the morning after

New Year’s morning—/ everything is in blossom!/ I feel about average.
Robert Hass, After the Gentle Poet Kobayashi Issa

The morning after, we hired a tuk-tuk and explored the island. You’ve got a roof over your head, but otherwise its quite exposed, and definitely the best and most exciting way to see Thailand. They drive on the left-hand side of the road here, but once behind the wheel, pretty much anything goes. To an outsider it might seem chaotic, even dangerous, but it all works, somehow. Surprisingly, the countryside is a largely undisturbed canopy of trees, wild and showing little signs of foreign encroachment. We climbed out of Patong, heading south on a loop that would take us around the island on its outer fringe. The tuk-tuk huffed and puffed its way past mini roadside temples in gold and red, yellow signs warning of elephants crossing and bougainvillea in full bloom.

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