I laughed... I cried... it was much better than "Cats"
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Return to Khao Lak
Hey everybody,
Back in September of 2005 I came to Thailand to volunteer for a couple of weeks after responding to an ad I found in the midst of a search for direction on Craigslist. As most of you know on Craigslist you are much more likely to find an S&M three-way than the meaning of life, but the two weeks volunteering ended up turning into six months... septic holes were dug, houses were built, beer was drunk, lasting friendships were made, and it turned out to be one of the seminal experiences of my life.
The houses by the pier on Koh Kho Khao
I'm not going to go into detail about that (there are quite a few posts on this site from that time period if you're interested) other than to say that last weekend Rich and I made a return to Khao Lak: Rich for the first time since he left in February 2006. I had already returned once back in September of 2009 which probably explains why I didn't have as emotional a response now as I did then. The Khao Lak area had always catered to tourists but when we first arrived in 2005 it was still in the midst of rebuilding and recovery from the tsunami. I saw many changes in the six months that I was there as businesses re-opened but I definitely wasn't prepared to see anything like a strip mall or a McDonald's when I returned in 2009. Of course I knew it had to change if the local tourist economy was going to pick up where it left off before the disaster, but in your mind you still have the idea of the place as it was, frozen in time or preserved under glass. I was not surprised when we arrived last week to see a Khao Lak that is only superficially recognizable from the one in 2005. There have been so many new stores and businesses opened up on top of each other that you have to search out the names that were once familiar to you... they are no longer obviously sticking out on the main street but crowded around by overlapping signage and building. The Fisherman bar occupies about 1/3 of the space it used to and you'd be likely to miss it from the street unless you specifically were seeking it out. On the other hand, some of the more successful businesses like Jai's or Khao Lak Seafood have built second and even third stories on top of their buildings or further additions going back up the hill. And of course there are those places that no longer exist, unfortunately, like Nom's or Father & Son. Sorry Max, I guess we'll never know if they still serve the frostiest beer in town. Oh, and the Tsunami Volunteer Center building is now a guesthouse.
On the ferry to Koh Kho Khao
We drove north to Koh Kho Khao and rode the ferry across to see how our houses are holding up and I'm happy to say that all the houses look lived-in and cared for. Many of the houses have even been expanded on the ground floor either to create additional living space or, in a couple of cases, shops and restaurants operating out of the house. At first glance there seemed to be fewer houses on the beach than I remembered but it was probably just my memory playing tricks on me. The pier on the island has definitely been developed but being low season it's hard to tell if they get any significant amount of tourism. From there we drove back south to Bang Sak to take a look at some of the houses we worked on in that town and then to see the playground that had been inaugurated in late 2005. Where Khao Lak has moved forward it seems like Bang Sak has receded. Rich and I both swore that you used to be able to see the beach from the main road but this is now an impossibility... the vegetation has grown so much that any view has been obstructed. That's why we had such a hard time finding the playground, and when we did, well, I think you'll have to look at the pictures. Basically it looks like the playground hasn't been used since the night we inaugurated it 7 years ago. The whole thing has been overrun by plants and grass. There used to be a few nice restaurants on the beach but now they look all but abandoned. Here are some comparison pictures of how things looked in 2005 and how they look today:
The main road in Khao Lak:
2005
Today... doesn't capture all the stores
The internal row of houses on Koh Kho Khao:
Then
Now
Bang Sak Playground:
Inauguration in 2005
Today
We stopped in Khao Lak on the way back for a beer at Fisherman Bar because, well because we had to. Gai the bartender recognized Rich from the volunteer days and we talked for a bit as well as we could about how business was going. He said that a lot more tourists were coming to town, which is good, but a lot more bars had opened up, which is bad, so basically it's a wash for him. He had to start serving food in order to attract more customers and, from what it looked like to us, take on a farang partner. On the plus side, Gai seemed calm and friendly which is a nice change from those of us who remember those episodes from back in the day where he'd suddenly go nuts and kick everyone out of the bar.
Rich and I have talked about it a bit since. I think he was glad to go but a bit surprised at the extent of the development, as well as disappointed at the state of the jungle in Bang Sak. We're both proud of the work that we did and really happy to see that the houses are still solid and lived in. For me, as I mentioned I think I'd had my emotional reaction when I was there a few years ago. The visit made me reflective more than anything else. It's been 7 years! How has my life changed since then? Am I a better person? Do I have a clearer sense of direction? Why am I asking you?
Getting friendly with Pon
Everything else has been holding steady, except the weather. Looks like I lucked out my first few sunny weeks in Phuket because the last 10 days have been almost nonstop rain. Rich and Cari went to Koh Phi Phi for a few days which they said was nice but full of drunk English people. We've made friends with a lot of the people who work at the resort since that's typically what happens when you're rained in, and by friends I mean they keep inviting us over to hang out with them and drink shots and try to have a coherent conversation. Lao Kao is the brand of choice, which is a clear, cheap rice alcohol that tastes about as you imagine it would. The main instigator is Pon, the 40-year-old grandmother who runs the kitchen who also has a half-French 4 year-old daughter from a deadbeat dad. She's not shy about sharing information. Every night like clockwork at 8 pm she's sitting around a table (along with Om the receptionist and Joy the largely toothless ladyboy) downing booze. All the men, on the other hand, are inside the little minimart drinking shots of whiskey and we haven't really figured out why they all hang out separately. Then there's my neighbor Paco, the unemployed Spanish tattoo artist whose girlfriend back home sells his stuff on eBay in order for him to have spending money and who has befriended the rat living in his room. The training is going pretty well... I've had a couple of trainers tell me that I should fight, like a real fight for money. I told them that I like beer and I don't like to run. Maybe if I had another month here... I'd probably end up hurting myself.
Last weekend I talked Rich and Cari into coming to see a movie with me in First Class, which is the fancy part of the movie theater in Phuket Town. It costs $20 but when you walk in through the doors there's a lounge for first-class ticketholders only where they lay out a buffet spread of finger foods and bring out drinks for the guests. Since we were the only three people in the first class lounge that day, Rich and I ate 4 mini-burgers each, along with crab salad, pasta and a few pieces of cake. Then when the movie starts they come out and bring you to your assigned seat, which happens to be a recliner with a blanket, and they then bring you a bowl of popcorn and a drink of your choice. All this pampering may seem incongruous with the film choice of "Expendables 2" but trust me... it works. The next day we went to Mui's house and cooked him a Mexican dinner (fish tacos, salsa, guacamole, chips and ceviche), which was surprisingly easy to organize except for the tortillas, which as you may imagine are not easy to find in Thailand. My experiment with Thai corn flour went somewhat poorly and is dissolving somewhere in Mui's backyard. Oh, and in case you were wondering what the weather's been like over the last couple of weeks, take a look:
This is my last week in Phuket and I find myself becoming surprisingly wistful over the thought of leaving. I didn't start off thinking I'd become attached but I've had a great experience here. From the excellent training, to the bungalow on the beach, to the cryptic wisdom of Mui, and to good times with Rich and Cari, it's turned out to be a pretty special experience. I'm going to miss it when I leave, though the signal that it's time to go may have been the other night when I got a knock at my door at 11 o'clock and it was Pon the cook. It was a sort of drunk dial except in person. Then she said a few things really fast and I only understood "drink", "ladyboy" and "sleeping" so I said "Yes, sleeping" and then she left. So yeah, it's probably time to move on.
Here are the pictures. Picasa broke them up into two albums for some reason...
