TSUNAMI LESSONS?
So it’s been awhile since I last checked in with y’all and you may be wondering, “Did Rich and Cheryl finally drop out of society for good and join a Buddhist mountain colony?” Well, not exactly, but we have made it to fascinating Northern Vietnam and are still amazed at the energy and pace of changes here in Hanoi. But first to keep to my chronological blog roots, I must bring you up to date on our past two weeks first. We left Bangkok after a great week visiting ex-pats (semi-locals)and flew South again for a very relaxing week on the little Thai island of Koh Phi Phi on the central Andaman coast of Thailand. The incredible Karst limestone scenery, snorkeling right from the beaches (no motorized day trip to adjacent islands required), and a car-free environment were the draws as well as the small goal of really resetting our bodies from the polluted air of the Northern Thai cities prior to visiting Vietnam.
THE SAFER SIDE OF THE ISLAND, LONG BEACH, KO PHI PHI
Koh Phi Phi has an interesting dynamic right now as it is still recovering from the horrible tsunami of December 26, 2004 that took over 2000 lives on the island. (about 2/3 tourists, 1/3 locals) The greater tragedy of the tsunami is that with a little warning, most of the people could have survived, as over 95% of the island lies above the height of the waves which crushed the middle isthmus of little resorts and hotels, while inflicting minor damage on the more substantial land masses and beaches adjacent to the isthmus. The main tsunami wave split around the west side of the island into two separate wave forces, one was 3 meters high, the other 5 meters high. The two waves met in the middle of the isthmus in a hydraulic collision that completely devastated everything and everyone in its path. There is apparently a small memorial to those that lost their lives but we couldn’t find it in the mass of reconstruction and tourists once again sunburning and drinking beer smack dab in the middle of the isthmus again.
Now it’s human nature to ignore the often constant danger in our lives and move on, but the insanity of rebuilding on parts of this island are striking. (Says guy living in earthquake country for 16 years?!) Unfortunately, all the easy and flat land to develop is below the 5 meter line and there seems to be some insatiable greed (and desperation perhaps) by those reconstructing. Despite attempts to redevelop smarter, the island has nearly completely rebuilt and the tourists have come back in droves. And the island is amazingly beautiful, so people can’t help wanting to visit. And it is somewhat romantic in the fact that there are no cars or roads on the island to speak of, except some trucks building a huge new reservoir on the East side of the Island (to fuel more development for sure!). Koh Phi Phi especially seems to be a favorite of Scandinavians and other pale Northern Europeans as we saw some amazing sunburns and dark, dark brown tans that will glow on the streets of Helsinki well into April.
Now in defense of the Thais, there is a new national Tsunami warning system in place and a big warning tower at the center of the isthmus, but I’m not sure if the whole system is up and running yet, as there has been some financing struggles in the Thai government. Regardless, I couldn’t as a Civil engineer in good conscience stay below the historic or potential Tsunami water level and we opted for an old bungalow about 25 meters above the shore. I wouldn’t have slept well down by the beach, and besides, the views were more than fantastic.
MORNING COFFEE FROM OUR WEE BUNGALOW
Parts of the island are completely again inundated by tourists and overall, the vibe of the tourist-local interaction was not the best. It feels like a place where the locals have been displaced from the nice coastal areas and now live up in the hotter interior hills and forests in the middle of the island. Even a pack of monkeys I ran into while walking in the hills looked pissed off that about half of their habitat had been clear cut.
DISPLACED MONKEYS AT THE EDGE OF NEW CONSTRUCTION
Thier loss was for the new reservoir and junky “houses” inhabited by the displaced locals and temporary construction workers trying to at least get thier share of the boom in development.
There is also still a sense of the recent tragedy in the eyes of the locals as they all seem a little shell shocked and disenfranchised with the whole Farang scene. Not many Thai smiles here, although some of that may be a result of the fact that the people are clearly from a different sub-ethnicity than the central and Northern Thais(More Malay).
NEW RESERVOIR ON SOUTHEAST PENNINSULA
It’s hard to tell how many locals were really profiting from the influx of tourists, although there are no megaresorts there yet, so the operations tend to be family run, which is good I guess. Luckily, we found a fairly rustic bungalow at the end of the island and it had good access to a hidden little beach (Hat lo Moodi) on the East coast of the island where we could escape the heat, crowds and long boats to take in a beautiful slice of undeveloped “old” Thailand. The snorkeling was also really magnificent on two nearby beaches with large reefs and about a hundred different species of fish visible, including small reef sharks (or some kind of FRIENDLY shark that they said posed no danger). The two samll sharks I saw completely ignored me as a sort of followed them as best as possible.
HAT LO MOODI – WONDERFUL AND EMPTY BEACH – WILL IT LAST?
So you can probably sense that this place really made me question the impact of our travels. The real issue obviously is the type of development and how it is affecting the locals. Thailand has had the luxury in the past 20 years of a seemingly endless supply of beautiful coastline and islands to develop haphazardly and randomly with little regards for resources or sustainability. Maybe it’s actually more sustainable to go to Waikiki than the latest island discovery that is getting it’s beaches developed and forests chopped down to allow even more people to visit. Lots of questions for the future of our travels, but we will certainly do our homework prior to travelling anywhere where questionable environmental impacts are occurring or there is clear social or economic injustice. (i.e unfair land grabs from indigenous fisher-people)
But “being part of the problem” is a huge question and opens the whole question of travel in general, which I am more convinced than ever is a great thing, as long as some attention is paid to how you interact with the people and place you visit. We have tried to reduce the impact of our travels where possible (bikes or walking versus tuk-tuks) and try to eat local foods and products as much as possible. (local made fruit chips versus Lays potato chips, etc) And of course, I always try to stay as local as possible when it comes to beer. But we always think that our flying around the world is certainly adding to the climate change occurring around the world and I can’t help but think that our very visit to the magnificent coral reefs of the Andaman Coast may just be hastening their demise.
This half way point of our RTW travels has also made me reflect on what we have experienced and how this has already altered my understanding of my place in the world. We are starting to comprehend that this is a momentous trip at a perfect time in our lives to both appreciate what we are seeing, while still being young enough to endure some discomfort and physically challenge ourselves on occassion. No matter what happens in the next 5 months, we will treasure our new perspectives and take this with us to our graves. We will return to San Francisco with renewed optimism and appreciateion for the lucky chance of birth that we were born to our families and raised in a healthy place with vitually every opportunnity. Sure, we have both worked very hard to get this opportunity, but so has almost every person we have encountered around the world. They work hard or harder, but just happen to make $2 or $10 a day for their efforts, which makes global travel inconceivable. We are very, very lucky.
So we said goodbye to Thailand last Friday and hello to Vietnam which has already surprised us at every step. But that will have to wait until the next post, which I promise will be more upbeat!
-R
Tags: SE Asia, Thailand, Travel, Tag Index
rich.coffin