Where are my freaking flip flops? - Koh Tao Confidential Vol. 12

                                             


Greetings faithful followers and welcome back to the Koh Tao Confidentials. 

     It's been a while since you've been enlightened as to the many happenings here on the Rock. Thankfully, I am  finally able to satisfy your hunger for knowledge with yet another insightful posting on the secret and not-so-secret workings of Turtle Island. 

    We are all taught from a young age that it is important to share with those around us. What you give you shall receive in return double-fold... is that not the way it's supposed to work? Well here on K.Tao "sharing is caring" is a way of life. In fact, I would not be surprised if we are the sharing capital of Thailand...hell,  perhaps S.E Asia!  What's the reason behind all this love and "what's mine is yours" mentality? Flip flops of course! 

    Koh Tao is a sandy place, anyone who's spent any amount of time here surely has fond memories of sandy beds, sandy clothes, sandy knickers and sandy luggage. In order to keep all this errant sand out of shops and hotel rooms/lobbies, many ask you to remove your shoes at the door. Flipflops are also pretty impractical on dive boats so divers are often asked to leave their shoes in "shoe parking" at the various dive shop receptions before boarding the boats as  well (I mean who needs flipflops when you can wear fins right?) What this tends to create is a type of flipflop chaos outside the doors of most shops and restaurants. Now what you also need to be aware of is that Thailand is the capital of ripoff counterfeit Havaiana flipflops so EVERYONE has the same shoes. Greeted with a sea of flipflop clones upon exiting, most people just take a guess and throw on a pair that looks like theirs. 

   It's flipflop Russian Roulette, sometimes you dodge a bullet and other times you end up with a pair 2 sizes two small or even worse, two different shoes. But unlike it's more dangerous namesake, all participants come out alive, although they may look like a bit of a git walking around in a pink size 34 Havaiana and and a blue size 40 Ripcurl shoe. 

This is only a small example of how chaotic the flipflop Armageddon can get. At least most of these people have manged to keep their shoes in pairs.

In general the flipflop sharesies is pretty tame during the day when people can see where they are going and usually are sober enough to tell the purple size 36 pair from the bright yellow size 42s beside them. After dark however, it's a flip flop free for all. Most of the bars here are on the beach and afterdark dance moves and fire jumping often launch flipflops off feet and into the night where they are swallowed up by the sea or the kerosene bucket or somehow end up under the steps or in the mouths of the bar dogs. If they manage to survive all of the aforementioned hazards, they usually don't manage to survive the hundreds of drunken revelers who are convinced that "THAT pair, yes, THAT pair right there is mine" even if that pair is 2 sizes too big and a completely different colour than the ones they showed up in. More often than not one usually returns to where they left their shoes to find them mysteriously missing. No worries though, this is Koh Tao, the land of sharing! All a shoeless, drunken backpacker needs to do is sneak off and take someone else's. Share and share alike right? By the end of the night everyone usually manages to make it home with some form of footwear. They may be two different colours or two different sizes but a shoe's and shoe right? 

During my first few trips to K.Tao I used to get annoyed at how my shoes seemed to houdini themselves out of every hiding spot I put them in but now that I'm officialy a K.Tao resident, I have embraced the shoe exchange. Never the hypocite, the princess always practices what she preaches therefore it's only fitting that as I write this I'm sporting pair of lovely black flipflops that I "borrowed" from someone at the bar the other night. 

Dear nameless flipflop donor,
 Thank you for your gift of footwear, I hope you "borrowed" and equally attractive and comfortable pair from another drunken reveler. 

Kindest Regards,
Princess Inaka

Remember travelers, when coming to Koh Tao, leave your expensive shoes at home and embrace the island's culture of share and share alike...your feet will thank you.

Cheers from the flipflop exchange
J