Island Recovery

Phew. Sorry if it's tiring to read these posts, I have to break up my last post because too many days have gone by since I last had a chance to blog. I recommend reading these in chronological order.

The next morning in Phangna Bay everything looked less intimidating and scary, so we took a boat tour around to the different islands that were promised in the guide books. It was what we needed. One of the islands actually had a village on stilts next to it. It was a Muslim community that survived off of the profits of selling tourist souvenirs. It was terribly fascinating to me. We entered the village on a stilted walkway that was constructed by long branches no thicker than my wrists (which is pretty darn slim if any of you have ever looked at my wrists) that you could see right through, it felt like we could snap them if we lingered too long on any one branch. The people on this stilted village hustled hard, grabbing at your arms to adorn them with the jewelry (real pearls! they would say as they held a flaming lighter to the string of beads). The hustling women--dressed in modest Muslim wear-- were no match for me and my mom, we are seasoned bargainers. We were able to lower their price to a 1/4 of their original asking price. I can't imagine how many tourists get ripped off. On our stroll through this village--that might I add, dumps their sewage straight into the ocean below them, creating a stagnant layer of goop possibly feet thick--we saw all sorts of weird produce and dried seafood, in addition to the merchandise. At one point, a young woman was holding a baby monkey with a diaper on-- I immediately was enraptured. I asked if I could touch its hand which was about as wide as half my palm, but lengthwise, it was exactly the same. Its long, smooth, black fingers wrapped around my one finger warmly, but securely. Then she shoved the monkey into my arms!! Ahhh, I was so overwhelmed, I have no idea how to hold a baby, let alone a monkey baby! Luckily it just wrapped its long arms around my neck and sat on my forearm. The funny thing was that its back was to my chest, I must have looked so awkward. hehe, I was too amused to care. I kept calling for my mom who was now disappearing down the walkway so I handed the monkey back. My step mom would have spent all day with that monkey and tried to buy it from the woman to set free, all I could think of was how taken she would have been by the tiny creature.

After our tour of the islands, which put Hawaii's coast to shame, we drove out of that miserable town down to the western coast of Phuket. We were hesitant to get too excited as you all could guess, but when we arrived, we found that it was so charming and tropical (a bit overrun by European tourists for our taste, but refreshing none the least). We walked around the strip of town that was nestled against the beach, in hopes of finding a bungalow for a night. We were successful. The first one we went to was run by a shim ( woman/man--also knowns as lady-boys here), we made him show us the room before we booked it and realized that it once again didnt have a cover sheet, just a gross comforter. So we tried again, the woman that owned this handful of tiny bungalows was very sweet, mother to a girl my age. It was clean and charming, nothing to get too excited about really, but we felt like kings! Once we checked in, we headed a few steps down the collection of restaurants with thai massage booths on the beach across from them. Yuck, kind of repulsed by the Thai massages, especially the way the women were interacting with the old European men who's bulging stomachs hung over their Speedo's. Regardless, we sat down at a restaurant and ordered fish and chips and Singha's. We watched the sunset, afterwards, unwinding on a stroll down the beach. I don't even need to go into detail on how great the contrast of this small beach town was in comparison to Phangna Bay.

Of course, as the night progressed, as we were sharing the queen bed in the bungalow, I was finding it hard to sleep. We had just watched the news about an earthquake in Indonesia a few days prior. I couldn't stop worrying about a Tsunami. Ok, I'm a worry-wart, but I was truly scared, I was highly considering wearing my hiking sandals while I slept. I settled for sleeping fully clothed and keeping the mosquito net that my dad let me borrow close, just in case I needed to latch onto a tree or something during a Tsunami. My mom and I planned an escape route to calm my nerves, I reminded myself that shes a good swimmer and certified lifeguard, and proceeded to think happy thoughts. We chatted about my childhood, my fascination with books and cartoons, and then fell back asleep.

The next day we moseyed on a secluded cove for a while, had some great vegetarian Pad Thai, then headed to the airport. We checked into our flight from Phuket to Koh Samui. To our utter amusement and shock, the entire line of people to this particular destination had to have all been under 30. As we boarded the flight, we also realized that the entire flight, with the exception of maybe 3 young newlyweds, was entirely filled with overly muscle-y, tan, Australian men. We were the only women besides that. My mom and I were horrified that the plane was a tiny 80-seater propeller plane. AHH! Again, we made plans for "and unexpected water landing", comforted by the knowledge that we had life jackets under our seats... the plane had to exceed the weight limit with all the large men.

I will explain that we specifically traveled to these islands for the Full Moon Beach Party that is held monthly, my cousins that traveled here (not the ones that went to China) said that we HAD to go this party. My mom of course was super excited when she heard this and planned our trip to include it at the end. This party tonight is on the beach, during low season around 7-10 thousand people crowd onto this beach that is lined with bars and DJ's all along it. During high season, which is right now, it is attended by around 30 thousand people. WOW. Yup, so my mom and I are pretty excited, but don't worry we aren't planning on partying hardy like most of the people that are going, we just want to get pictures of it and soak up all the craziness! Sometimes I get the feeling that my mom is more excited about this than me. I of course am a little nervous, but thats just my nature.

Ahh yes, I almost forgot. To get to the island we are currently on, we had to take a Big Buddha Ferry from Koh Samui to Koh Phangnan. I don't think I have ever been so scared for my life. Oh my gosh, it makes me ill to even recall it. The Ferry was a large boat a little smaller than 2 semi trucks stacked on top of each other. The top back half of it was outdoor seating( nothing fancy, the rim was just lined with a single row benches), most of the people just sitting on the floor in the center. The bottom was rows of benches, obviously meant to signify that thats where you should sit. Kay, well the party-people, most of whom had large Singhas in hand, all decided to crunch on the top level of the boat. My mom and I decided to settle with the benches below with the 10 locals that were on the boat. If we've learned anything, it is to do as the locals do. As we gained speed, seemingly way too much speed, the boat started to lift up in the front so that the half part of the boat was sticking out of the water. The boat was lurching over the waves, it felt like we were catching some air at points, and it was also tipping sideways at extreme angles. REALLY extreme. My mom and I had also heard of a boat like this capsizing in Nepal a few days back during our trip, killing 26. Yup, so we decided to look for life jackets when the local "shims" started to panic. My mom, a skinny old Indian man, and I all put life jackets on when the water started splashing into the windows that were a good 15feet above water level when the boat was still. I was paralyzingly motion sick, and scared. Obviously we made it to land safely, but I can't even imagine how sick and scared the people on the top of the boat were. Most definitely regretting the 40 oz of Singha's in their belly's, I'm sure.