Day 16
Our slotted activity for the day, put on by the old folks home we are staying in, was a trek to the second highest point (not peak) on Koh Chang. People think Americans act exactly the way this Danish couple acted. Not unfunny, just loud and crass. Full of a belief in the virtue of their jokes. The couple took off halfway through the hike to go ride elephants. Relieving us of their antics. They were actually really nice. When groups of silence-preferring individuals get together, silence prevails. The atmosphere changes not at all. To grate the chalk of loud conversation on the blackboard of silent reflection elicits winces. Barring that “serenity” shattering barrage, none of the strangers feel compelled to peel into the layers of each others’ personalities. So, in hindsight, I wish we had had more time with the loudness and crassitude of the Danish couple.
The hike was super straight forward. We were but tiny boats caught in the crests and troughs of geologic time. Upon reaching the summit, 355 degree views for everyone. Our guide led us out to a precipitous outcropping. A window through which the distant ocean blue leans against a buffer zone of taupe beaches before giving way to intense jungle greens. Our guide was lassez-faire; evidenced by his suggestion to climb the outcropping overlooking our deaths, were we to fall.
After lunch, we placed our feet in previous prints, anew. Up. Down. Boredom set in. The jungle, this jungle of prior deforestation’s slow recovery holds very little excitement. Tiny boats (again, I know, but today we were constantly tiny boats) on a thin, brown swell of a trail in the sea of green. As I was walking on an obviously dead log over some obviously sharp rocks, the log snapped. I landed and balanced on the little toe of my left foot. This toe, not being used to holding all of my body weight, broke from the effort. Luckily for broken toes everywhere, they don’t hurt that bad. Also, I could walk on it without a limp. Shortly after breaking my toe we arrived at a waterfall which towered over a wide pool of it’s own creation. We swam in the icy waters. I considered this the closest I would be able to get to icing my toe in Thailand. I quite enjoy the dull throbbing ache of a broken toe. Not an impediment to action, more a reminder. It reminds me that I am indeed alive. That reminder pushes me not to waste the feeling. Someday I won’t be able to feel the throb of a broken toe, even if all my toes are broken. Because someday, someday I’ll be dead.
More uplifting blog posts coming right up, stick around! WHIZZ! BANG! FIZZ! POP!
thecereallife 