Hello, I am Els van Wijlen, I have been living for more than 30 years with my husband de Kuuk, in a small village in Brabant. In 2006 we visited Thailand for the first time, together with our children, then teenagers. We made a wonderful trip by car from North to South Thailand, and we thought it was a great country. The children are now grown and have already visited Thailand on their own.
If possible, we go on holiday there twice a year. Our favorite island is Koh Phangan, which feels like coming home. Besides lounging on the island, we love to scooter, with a small backpack full of little, we look for the corners of Thailand. I am most in my element when I wake up in the morning and don't know where I will sleep at night. With the Lonely Planet and various roadmaps we find our way and beautiful memories.
Fast Jelle
Arrived here yesterday. In our bungalow, 3 meters from the sea. The sea that you can smell and feel on your terrace. A divine place near the beautiful Sritanu Beach on our beloved Koh Phangan; you never want to leave here….
After we unpacked our stuff, my husband went for a scooter ride. I went to take a shower and HELLLLUUUUPPP, all of a sudden a giant spider is racing through the bathroom. One with long legs and terrifyingly large, not hairy but unfortunately super fast, so I didn't have it anymore.
I run outside and scream for help. The resort manager comes running, and when I tell him what's going on in our bathroom, he looks at me with pity and I can see him thinking (oh, oh, what a hat). He dutifully walks back to his house to get some anti-spiders equipment. It won't be long before he returns. But what does he come up with anyway? Oh, no, that sucker got a broom and dustpan!
That spider will never sit on it; that spider went like a spear, as if it had just knocked back a can of red bull. Wheheheeeeeeeeeeeee, I'm scared! He should have brought a rifle. Anyway, him, me and the sweep and dustpan into the bathroom. Never see a spider again. Oh, not nice….
Then I saw that the lid of the drain was next to it, so I thought that he must have gone in there. I put the lid on with trembling knees. Pfff. The holes in that lid are so small, that fat spider will never come through. A little reassured to go out again.
The Kuuk [Els' husband] comes home, and Korn, a Thai acquaintance, has also arrived. I tell the Kuuk that an extra spider check is appreciated, and then he knows better than anyone what to do. The house needs to be thoroughly inspected and only when the signal is safe do I dare to go back inside.
So we all go into the bathroom. I tell Korn that he probably went down the drain, but she shakes her head firmly. No, not possible…. Oops, that means our fast friend is still in da house is.
I send the Kuuk further on the hunt. With the bathroom door handle in my hand, I give him strict instructions where to look. I know my enemy, so I know where he might be. On the wall in the corner, near or even worse, in my toiletry bag. The Kuuk rumbles confidently and cool-bloodedly in the dreaded corner and yes, suddenly that fast Jelle spears off the wall.
I'm sure I've broken the world record for sprinting and hurdling in the 10 meters, because in less than half a second I'm out of the bathroom, up the steps and out the door. Goosebumps of an inch thick on my body. Then I hear the Kuuk angrily slapping his slipper around, then it becomes quiet and after a while he proudly shows me the corpse. I am satisfied, very satisfied. Then the dead spider is neatly ordered to earth via the toilet. Pfffff, brave Kuuk, he has scored plenty of bonus points again.
We're going to eat now, if there fried spider on the menu, I run away screaming!
Mystical Thailand
Heavy bass tones come from large loudspeakers rolling over the beach of Baan Tai on Koh Phangan. In a few days it will be Full Moon again and the island is filling up with young people from all over the world, who want to experience the famous Full Moon party here. Lots of music, dance, fire, buckets, hormones and other things ensure that this beautiful island is only known as a party island to many people.
Of course Koh Phangan has much more to offer, I already know that. My husband, the children and I have been scootering over for years with great pleasure dirt roads and deserted concrete lanes under the palm trees to beautiful bays and hidden beaches.
Yesterday I heard this story from a Thai woman, she runs a small resort and speaks good English. We started talking about Than Sadet, an idyllic beach on the east coast that is difficult to reach by car or scooter, surrounded by rainforest and jungle. An unpaved path with huge potholes takes you to a small beach, where a handful of tourists are unloaded every day by boat to take a walk to one of the most beautiful waterfalls on the island. A few simple resorts and restaurants are powered by a generator.
Then she tells her cousin's story.
Her 75-year-old cousin went to see his land at Than Sadet with two adult children. On the way back, he stops the car at the waterfall and gets out to pick some more vegetables from the big tree. He says he doesn't have a long job and his children are waiting for him in the car. If he doesn't come back, they're going to look for him.
But alas, he seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. A large-scale search is launched and the search is carried out with two hundred men, the man's dog and five helicopters. Without result.
On the third day, the family, now desperate, visits a wise man we would call a fortune teller. This man says that the missing man is just at the big tree by the falls. The family says they've been looking for him around there for two days and can't find him. The wise man advises the family to pray, maybe the man has done bad things and the spirits have taken him away. Ask the spirits to return him so that the man can correct his mistakes.
The family listens to the wise man and they go to pray at the holy place near the falls. Half an hour later, the man is suddenly found near the big tree. He says he was there the whole time and that he did see people looking for him. But it was impossible for him to make contact. Even his dog had walked right past him without noticing him.
A little boy had come to him and fed him, though he hadn't been hungry. He had asked the child to take him back to the 'ordinary' world, but then the boy had remained silent and shook his head.
The man is in good health given the circumstances. Overjoyed, the reunited family went home, the boy was not seen.
Els, thank you for your nice story. That part about the cousin is intriguing, of course. Many of those stories must be nonsense. Of course, that doesn't automatically mean that everything is nonsense. That Thai woman's story could be such an exception.
What is the main difference between belief and superstition? In black and white, the first thing others impose on you and superstitions something based on your own experience….