening. I can still hear Phil’s gruff voice above the music “just sell off your things and move to the island”…