The Sun Sets In Phuket

Sadly, today marks our final day in Phuket.  We leave tomorrow for Singapore, where I have class and where Lizzi gets to take in another country while mingling with some of my B-school buds.   The unfortunate reality of our departure was made sweeter by the fact that I awoke to two bits of good news this morning.  First, Pete Carroll appears headed to the Seattle Seahawks, which opens the door for ND to pick off some of USC’s commits.  It could also portend a halt to Trojan dominance in the ND-USC series, an annual given with which I’ve grown immensely tired.  The second bit of good news involved the esteemed Peter King of CNNSi predicting a Super Bowl victory for the Dallas Cowboys this year.  In the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas, “Mmm….that sounds good.  I’ll have that.”

In a break from the past few days, there’s nary a cloud in sight, which allows me to look upon a wonderfully blue ocean as I sit barside “studying”.  I use parentheses because I’m very obviously not studying for the final exams I have on Monday, exams for which I feel woefully under-prepared.  Alas, it’s holiday, so I reserve the right to procrastinate.  Implications be damned!

Meanwhile, Lizzi is perched on a pool chair, devouring Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and exposing her porcelain skin to the sun’s laser beams.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are by far the whitest folks here, and Lizzi lying out like so makes me nervous for the incoming aircraft that can be easily spotted just to the south of Mai Khao beach.  I’ve got to imagine that the reflection she is creating for those poor pilots is making for quite the navigational challenge.

I’ve discovered two personal heroes during our brief stay on this little resort.  The first one is an Israeli guy, the same one I referenced in my previous post as the cigar smoker.  He’s got an interesting little family – a pretty wife (who’s Slovakian), a cute daughter, and an awkward little boy.  I just like his style…he’s got a cool way about him.  I saw him kicking a soccer ball with his daughter and it became clear quickly that he’s had some real experience with the sport.  He swam every morning before retiring to a chair for some rays and reading.  He’d enjoy a late lunch with his family, taking down some champagne and a cigar along the way.  He laughed a lot and tanned easily, two attributes that make life taste a little better.  The family left yesterday after a solid ten days here, making their way back to the cold of Vienna, Austria.  Very cool, indeed.

My other hero is a Russian guy who impresses me with his insatiable appetite.  I’ve only had occasion to observe him at breakfast, but it’s quite the sight to behold.  The man destroys food, taking down plates of bananas like pistachio nuts and pounding jars of yogurt like they’re shots of lukewarm water.  More impressive, though, is the fact that I watched him follow a feast of bread, fruit and yogurt with a solid helping of steak and eggs – and a Corona!  All at 8 AM.  Well done, sir.  Well done.

Speaking of Russians, we’ve got a lot of menacing-looking Eastern European types on our resort.  So in addition to affording me an occasional peek at a topless sunbather, it also means that our Sala crew would be in good shape if we found ourselves at war with a neighboring resort.  You never know, these things could happen.  And I’m restful in the notion that we’d be well-equipped to not only defend ourselves but to launch some pretty effective offensive maneuvers as well.  I’d try to make myself responsible for providing strategic guidance while delegating the duties of hand-to-hand combat and lifting of large objects to my Eastern European comrades.  Now that, my friends, is a recipe for success!

I’m gonna go finish my book now, er, study.  The book I’m reading is a collection of short stories called In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by the Pakistani author Daniyal Mueenuddin.  It’s a mesmerizing look into another culture, laying bare the feudalistic impulses of Pakistan while simultaneously capturing the myriad nuances that comprise the human condition.  Not only has it been heaped with critical acclaim, but I was happy to learn that one of my favorite voices, Garrison Keillor, absorbed the book during his own winter vacation, so wonderfully captured in his recent Salon piece.

Vacation cruises are advertised as luxurious journeys to exotic places, but a chief pleasure is the reading of books and another is making small talk with strangers. On steamer chairs topside or poolside, in the lounges, everywhere you see men and women with their noses in books, devouring them for hours. The Book: Man’s Chief Weapon Against Tedium. Woman’s, too. I read a book of stories by a young Pakistani writer, Daniyal Mueenuddin, and found it riveting, the most wonderful thing I’d read in a long, long time, thanks to the freedom of being at sea, away from CNN and NPR and Google, out in a vast silence in which the details of Pakistani village life loom large, as if one were actually there, sipping sweet tea with Saleema and Husad and Mr. K.K. Harouni.

I should be signing off now.  There remains work to be done before we head off to Patong Beach tonight.  It’s about an hour’s drive from our resort and is said to be the epicenter of the Phuket experience.  We’ve got a 6:30 PM dinner reservation at Baan Rim Pa, and we’ve requested a good view so I’m hoping we catch a nice shot of the sunset as we nibble on Pad Si Ew Nua and sip Phuket Beer.  Afterwards, we plan to tackle the horde of street vendors for trinkets to bring home with us, where I’m sure we’ll be able to haggle until our hearts’ delight, negotiations that will stay with us as we settle on a taxi to take us home.