Page 65 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL13

The rain clouds hung low and quickly descended even lower. As soon as we dropped the first of our bags onto the sand, rain began pouring down from every corner of the sky. There were no structures on the beach at all sothere was no need to run for cover. Everyone collapsed into a seated position on the sand, as if succumbing to fate. We waited for the situation to resolve itself.The beach we had landed on this afternoon was on the west side of Koh Muk. It was like a painting ... a perfect crescent. The view offshore – Koh Waen and Koh Kradan symmetrically parting from each other while the vast water between them reflected the sinking sun through changing colours.Through the curtain of the rain, the view in front of me looked almost surreal.It was a little after 6pm. The sun, hiding in the clouds and obscuredby rain, had almost reached the horizon. The upper sky was shaded dark, the lower was a layer of light grey and red patches. Below the sky was the emerald green sea and at the bottom was the creamy sandy beach. These layers of colours weren’t sharply separated, all blurring into each other.The longer I watched the display of colour before me, the more I couldn’t help but feel excluded...“Professor, are you not going to do anything at all?” I thought of a question a student of mine shot at me after the February 23 coup d’état.“What do you want me to do?” I remembered answering.“You used to fight.”“It’s not the same...”The sky was still pouring with thick rain ... Finally the crew agreed that ifwe waited for the rain to stop, we would be wasting time until dawn. The consensus led some to unload the rest of our luggage from the boat, others to hastily put up tents to store the luggage in. The task of cooking rice in this liquid moment went to Ta Moh Tao, our only hope.To be honest, I am utterly useless in such circumstances. The only thing I was doing was gazing at the sea, wearing the same old fishing hat...I heard my student’s voice again. “Don’t you support democracy?” “I do ... but I’m sick of politicians.”“So you think the military regime is better?”“No, I don’t.”“How should it be then?”“I have no idea.”By the time we got to eat it was past 9pm. Ta Moh Tao’s fried fish in chillisauce was delicious as usual. It was a shame he put a handful of scallions in it. I had to pick them out as I was allergic.“We human beings don’t make sense,” I said to my friends. We were circling the cooking pot poised on rocks at three corners. “We are so sensitive to what we dislike, and yet so attracted to these things and must reach out for them...”“But we’re so confused about what we love...”The sky continued to leak. Lightning flashed, switching night into day in the blink of an eye. The rain, waves and thunder were part of the orchestra. The whole terrain echoed with their sounds.I took off my soaking wet hat, hung it on the tent pole, crawled into the tent and slept alone, thinking the rainstorms would ease by morning.Elite+ 63