Tsunami Relief...kind of

North Andaman Tsunami Relief - this is the volunteer agency based in Kuraburi, Thailand (read, a collection of shops built around the highway) where Philip and I spent some time volunteering two weeks ago. We heard of NATR through the Rotary Club of Ko Samui, a random connection Philip made through his Rotary higher-ups and dignitaries. In short, Rotary foots the bill for the projects of NATR and thought it would be a great stop on our whirwind trip of SE Asia.

On our bus to Kuraburi, it was only our second day in Thailand and we were definitely struggling with the language barrier. Unlike Malaysia where anyone under 30 grew up with bilingual (Malay and English) education, many Thais actually only speak Thai. We blundered through our phrase book and made it off the bus at the right mudpuddle only to find that no one within twenty meters of the bus station spoke english and no one had ever heard of NATR (weird, in a town this small). Luckily, a volunteer with NATR that actually spoke Thai happened upon us and gave us a crash course intro to the town, polite Thai phrases, and where we could buy the best roti (roti (n) - a delightful Thai specialty now coined "thai pancake" so that foreigners can remember how to say it - it's basically thin dough fried in coconut oil and coconut butter then filled with anything from vegetables and curry to bananas and nutella, in a word, delicious).

Okay, back to saving the world as a tsunami volunteer. Well, not exactly. Philip and I sat at computers and translated pages and pages of documents into Spanish. How does that have anythind to do with a tsunami? Well....

since the tsunami in December 2004, millions of dollars have been poured into this region to replace boats, homes, trees, etc and in many villages their standard of living has actually drastically improved since the disaster. NATR has built new housing on islands, evacuation towers, and a water tower to supply fresh drinking water to one of the most devastated islands (it was actually ripped in half into two islands during the tsunami - a harrowing sight when you look out to sea). Additionally, the tsunami affected the local economy of the area as many families chose to move inland from their traditional fishing villages due to a mixture of fear and respect for the ocean's power. Now, NATR is working to develop ecotourism in the region to provide an altnernative to traditional forms of labor (mostly fishing for the men and peeling cashew nuts for the women). They also promote local handicrafts such as soap making and greeting card construction to supplement their incomes.

Whew, that sounds like a blurb I translated at some point, but it's a quick overview of NATR's current big projects. NATR is always looking for partners and people to help them fund projects, and some of their prospective connections are now in Spain - hence the need for Spanish translation of their official documents and reports (enter Philip and Carmen). It wasn't much, but we did what we could and hope that they'll put our work to good use.

We hit the road after our work was done to try and escape the southwest monsoon season that was currently pelting us in Kuraburi day in and day out (not so fun when all of your transporation consists of the back of a truck). Nevertheles, I'm extremely glad for our time in Kuraburi and will always remember the bright attitudes of triumph from the tsunami survivors we spoke with. These people have endured an unthinkable disaster and have somehow come out on top. Increible.

Why not - we'll splurge for the sixty cent pad thai!

5:30 PM - After boarding our first bus in Thailand at the border crossing at 8:00 AM this morning, Philip finally decided that he'd had enough of the plastic coated seats and loud Thai music videos blaring through the sound system. "We're getting off" is pretty much all he said before grabbing our Lonely Planet and deciding that we'd traveled far enough for one day and this (wherever "this" was) was our new destination.

6:30 PM - Luckily, "this" turned out to be Krabi, a small town on the southwestern coast of Thailand with a small town atmosphere, huge book swap shops, handicraft stores, ATMs, plenty of venues to watch tonight's world cup match between Argentina and Serbia, and a sprawling night market lining the river bank. Let's just say that we hit the jackpot with this place, and ate tonight like royalty...well, if royalty can sit on a plastic stool and turn a blind eye to the rats that occasionally scamper across the patio. After perusing and taking hefty samples from several of the food carts, Philip and I settled on the sixty cent pad thai (it was ten cents more than the stall next door, but ours had prawns and was cooked right there before our eyes and watering mouths). It was nothing short of amazing. After a Thai pancake filled with pineapple and chocolate sauce, I admitted defeat and rolled myself away from the food stalls. I can already tell that Thailand and I are going to get along quite well - if they keep up the spectacular food and equally spectacular prices, I'll certainly keep eating and travelling.

10:00 PM - Our transportation crisis has been solved and a ten o'clock a.m. bus will deliver us to Kuraburi tomorrow by midafternoon (that is, if we're actually saying the name right and can visually recognize the town in time to alert the bus driver so that he can slow to a roll and dump us on the side of the highway). Thailand public buses - they're cheap, but trickly - wish us luck!

The Postcard Promise

To my family and friends (from college, high school, girl scouts, FBC, random travelling buddies, whatever) : I miss you all very much and hereby make a pledge. I know that most of you will not be able to join me at any point during this year of travel, so I'm offering to bring the magic home to you. If you will leave me your snail mail address as a comment on this post, I promise a beautiful postcard filled with handwritten sentiments from yours truly. All I ask is for your patience during the shipping process; as I am conserving funds as much as possible, these postcards will be taking the slow boat back to America (or wherever you may currently be).

Blood, sweat, and....well, just blood and sweat

Eww. That's all I have to say. I know I'm going to be a doctor and must get over this grossed out sensation that I have when I see bugs and blood, especially when they're together, but apparently I haven't quite yet reached this maturity plateau. Maybe that's why I need this year off, to get over these aversions. ..

The story, from the top: After two weeks of traveling in Malaysia Philip and I stumbled upon a truly remarkable place, Taman Negara, the oldest rainforest in the world located right here in central peninsular Malaysia. Within the jungle are six hides, small hut raised off the ground containing simple bunk beds and a window overlooking a salt lick. The idea is to hike into the jungle and spend the night in the hides to catch a glimpse of large mammals such as tigers, elephants, tapirs, and deer that inhabit the area. So the big questions is, which hide should we choose. The obvious answer - the farthest one (pictured here for your viewing pleasure). So Philip and I set out on a journey yesterday morning with packs full of food, tons of water (8 liters, quite heavy) and otherwise modest provisions. The twelve kilometer hike is nothing to be sneezed at; just over five hours of trekking finally led us to our hide.

Quite unfortunately, when we arrived at the hide, so did the rain, greatly lessening our chances of actually seeing any animals. After an exhausting day of hiking with high hopes of a tiger or elephant spotting, the only animals we saw during the night were the rats who raided our food bag hanging from the rafters. At 6:45 our alarm roused us from our "sleep," otherwise known as fifteen minute turning intervals, packed our bags, rubbed our sores necks, back, and legs, and headed out for our trek home.

Though we had thanked the rain the night before for cooling our hide, we soon came to curse it and the situation it had caused. Apparently, disgusting black leeches just love to come out and play after a good rain, especially around rivers - I apparently missed this lesson in girl scout class. Sporting chacos and shorts to make wading through the main river easier might not have been my best choice of the day. Word spread like wildfire through the leech community and within twenty minutes it was an all out war. I noticed one on my foot, took off my sandals to discover three more. While Philip was trying to pick them off I watched three more crawl onto the big toe of my other foot. In the meantime they began crawl up Philip's pants to the point that he had to remove them and beat them against a tree. Though the leeches' bites don't actually hurt, the thought of these bugs sucking out my blood just kind of made me sick and spurred me to quickly find my long pants and sneakers in my bag. I know it doesn't sound dramatic, but it was, and even after this change of attire I still had three leeches to crawl underneath my pants and give me pretty decent bites from which I bled all over my pant legs and socks. Like I said, eww.

Those details aside, it was a great trip - one for my record books. As for now, I'm going to watch where I walk and get some sleep in a bed that's not made of wood.