end of the northern hiatus
Somehow, I feel like I went on 'break'. But I am back at the beaches in the south, now, back to having the tsunami in the forefront of my mind, visually, and mentally, rather than on the back burner.Our week in Chiang Mai was unplanned, and a must needed resooperation from what transpired, and didn't transpire in Ranong. Although I was somehwat disappointed in the whole thing, I haven't lost my drive to help, nor have I lost any respect for United Planet. I have already been in contact with one of the coordinators, and if nothing else, I believe it is and will be a grand learning experience all the way around. Jamie and I took a day trip to Ayyuthya, the second capital of the Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand) about an hour north of Bangkok. It was really interesting and fun. We took a bus to get there and stopped at the summer palace, which was strange architecturally. It looked like the king who built it couldn't make up his mind whether to build it Thai style, or European style, so there are mixes everywhere. For example a statue of Venus, or the like, stands tall along the bridge, and in it;s background is an enlarged Thai spirit house in the water. Another strange one was a traditional Thai cottage, with lattice added, and a pink a white paint job that made it look like an English Tea House.The ruins of Ayyuthya were beautiful, and a bit sad, as most of the Buddhas had been beheaded by the Burmese from a previous war. After viewing many ruins and temples, we headed back to Bangkok on teh Chao Praya river. Also in Bangkok, we visited the Royal Palace, Wat Pho, and Jim Thompson's house. All very interesting, and I won't go into detail.Shana arrived, and the three of us headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia, to see the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat. It was like being on a field trip- our guide taught us so much and was so gracious. This, I will go into detail on in another posting, but I need the pictures to jog my memory, and there is a sunset over the beach, behind an enormous rock covered in palm trees that needs my immediate attention.Peace to all of you!Rebecca
on our way to Bangkok
Only have a second, but wanted to take advantage of a fast computer that I can send group email on!
Hope this finds you all healthy and well. We have been in CHiang Mai for nearly a week, and are now ready to go. It has been an adventure so far. After a week in rural Bang Ben, we decided NOT to go on a trek and sleep on the floor in village houses. Instead, we took a one day 'trek', sort of an appetizer plate of all the things trekking is popular for. We started out the day taking an hour long ride on an elephant. Our mahout (guide) seemed totally uninterested. He perched himself on top of the elephant's head, feet dangling on the bridge of the elephant's nose. He smoked cigarettes, and hummed the same song for the entire trip. Behind us was another elephant, with her baby girl chained to her, learning what mom was doing. The baby elephant started 'talking back' to his mom, and we ALL heard about it. I had no idea the little ones couple be so vocal! An hour later, we visited a Hmong village, learned a little aqbout how they live, and mostly, how they have modernized. Next, we hiked to a waterfall in the rain. Jamie was a bit scared, because it was slippery. But it was fun nonetheless. On the way, we say jackfruit and papaya and mango trees (all of them make me itch just thinking about it). The waterfall was pretty, but nothing like the one wwe swam in in Ranong. Finally, we took a trip to a Karen village, and then took a bamboo raft down the river. This is much different than the nice boats we take river rafting in the states. It is just ten rings (?) of bamboo tied together. The 'guide' stands on the front of the boat and uses a bamboo pole to guide the boat. Then there is someone on the back, also steering.
Well, within the first twenty minutes, we realized there were rapids on this river, and ten minutes after that, 2 of thefour of us fell in. Not the fun kind of falling in, either. At first, I tried to hold onto the boat, and then I realized it would be safer if I pushed it away, and just went downstream with my feet up. So that's what I tried to do, swallowing disgustingly brown water on the way. When all was said and done, everyione was fine. Wet, and a little sore, but fine. We were quite happy with our choice not to spend a night.
We did a lot more, too, but really enjoyed our time relaxing here in Chiang Mai. We head to Bangkok in a few hours, and meet up with Shana tomorrow night. THen off to Cambodia's Angkor wat on the 21st. Hope to hear from you soon!Love, Rebecca
off we go- this one is long!
How do I sum up a week oin one entry?Jamie and I arrived in Ranng on SUnday, July 3rd, spent the night in the small town which has a small tourist center, as it is the place to go to renew your Thailand visa in nearby Burma (Myanmar). We were told to meet our United Planet rep at the KiwiOrchid Guesthouse at 10:00 am on Monday. When we got there, there were several other volunteers from many different organizations. Our representative turned out to be a rep named Ralph, from Greenway, a Thai organization funded by a man named Patrick, who is originally Dutch, but moved here over twenty years ago. Intuition was at a peak, and I whispered to Jamie, "we can leave after a week if this isn't what we signed up for."At the table, we were told that United Planet (3 of us) and Commondo (Dutch- 6 people) would be building a Muy Thai boxing gym, with the hopes of turning it into a community center, with library, etc. The others would be going to the national park and helping making and painting chairs so they could re-open for tourism. Right away, I was thinking that was more suited for me and Jamie, but kept quiet at first. We were driven to the 'volunteer house' where we were told what our schedule would be- breakfast at homestay, Thai lessons for one hour, then work. There was a cultural and educational component, which is one of the things that Jamie and I liked. But the Commondo group had been told they would be doing construction the entire time. SO right away, we recognized that there was lack of communication between organizations, which I think is typical in any country. We had lunch, and asked when we would see our homestays. We were told very soon, and waited, watching the rain, and staring at the mosque accross the narrow road for several hours, doing nothing ,really, but waiting to get to our new homes with our luggage. We asked for the third time, and finally, we were able to go meet our new 'family'. The drive was wet, the area was wet, and very green because of it. There were marshes everywhere, with egrets and buffalo roaming around. Small houses, some made of concrete right on the land, some made of wood and risen on stilts, dotted the road. Families of three and four traveled past us via motorbike (yes, all of them on one bike, no helmets), most of the women wearing the Muslim headdresses. We got to our home last, a small concrete bungalow resting precariously on the muddy banks of one of the many rivers that made the village of Bang Ben an island. The roof was tin, and everything inside smelled of mothballs. Mami Nom was a beautiful woman, older, non-Muslim, but not quite Buddhist. We heard later, she was actually Lao, but not many people in town know that. She showed us her kitchen, which was out the back door, across some wodden planks, into a shack, basicaly, tin roof again. But the shack was constructed with sticks, stick floor, stick walls. There wre three gas burners inside, and she sat on the floor cooking, talking to us in Thai, while we just kept responing with 'Uh-huh" as if we understood. My bedroom was accesses two ways- one, from the outside, the other, through a small window in the bathroom (yes, that is how I got to the bathroom at night- through the window). The bathroom was nothing I had ever seen before. There was an eastern toilet in the ground (a.k.a. 'squatty pottie'), sovered with a board, and a bucket full of water next to it, with a tupperware scoop floating on top. This is how you 'flush' the toilet- by scooping clean water into the bowl until everything goes down (right into the river, I assume,as all the food and washing did, but I never asked). Nect to the toilet was a cement tub, filled with rainwater from the roof pouring into the gutter, and then running through a pipe, which was interesteing during torrential rain, as it filled rather quickly. Floating in this tub was also a scoop, meant for bathing. Thais bathe about three times a day this way, and you NEVER get into the tub, as it spoils the clean water. So you scoop water out of the cement, stand next to it, usually next to a hole in the cement wall for drainage (again, into the river) and you pour it over yourslef. It takes quite a while, and was a bit cold. As there were a lot of western volunteers in the area, we could talk about this new experience freely, and one of the English guys coined it 'taking a scoop' instead of the usual 'taking a shower'. Food was good, however, it was often cooked hours before we were ready to eat it, and although it was kept covered and away from bugs, I think this is the reason I have been having some stomach issues. Jamie had them a bit, too. I could write for hours about our experioence with Mommie Nom and her daughter Miss Pen. But I will save your eyes from the reading now, and write more another time, or share with you all in person.Volunteering- as I mentioned before, MOnday was pretty much a travel day rather than a work day which didn't make too much sense to me, as the other volunteers were there Sunday. We all met- all 26 of us, and our Thai leaders, and Ralph, at the Wasana Resort in Laem Son National Park (the village of Bang Ben is pretty much part of the park). Lucky Jamie and I- we were right next door, and, maybe unfortunately in some ways, spent all of our evenings there as it was clean and bright, and remarkably absent was the smell of mothballs. VOlunteers came from all across Europe, the UK, and the States, which was very fun. We all shared stories and wondered what would happen when weactually started working. Tuesday, after Thai lessons, we drove up to the site for the gym. I have to insert here, that until Thursday, it was raining cats and dogs, which offered us a respite from the heat, and I also found my anklles again. But it was hard to see or move quickly as it was sheets of water. The site was covered with trees- palms, banana, and some other that I would soon find out was poisonous. We sat down in the volunteer house across the street to discuss the plan. I was feeling completely out of my comfort zone, and to make it more strange, Ralph decided I would be the 'manager' and lead the meetings, and make lists of what we needed. This made no sense to me, as we had two building contractors in our group.. I think Ralph was trying to have us do 'the teambuilding' thing, but it seemd like a waste of time. He also said we had to wait for the things we needed, which we argued was a waste of time, as we could at least clear the plot while we waited for the proper equipment. So we took charge, and started digging. And clearing. And raking. And sawing. And Jamie and I and a few other....less handy.....dragged branches and logs and things to a burn pile. Again, intuition told me this wasn't good, as when I touched one particular tree, I felt stickiness. A week later, and I have blisters up and down my arms and hands which took 3 visits to the doctor (the one in Bang Ben didn't know English and kept saying chicken pox, and gave me antibiotics for 1.50 US which I didn't take, but will keep in my med bag for future probs if needed)- the doctor at the airport agreed with my personal prognosis and gave me the right topical treatment, and it is still disgusting, but getting better.After the trees were cut down and dragged, it was time to start digging holes which would have to wait until Wednesday. Then it was mentioned that we would not go to the school Wed- we would dig holes. The group was all on the same page, the leader not. He wanted us all to 'be together' and we decided that 'being together' meant for us that we all did what we felt most useful doing, so again, we took charge and Jamie and Iw ent to the school on Wed. We were told on the spot that we would teach English. The teacher walkedf out of the room full of 15 year olds, leaving us alone. Um, ok. Now, being a teacher, I was able to handle it well, and Jamie was brilliant at bouncing off me, and picking a few activities that suited her comfort level. It was a great experience- one I would actually hope to do long term in a Spanish speaking country in the near future- but not one we were prep[ared for. ANd then we waited. And waited. And finally were brought back to the boxing gym, where it was still pouring, and everyone was soaking wet, wrinkled and filthy, digging holes. We opted out. The tools they had were primitive at best, and several of us felt it unsafe to handle them in such a downpour. The next morning, everyone came to the table with their frustration, that this was not a priority- to do heavy construction in the poourning rain. ANd as we were all told this was what the Thais wanted, we were all frustrated seeing that there were no Thais working on it. THe other group of 17- the ones building and painting chairs? 11 of them left as there was no work for them to do.Patrick, the leader of Greenway, came and talked with all of us, and we decided to migrate to the painting group, as that was more our capability. He was fine with that. Ralph was not. The groups decided to merge completely and we went to the beach. This seemesd right. The beach was devoid of any humans, as the villager were completely frightened of the sea. This is whjere we thought we could make the difference. So we all started cleaning. We dug up fishing traps that had washed on shore 6 months ago, and had been buried under wet sand for months. We picked up trah- old shoes, styrofoam from the traps, ropes, nets. It was a mess. When we all had dinner together that night we felt good. We didn;t build chairs because the Thais were busy doing it, which felt even better, showing us that is what they wanted. But it started raining again, and it wasn't possible to clean as everything blew out of the bags, out of our hands. We sawed apart three fallen trees, but again, too many people for one job. So we left.Any regrets? No, not at all. We had a cultural experience that will never be forgotten. We met fantastic people from all over the world! We brought our smiles and our dollars to an area where there are no tourists. We walked to the beach every day, with children looking to see where we were going, some adults even coming to see. We showed we cared. I will assume that United Planet and Greenway's lack of communication with each other and with the volunteers was specific to our experience, and remember that both strive to make a difference. For this, I am not angry. But we felt like we weren't doing anything, and would rather see more (which in the big picture means spend more, which was part of the original goal). Hopefully we can get a small refund and redirect it to HiPhiPhi. We shall see when we actually have a chat with UP. And that is how it will have to stand for now.So here we sit, after a luxurious night of air conditioning, clean white sheets, a tub and shower, and a pedicure, in Chiang Mai. We will go on some sort of Hill Tribe adventure here, after my stomach settles and my weird skin thing clears up a bit. All is well in paradise- being here reminds me how everything is possible. We were in a remote seaside village with no public transport and were told we couldn't get a flight out for a few days. Yet, we made it happen by just saying "ok. but take us to the airport anyway". 4 hours later, 2 plane trips on different airlines, not pre-booked, costing a total of less than 100 dollars, we are hours and hours away, missing some things, grateful for others. ANd with that, I will say goodbye, take care and I do enjoy your emails, so please write!!!Much love....Rebecca
Has anyone seen my ankles?
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 (their word for foreigner). 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 arounf 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 brink 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 arounf 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 ssame day, we hiked to the viewpoint where you can ssee 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 ast 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. 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 destruction, hope prevailed. 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.
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 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.The kid-friendly blog is www.rebecca2005.blogspot.comMiss you allLove Rebecca
