Boxing day in Thailand

Almost. We almost made it to Thailand on Boxing Day. Which would have been very suited, I reckon, with boxing being the country’s iconic sport. But Langkawi’s clearance formalities dragged on and it took us a full day to complete the process, running back and forth between offices in Telaga and Kuah after realising Harbour Masters had deserted the Telaga port (too far from town, an agent explained), and that once Thomas had made it alone in Kuah, we needed the entire family for Immigration to take our pictures and fingerprints, which we finally did in Telaga after the officers were done processing an entire ferry bound for Ko Lipe, our very destination.
So, we make it on the 27th December, still running against the clock to clear in Phuket, collect our new sail from Rolly Tasker loft, and relocate to Port Takola in Krabi on time to fly to Bangkok and welcome Thomas’ parents who are coming from a visit on 4th January.

In the narrow busy concrete streets of Ko Lipe main village, we are overtaken by scooters with side-seats carrying tourists and their luggage to their resort, shops offering recreational cannabis (recently legalised it would seem), restaurants and little stalls selling all sorts of specialties, skewers, smoothies, iced coffees, or coconut donuts. We will forever remember the man chanting in loop “Coconut-Donut-Ten Baht-Ten Baht-Coco!” right next to the 7-eleven we have finally reached to buy the essential: a Thai SIM card.
We barely have time for an afternoon swim in the clear water, where hundreds of families fleeing the European winter carelessly frolic, and ponder whether to stay in this decidedly busy Pattaya beach, or find a quieter bay for the night, when we notice a fishing boat poking its nose very close to Obelix, apparently squinting at our mooring buoy. By the time I get there, the fishermen politely apologise as they are untying us from the buoy to claim it. The universe has decided for us, we are off on a sunset cruise to Ko Adang where we easily find a new buoy next to a couple of other boats, just off the reef on the North West.
Over a home-made green curry, we celebrate being in this new country, where our first impression of Thailand, after this brief stop-over, is one of abundance, trepidation and freedom. No more plastic, jellyfish, thunderstorms, sleep-disturbing calls for prayers, or veiled women (or so we think), which made a fellow yachtie compare the feeling to that of a prisoner freshly let out of jail, an insidious sense of oppression lifted and the world at our fingertips.