Monday, September 05, 2005
See see Phi Phi
My patience paid off today, and I got to go on the island tour that I thought I had lined up last week. Headed to Ko Phi Phi to see the place where the tsunami hit Thailand and to visit several bays there, including Maya Bay, where "The Beach" was filmed.
The tourist village on Phi Phi is smaller than I expected and I wonder how big it was nine months ago. Everything is freshly built: lots of shiny wood, fresh paint and bricks and bright chairs and umbrellas that aren't sunbleached yet. Many construction guys pushing carts and working. The palm trees seeme scant, and a few of them are bare -- nothing at the top -- or the leaves and branches are smashed; that was the only damage I could pick out on my own. Lots of people were in the restaurants and shops, but I don't know how that compares with the usual low season. Some of the shops had names like "Tsunami Shop" or "Survivor Store." Our tour guide said 2,000 people died in that bay during the tsunami. Looking around at it, the strip of land is so thin that there was nowhere I could see where anyone could have run to. I can only image that horror. I plan to do more reading now about what happened and would like to see more photos. It's even more interesting now that I have seen it with my eyes.
Later we boated over to Maya Bay, and when the boat turned the corner into it, everyone of us was amazed. It is a perfectly dreamy paradise. Pure turquiose water with nothing but white sand underneath, huge straight cliffs hugging the bay, and no sign of humanity other than one plastic chair on the small beach. The tour guide said to us, "So ugly now after tsunami." That's crazy talk, but if that's what a local thinks, then I would like to have seen the bay before the waves. It looks exactly like what you would fantasize a deserted island would look like. Like a movie, I guess! We swam and took photos and didn't want to leave. It was agreed that seeing that bay was the best part of the day.
I have completed reading two pages of "Wuthering Heights." Not a real page-turner so far, so I reread "Circle of Friends" for the millionth time yesterday. Really, I think I have read it close to a million times. Makes me want to go to Ireland, wear wool and work in a pub. Maybe later this fall.
Bus to Bangkok tomorrow night!
The tourist village on Phi Phi is smaller than I expected and I wonder how big it was nine months ago. Everything is freshly built: lots of shiny wood, fresh paint and bricks and bright chairs and umbrellas that aren't sunbleached yet. Many construction guys pushing carts and working. The palm trees seeme scant, and a few of them are bare -- nothing at the top -- or the leaves and branches are smashed; that was the only damage I could pick out on my own. Lots of people were in the restaurants and shops, but I don't know how that compares with the usual low season. Some of the shops had names like "Tsunami Shop" or "Survivor Store." Our tour guide said 2,000 people died in that bay during the tsunami. Looking around at it, the strip of land is so thin that there was nowhere I could see where anyone could have run to. I can only image that horror. I plan to do more reading now about what happened and would like to see more photos. It's even more interesting now that I have seen it with my eyes.
Later we boated over to Maya Bay, and when the boat turned the corner into it, everyone of us was amazed. It is a perfectly dreamy paradise. Pure turquiose water with nothing but white sand underneath, huge straight cliffs hugging the bay, and no sign of humanity other than one plastic chair on the small beach. The tour guide said to us, "So ugly now after tsunami." That's crazy talk, but if that's what a local thinks, then I would like to have seen the bay before the waves. It looks exactly like what you would fantasize a deserted island would look like. Like a movie, I guess! We swam and took photos and didn't want to leave. It was agreed that seeing that bay was the best part of the day.
I have completed reading two pages of "Wuthering Heights." Not a real page-turner so far, so I reread "Circle of Friends" for the millionth time yesterday. Really, I think I have read it close to a million times. Makes me want to go to Ireland, wear wool and work in a pub. Maybe later this fall.
Bus to Bangkok tomorrow night!
# posted by Amy Jo @ 4:26 AM 
