Christmas in the Islands
When we left for this trip we had only one goal that we kept telling everyone -- we wanted to be on a beach in Thailand for Christmas. The good news is we successfully achieved that goal! We enjoyed warm weather (upper 80's), clear skies, turquoise seas, breakfast on the beach, and a bizarre but nice Christmas dinner of bangers and mash for me and fish and chips for Liz at a British pub with a couple of travelers from London. This was the first Christmas for both of us away from our families and, while it was a pretty nice way to do it, we both missed being home at this time of year. I have to admit, I also missed the cold weather. It didn't feel much like Christmas, despite the best efforts of the tourist industry on Koh Pha-Ngan to put up lights and Christmas trees in many shops and hotels.
The bad news is that Thailand's coast was ravaged by tsunamis the morning after Christmas. We were very lucky to have been on an island in the gulf of Thailand, sheltered from the devastation by the mainland. We had been on the Andaman coast in Krabi only 9 days before the waves hit. As we were leaving Krabi we debated going to Koh Phi-Phi for Christmas (too expensive), Koh Lanta (didn't know enough about it), or Koh Pha-Ngan (where we could see what all the hype was about the Full Moon Party on the 26th). I guess we made the right choice as those other two islands were hit pretty hard.
We didn't know about the waves until the evening of the 26th. We spent the day at the beach and overheard one guy's cell phone conversation where he kept talking about a "big wave," but we had no idea what he meant. It didn't look like a big wave had hit. But that evening back at our guesthouse we saw the first news reports and couldn't believe our luck. As everyone knows, the news just keeps getting worse. When we checked out of the guesthouse on the 28th, the cook at the restaurant still couldn't get through to his family in Malaysia or his mother in Phuket. He had no idea if they were ok, and no way to find out. I couldn't imagine how he was feeling. But even more incomprehensible is that he is one of hundreds of thousands of people in the same position.
The mood on Koh Pha-Ngan was not too somber to ruin the Full Moon Party, though. This is a somewhat notorious monthly party on the beach that has grown to epic proportions. 10,000 people are estimated to partake each month. It attracts all kinds of people of all ages, many just coming to see the craziness (like us). There were fire shows, fireworks, dance clubs, music pumping onto the beach, idiots getting drunk and swimming in the water (which doubled as the public latrine), and all kinds of eccentric party-goers from a psychedelic Gandalf look-a-like to a woman with Mr. T's haircut and pink facepaint. We made it to sunrise and observed the havoc wreaked on the beach (why not put a few trash cans out?). Overall it felt like a huge college frat party. It was fun, but not something I need to do every month.
We are now in Bangkok, where we'll celebrate the new year, then head north to Chiang Mai. We've decided not to go to Burma both for political reasons and because we just want to slow down a bit. Hopefully we'll spend a month in Chiang Mai if we can find something constructive to volunteer our time for.
Anyway, I know it's cheesy, but the tsunami disaster has made me miss everyone at home that much more, especially since it's Christmas time. All the emails we've received and comments on the blog really mean a lot to us. Happy New Year to all of you!
(New pictures are up at fderekf.dotphoto.com).
The bad news is that Thailand's coast was ravaged by tsunamis the morning after Christmas. We were very lucky to have been on an island in the gulf of Thailand, sheltered from the devastation by the mainland. We had been on the Andaman coast in Krabi only 9 days before the waves hit. As we were leaving Krabi we debated going to Koh Phi-Phi for Christmas (too expensive), Koh Lanta (didn't know enough about it), or Koh Pha-Ngan (where we could see what all the hype was about the Full Moon Party on the 26th). I guess we made the right choice as those other two islands were hit pretty hard.
We didn't know about the waves until the evening of the 26th. We spent the day at the beach and overheard one guy's cell phone conversation where he kept talking about a "big wave," but we had no idea what he meant. It didn't look like a big wave had hit. But that evening back at our guesthouse we saw the first news reports and couldn't believe our luck. As everyone knows, the news just keeps getting worse. When we checked out of the guesthouse on the 28th, the cook at the restaurant still couldn't get through to his family in Malaysia or his mother in Phuket. He had no idea if they were ok, and no way to find out. I couldn't imagine how he was feeling. But even more incomprehensible is that he is one of hundreds of thousands of people in the same position.
The mood on Koh Pha-Ngan was not too somber to ruin the Full Moon Party, though. This is a somewhat notorious monthly party on the beach that has grown to epic proportions. 10,000 people are estimated to partake each month. It attracts all kinds of people of all ages, many just coming to see the craziness (like us). There were fire shows, fireworks, dance clubs, music pumping onto the beach, idiots getting drunk and swimming in the water (which doubled as the public latrine), and all kinds of eccentric party-goers from a psychedelic Gandalf look-a-like to a woman with Mr. T's haircut and pink facepaint. We made it to sunrise and observed the havoc wreaked on the beach (why not put a few trash cans out?). Overall it felt like a huge college frat party. It was fun, but not something I need to do every month.
We are now in Bangkok, where we'll celebrate the new year, then head north to Chiang Mai. We've decided not to go to Burma both for political reasons and because we just want to slow down a bit. Hopefully we'll spend a month in Chiang Mai if we can find something constructive to volunteer our time for.
Anyway, I know it's cheesy, but the tsunami disaster has made me miss everyone at home that much more, especially since it's Christmas time. All the emails we've received and comments on the blog really mean a lot to us. Happy New Year to all of you!
(New pictures are up at fderekf.dotphoto.com).
posted by Derek at 3:30 PM
2 Comments:
Glad to hear you survived a terrible experience. Every day, the death toll rises.Take care of your, and Lizz's health. A flight back to the USA might be a good idea.Love, Dad/Jim
Liz and Derek, check out these sites if you are still interested in volunteering while you are in Asia:
http://www.indiserve.org/tsunami
http://www.bethechange.org/
-Gita
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