Koh Phi Phi (post-tsunami)

Desperately wanting to return to Koh Phi Phi after the tsunami, I finally was able to work it into my schedule. I wanted to survey the damage myself. Hearing various stories and seeing extensive footage didn't satisfy my curiosity on what Koh Phi Phi actually looked like. After taking a flight from Bangkok to Krabi, and then a ferry from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi, I came up on quite a surprising sight. The picture below is of Ton Sai Bay. Here you can see a before and after of virtually the same place. The trees are pretty much blown out and most of the isthmus is bare. Where lush palms and terraces of bouganvillier existed before, only sand and concrete ruin remain. I was a bit shocked.

before

after

After wandering a bit, I had to catch my longtail boat for the west side of the island - which I hear to be virtually untouched by the tsunami and well preserved - save the bridge that blew out making the Phi Phi Village only accessable by longtail boat - a bit of an inconvenience for a girl who loves to hike to and from "civilization" (a.k.a the main village). Taking the 30 minute longtail ride to the west side - passing the playful dolphins on the southern most point - I arrived to find the Phi Phi Village beautifully preserved and completely serene. It was a wonderful few days as I asked the locals the where's and how's of their personal tsunami experiences. The stories were sad, heartbreaking, frustrating and yet triumphant as they celebrated the island's rebirth and reconstruction. I remember one specific account in particular. One of the divers at the Phi Phi Village said he remembered the calamity and devastation concentrated around the tiny isthmus. As the helicopters started to arrive from Phuket, they soon realized they had no where to land. The water was just too unpredictable in the tiny little land mass. All they could do was to drop in supplies and aid, but landing and airlifting was out of the question. He said it was heartbreaking watching the helicopters turn around and fly away. I can only imagine.

(Bau, a longtail driver telling me what he did when the wave hit).

I found in every case, they were all ready to talk about it. They were anxious to tell me their story. I asked away as much as I could because a small part of me knew it was a good thing. I wanted to draw out as much conversation as I could and be a voice that a real experience and story could land. I felt really priviledged to get such first hand accounts.



All in all, as I continued to explore the island, I found that rebuilding is happening everywhere. Joint efforts abound. There is a volunteer salvage dive every morning. There are relief funds around every corner. There are concerted efforts by the locals as well as the Thai government to replan and rebuild Koh Phi Phi well and deliberately with sensitivity to the island and its beauty at the forefront.

Vietnam

Mom and I had a wonderful night celebrating her birthday. We went to the beautiful Sofitel hotel here in Hanoi. Since we had a heavy Veitnamese lunch, we had a light salad & fine cheese dinner. She had champagne while I had port (mmmm) followed by a wonderful dessert sampler. The restaurant had a little classical guitar and violin duet which played happy birthday as they brought out her dessert with a candle and all the beautiful little Vietamese women sang happy birthday to her. (they even turned out the lights in the restaurant. it was really nice!! (and GREAT food). I had gathered cards from our family prior to coming to Southeast Asia in order to give to her on her birthday. She was very touched feeling like her whole family was able to celebrate with her.

I've enjoyed exploring Vietnam. My favorite things are absolutely the ceramics !! Any of you who know me well know my facination and OBSESSION with dishes. I LOVE DISHES. Its a big weakness. I find myself loaded down every time I get on a plane coming home from Southeast Asia. Most of the time I've busted my 7 kilo carry on limit so I'm toting a couple of cups in my pockets and dishes stuffed somewhere inconspicuously. I will just DIE if they ever decide to weigh ME. I befriended the dish ladies here at the Ben Thahn Market in Saigon. It was a fun market, full of bizarre things: snake wine, candied crayfish, silk EVERYWHERE, exotic coffees and teas, every kind of rice imaginable and lovely lovely people.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Halong bay was quite fun, full of beautiful scenery and also a very "interesting" adventure. It was adventure in of itself just to get to our boat !! Having no real docks, boats just stack up near the shore and one just climbs aboard one boat to get to another boat. We ended up just wandering around until we found which boat we should actually BE on. It was funny. Its stuff like that that I love about Asia. Never in a million years would you find that in the USA. Too many lawyers to sop up that opportunity !!



We each had our own cabins onboard our junk (using the word "junk" very appropriately). We went to sleep comfortably (yet on the warm side) about 4 in the morning. I woke to find an enormous (2") cockroach crawling up my arm. Since I'm not a fan of sleeping with the bugs (especially ones with their own zip codes), I jumped out of my bed to survey the situation. There were two huge ones on the wall, and one RIGHT next to my pillow. My own little "family" to keep me company. It was at this point that I said to myself . . o.k. there is really no way for me to know for sure just HOW many roaches are in this room. Was the one on my arm part of this particular troupe of roaches? Or was he some other renegade roach taking a vacay from his original family in the galley? In other words, how many roaches am I going to have to kill in order to go back to bed. Knowing going back to sleep in this room simply wasn't in my foreseeable future, I scurried over to mom's cabin and knocked on her door. She finally opened her door to the sounds of me . . . squealing & pleading to come in. She had me crawl in with her and assured me she had NO roaches. My feelings at this point in my fatigue were "If I don't see em, they ain't here. That clearly wasn't the case next door in the roach motel. As I started to settle back down and get sleepy again, mom started into the snoring. I said to myself, "Well, its either snoreville or roachtown, i'll take the snoring any day." If you've ever heard my mom snore, you know I must have been really desperate !!

I wouldn't be hitting the highlights of Halong bay if I left out the Ancell girls. Little Georgia and Olivia Ancell, from New Zealand are just bundles of energy and became my little pals aboard my roach-infested junk. AHHHH, the joys of meeting cool people while traveling. We played cards by night, and lounged on the sundeck by day. At any given time I could hear one of them calling me somewhere from their spot on the boat "Jeeeesica, Jeeessica." Their little Kiwi accent was enough to make these two little high energy bundles welcome anytime !! I so enjoyed hanging out with them and their parents, John and Carolyn.



SO, quite a few adventures I had coming out of Halong bay. We are heading back to Hanoi and then back to Bangkok so I can finish up some business with manufacturers. I've enjoyed the time in Vietnam, but I'm looking forward to my Thai food. :)