The Haad Rin Queen has been ploughing the seas between Phangan and Samui as long as many travellers can remember. The rocky motion entrances her passengers still, as sea spray splashes the legs of itinerant wanderers and backpackers who lay about her decks.
The old tug boat has welcomed all walks of travelling life, turning them into happy seafarers for a short while... A brief moment, which will linger in the annals of their travellers tales for ever.
It is a sensual journey of joy. The beginning of a recurring love affair, whether young or old.
An experiential mode of travel, which leaves an imprint on your brain - as you too fall in love with the Samui Islands. Their irresistible charms call to you, never failing to move you with their sensuality...
You have arrived on the Samui Islands, and you will never be the same.
White cumulus clouds chug along in the sky above, mirroring the motion of the old tug boat herself.
The Haad Rin Queen ploughs the waves, creating her own white horses as she crosses the emerald sea. Then, the misty blue, elephantine hills of the islands rise from the ocean - heralding your arrival in paradise.
As your dreams of the islands embed within you, it is a time to reflect. A time to let the experience of the island you are leaving behind transmute into treasured memories...
Then the sense of expectation of arriving on the new island, with all its hopes and dreams, beckons.
You feel it calling to you of the pleasures to come. It is always a poignant moment of hope and excitement - of treasure and loss - full of memories of a paradise soon to be lost or gained.
The turquoise water holds the fluid memories of emotion. And your heart burns with the truth of it, always. It is a tale of love; a love story with the Samui Islands, like no other.
The Haad Rin Queen has become her own living myth. Her rocky motion has ignited the passions of passengers for decades.
You'll never experience a dream of the islands like this.
And the Haad Rin Queen, she knows it. She knows your soul better than you know your own.
Like a siren, be careful she doesn't capture your soul.
Happy sailor, I have been lost to her, ever since I made my first journey upon her.
And lost to the islands I remain.
* Mood piece inspired by our Tropical Writer's Workshop and Koh Phangan Uncovered articles for South East Asia Backpacker Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015. *
Thanks to Moira Bulacios Prat for the top photo!
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