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Published: January 25th 2006
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James Bond Island
The dock where I dropped my sunglasses. Obviously a location that was unaffected by the tsunami. In Patong Beach now which is another town on Phuket...
We've been everywhere it feels like. Did more kayaking yesterday around Phi Phi Le which I think I mentioned before as being the smaller of the Phi Phi Islands (Phi Phi Don is the one that was hit with the most damage in this area and has been completely closed). Joy and her husband had lived on Phi Phi Don. They had a dive shop there which was completely destroyed along with their home. Thankfully, Joy told me, her children are at boarding school in Bangkok so they weren't there when the tsunami hit. Her husband, however, was. Joy said that he lived through the horror which is amazing in and of itself since pretty much everyone else around him died. A friend of theirs who was the one who warned him was killed. Most of their friends also were killed. We met Joy's husband when we were in Krabi which is where he's currently staying. The government has completely sealed off Phi Phi Don so they're not sure at this point when they'll be allowed to go back and rebuild (which everyone seems keen to do). Joy told me
some of the horrific things she saw when they were there to try and collect some of their things and assess the damage - it's so awful I can't even repeat it right now. Maybe later.
Onto happier topics. On Phi Phi Le, the main beach where "The Beach" was filmed is in Maya Bay and was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful... Before heading to the Bay, we dropped anchor for a few hours in another cove, had lunch, kayaked around a bit and swam. After lunch, Ray & Warren took off in one kayak, Katie & I in another so we could get into the Bay ahead of our catamarans (Shauna swam with us for awhile but ended up just hanging onto the back). It was so cool to kayak into this serene place and be the first ones there (well, to be honest, Ray & Warren got there first, but they had already pulled their kayak up onto the beach and were nowhere to be seen). We walked along the beach, saw a 4 foot long iguana (no kidding!), I found a beautiful shell... Katie & I ventured further into the island and came across a little secluded alcove
Maya Bay, Phi Phi Le
Just us and some local fishermen. that was in keeping with the quiet and peaceful theme. As Wolfgang had predicted, the beach and the cove were completely deserted. "Normally," he told us in his thick Austrian accented voice (which often sounds EXACTLY like Arnold Schwarzenegger), "there would be so many boats in the Bay that you could walk across them to reach the shore." Hard to imagine that when the only way I've seen it is deserted.
Another perfect day. I feel I'm continuing to struggle with constructing sentences. My monologues seem to have completely regressed to a 3rd grade reading level (See Deb. See Deb kayak.) I've all but given up trying and will perhaps just have to piece it together at the end with the help of my pictures and Steve's video footage (I'm SO glad someone on this trip has a video camera!!)
Speaking of other things we've done - a few days ago (I think it was around the 24th, but I've completely lost track of the date on a day-to-day basis which is part of that whole You-Know-You're-Really-On-Vacation-When thing) we went to James Bond Island. Of course it has a Thai name, but I'm drawing a blank right now
on what that is. Anyway, it's where the 007 movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed. Steve was so excited about going there - I think it may just have been the highlight of the whole trip for him and it can only go down hill from there. Another place that was completely devoid of tourists, but hey, who's complaining? It was beautiful... I got some shots I want to blow up and frame when I get home. So many times on this trip I've caught myself thinking that these are the moments that make me realize just how much my life rocks.
As Katie, Warren, & I were coming down off of a path on the island to where a long dock jets straight out into the water, I somehow managed to drop my sunglasses (or maybe they just fell off my head..?) Thankfully they didn't fly off the dock into the water because that would have SUCKED. No, instead one of the lenses just popped out. So I went about the rest of the afternoon with only one lens in my sunglasses which was really kind of funny. When we rejoined the others, Jean recommended
James Bond Island
The famous rock-island-thing that is known from the movie. checking with The Other Warren as it would seem that he possessed the power to fix things like sunglasses (something of a Bob Villa at sea). So we stopped by Chameleon on our way back to Mozart. I gave my sunglasses to The Other Warren who went below deck and then magically reappeared with them looking good as new. Quite an tramatic day for my poor sunglasses.
Anyway, so here in Patong, there was damage... The whole beach front is under construction basically. Katie & I took some pictures and I think Steve managed to catpure some video of it as well. When we first arrived, we were all pretty quiet - it was so sad to see the whole beach lined with empty lounge chairs BEGGING for people to fill them, but Patong Beach which is usually swarming with Westerners had almost nothing but natives. We had brought our laundry with us and set off to find a place to get it done. While we waited, we wandered around the shops and things - Katie bought about a dozen sarongs. I got a couple myself and picked out some for my sisters as well. We met up with
Tsunami Damage
This was what the whole waterfront looked like, but go a few blocks inland, and everything was fine. It was extremely sobering. everyone else at a bar on the beach front late that afternoon which was still under construction. The bar itself was up and running more-or-less, but it was situated around at least a half dozen others that were still being put back together. The hotel next to us on the other side was pretty seriously damaged - a pool in front was empty of water but full of all kinds of debris. Portions of the hotel itself had been washed away in large chunks and there were signs posted saying that it was temporarily closed. What was bizarre in a way was to have seen all this horrible destruction along the waterfront, but then to have gone only a short way inland to find everything as it should be with not even so much as a blade of grass out of place.
I also have heard some stories from some of the other people that were on the boats during the tsunami. They are also reinforcing to us that we're getting to experience Thailand as it was maybe 20 years ago before the Western world all got wind of this being a nice place to holiday in. We all
Chameleon at Sunset
We were on two catamarans: Mozart & Chameleon. Guess which one belongs to Wolfgang? :) feel somewhat bad about the fact that we're happy about there not being many people around, but what can you do?
Wolfgang made these pina coladas last night and I don't know what he put in them, but they were some powerful stuff... Next time he makes them I'll know to be more careful! I think I heard someone say something about getting the recipe from him.
So tonight we leave for our overnight sail up to Burma which I'm very excited about. We just put the boat on autopilot and then take turns in two hour shifts all night manning the helm and keeping watch. I don't think the wind is going to be in our favor though which means it may take something like 20 hours to get up there... I'm psyched, though.
On that note, I don't know when I'm going to get a chance to get online again since I know Burma is going to have absolutely no civilzation where we're going to be so I may have to just add in journal entries after the fact. I LOVE that this trip is only half over - I feel like I've been here
Spinnaker Ho!
The wind was really not working for us (which was unusual for January) so there was only one day that we were able to sail with our spinnaker out. for weeks and weeks!
Life is good.
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