Udo finds his final rest…

The alarm clock rings, reluctantly I leave the bed - I just couldn't fall asleep... A quick shower, a very short tea by the sea, and off I go on the scooter to the temple! But first I have to unpack my 'big' backpack (30l) - I have to transport the ashes somehow...?

I enjoy the ride, hardly anyone is out yet, it is - finally! - relatively quiet on the road. Luckily, I was somehow present-minded enough yesterday to mark a location!

What a wonderful morning I would have missed without the alarm clock - I'm telling you: everything is always good for something!

Being a typical German 'potato', I arrive 10 minutes early at the temple, of course alone… The atmosphere is so peaceful, a few (very small) chickens are scratching in the shade a few meters away. I look around, it's a spacious complex with several buildings. Suddenly it dawns on me that no one actually said where exactly I should pick up the ashes...? I assume that I am at the crematorium and, punctual at 8 o'clock, the employee from the day before arrives. He greets me friendly and places the ashes along with bone remnants (& 'non-organic' items like parts of an artificial knee, as the gentleman means) on a prepared large white cloth. He tears the flowers that were brought along, and I get to say goodbye in silence and at my own pace while I let the petals fall onto it. I think of the few moments I had with him that remain in my memory (for some I'm not sure if they are perhaps 'told memories' due to photos), and that hopefully he is doing well now…

The cloth is knotted and also packed into the cloth I brought. Both go into a bag, and then into my backpack. Here, no one seems to find that strange at all. Imagine that in Germany, unimaginable …!

On the way back, I imagine that instead of my backpack, he is riding behind me on the scooter, and I have to smile: here we are both indeed riding together over Koh Phangan - if only someone had told me that! Not to mention the circumstances…

Udo's mortal remains are ceremonially added coins right here on site (I of course had no idea again and 'not enough' small change (whatever that means), German coins were not acceptable). An employee gathers many more coins but refuses to accept the small bill I gratefully offer her. A kind of perfume is drizzled over it, and after I get a handful of the mixture, the package is tied up again. Kem, her colleague, and I go to the sea, and as the package sinks into it, I scatter my handful into the wind - and bid farewell one last time…