Has anyone seen my ankles?

I swear they were here a few weeks ago. I have been poking and pulling at my mosquito-bitten skin, and I can't seem to find those two little bones on either foot! IT IS SOOOOO HOT! They have gone into hiding.


Here I sit in Ranong town, a much more Thai town than we have been in. I have only seen two other farang. Here, we pay Thai prices for the internet- 15 baht an hour. That is about 42 cents. Of course, you pay for what you get, and it has taken me an hour to send two emails, but, like they say around here, mai ben rai. We head out for the village tomorrow, and I wanted to take a little time to write about what has been settiling in my brain, and my heart, and what I have been seeing.

Phi Phi seems like weeks ago. WIth the date change, we only ended up being there three full days, and only volunteered one, as Friday is a 'day off' for all volunteers. As tourists, we experienced massages every day, fabulous food (though I think I need to bring in a picture of a plum and a picture of a pig and tell them that plums don;t have teeth) beautiful water, a strenuous hike, monkeys, snorkeling. We hired a longtail to take us out to Phi Phi Leh again after a hard trip the first day that led us to stick around the island due to waves. It was more beautiful than I remembered, and snorkeling felt ok over there, as the island is uninhabited. later the same day, we hiked to the viewpoint where you can see Ao Dalam bay and Ton Sai bay meet in a narrow isthmus, and could see where, exactly, the wave came and left. From here you could see that Ton Sai was full of anchored boats- diving boats, a couple of fishing boats, a few speedboats (annoying), and about twenty longtail boats. A lot, but less than I remember. On the other side, absolutely nothing. This is not how it used to be.

There was a man at the top restaurant who told us all about that day, and since he spoke so much English we were able to ask him a lot more. My memory was fresh fish outside every restaurant, and on this trip, it was non-existent in most. It was on the menu, but never available. I thought maybe the fishermen were scared, or there weren't enough tourists to warrant to many fish. But it turns out that our little war in the middle east has driven up gas prices everywhere, and the fisherman cannot AFFORD to fish as they used to. Probably not news to a lot of you- I am sure on some level I knew that. But at home, it is always so easy to just get caught up in the effects at home.
Anyway, he was a wealth of information about trees, places, the tsunami, it was interesting. All of this was discussed over the most amazing view that I am not going to even try to put into words, because there is no way, absolutely no way to explain it.

So what do I think now about Phi Phi after my first memory of it? A little differently. The people have touched me in a way that the ending of your favorite book sticks with you somewhere in your mind. In the same was I can still recite Stay Gold, by Robert Frost, twenty years after I learned it, I think I will remember Lek, Mr. Lee, and many of the places and things I saw for the rest of my life. Amidst the war zone, hope prevailed. Yes, it is still full of vodka and red bull buckets, fire dancing, and 22 year olds. Yes, there is still the untz untz that drowns out the sound of the waves gently lapping against the shore. But I can overlook all of that, knowing that they are all there helping the THAI people who love Phi Phi and call it home. I know I will come again, to check up on the people of the island, to see what will happen when the government makes up its mind on what to do about building. HOPE will stick with me, as I will remember the one day that I helped scrape paint off cement poles, avoiding, but drawn to, the little shrine for the 4 year old that will never be forgotten. And you better believe the SF Chron is going to get a letter to the editor about their story, as it completely overlooked the work of the volunteers, and didn't mention that the island is not only acccessible to day-trippers, but to people who want to stay as well. Thailand does not end with the "one German tourist having lunch with a bored looking Thai woman". Hello? People who have been here before could tell you exactly why she was looking bored, and it had little to do with the lack of tourist. SHe was working. Interesting they chose to puclish that in such an undertone. Sorry- I digress. Would I recommend Phi Phi to someone over 30 wanting to travel to Thailand? Yes, if they were interested in helping, but the things that I didn't like about it before still exist. Yes, if they avoided going out at night other than a leisurely dinner during low season. I am sure there will be more to process about that later.

We spent last night in a fancy western-style hotel (22 US including breakfast) in Karon beach, Phuket. I think I already blogged about getting stuck in the middle of the ocean with a funnel cloud. Still have sea legs.Mai ben rai. We met a really nice couple from Salinas/Santa Cruz in the taxi to Karon. Teachers, of course, and an easy connection for the obvious reasons. Phuket was empty. We could have counted the people in town. Restaurants were open, but there was rarely more than three people in them. Very sad. It made it hard to be happy about a good deal. We went to Patong briefly to shop, and I didn't have the ill-feeling I thought I would after my last horrible experience there (which seems to be quite common with the non-partying thirty something crowd. Yay! I am not alone). We also tried to book our flight from Ranong to Bangkok, and no one seemed to know if that was possible. Thought of a ten hour bus ride to Bangkok loomed heavy, and I got a bit anxious to leave for Ranong and get that all worked out.

This morning we woke up and took a taxi to the bus station for the 10:00 bus (5 hours) to Ranong. Well, typical of Thailand, nobody really has the answer, but they don;t want to loose face and tell you, and there was no bus at 10:00. It was at noon, which would put us in Ranong at night. So we hired a taxi for 75 bucks to drive us 4 hours, rather than waiting 2 for a 5 hour bus. Around 11"00, we passed the 8:00 bus!!! Driving up here wqas beautiful, green verdant valleys with huge mountains. It reminded me a bit of Costa Rica. About an hour into the trip, we got to Khao Lak. Somehow I had pictured this a bit off the main highway, but no. The destruction was massive, all the way to and somewhat beyond the highway. In some places, concrete slabs were standing, some with a pipe or a wall still intact. In other places, it looked like someone took a huge rake and just sifted everything over two inches high into a heap on the side of the road. We stopped for a picture of the poilce boat that you may have seen in pics on the news and internet, that is far away from the ocean. I had read 2 km, the driver said 5 km from the sea. My guess? Somewhere in the middle. Mai ben rai. It was hard not to feel like a disaster tourist, but I am here because of the disaster, and there is nothing I can do to avoid seeing what I see.

We are now in Ranong, a provincial town, funny smells, cracked concrete, very little English. Gone are the milky green and blue waves, replaced by street noise and Thai television in every shop where we really have to investigate packages and make a good guess of what is inside. Tomorrow morning we will be picked up by United Planet and taken to the fishing village. It is quite Muslim- people are covered head to toe (not in the city, but on the way). I look forward to reading your comments and emails when I return on the 18th. Oh yeah- and we have a flight from Ranong to Bangkok on the 18th where we will meet Shana.

The kid-friendly blog is www.rebecca2005.blogspot.com

Miss you all
Love Rebecca