Amanda in Asia

I left out one detail from my previous post, “3 Crazy Days in Koh Phangan.” His name is Franco. How should I introduce Franco…

By my third night on the famous party island, I was beat. My friends Bailey and Ada were still enjoying the music and the sweaty dancing, so I left them to it. I decided to take a little walk on the beach to cool off then go back to our bungalow… That is until I looked in my bag and realized my wallet was missing! (Luckily I only had one credit card with me and about $15 worth of Thai Bhat.) Still, that meant I had no money for the taxi ride home.

I looked around a bit hopelessly — feet in the water, shoes in hand. I started to consider the best candidates to ask for a handout. But as fate would have it, I didn’t have to. Enter Franco. Charming, Argentinian, Damsel in Distress Extraordinaire. Without me speaking a word he walks up to me and says, “What’s wrong?” I explain my situation, and he offers to help me look for my friends. (Of course, it’s the Full Moon Party, so this is a futile task, but we try for a bit.) Then he asks me what I want to do and tells me he will make sure I get home safe. Now, naturally, being a woman I’m skeptical of a man I’ve just met offering any such gesture, so I tell him “Thank you, but I really just want to go home. Alone.” He laughs at me a bit, and says, “Okay, I get your taxi and I go with you to drop you off. No problem.”

I’m thinking to myself, “Doesn’t this guy want to stick around and try to get laid like every other guy here?” I assume it’s the language barrier, so I say it a different way – “I don’t want to have sex. If you come with me, you miss the party… No sex.” (Or something ridiculously candid like that!) And so he reiterates, “This is how I am. I’m with you. I look out for you. I get you home safe.” With that, finally I acquiesced.

We shared a cab (with a handful of party goers who have also given up early) and had a nice talk on the ride back to Ban Tai. In the process we realize we will both be in Koh Tao a few days later and so we exchange info and add each other to Facebook (because how else does anyone communicate these days?) And, you bet your ass I caught up with Franco in Koh Tao. We walked north of Sairee Beach to a quiet a little resort, and I got to ask him my favorite question: “What makes you feel loved?” Here you have his answer:

What Franco doesn’t mention about himself in this clip is he’s also an adrenaline junkie – from motocross, to rock climbing, to jumping off cliffs, and now hitch hiking! He told me he starting riding a motorcycle when he was 3… I said, “You must have come out of your mother’s belly wheel-first!” And we laughed… Well, we all have different ways of dealing with the brevity of life, I guess. Mine is so cautious he could barely get me to climb a steep rock to watch the sunset. But I’m really glad he did. That sunset was the most beautiful I’ve seen on my trip.

So thank you, Franco — for the video, the sunset, and the courage. Felices viajes!