TwoHelp.org Updates

A Fond Farewell to Khao Lak

Posted by Alexis on August 2, 2005 at 2:29 am |

So our time in Khao Lak has come to an end. As so often happens, we spent our last day doing many of the things we’d talked about doing the whole time we were there. Clay was at last invited behind the magic curtain at Lamuan Seafood, to observe firsthand how Granny creates her magical daengmoo baan (watermelon shake). Unfortunately, this was an instance when ignorance truly is bliss, as the amount of sugar syrup that goes into this creation is enough to make pages, maybe entire chapters, fall out of the South Beach Diet book. Nevertheless, the truth is now preserved on video tape and we are looking forward to trying our hand at a less-sugary version when we return home.

We spent some of the day on a rented motorbike and explored beachfront areas that we had not yet seen. Going to more remote areas, we chanced upon the Bang Sak Beach Resort. It looked like it hadn’t been touched since soon after the tsunami. It had the eerie feeling of a ghost-resort - guest records still littered the lobby area and none of the debris and rubble had been cleared at all. Yet further down the beach, the Khao Lak Orchid Resort was abuzz with activity and almost fully rebuilt, despite the devastation still apparent in its natural surroundings. While this sort of quick resurrection is more of the exception than the norm for the resorts in the area, it is an important example of how the area can be rebuilt and the optimism that some owners hold for the future of tourism in the area. The tour provided a perfect sort of closure for us, to see how much rebuilding had been done and how we had contributed to it in our two months there, but also how much work there is still to do to return the Khao Lak area to its former level of natural and physical beauty.

It was hard to say goodbye to the many friends that we have made, both our fellow volunteers and people from the community. We both hope to return there sometime, hopefully sooner rather than later, to see how the area changes and progresses. I know when I am back at school this fall I will seriously miss the days of piling into the back of a pick-up truck with 15 people, rain or shine, and heading off to do some tangible work for the day. I am extremely grateful for my time in Khao Lak, the people I met there, and the lessons I learned from the Thai people about accepting challenges and moving forward with dignity, grace, and humility.

Not once did either of us swim in the ocean in Khao Lak during our time there, so we decided to spend our last week in Thailand at the beaches on the other side of the country. Our first stop was Koh Samui, the largest of the group of Thai islands on the Gulf of Thailand. Described by guidebooks as the gem of the Thai islands, we lasted barely a night there before the intense desire to move on set in. Clay compared it to the worst of Myrtle Beach; my associations were more with the worst of the Jersey shore. Yes, the beaches were beautiful, but they were so littered with people, jet skis, trash, and beer bottles, that we found ourselves seeking respite in our dark, stuffy, dirty, and uncomfortable bungalow. And once we moved inland to find food, we were accosted with a never-ending and mind-bogglingly tawdry mix of t-shirt shops, go-go bars, tattoo parlors, and beer-guzzling tourists. That night, lulled at last to a precious two hours of sleep by the bass of non-stop techno music, we decided it was time to go. We moved on quickly to the next island in the chain, Koh Phangnan, but even the most remote beach we could find there was still not quite what we had in mind and we seemed unable to escape the smell of raw sewage. Perhaps in other circumstances we might have continued the search for a place on the beach to relax and enjoy ourselves, but after such an intense and involved experience in Khao Lak, watching how our fellow vacationers wanted no more of Thailand than cheap food and beachfront bungalows, we decided to head back to ‘real Thailand’. We hopped the first overnight train and came back to Bangkok.

Our brief time in the islands was in stark contrast with our experience Khao Lak, but also an important reminder of what tourist areas can become if development is unchecked and unplanned. It seems clear to me that without serious effort and investment the beautiful beaches of Thailand are in severe danger of environmental degradation and destruction. Perhaps, if nothing else, the tsunami will prevent the Khao Lak area from a similar fate.

We thank you all for keeping up with us over the past two months. Our current plans are to continue coordinating various types of events through TwoHelp.org, so stay tuned for future updates. We will be back in the United States on August 6th and look forward to catching up with you all soon.

Love from Thailand,
Clay and Alexis