Swimming in Stars with Strangers

Tinder Tourism in Thailand

There is a phenomena to be found in Thailand and other places around the world, where the plankton in the ocean glow. It’s called bioluminescence and when they are stirred by movement or agitated, they begin to glow. After almost a year of combined travel throughout Southeast Asia, I had YET to experience this magical occurrence until an unplanned Tinder adventure with a few German tourists on the island of Koh Phangan.

I matched with a pretty generic looking guy from Germany and the first thing I asked him was if he could drive a scooter…then, if he could come pick me up to explore.

Two weeks prior I had broken my wrist and was staying on the island in a resort owned by a close friend. I wasn’t able to ride a scooter or do much outside of walking around my little corner of the island so after a week I was itching to get out and adventure a bit. At this point I hadn’t gotten my wrist checked out my anyone but a Balinese healer, and I was hoping that once the swelling went down, I would be fine. But until then, I was just being somewhat careful with it.

The German guy and I arranged to meet up and try to find some waterfalls to hike to, then I met him and two friends on the main street to grab breakfast and before we headed out. They all were pretty chill. He was a lawyer in training or something relatively normal. The chick, a total tattooed babe, was just starting on an extended period of travels that would send her around Southeast Asia. His mate was wing-manning, not sure what his story was, he barely spoke. After a somewhat awkward breakfast we were off on our adventure.

We headed up the east coast of the island in search of a waterfall that was on Google Maps. It was hot, and sticky, and eventually we stopped at a point that was supposed to be an entrance. Of course there was a woman selling food, water and other goods who pointed us in the direction of the waterfall. She simply said, “follow my dog.” We all laughed and then actually started following the furry tour guide. He seemed to know exactly where to go…well almost.

There was water, but it was a little underwhelming for a waterfall. Apparently we had just missed it and the dog was supposed to take us all the way up, but he seemed to be the laziest guide ever, so we left to find a beach and some escape from the inexhaustible heat.

At the beach, we were burning up. The water did little to help escape the sun as it was shallow for quite a ways and the water was warm like a fresh run bath. The girl and I left the boys to go have a chilled glass of wine a little further up and we talked about her travel plans and how she had just met the guys at her hostel. I ended up adding her on Facebook and have followed her travels since, she has hit so many AMAZING places. As I recall, she was a nurse or something back in Germany and had saved up money for her extended travel trip.

We rejoined the boys and planned to go check out this next beach where they had been told that there were some abandoned bungalows and they wanted to crash in that night. Lucky for me, it was my favorite little beach on the island and had been to it many times before. On the way, we picked up a couple bottles of wine and some whiskey. I insisted I had to be chill, as I had an online job interview scheduled for midnight that night. The German guy was cool about it, said it was no problem for him to make sure I got back in time.

We went to the hidden beach and shared a local meal at a restaurant on the beach as the sun went down. As they looked up at the bungalows on the cliffside, they tried to determine which ones were abandoned based on the amount of light that was appearing as it got darker. The girl offered up the idea that we all go skinny dipping. I was not convinced that it was actually going to happen, but then again I’m really bad at reading Germans.

After dinner we headed down to the water in the dark and sat down to have a few drinks.

It wasn’t long before she stripped down and ran out into the water. This was definitely going to happen then. I hadn’t been skinny dipping since living in Vietnam the year before, and that was only in our rooftop pool with friends after many a dinner party. When it came to skinny dipping with strangers, it wasn’t that I was opposed, I just had never had the opportunity before (at least that I can recall off the top of my head). So, the rest of us donned our birthday suits and soon it was my German tinder match, his friend, the tattooed girl and I all floating around in the dark underneath a sea of stars.

Then, all of a sudden, we one by one began to noticed that we were glowing. Every movement we made was followed by a glowing trail. We were swimming in stars, off an island, underneath the blanket of stars in the night sky!

This was on my bucket list of things to do in Thailand (maybe not the skinny dipping part), but I had no idea that in this particular area they were to be found. Only once before, when drunkenly racing down a beach a little further south, did I stumble upon a few glowing plankton as they washed ashore. But now, we were swimming in them!

When eventually the novelty wore off, and we needed to refill our glasses, we got out of the ocean and perched naked on the beach, staring out at the local shrimp boats off fishing with their lights on. At this point I laid down next to the german guy as he tried to convince me to just stay in the bungalows with them that night. I insisted I had to get going soon to make sure I got this job and we may have drunkenly made out a little.

We found our clothes, then left the other two to scope out the bungalow situation as we headed back by scooter to the resort in Haad Rin that I was staying at. Cautiously we rode back in the dark and arrived just in time for me to pull it together somewhat for this Skype interview. I half expected him to fuck off and told him it might be a while, but he stayed quiet and out of sight throughout the whole thing.

Almost as soon as I was finished with the interview, he pulled off my bottoms and went down on me until I came, then we fucked for a bit (taking care of my still broken wrist). He bounced after asking once more if I wanted to go crash in an abandoned bungalow.

This instance of Tinder Tourism turned into such a magical night, but only because I just had to go with the flow. I ended up needing to get a cast and my wrist was pretty badly fractured, so I had no way to get around, but I also just exploring an island from some vacationers point of view was a new adventure. I got to tag along and be a part of their wild trip to Thailand. It was an island that I had spent plenty of time on and had explored most corners, so it was cool to view it from their perspective (and learn that there are abandoned bungalows on my favorite beach).

Oh, and I totally landed the job.

These are the real stories of a female traveler and Tinder user in her mid-twenties, with over 15 countries and 1,700+ matches to date. If you find these stories entertaining, please share.