Koh Jum, Krabi, Thailand
Elenka and I first met our Swedish friends Daniel and Sara in 2011, during a communal dinner at a remote spot in the Philippines. The following morning we waved goodbye and quickly forgot all about them as they left for parts unknown. A year later, at an even more remote spot, this time in India, we bumped into them again. Serendipity was the big new word Elenka taught me on that day. We’ve travelled and been friends with these two Swedes ever since.
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This year they’ve come all the way from Bombay to spend a couple of weeks with us on the isle of Koh Jum in south Thailand. While Elenka and I did already know a great deal about their lives, I took this opportunity to dig a little deeper.
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With pen and paper in hand, cocktails in front of us, I asked questions and took some rather fascinating notes. Daniel and Sara are 47 years old. At the tender age of 11, Daniel fell in puppy-love with Sara, who wanted just to be friends with him. Reluctantly, Daniel played this little love/friends game with Sara for a full four years.
At the age of 15 Sara recognized Daniel’s puppy-love had been the real thing all along, she acquiesced and it turned into a full blown adult-like love affair. Note: Inappropriate touching of one adolescent with another was of course forbidden in Sweden at the time.
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It was the following three years that would be the most difficult for the two love-birds. Adults, particularly their parents, just didn’t understand. Daniel and Sara persevered, and they both took jobs in a field where daily work hours were almost unlimited—this in turn made lengthy time-off-work periods possible.
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Their first travel adventure, at the age of 18, was working at a kibbutz in Israel. From that, travel became an annual November to March affair for them. One of the few places in the world they have not visited is the Great-White North, even though Elenka and I have pleaded with them to come to Canada for years now.
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Another issue came up that I felt needed to be dealt with. Sara pronounces Daniel’s name to sound like DON-IEL.
That would never work in Canada or the United States, so I’m trying to convince her that if she wants to keep the DON part, she really needs to change the last three letters so as to make it DON-ALD. Although this will prove tricky for her, it’s far less confusing for us Anglos.
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Elenka and I last came to Koh Jum in 2016. While this small island is right in the middle of the tourista route, most of them pass it by, for which we are grateful. The 1.5 kilometres beach-walk we do for breakfast each morning is mostly human-free. After breakfast, the four of us throw ourselves into the sea for an hour or better and just talk—it’s where Sara and I had our initial DANIEL/DONALD discussion.
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To give you another idea of the friendly pace: When we first walked into Bo Daeng, our breakfast place, Dila, the sea gypsy woman who owns it rushed out with a welcoming smile and gave us a big hug saying, “You’ve come back, all the way from Canada.”
That was a whole seven blinking years ago.
Oh, I mustn’t forget to mention, Happy Hour runs from 4:00 p.m. till sunset.
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A Togian note
Way back at Bahia Tomini, we met Peter and Anna, newlyweds from Budapest. Anna is a film producer; Peter’s a software developer with an alter ego. By night he’s the lead singer in a band called, ‘Hanoi’. The band recently finished a 14 country European tour. While Elenka and I caught the buzz from the vibe, the music might not be for everyone.
The link to the band's Spotify playlist:
Peter
2023-02-23
How sweet. Is Thailand still comparatively inexpensive?
jackdrury
2023-02-24
I’d say, unless you’re prepared to go deep into the jungle, travel costs have gone up almost everywhere, Thailand included. Google made it that way by teaching people they could have their homes-away-from-home with a few simple clicks on their hand-held devices. As a result, foreign guest-houses and hotels quickly learned the art of preparing hamburgers and hotdogs, as they installed WiFi on their grounds so guests could talk to all of their friends—in living colour—while spreading catsup on their french fries. After all the hotel and food providing industries caught on, prices rose immensely—more so of course, on what most newbies want to eat, Western food. And the newbies in turn, think they’re really getting good bang for their buck. The whole thing makes you want to become a hermit.
Cate
2023-02-24
Lovely sunsets……meeting old acquaintances…..unpopulated beaches……what more could you ask for……enjoy 🥰
ToTo
2023-02-24
Nice story & great pictures, ur right exotic places are getting more expensive but if you trust street food you'll do fine. In 2019 our Abnb in Makati manilla cost $750.00 Cnd for 16 days. Anywhere Keep on keeping on
Margo
2023-02-28
That’s pretty amazing to stay connected after all these years. You might say serendipitous 😉
Valerie
2023-03-06
Looks like Ko Samui where I once stayed . And to be remembered after 7 years !