Harry Nicolaides' Weekly Column

Exclusively for Phuket-Info.com

Prom thep cape at sunset: An impression

Prom Thep Cape at sunset is the edge of the world. As light gets sucked into the vortex of darkness that envelops the earth, shadows grow long like tombstones on the living. The temperature falls as a trade wind whispers the voices of erstwhile pirates, sailors and sea gypsies from the maelstrom of the millennia. Promises, prophecies and warnings. Ill-fated tidings from the shipwrecks of time washing up in the present on portentous currents. If a message in a bottle washed up on the shoreline it would have one word: Eternity. This craggy coastline is timeless and surreal. King Canute ensconced on his gilded throne and with sceptred majesty tried to command the sea to submit to his rule. He fell down and the waves, divined by a greater power and authority than his own, lapped at his feet.

Latitude: North of the equator. Longitude: Far from Western civilisation. With each falling degree of light the sun plunges further towards the sea. From the shoreline the water darkens by great swathes as glowing beams pierce the canopy of clouds forming a cathedral of lights dappling the watery surface. The bands of colour in the water – sapphire, turquoise and aquamarine coalesce into a whirlpool of celestial splendour glittering with starry incandescence. The sun finally falls impaled on Neptune’s silver trident leaving a long moonbeam shroud on the surface of the ocean from the shoreline to the horizon. Vibrant shades of the day bleed into the murderous wound of night as face-shaped clouds scream in silent horror.

The death of day is swift and sure. The wind howls with grief as night overcomes the day in a final riotous conflagration beyond the edge of the world. This is an apocalypse of the world as we know it. Fire, wind, earth and water remain for the final act. A fish leaps out of the water like a tiny shimmering fragment. The kaleidoscope has turned. The spectral colours that once glowed with luminescence have vanished. The fish lunges up again out of the water like a flare, its iridescent skin ablaze and flashing with light and colour and then plunges back into the stygian depths like a dazzling splinter of the day.

When Christopher Columbus sailed off the edge of the earth he sailed into a New World. Prom Thep Cape, the southern most tip of the island of Phuket is a porthole view of the past and of what has remained essentially unchained for centuries. The horizon is a time line vanishing into eternity. The Andaman Sea has carried Portuguese explorers, pirates and merchant ships. The vessels of these ancient mariners were buoyed by sails filled with hope. Longtail boats continue to navigate the waters off the cape today on nocturnal fishing trips. They depart from places on shore unknown and sail in straight lines towards the setting sun. The boats’ bobbing hulls leave a ribbon of silk in their wake as ripples take the shape of mathematical equations by forming triangles with perfect sides.

Today thousands of tourists visit Prom Thep Cape to see the Golden Jubilee Lighthouse. A monumental and majestic structure made of marble and stone it is a place of historic interest as well as affording visitors who venture up its soaring spiral staircase onto the viewing deck breathtaking views. From this vantage point Islands look like large pebbles covered with green moss and the ocean is like a painter’s palate with shades of blue swirling round rocks of white where waves crash on shorelines.

A high, triumphant wind waves the Thai flag back and forth as it billows from a flagpole elevated above the towering structure. This is journey’s end. If you listen carefully you can hear Captain Aheb cursing Moby Dick for taking his leg, marvel at one thousand ships from the Greek fleet set sail for Helen of Troy and smile as Ulysses finally looks homeward after his epic Odyssey. All this you can see from your porthole of discovery at Prom Thep Cape, Thailand.

Harry Nicolaides

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