Getting Ready for Khao Lak, Thailand

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Today I sit here at my laptop in beautiful Palo Alto, California. Just blocks away is Stanford University and criss-crossing in front of me are the visions of wealth and pretentiousness. In a few weeks I'll be boarding yet another airliner to hover across this vast globe to a little known area of Thailand named Khao Lak (ka-oh lack). I am returning to this tsunami-torn region not to engage in the multitude of adventures available to the average tourist, but to begin another round of rebuilding the communities lost in the wave. This time, however, I have come with a specific mission in mind: Playgrounds. After returning from my last trip in January, just weeks after the tsunami, I founded Operation Playground and have been able to raise money through private funding to build playgrounds for the children. This is my quest. And I'm giving up my life here in Palo Alto, with the criss-crossing of wealth and pretentiousness. And it feels really f**king good. So, join me and lets get going. Oh, by the way...if you wish to be removed from my journal, just ask. I won't mind, but I will have you thrown to the lions.

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Photos

Khao Lak Refugee Children
Taken at the Ban Muang refugee camp outside Tap Tawan, a village destroyed by the tsunami.

Bangkok, Thailand
Downtown Bangkok in the early evening. January 2005

Tap Tawan, Thailand
Refugee camp in Tap Tawan, Thailand. Temporary housing until their homes can be rebuilt

Takuapa, Thailand
A memorial in Takuapa to honor those lost in the tsunami.

Phang Nga Province, Thailand
Coastal waters reached high ground during the tsunami, killing vegetation and beach boats.

Water Buffalo
Phuket, Thailand

Thai School Children
School children in Ban Muang, north of Khao Lak, Thailand

Refugees in Khao Lak
Children stay in temporary housing at the Ban Muang refugee camp, north of Khao Lak

Bangkok Wat
Burnt offerings to Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand

Comments

[Polly]

I'm surprised there are no comments to your first blog. (I've never written that word before, though I know what it means!) Your photos are excellent, and I'm looking forward to reading more about your adventures...long after the fact I realise. I'm a friend of Stuart and Gyll by the way, and we've worked together in Khao Lak. Now I'm home in KL. Please say "hi" from me. Polly