At 8 a.m. I left my shabby, high-ceilinged room that is costing about $7 a night and comes with exotic charm, all wood floors, a ceiling fan, a hard double bed with all white sheets, a small wooden sink and hanging mirror and two large windows shedding a white paint that is dirty from car exhaust –a neighboring room was the scene in the movie “The Beach” staring Leonardo DeCaprio.
The air was already hot and sticky with humidity and instantly my nose was invaded by the smell of fish soup. I walked down the street insearch of caffeine and the offending fish.
“Good morning mam,” the cheerful barista at a mobile coffee stand grinned. “Oh so sorry the coffee machine no working” (she is still smiling while delivering the sad news).
She saw my face drop and quickly recovered by adding, “But we have Nescafe.” Another big smile.
Nescafe is the local instant coffee that is thick and burnt tasting, but can easily be enhance with milk and sugar (or the very popular sweet milk, which is a thick condensed milk cream). I bought my coffee and did a bow, my hands folded in front of my face. We shared a few more smiles and then I sat at a table in the shade near her mobile stand, briefly abandoned my post to buy a few sliced of papaya and pineapple and returned to enjoy my bounty over my recently purchased book Ëmma” by Jane Austen.
These are some of my favorite moments. Sitting, surrounded by locals, enjoying a cup of coffee and fruit with my book and journal spread across the table. Everyone here loves smiling as much as I do and we all exchange toothy grins whenever eye-contact occurs, so I can’t help but feel optimistic about the day ahead. There is complete freedom of choice today. Whatever I want to do, within my budget (I won’t be commuting to a remote island for snorkeling and diving) and safety (I won’t be renting a motorbike and joining the lawless traffic that sends hundreds of tourist to hospitals weekly) I can do. It’s an exciting prospect.
Like my cup of coffee and fruit, I find cheap thrills everywhere. Mastering the local buses, and being the only westerner onboard, fills me with pride and joy, and walking around the city, having brief conversations with vendors in broken English and miming makes me feel connected to this foreign world.
Almost every day I meet interesting people with whom I can share bits of this experience.
Last night I met two girls – Anna from London and Ing from Holland – and the three of us meandered around, discovered a night market and later a pub In a part of old Phuket town that rarely sees western faces. Anna and I shared a good laugh when a rat nearly ran into our table as Ing was chatting with the bartender – rodents remind of the differences between here and home.
Hygienic or not the food here is amazing and I would gladly grow fat on the fruits of this place. Thank goodness it’s cheap.
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