Silently they lay on the ground. Without the tiny breathing movements indicating life in the motionless bodies, the tigers would have appeared dead to anyone looking at them.

The monks of the sanctuary claim that these magnificent creatures are not aggressive or violent. Arriving at the sanctuary from the wild or born in the sanctuary by mothers who came voluntarily to the sanctuary, the tigers have been shown compassion and know kindness. Thus it is safe for humans to be near them without fear of being maulled or injured by the tigers.

Yet standing at the entrance of the tiger canyon where they lay, there were several factors that sent out contradicting messages about the tigers to me.

There were several volunteers standing around each tiger. The volunteers had different roles: some kept an eye on the tiger they were assigned, others performed crowd control and a few took photographs for the tourists. All this time, the tigers lay quietly breathing, only turning or moving when a volunteer cajoled them.

However the presence of a chain around each tiger’s neck seemed to suggest that these animals from the wild could spring an unexpected attack without warning.

Yet there was something in their stillness that did not seem right: some visitors suspected that the tigers were too still to not be slightly sedated.

This sight is made more puzzling by the presence of free roaming wild animals just outside the tiger canyon. Horses, ponies, cows, buffaloes, pigs, chickens and peacocks all roam freely. The only cages were the ones where the tigers are kept, and one more for an eagle that was especially fidgety.

Perhaps the tigers were really not sedated and are displaying a side of them that humans have not been taught to search for or have experienced. After all, one cannot doubt the words of the monks at the sanctuary, religious persons who according to their religious scriptures are not allowed to lie, and whom are the same people who are giving the tigers a safe haven for better survival.

The ‘mystery’ of the tigers may not be a mystery at all but for sure they are being cared for by kind hearts, and this is something that is worth showing support for.

Being the largest island among the group of five located toward the south of Thailand, oh Samui is also the most ‘westernised’ in many aspects: there are more road and directional signs in English, same with guide maps and menu in eateries; there are more Thais who can speak English; there are several land developments for private residences and resorts targetted at foreigners and expatriates; there are more ‘white-guy-Thai-girl pairings here.

Over the past 10 years, Samui has been developing at a fast rate and it continues to grow: buildings for private and commercial use are constantly going up while even more services catering to tourists are being developed concurrently.

Yet the rapid expansion of the island has brought along a negative factor in the form of safety issues. Even the local entreprenuers have changed their tune of ‘everywhere is relatively safe’ to ‘it is better if you keep you items in our safe deposit box’.

Other than this minor inconvenience, there are no incidences of major or even minor crimes around the island. Either that or we have not heard any horrible crime stories, even though we have seen some small cubicle containers being passed off as various police stations.

Besides this, the island offers all the comforts that a tourist needs and you hardly feel as if you are far away from European service or standards. For us, we hardly feel as if this place is that much different from certain areas of Bali, except that the people here speak in Thai instead of Bahasa Indonesia to me.

Oh, we do agree that Samui – as well as Tao and Phangan – are beautiful islands, there is no doubt about that. However, they all lack the special charm that ali has, and that makes the Thai islands not as mystic or romantic as they seem.

JUst another two more days on Samui and another week in Thailand before I return to familiar ground. Perhaps Samui will reveal some of her secret charm before we leave.

People with a sense of humour may crack jokes about the interesting fact that our beach resort is located on the next lane to one of Koh Samui’s famous

tourist attraction, the Grandfather and Grandmother rocks.

Known as Hin Da and Hin Yai to the locals, the rocks are shaped like the male and female genitalia respectively. The folklore behind these two rock formations varies, depending on what has been ‘lost in translation’. One version goes that a young couple ended their lifes in the sea as a symbol of their true love, another version goes that an old couple drowned on a journey to a neighbouring island to find a prospective husband for their daughter.

In both cases, there was a large storm and the result was that the couple was turned into the rock formations present today. Intrigued by the photographs in the maps and guidebooks, we decided to look at the rock formations for ourself.

The phallic formation was easy to spot but the actual formation resembling the vagina was a little harder to pinpoint. As the S.O. correctly pointed out, there were various rock formations and combinations resembling the female genitalia. There were so many, except the one that looked exactly like the one we saw in the pictures.

While the Grandmother rock formation was a little ambigious, there was no mistaking the mummified monk that we saw earlier.

Housed in a glass case at wT khunaram, it is the body of a former abbot of the temple who passed away at the age of 79 years and eight months approximately 30 years ago. History states that whe he was alive, he could accurately divine events of the future, even his own death, many years before it happend.

As his body did not decompose for several years after his death, his family members decided to place the body in a seated position and put it on display.

There was also a pair of sunglasses but we are not sure if the monk had died with it on his face or placed as an after thought to hide the eye sockets.

As we looked at the body, we could still see strands of short hair on the top of the monk’s head. The S.O. noted that the strands of hair look as if they were still growing at a decelerated speed. It was weird yet amazing at the same time.

Samui still has more secrets for us to discover. Tomorrow we will attempt to locate the Buddha’s Footstep and the Coral Buddha, which we both missed today.

The morning after the FMP, we sat in the restaurant listening to stories from different people who are also staying at the same guesthouse. Some left the beach only after sunrise, others had too much alcohol and could not remember certain hours of the night while some just sat on the beach drinking mini buckets of alcohol as they watched the antis of others.

In a sense, I felt a loss of not having been able to spend a night listening to the music on the moon lit beach. However, when faced with the alternative of obnoxious, rude or drunk people staggering on the beach, the comfort of a soft bed was more appealing.

Later in the afternoon, the S.O. met an expatriate who had lived in Phangan for the past five years. According to this resident, Phangan is only busy during the peak season of January to March. Once April approaches, it becomes quiet and the tourists trickle to only a few.

Naturally so as the winter months are over and thus everyone returns home for work or the new school semester but while the winter months are around, even the winter in Phangan is not as freezing as the winter in northern Europe or England.

Away from the FMP of Phangan, the island offers something spiritual and renewing for those who seek it. There are several waterfalls, scenic treks and temples for those who prefer a quieter kind of holiday.

There is also a herbal sauna operated by the monks of Wat Pho, a temple located closer to the southeast of the island. For a donation of your choice, you get to sit in the dark and small sauna room, which is infused with steam from heating a mixture of herbs in water. The herbs used reportedly aid rejuvenation of your skin and help reduce stress.

The sauna is a pleasant experience: you slip into sarong, which you can bring or rent for 10 baht, splash some cold water on yourself then head in to the rooms for male or female, dependent on your gender. The room can seat about 10 persons and accommodate another four others standing.

People usually stay in the sauna for between 15 to 20 minutes before they exit; the steam can be quite warm and each person is usually drenched in perspiration within a minute of entering the sauna room.

Besides the sauna, there is also the very famous Lek Massage provided by Lek himself. Purportedly the best Thai massage on the island, Lek is usually booked at least a day in advance. While we did not have the fortune of being kneaded and twisted by Lek himself, we did each receive a fairly good Thai massage from the other two female masseuses that offers massage at the same venue.

There are other goodies on sale as well: a selection of drinks to quench your thirst; citronella oil as insect repellent; a balm/ointment made from natural herbs that is good for massaging away aches; coconut oil as well as a mixture of herbs that can be drunk as tea.

A modest place, the Wat Pho herbal sauna relies heavily on donations from the public as well as non- commercial expansion. Much as we would love to let all Phangan visitors in on this little hideout, we also hope less people know about it so that it retains its quaint and cosy atmosphere.

The main reason for coming to Koh Phangan is the same thing that propelled the island into the international spotlight.

It has also been almost seven years since I first heard of the Full Moon Party that happens on Haad Rin beach and wanted very much to experience it. Yet, there was never a compelling need for me to come all the way to Phangan on my own just to experience the party. Now that I am on the island with the S.O. and during a time when there would be a FMP, there was no reason for us not to attend it.

How exactly is the FMP like? As its name suggests, revellers gather at every full moon on Haad Rin beach for a party. The original version is not the beach party of trance and techno music that it is today and there are definitely more tourists at the event now than when it began around in 1987 or 88.

The entire stretch of the beach is lined with bars, some of which belong to guesthouses, as well as make-shift stalls selling finger food or buckets of drinks. Here, finger food means decent pieces of square pizza, sausage, fried chicken and more at prices between 30 baht to 50 baht (S$1.30 to S$2.20).

Here too, a bucket of drink means a tiny bucket that is sold with a 500ml bottle of alcohol, usually vodka or whiskey, a can of Shark – an energy drink similar to Red Bull – and a 250ml packet of fruit juice. Everything is emptied into the tiny bucket and mixed up, then the bucket is handed over with some straws in it so that you can drink out of the bucket. Depending on the alcohol of choice and vendor, each bucket costs between 200 baht to 300 baht (S$8.70 to S$13).

Revellers can sit or dance on any part of the beach and purchase drinks from any bar that they wish. Or they can just buy one of the tiny buckets and drink from them. Each bar plays their own music and some hire fire twirlers to perform their art for guests. There are sellers hawking garlands of orchids and neon light sticks, as well as artistes who create works on canvas or skin with paint that becomes luminous under ultra violet light.

If it sounds like ZoukOut in Singapore, the experience is similar. Except that the FPM is not organised by only one club or organisation and there was a constant strong cool wind blowing onto the beach from the open sea. The entire area was also illuminated by the bright full moon, enthralling some people who chose to just sit on the beach and look at it.

There were probably around 1000 people at the party when we left at 9.30pm. While it was an interesting party, it lacked ambiance or spirit. Personally, I felt that people were there not for the music, which was supposedly played by DJs that were unseen. I felt that most were there for the fact that it was the FMP and that it provided a good opportunity for getting wasted on alcohol or other substances.

Another reason why I did not really get into the party was the fact that there were too many ‘white’ people; I was still not used to being at a place where ‘white’ people make up 99 per-cent of the tourists.

The S.O. is also not a party person, so we decided to leave after we arrived one-and-a-half hours ago.

However, there is more to Phangan than just the FMP. That, I will leave for the next entry.