T’WAS DEADLY BEAUTIFUL PATTAYA

T’was in November of 2008 when three of my bestfriends Kay, Shelene and Brian went to Thailand to celebrate Kay’s birthday, to think years ago we are just fine celebrating birthdays with just a cake and few candles…

T’was after braving the famous yet confusing Chatuchak and Suan Lum markets in Bangkok, a bumpy ride with a Thai Dumbo at Samphran and a night with a belly full of Tiger beer at Route 66 that made us think our vacation needs an R&R. Yup! You’re reading it right a vacation consumed by consumerism needs rest and relaxation.

T’was not the excitement that we’re going to a not-so remote Coral Island that almost killed me but the nerve-wracking speedboat ‘whirligig.’ During that thirty-minute plus trip I was already recording a scene of me going back to the Philly inside a cadaver bag. All I can remember that time is that my eyeballs we’re literally rolling not only because of fear, but because I’m already frantically searching for an orange jacket… a life-saving vest!

T’was seconds after setting my feet on the sugary sands of the island which made me realize that a trip to a paradise of bliss can never be smooth sailing. Like, the most pleasurable experiences in life are best felt after trials and tribulations. True indeed that, “it is pleasurable, when winds disturb the waves of a great sea…” Lucretius said that!

T’was this experience which made me think (minutes ago) that – I may be wallowing on the kind of stress that I’m journeying right now. But, at the end of this septic tunnel is a white island plucked out from Maldives! Yes! We are always on the anvil; life at any time can become difficult… by trials God is shaping us for higher things... beautiful things...

Life is indeed deadly beautiful.