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Published: March 18th 2007
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After many recomendations I have realised that the easiest (and most fun) way to keep everyone, including myself, up to date on my trip is to start a travel blog. And behold I have done it! It includes photos and will be sent out to everyone on my e-mail subscribers list every time I update it. Handy Dandy eh?
So I'll start where the last e-mail left off, with Ally and I crashed uselessly in a hotel on Khao San Street (Th) in the tourist / backpacker district of Bangkok called Banglamphu. It is central to all the main sites and full of markets, shopping, allies with tastie little restaurants, scaming tuk-tuk (little mini taxi motor bike cart) drivers, and lots of late night fun 😊 We stayed at Kwain Place guesthouse (see photo) and were able to walk to see Wat Pho (see photo), the Grand Palace, the amulet market, the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river, and countless of other only in Thailand sites. For example there was a Shell gas station that converted to a bar (with smoking!) and massage palor at night! Space for open air restaurants and bars is in such demand that any day
time use space (gas stations, parking lots, sidewalks) turn into crowded restaurants and bars once the sun sets. The temples were amazing, and we were there on Buddha day when Thai Buddhists sprinkle water, light incense, chant, and paste gold leaves to Buddha's everywhere. Very exciting and beautiful.
After 24 hours in Bangkok we boarded a bus to Surat Thani, where we changed to a local bus to Khao Lak (see photo). The bus was full of local Thai people who lived in the mountain / rainforest regions between Surat Thani and Phuket (an island south of Khao Lak). All together the journey from Bangkok to Khao Lak by bus took 16 hours! Of course we arrived in Khao Lak on Sunday to tired to do much in Khao Lak, but not too tired to buy some watermelon and vodka and make watermelon shakes on the beach. The only thing which seems to be expensive in Thailand is the alcohol, which maybe a good thing.
We had an orientation with the Tsunami Volunteer Center (TVC) at 9am on Monday morning, which we were not surprisingly late to. Five other Americans were starting with us and we visited
all the projects the TVC is currently working on. All the projects operate with both Thai locals and volunteers working together to accomplish the project goals and to set up sustainable businesses which will continue after the initial project is finished. For example the TVC and a group of Thai boat builders set up the boatyard to build fishing boats for the fishermen whose boats were lost in the Tsunami and now that they have finished the last fishing boat they are learning how to build other types of boats, yachts and sail boats, so in a month when the TVC pulls out of the boatyard completely they will be able to continue the business and build boats for sale. The boats are incredible, made completely of wood, which has to be imported because of Thailand's strict laws on cutting down trees.
The other projects TVC is involved in included the building of an orphanage, the rebuilding of a entire village (56 houses) which was destroyed, education programs for Burmese and Thai children and for workers in the resort industry, and the building of a house for a older Thai woman who was found living in collapsing house with
her granddaughter.
After orientation we had a mixer with the other volunteers and moved into our cute wood bungalow at a place called The Nature Resort. (photo) We quickly discovered the most beautiful little beach around the corner from us, and have since made quite a few local Thai beach bum friends there.
We were of course assigned to the most difficult project that the TVC is currently running, the building of an entire village called Nam Kem II. It is an amazing project because we have been working side by side with the Thai villagers, currently living in three walled tin shacks surrounding the site. There are three general responses by the locals of Phang Nga Province to the Tsunami; those who left after the Tsunami, those whose homes were destroyed and now have moved up into the hills a bit behind the Tsunami line, and those who have rebuilt on the demolished flat zones. Nam Kem II is one of the few villages that falls into the third category, where the villagers all choose to build in an area which makes most locals nervous to visit let alone restart their lives in. So the people we
are working with are really quite strong and I am constantly impressed with their ability to avoid thinking about what happened to most of their families in the exact spot where we are working.
So Ally and I have been slinging cement, building roofs, brick laying, and laughing ourselves through the day. The Thai people have an approach to work called sanuk (which literally means 'fun') which implies that anything worth doing should be fun and playful, including work. Thai people believe that anything without an element of sanuk isn't worth doing, so the job site is actually a place full of games, jokes, playfulness, and smiles even if I don't understand the majority of it. The people here absolutely love me (I know that may sound a bit vain but I will try to explain) because I smile a lot and also because of something about my nose being long, which is not anything I've ever thought of before. I'm slowly learning pieces of conversational Thai and my relationship with the villagers on site has helped with that, although sometimes I wonder if they are really teaching me things I want to learn or just teaching me
things which are entertaining to them. Either way I don't mind.
One of the best benefits of working at Nam Kem II is that every Friday finish early and head to a local beach called Bang Niang with long stretches of white sand and clear green blue water for a beer and a swim. The beaches here are what post cards are made of and perfect in every way except for the temperature of the water, it's way to hot! The water offers no sense of cooling after a long hard day, but the sand, sun, salty air, the sound of the waves, and the taste of a refreshing Thai beer are so wonderful that you don't really even need to cool down.
I'm going to finish this travel blog now, otherwise this one will go on forever covering the past two weeks we've had in Khao Lak! I'll do another one know though so I don't forget myself everything we've been up to!
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Kay
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Fabulous 1st Blog
Great intro to work and life as a volunteer in Thailand. I want to know more about that monkey! Are they everywhere? Are there many animals around, and are the treated well? The beer on the beach after a long week's work sounds fabulous. Love to Kristin and Ally!