Thai-high exuberance

by Komal Fazli (India)

A leap into the unknown Thailand

September 2019, New Delhi, India I had been doing fine in context of my 9 to 5 existence when I felt some deprivation in my life. I was rather hitting flat nodes of mudane routine so me and my boyfriend planned a sudden trip to Thailand for the following week. It was an impromptu thought which culminated into Phuket+Krabi trip which also happened to be my first international trip. We didn't plan our iteneraries except for travelling to Krabi for first 3 days and Phuket for last 3 days of our trip as we didn't want to waste time travelling to and fro Phuket airport. "We are finally stealing some time out of our timetables", Amber, seated next to me, whispered to me as we took off to Phuket. After about 5 hours of flying time, as the plane started descending, i peeped out of the window and saw numerous tiny kisses like islands scattered across the sparking sea, stretching upto the horizon. Upon completing immigration procedure,we hired a cab to our 'beach' resort in Krabi. As we arrived to 'our home for 3 days', the child in me ran to the source of clashing waves. And there it was! Splendid scintillating sea kissed by generous sunlight. Amber quickly followed me, held my arm and stood beside me as we both unbelievably see the sea of clashing waves. The same evening we went to the famous Ao Nang market to book 4 island trip for the next day, having no idea what to expect. As the lady was explaining us the package, I inquisitively asked if there was any bio luminiscent beach to which she interjected "of course" and booked our trip comprising of bio luminiscent beach. The day tour started on a speed boat. As we got on board, each one of us was given a life jacket and a snorkel mask.Honestly, we both had no idea what the snorkel was for, apart from the notion that it could be used as 'sea-spectacles' when one wishes to dive in. With our life-jackets and snorkel on, we reluctantly took our first dip in the middle of the sea. By the way, none of us knew swimming. I started paddling in the sea, afloat, drifting sideways along the waves. As I was getting comfortable floating around, I felt something rubbed my feet in a jiffy. I got curious and just then I noted that people around me had ducked their faces inside water so I imitated them and Oh my Good Lord! It was an entire world of hundreds of Nemo fishes swimming in the clear blue waters beneath my waist.The sight more beautiful than the one above waist with breezes and limestone caves around." We are swimming with the fishes!", I screamed out to Amber prompting him to use the snorkel the way we should, haha funny, no? The next Island was rather a distant sight of a marvellous limestone, naturally carved in the shape of chicken leg, thus named Chicken Island. The last Island was one with a majestic beach of spooky and thrilling caves like gigantic dripping rocks frozen in the air. We savoured Sunset dinner gazing into the red spot like sun, slowly disappearing along crimson palls. It was getting dark and my wait for the luminiscent beach was about to get over. We were directed to the Thai-esque Long tail boat to the middle of the sea where all the lights were turned off so that it's dark enough to see phyto-plankton. By then, I had little idea how I'd see the glitter in the ocean. A guy fetched a bucket immediately filled with sea water and poured on the deck with force.It was a mesmerising sight of blue pearls scattering along the flow of water. Thus, there was no wait! With my life jacket and snorkel on, I jumped into the sea in the dark, ducked my face into the sea and twirled my hands vehemently and there I saw thousands of liquid diamonds floating along with me in the dark grey waters. This plunge into illuminating sea quenched my parched soul; I knew then I had travelled far enough to meet my soul