I managed to squeeze enough out of my credit card at the local Flight Centre to get onto the very next flight to Bangkok, with an immediate change over to Samui and a short ferry ride to Tongsala Koh Phangan.
I had just survived yet another bad attempt at suicide by binge drinking the week-end away at Caprice, in Camps Bay, Cape Town and was in bad shape. The idea was to check into a spa of sorts, detox, shed a couple of kilos and look forward to extending my life beyond 43. This however was not to happen.
Carrying my only possesions in a plastic Woolworths shopping bag, I took the long walk from the ferry down the Kho Phanga pier into Tongsala in the suffocating midday heat, to plan my next move and find somewhere to get my hands onto a frosty little friend. Down a side street I ambled, clutching my 'plastic', looking for indicators that would lead to quenching my thirst.
A's Coffee Shop appeared appropriate enough and 'bergie like', I shuffled to a table farthest from public scrutiny and in no time at all I was in the company of new and familiar friends. Chang, Becks, Guiness, Campari, Stella, Jack and Bacardi, we were all there getting to know each other all over again, getting along just fine, when I heard a couple of familiar South African voices.
Looking up into Chris's moonlike face,
I instantly knew exactly how this was all going to end up ......
