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Sleep evaded us for the next 2 hours, so I finally gave up and had breakfast, while Jaimie continued to try to rest. It was actually a little cooler outside as there was a breeze. The Ao Toh Ka Beach restaurant was great, I had a pancake stuffed with pineapple. I then went back to our bungalow and read for a few hours, soaking up the waves splashing against the rocks below us. The water was so green blue. Long tail boats sporadically passed, providing a little annoyance with their loud engines, but not enough to spoil the serene setting along the island front.
It's hard to believe a historic tsunami washed against this island just 15 months ago. When we arrived in Phuket, everything was relatively normal (by our eyes at least). We did have the missing 7-11 checkpoint in Ko Phi Phi Don yesterday, and Ben, our hotel guide person, did tell us that the shores in front of our ferry were lined completely with small buildings (which were now only sand and palm trees.) We've come to realize that most small structures (ie, bungalows) along the shore are now gone. There's some reconstruction effort here and there, but it's not very obvious, and there's no visible remains of debri (granted, we haven't gone hunting for it either). While we were searching for somewhere to stay, we came across the following article which describes the tsunami firsthand from a Stanford Business student http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0505/feature_firstperson.shtml. Sadly, from tourist geared websites, we have read that things are back to normal, that the tsunami washed away the trash off the beaches, and they're more beautiful then ever (sad way to market). But the tsunami has obviously touched everyone that lives here. Despite the tragedy, tourism is booming, people are everywhere, and prices are back up to their usual rates. I believe it's incredible for a society to bounce back from such a catastrophic event - it's a mark of great determination by the people to move on. I guess I'm amazed by everyone in disastrous events - how they recover and return to life - sometimes even with greater resolve to conquer lifes challenges and obstacles.
After another great Thai dinner, we headed back to the bungalow for some more reading. The weather had cooled down a bit, but it was still tropically warm (high 80's and muggy). About 10pm, the lightning and thunder began, and within a few minutes, a massive storm was on top of us. The downpour pounded against the tin roof - but it was much better than the generator - so we were actually enjoying it. Unfortunately, the intense downpours of Thailand usually don't last that long, and neither did this one. We attempted sleep, drifting in and out, as the generator roared lower and higher randomly through the evening. Even with earplugs, it was still loud. At some point, we discussed that we might want to head back to Phuket to have a more relaxing beach time - that generator was the last straw. Day 100 - Koh Phi Phi Don < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 102 - Phuket © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
After a scorching night with a fan lightly blowing inside our "mosquito net", I awoke abruptly at 6am as the fan turned off. My first thoughts were that we had definitely drank too much last night (I later learned we were drinking 6% alcohol beer), and my second thought was I wished the power didn't turn off at 6am. It was already getting very hot, and the sun was rising. Within the hour, sun was shining on our bungalow, and the heat made sleep pretty much impossible. This is like an alarm clock you can't shut off. Ok, well we weren't going to be able to sleep in, but I was looking forward to just enjoying the beach anyways. 
Jaimie was finally hungry, so we went down and had lunch - Phad Thai with Chicken and veggies for me (yum!) and just a few spring rolls for Jaim. The spring rolls made Jaimie sleepy and she went back to sleep in that furnace we called a bungalow. I chose the hammock by the restaurant, and spent some more time reading and enjoyed the water. The sand bank went out about 50 feet before you could even get waist deep - letting the water bake in the sun - it was unbelievably warm (and I was trying to cool off)! When you get out far enough, the colder ocean water washes in so it's a bit nicer. The sand was soft, but not like that sand on my favorite - red frog beach in Panama :). 
When I returned to the bungalow, I realized this was the longest time we had spent away from each other for the last 3 months! Crazy. Luckily (or maybe not), Jaimie had some company she didn't know about. I found a relatively large spider in our mosquito net, and while I was on the outside porch, not counting the many mini-spiders that were dropping from the trees above, a very spotted weird looking centipede decided to fall on me too. I don't know how these things target me?? Of course, despite my overuse of deet spray, I also had started to get a few mosquito bites in this jungle environment. Lots of crazy looking and attacking bugs here :). I ventured towards the shower. This was one of the more frightening areas of our bungalow. It was dark - no lights (remember the power doesn't turn on), and there were definitely some nasty smells coming from somewhere - not exciting to walk on the stone floor that's also the bathroom. The water was salty (even though we heard it was rainwater), so soap didn't even lather, and you didn't feel clean after the shower. Just trying to spell out the negatives, as I point out the lovely beach setting (there's pluses and minuses to staying here :)).
Upon my return to our bungalow, I noticed that the local workers were working in this "shack" about 25 feet from our bungalow. About 20 minutes later, they were stringing some cord to it over top of our roof. And then a generator turned on. Uh oh. After some more reading together on the porch, ignoring (or just accepting) the noise, we headed to dinner around 6pm. We asked Ben about the generator and he said, "yes, that's new, their using it to run the bar", and apologized. He said it would only be on until about 1am or whenever the bar closed. Ack.. It was a really loud generator - and completely destroyed the tranquility of the setting with the waves crashing below our bungalow. He offered to let us to move, but it was 7pm by then, and dark. We figured we could survive until 1am or so. 