I'm Just a Guy...

Way back in 2002 my friend Sarah and I were visiting the Thai island of Koh Chang. Our original intention was to go from Kathmandu, where Sarah had been living, to Sri Lanka but there were some shenanigans going on between Pakistan and India; muscle flexing and nuclear threats and such. As the India – Pakistan standoff came to a head the U.S. Embassy told us not to go to India or even Sri Lanka so we settled on Thailand instead, poor us.

The journey from mainland Thailand to Koh Chang involved walking, taking boats, a van, taxis, hitchhiking and more walking until we found ourselves a suitable little bungalow on Kai Bae Beach. It had a bed with intact mosquito netting around it, the typical hole in the ground toilet and it was relatively clean. The “resort” our bungalow belonged to was owned by a Thai family who owned much of the commercial real-estate on Kai Bae Beach. It was leased by The Three Frenchmen, as Sarah and I called them, and in turn rented out to travelers like us. Our little bungalow had a great front porch; perfect for watching the sunset show followed by the bat show with the occasional lightning show over the water. It was a porch that allowed deep thoughts to bubble up from those who made its acquaintance.

Sarah and I were fond of the outdoor restaurant near our bungalow called Lee’s, owned by Mr. & Mrs. Lee. This laid back establishment was managed by Tui who would break out his guitar and play such classics as “Hotel California” and “Jet Airliner” as the evening progressed. One particular night as Sarah and I held court at Lee’s we met some interesting characters. The first set was three young ladies, Gwen, Luciana, and Mairin, who were from Wales, Italy, and Ireland, respectively. They were traveling the world for eight months and had just come to Thailand from China. The three of them were smart, open minded and very interesting, of course. The next set of characters to hunker down was Peter & Paul, two septuagenarian expats with wicked senses of humor. And then, as Sarah and I were winding down the evening in walked The Three Frenchmen…

Stephane was French and didn’t speak a lick of English so his deep thoughts sounded beautiful and profound. Fabien, also French, spoke only a smattering of English so his deep thoughts were a bit choppy and unintelligible to us. Daniel was English but spoke French fluently and had a particularly quotable deep thought he shared with Sarah one balmy evening on our bungalow porch. It went a little something exactly like this…

“I’m just a guy, on and island…I’ve got needs, you’ve got needs…”

The whole entire contemplation was basically true; Daniel was, as far as we knew, a guy and he was, at that time, on an island. He probably also had needs as did Sarah, in general. However, we knew from past conversations with The Three Frenchmen that Daniel had arrived back on the island of Koh Chang the previous day after having been off of the island for several months. So, there’s that. After much late night discussion about this deep thought, Sarah and I came to the conclusion that Daniel’s needs were not congruent with Sarah's. 

Mr. & Mrs. Lee

As it turned out Sarah's needs, as well as my own, were met by the lovely Mrs. Lee the day we left the island. We had racked up a bit of a tab at Lee’s Restaurant during our week stay on Koh Chang. We ended up not having enough cash to pay for it (we were about 30 baht short, not including tip, which is less than a dollar, but still). This was not a high tech island back in the day so credit cards could not be run and ATMs were non-existent. Feeling like a couple of pig-headed Americans, we tried to make up for it by asking for an address in order to send money to pay for the rest of our bill as well as a handsome tip. Mr. & Mrs. Lee smiled and insisted that it was their pleasure and told us that coming back to see them again when we returned to Koh Chang some day would be payment enough. Who are these nice people and as they forgave a dollar here and a dollar there could they possibly stay in business long enough for us to make our way back?

The next morning we ran into Mrs. Lee at the docks as we were waiting to catch our boat back to the mainland. Knowing we were fresh out of money she bought each of us a plate of food and a bottle of water to help ease the pain of the long boat ride. It’s the Daniels of this world who make this life a little more entertaining but it’s the Mr. & Mrs. Lees who make it a friendlier journey.