Off Ko Lanta
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2005
1
4
11
Trip End
Feb 05, 2005
Ko Lanta,
Thailand
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Last night was one of my favorites so far. We dropped anchor off Ko Lanta and spent "happy hour" at a recently rebuilt bar on the beach called Relax Bay and, well, what was there to do there BUT relax? And so we did. Of course, all you had to do was glance down the beach and see the remains of debris that had been deposited by the tsunami...longtail boats, driftwood, and even a bed. When we arrived, a Dido CD was playing over their speaker system. Next to the bar, 4 hammocks beckoned. We all ordered a mix of fru-fru drinks with miniture umbrellas and beer and set about watching the sunset.
Our two missing links joined us here as well - Radu & Emily who, due to no fault of their own, had already been given nicknames by the rest of us and dubbed "The Clowns"
Relax Bay, Ko Lanta
. (Jean & Nancy have since done their best to explain the nickname to them and they seem to be pretty good sports about it, despite the fact they had no real choice in the matter!) This has become one of what I predict will be dozens of inside jokes that will result from this group.We went back to the boats to change for dinner and then ended up back at Relay Bay for a bonfire that the Thais built for us using the longtail boats that had been smashed on the beach. What a testament to renewal and their desire/willingness to move on from this tragedy... We sat around the bonfire on the sand running through the other nicknames that people had already begun to obtain (Pathfinder) as well as making up new ones where we could (Dances With Dogs), finally heading back out to the boats when the bar had to close.
We left Ko Lanta this morning and are now sailing for Phi Phi Le which is the island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Not that I'm particularly keen on doing such a blatently touristy thing, but as Wolfgang has been telling us, everything has changed since the tsunami and what used to be a bustling tourist spot is now a quiet bay again. He told us this morning that typically we would have already been there and would be getting ready to leave around 9am b/c that's when the tourists and speedboats and jet skis would begin showing up
Hammocks at Relax Bay
. But now the chances of anyone but us being there is pretty slim so we're taking our time.Katie & I were talking about how bad we both are journalling on this trip. Katie is actually being quite thorough in hers giving a total play-by-play (Warren is making tea, I think I'll go have some) but, as she describes it, she's writing in the style of a 7-year-old. Mine isn't quite a 7-year-old I don't think, but it's still boring (even to me!) and I'm not even able to document things as well as I normally would - not even the dumb stuff. We both think it's due to our brains literally being turned off here - it's like we've forgotten how to form a proper sentences. We discussed this with the rest of the group who all agreed that they also seem to have lost some of their normal mental capacity for thought and have named the condition "boat brain" which seems fitting.
I didn't sleep on deck last night as I had planned b/c the last couple of nights I've woken up cold and wet in the morning... I've never experienced humidity quite like this, but while Greece was arid and Thailand is not, the water in Greece was almost chilly where as this water is perfect.
I don't think I mentioned it before in my partially comatose state, but we went snorkeling yesterday which was fun - I haven't snorkeled since camp when I was 13 or so, and even then it was in a pool so how fun can that really be? Anyway, the fish were swimming about, as fish do, and didn't seem to mind the company. It was cool. Okay, now I think I've just regressed to the dreaded 7-year-old state of writing. Perhaps I should give up, go get my iPod, and call it a day.
