Mission For Music: Samui

There I was waiting at the ferry pier and contemplating the musical journey I was undertaking. After hours of driving in the rain, we had reached the final frontier on the mainland. After this, we would be taken to the island.

The main purpose of this trip was to make music. Music was at the centre of why I chose to visit Ko Samui for the third time in my 4.5 years in Thailand. Had there been no musical pull to this trip, no prospect of co-creation, I wouldn't have chosen this as a holiday destination. I might not have chosen to go on a holiday at all during this time. Ying was just starting her new job and I had music on my mind. I had music on my mind when I decided to go to Samui as well. I had a friend there, a musician. He had agreed to co-create some music with me. And I reckoned we could get a lot done in the 4-5 days we were there. However, what unfolded was much different than I had intended.

There are so many reasons why someone would choose to visit Ko Samui. The first time I went to the island, I was going to volunteer at a music festival. That went well. Here is a link to a post about that trip. My goal of volunteering at the music festival was met. I gained new friendships and experiences. I heard stories I was meant to hear. The second time I went to the island, it was to make music together with Yura. Yura and Kate were two Russian couchsurfers who stayed at my place. They invited me to visit them with the purpose of co-creating music projects. Our goal of making music together was reached. We ended up creating two tracks together. We would work on music for part of the day, and then enjoy the rest of the day at the beach, visiting various attractions, and kicking it old school with some of their comrades. Here is more on that trip. It seems I had music on my mind on the first two occasions going to Samui as well. The main difference between the first two times and the third time was that my goal wasn't met on the third trip. No music was made this time.

This trip was partially made possible by my partner Ying. When we want to reach high places, the people around us help us get there.

We had just got off the ferry and were driving to my friend's house when we witnessed an accident on our way. 

Actually, we didn't see the accident happen. We saw that the traffic had really slowed down. Moments before coming to a stop right before the black car involved in the accident, I had just let another car get in front of me. It's interesting how the timing worked out. The owners of the black car were directing traffic. They had just hit a motorcycle. The motorcyclist lay still on the ground. All the cars in front of us passed the scene of the accident at the guidance of the two young people directing the traffic with flashlights. We were just about to pass as well when the siren and lights of the incoming ambulance caught my attention. I yielded to the ambulance and that meant that we witnessed what happened next in the front row. After the ambulance picked up the wounded person in the stretcher and left, the two who were directing the traffic jumped in their car, swerved around the fallen motorcycle in the middle of the road, and disappeared. 

It's a good thing we had taken snapshots of the accident. Actually, I almost put my camera away without taking the photo because I thought it was going to be a bad shot. However, the photos served very useful later on. After we drove off as well, it occurred to Ying that the black car might have just escaped from the scene of the crime. The photos we had could be integral if that were the case. Ying notified the authorities quickly and we wondered about the synchronicity of it all. Perhaps the accident was a sign of what was to come. It's not that we were later involved in an accident but there was indeed an element of somebody escaping an important situation in my personal story on Samui as well. 

Everything unfolded under the direction of the divine. And yet, it didn't yield the fruits I was hoping to reap.

It's just like the story of the Chinese farmer. The farmer lost a horse who ran away. All his neighbours came around and said "That's awful." "Maybe," The farmer replied. The next day, the wild horse came back and had brought along eight wild horses as well. All his neighbours came by and said "Well that's wonderful!" "Maybe," was the farmer's reply once again. The following day, the farmer's son was taming the horses when he fell and broke his leg. All the neighbours came back and said "That's too bad, eh?" Once again, the farmer replied with "Maybe." The next day, officers from the army came around looking to conscript his son. They rejected him because he had a broken leg. The neighbours chimed in and said "That's great!" They were met with the same "Maybe." 

Indeed, I was upset about not having made any music on the island. However, maybe it was meant to be this way. Nature has its own intertwined way of directing events. Maybe I was meant to see my friend's behaviour and attitude towards the music and just pass. Before going, I had recorded the voice of two musicians here in Hatyai. I have to admit that I thought it would be an important experience I needed before going to Samui to record my friend there. In contrast to how the cookie crumbled on the island, the first experience of recording in Hatyai now seemed much more awesome. Maybe my experience on the island served to help me appreciate my other experiences with greater depth. Maybe...

"The sun is shining, weather is sweet. Make you wanna move your dancing feet." - Bob Marley - Dancing would end up becoming a powerful force in this story. 

On the first two visits to the island I had danced. I had danced at the music festival and I had danced when I was with Yura and Kate. Dancing would come into my experience once more this time. This time, it would be a cathartic experience, one that allowed me to express my feelings despite the heavy rain of disappointment. Keep on dancing. That's the message from this story. When life rains on you, continue dancing. It's through moving on that you pivot away from the negative and painful experiences. 

What would life be like living on the island? This was a question that was in my mind and in my conversations with Ying throughout the trip. 

Love has many forms. It may come in the form of love for your parents, love for your girlfriend or boyfriend, or love for animals. For me, my love for music was what had brought me to the island. However, it was the love I felt for my girlfriend that kept me stable through the negativity we experienced there.

There is so much that could be said about love. But what are the essential things that need to be said? 

The question of living on Ko Samui seemed a lot more exciting before we got to the island. Once we got there, we felt a certain coldness. All of the development on the island didn't necessarily provide that soulful feeling that you feel when you're in a lovely place. In fact, it was the less developed parts of the island that had more of that lovely feeling. The island has expanded commercially quite a bit. There's no doubt that it pulls millions of travellers from around the globe every year. And it will continue to attract mega-tourism this way, I'm sure. But how many of those tourists will call the island their home? And what about for the locals of the island who do call it a home? Do they necessarily benefit from all the mass tourism? Tourism shouldn't come at the cost of depleting nature.

Activity doesn't equal soulfulness either. Before Covid, when there were a lot of tourists, there was a lot of activity on the island as well. However, when the tourists disappear, we see that the island is asking for a soulful kind of growth, not a mass tourism and commercial kind of growth. Again, I state that I would not have chosen to go to Samui if I were to choose a holiday destination. There are plenty of lovely places that come at a lower cost in southern Thailand. It's not just about the cost in terms of prices either. The cost is also about time spent. Right now, I have to focus on a few little things to appreciate about the trip to Samui. Unfortunately I am not able to appreciate the whole of the trip for what it is. I wanted to return and appreciate the whole trip because it was successful in terms of reaching my goal. I wanted to make music. I don't think my friend understood that part.

My friend isn't a native of the island. I know him from Hatyai. He moved to the island earlier in the year as the economy was going from bad to worse in Hatyai. During the first few days, I talked to him about the music and he kept putting it off. He kept delaying. Before going to the island, I had asked him if it would be possible to make music at night after he got home from work. I asked him when he got home from work. At the time he just said "Yes, yes. Let's talk about the details when you arrive." When we got to his place on our first night, there was this loud music coming from a bar about 50 meters from his place. I asked whether the bar was open every night and what time the music started. It was open every night and the music started an hour or two before he got home from work. We were already starting off on the wrong foot. Why didn't he tell me about the loud bar from the beginning?  That's a pretty important aspect and one that would have influenced my decision to go.

Meditate and smile anyway. Life is full of ups and downs but with meditation, we find a stabilizing force that helps us deal with the peaks and the lows.

We visited the various divine beings who dwell on the island as well.

Jaya Shri Ganesha 

Ying with her divine mother, Quan Yin.

After our first couple of days on the island, one thing was clear. My friend kept delaying the music making session we had agreed upon. We couldn't record at night due to the loud music from the bar. I asked him about recording in the morning. I was willing to have a little interference by way of cars passing by just so we could finally sit down and get something done. He brushed it off saying it's not a good idea. We couldn't record at night and we couldn't record in the morning. We certainly couldn't record when he was at work. So what were we left with? "Wait until Thursday," he told me, "We'll go to a friend's farm. It's out in nature with no traffic or noise. We can record there." I was still very optimistic by this point. I didn't fuss about it and I thought that we could get something done on Thursday.

Thursday came around and Ying and I made an effort to wake up early. He had promised to show us around the island and take us to his friend's farm. However he slept until midday. At midday, we finally shuffled into the car and went to his friend's farm. I thought we were going to record for sure. We got to the farm and I started asking him whether we were going to record here or not. He gave answers that were full of uncertainty. "I don't know EG. Let's just see how it works out," he said as he filled his glass with liquor. At this point, I was no longer optimistic but I was hopeful. By now, I had started hoping we would get music done. Whereas before I was sure we would get it done. After I asked him a few more times throughout the course of the next two hours, his answers started leaning toward a rejection of the idea. He started telling me it's not a good idea. He started saying that we probably wouldn't record there.

I started to think that we had to get something done by tonight. I started thinking about telling him once we got back home that we had to do something. I was going to have him sing or at least speak something into the microphone as I recorded. It didn't go as I planned. We stayed there at the farm until they said that they were going to take us up a mountain. By this point, I had accepted that we weren't going to get any music done. At first I tried to have fun and just enjoy the good vibes. This worked for a couple of hours. Eventually though, the thought of not having made any music got more and more persistent in the back of my mind. That coupled with seeing my friend drinking and smoking and having fun made me feel disappointed. I hadn't come here to drink and smoke.

The divine creator is working on his art one section at a time. We may not be able to see the whole thing as we focus on a particular section. However, when we take a step back and take a look at it all, we will see it through the eyes of understanding.

This cat was photobombing at first.

We welcomed the fuzzy feline and allowed it in our presence.

And then it posed in the photo with us.

During the days we spent some time travelling around the island. There are many different places on Samui. I understand that there are the inner parts which have farms and forests. There are quiet villages as well. Some of the little towns on the island are less developed and they still have a soulful feeling. It's not that being less developed is equated to being more soulful. It's just that as parts of the island developed commercially, their economic function didn't cover, didn't take into account, their natural beauty. Or perhaps you could use the word cover with its other meaning and say that the economy covered the nature like a blanket of industry over the natural atmosphere of the island.

At the beginning of the post, I wrote that there may be many reasons why someone choose to come to Samui. Oppositely to that, there are many reasons why someone would avoid going to Samui. I have to admit that I fit into the latter category. I like exploring local places that still feel like they're in Thailand. A lot of Samui feels like it's an international zone. Everything is more expensive than on the mainland. Meanwhile, there are beautiful towns and natural places to visit all around the peninsular south. Samui is far from my first choice when it comes to choosing a travel destination.

The reason why I stress this point is because my friend kept mentioning that he was helping us out by letting us stay at his place. He announced this to his friends on the farm as well. It's as if he thought we had come to the island to travel. That couldn't be further from the truth. We were there with the mission of making music. Also, we did our best to be good guests. We paid for groceries, bought them gifts, and Ying even helped clean around the house. We didn't do all of that because we thought it was great to have a free place to stay on the island. We did that because we wanted to be genuine guests who contribute to the environment we're in.

We sat here and meditated and read books for an hour or so.

At Grandpa and Grandma Rock.

This is the Grandma Rock part of this natural phenomenon.

In front of Grandpa Rock.

I was very happy to find a corner like this on Samui. Atatürk isn't just the founder of the modern Turkish Republic. He's also the father of all Turks.

I surprised Ying with a visit to a Turkish restaurant called Roman. Don't let the name fool you. It's not about the Roman Empire. Roman is the word for novel in Turkish; novel as in the books. At the restaurant we had cheese pide, vegetarian lahmacun, and oven-baked bread with various sides. It was a very bready meal but the food was excellent. The service was friendly. And the atmosphere was good too. I liked the Atatürk corner and the paintings of Buddha in the same environment. However, I think they should replace the photos of Cuba with photos of Turkey or Samui. Most importantly though, the food was excellent. They also gave us a 20% discount - I think it was due to new Covid pricing. This was a successful side mission we experienced on the island. Ying is very curious about food and showed a lot of interest anytime I talked to her about Turkish food. So I was happy to treat her to some real Turkish food.

We still found enjoyment on the island in one way or another. Just because the main mission failed, it doesn't mean the side missions had to fail as well. 

I'm happy to say that there are photos like this one from the trip, photos that show our enjoyment.

Nightlights

Later, it rained and we had to give up the awesome hammock set-up they had to go inside. There we chatted with the boy who made us this drink. He spoke English well and told us about his journey of learning English. He said you have to be a real go-getter and take every opportunity to speak. 

Before I wrap up the story of what happened on Thursday, I want to take an opportunity to talk about the positive aspects around my friend. I do appreciate that he let us stay in his home. And I appreciate the countless times I met up with him in Hatyai. I always sensed that he spoke the truth. He didn't have any nonsense to put out. And he always took the opportunity to teach me the southern Thai dialect. I had usually had good vibes with him and so it was an even bigger shock to feel he wasn't being sincere about making music this time. Ying said it nicely when she said that sometimes we need to live together with someone for a few days before seeing the deeper elements of who they are.

They finally took us up a mountain. We had been at the farm for most of the afternoon already and so it was a good idea to go elsewhere. We arrived at a house. First we took in the magnificent view. Even though there were rain clouds looming around, it was still a breathtaking and beautiful view all around. Actually the sea of fog added a mysterious sense of beauty to the whole environment. I forgot about the music and everything else in those moments of taking in the view. 

Then, a bunch of us who had gone up there together gathered around a bar. These guys continued with their drinking and smoking so I excused myself and sat with Ying. It stormed at one point and I chatted to someone I just met throughout the time we hid under the bar. The rain was coming down hard and there was a spray everywhere even with the roof of the open terrace. I did my best to enjoy that time.

After the storm slowed down to a sprinkle, I got the inspiration to dance under the rain. So I started dancing as Ying captured it on camera. You can see the dance video on this link or in this post about the video. That was a message from the universe. It's going to rain from time to time but don't let that stop you from dancing. In fact, it's through dancing in the rain that we are able to get over the rain itself. Check out the video at this link or in this blog post.

The back terrace of the house on the mountain. It had a front terrace as well and a terrace with a bar and roof over it. The platform in this picture also transformed to become a dance stage as well.

I really liked how they integrated nature into the architecture of the building. Instead of chopping down every tree, they built around the trees. The hole on the floor represents a window of opportunity for that tree to grow. It's an excellent example of human integration with nature. 

After we spent a few hours at the mountain-top house, it was time to descend back to to the farm. We said goodbye to the host - he was perhaps the first true local Samuian I met. We got back to the farm and I still had some hope that we could get home that night and record. I was hoping we would get back before the bar opened up. Once back at the farm, our host at the farm, who was also a guy from Hatyai, told me if I could hang in there for another 20 to 30 minutes before going home. I answered saying that I could but secretly I was very happy to be going home soon. It was around 6pm and it would be great to get home, rest, and record some music.

That's not at all what happened next. We ended up staying there for another three hours. This last stretch of time wasn't great. I was tired and my disappointment from not having made music was weighing down on me like dark clouds. The fact that I couldn't lay down and rest just added to the weight. It was 9pm when the host of the farm tried to console me once again by telling me that we'll call it a night around 10pm. 

Another hour of watching my friend fill up his cup with liquor and smoke went by. At 10pm, I asked whether we would be going now or not. My friend tried to delay once again. He asked me to stay another twenty minutes. I didn't believe him. I said that I would be waiting in the car. I went to the car and rested in the dark. I would be the one driving home and I didn't feel that they honoured me by delaying our return. I was tired and wasn't looking forward to driving home in the rain. Thunder filled the sky and I think that was their signal because then Ying, my friend, and his girlfriend all came back. Ying later told me that it was because of the thunder and lightning that she prompted everyone to get going. 

We got home. I was tired and upset. I wanted to leave immediately but of course we needed to get our rest that night before leaving. In the morning we packed our things quickly and quietly. We showered and got ready to go home. We said goodbye to our sleepy hosts. We left and I felt such a relief. I was so happy to have left. "Never again," I told myself. We got on the ferry and then drove home to Hatyai.

Another instance of this house's superb integration of nature into its architecture. Check out this post for more on trees on the island.

 

The house as seen from the dance stage platform. On the left side is where the bar was. It was a bar still under construction just like this platform as well. Many areas of the house were still a work in progress.