The Southern Islands

Monday, October 17, 2011
Ko Phratong, Ranong, Thailand
We arrived once again in Bangkok today and are preparing to say goodbye to Thailand after a wonderful, long, hot week in the southern part of the country. Last weekend, we boarded an overnight train to Surat Thani. We had our fair share of transportation adventures when we arrived. Two more buses, a van ride and an hour and a half on a boat later, we set foot for the first time on a Thai island. While many of the islands in the region are tourist destinations, we spent our first three days on a very quiet island called Ko Phratong. Before the December 2004 tsunami, a large fishing village thrived here, with over 1000 people. Today, there were less than 50 people still living on the island. Immediately after the disaster, the Lion's Club came to help the community, fixing up houses, bringing in cell phone towers, and installing a generator to provide limited electricity. Many of us were shocked however, at how modern the village felt. Each of the two-story houses looked identical and only about a third were inhabited. They looked nothing like the bamboo structures we were accustomed to seeing in the North. We all were happy to see the current residents in much better shape.

For the next few days we did various activities around Ko Phratong . In the mornings, we helped to fix the local community center. Jobs included sanding and painting the railings, building a mud-lobster house, and constructing recycling bins for each host family’s house. On the first afternoon, we listened to a presentation by a marine expert from the US give a talk on sea grass. At low tide, we traveled out to the tide pools where we got to see the sea grass up close in addition to many starfish, jellyfish, and even a Dugong trail in the sand! We then waded through the water (though most of us ended up swimming the distance after we realized the water was up to our necks) to one of the countless small islands in the bay. For the rest of the afternoon, we got to swim and play in the waves. Despite some minor incidences with jellyfish and sand flies, we had a great time. The next afternoon , the group divided into three to create art out of trash we had picked up from the beach. We used everything from glass bottles to rubber hoses to buoys to create decorations for the community center . On our final afternoon, we took a walk through the savannah area of the island where we saw many different types of plants and trees.   Finally, the group could not stop raving about the food! The women gathered together each day in the village to cook at the community hall. It was the best food we’d had so far – a lot of freshly caught seafood, delicious curries and so much incredible coconut milk. We celebrated Lizzie’s birthday with a seaweed cake (bet she’s never had one of those before!) and gorged ourselves on pineapple every day.

The next afternoon we took another combination of boats and buses to get to a new island for the second half of the week. This time, we stayed in a village that had never hosted foreigners in homestays before. It was the most incredible experience. The community was so enthusiastic about hosting us and really made us feel welcome at all times. They won us over right from the start when, upon our arrival, they set our bread, jam and Milo (hot cocoa mix) for us . After three and a half weeks of rice, it was the best surprise in the world.

  Over the next three and a half days, we were in and out of waterfalls, cleaned and prepared a temple for a Buddhist holiday, removed branches from streams, walked for hours upstream to nail "no trespassing" signs onto trees, and formed assembly lines to pass rocks for dam-building. Once again, despite communication barriers, I’ve never laughed so hard in my entire life. The little kids loved to play practical jokes (mostly involving spiders or ants). The guides would stick pebbles in our rock-passing assembly lines just to spice things up. Finally, on our last night, we had a full village party! Two of the younger boys did a spear-fighting performance for us. Apparently they are regional winners and will go onto to the national competition in the coming months! Then there were various games they taught us and would gather around as we played. Some were food eating competitions, musical chairs, and a game similar to blind folded kick the can…except with a stick . We were confused on the rules most of the time but couldn’t have had more fun. At the end of the night, we had a full dance party complete with all the kids in the village and a few adults as well. Somehow it soon turned into a tickle fight. I guess there are some things that don’t change between kids in any part of the world.

Today we arrived back in Bangkok after our third overnight train. For the morning, the group voted to do an Amazing Race-like scavenger hunt all over the city. Divided into groups of three, we set off from the train station with lists of tasks to complete. From visiting certain monuments or tourist attractions, to dancing in very public places, to holding live animals in the markets, we got to see a very different side of Bangkok today! My group (with Alexia and Lina) had an especially great time wandering around Chinatown for an hour! All the groups returned back safe to the guest house with great stories to share.

Tonight we’ll head out for a final group dinner in Thailand before we head to India tomorrow. None of us can believe we’ve already spent a month here. Time flies when you’re halfway across the world I guess! Maura

Comments

Peter Montalbano
2011-10-27

Hi, guys! Enjoyed reading about our southern islands experience together. Correction on the Ban Lion village. The village was so new only because it was not a "fix-up" at all. The old village, Ban Bak Joak, had been completely demolished by the tsunami, so a new village was created. Unfortunately, only a few families came back, so the place seems half-deserted today.
I wanted to share a link for you, if you're interested in finding details of what it was like at the "eco-resort" on Koh Phratong when the tsunami hit, a great and very readable book is by an Australian journalist who survived the whole thing: Kimina Lyall. The name of the book is "Out of the Blue." Website: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com.au/index.aspx?isbn13=9780733319051 . . . I have also started a blog on the imminent drowning of Bangkok, which you so fortuitously escaped. I'm here on the scene and will be reporting live for a few days at my blog: http://turkmontana.blogspot.com/2011/10/flood-of-awareness.html . . . there are a couple of pics from our experience together there, too. Please stay in touch, I enjoyed all of you. I'll be happy to correspond with anyone who'd like to maintain the friendship.

2025-02-16

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