OK….. to start with, Codie and I are not dead or trapped in a Bangkok airport trying to overthrow the government. Second, those of you who have been commenting on our posts on our blog, we can read them, are enjoying them, but have no idea how to write back to you. Sorry. If you have questions or want us to talk back shoot us an email…or just comment on our blog and know we are enjoying hearing from you.
What does the overthrowing of a government look like in Thailand? A lot of people wearing opposing T-shirts and some graffiti, if you’re living where we are in Surat Thani. The protests that have shut down the airports in Bangkok and have led to the loss of lives and injuries from both police and protestors have manifested in Surat in the form of a few posters and T-shirts. We’re about ten hours away by train to Bangkok. There are some people in town who are very political and attend nightly political functions by the river but we haven’t seen anything other then some passionate pamphlets and t-shirts accusing the prime minister of being a criminal. Bottom line is we’re safe and Thailand will be having elections soon for a new government head.
So why haven’t we written since this whole mess started? We’ve been busy enjoying two major holidays…..Thanksgiving (Thai style) and Father’s Day (aka The King’s Birthday)
Thanksgiving was a let down on the traditional Thursday. As we sat eating springrolls and Vietnamese pancakes we were a little bummed but on the following Saturday our faith in gorging ourselves was renewed. We headed, on Saturday, by air-conditioned mini-van for Khanom where we celebrated Thanksgiving at a restaurant on the ocean owned by some American s who had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy along side Isaan curry and som tam (papaya salad). It was the best of both worlds, we watched football (British soccer matches) and I ended up with me following through with another favorite Thanksgiving past time when I fell asleep in a booth.
We have had the past week off due to the King of Thailand being born 80 some years ago. We decided to head out of Surat and head down the Andaman Coast to a place that I'm sure has been in all of your hearts since 2002 where they filmed Survivor Thailand, the island of Tarutao.
Being on the island where they filmed Survivor was most things one would expect a tropical paradise would be. There are monkeys in the trees (more than one species), beautiful Hornbill birds that look like dinosaurs, and palm lined beaches. Just the type place where you would be happy to hear the words "the tribe has spoken" just so you could go sit under a tree and let the waves lap at your feet. Codie and I arrived to gray skies and misty rain but it didn't stop us from hiking to the next beach where we saw the side of Tarutao that was edited out of Survivor. The pristine beach, with shimmering blue water, and a layer of garbage stretching from one end of the beach to the other about five feet thick and containing everything from crab traps, to flip flops. The rainy season is on its tail end and that means, according to the park rangers, that clean up is pointless. Every time they clean up the beach, the great ocean spits out a layer, just as thick, of garbage. We decided to keep heading down to the next beach 4KM away.
This beach was inaccessible by the one truck on the island because they were building a road and its remoteness promised to be a true Survivor experience. As we prepared for Jeff Probst to start grilling us, we realized something was weird.
The signs along the road were all in Thai (obviously) but they also had Buddhists symbols all over them. We walked through crazy looking jungle and emerged upon a futuristic looking station that appeared abandoned. We kept walking and stumbled on dozens of empty modern houses. There was not a soul in sight. We realized we had crossed channels. We had gone from Survivor to Lost!
Monkeys began to shriek in the distance, I thought I saw a polar bear and we got out of there before a hatch opened.
Tarutoa is a pretty remarkable place. It has miles and miles of untouched wilderness, stunning animals, and form what we hear, amazing sunsets. It's too bad it rained the entire time we were there and we left to the neighboring island of Koh Lipe.
See the above pictures for visions of the tropical paradise that was LIpe. We are now tan, rested, and ready to teach for the next few months.
