Hat Yao and Sinchai Chowmai

Well, after a week away from the computer, I have a chance to catch up.

We took the overnight train from Bangkok at 6:30 pm, only able to get a 2nd class ticket of an upper birth with fan... which will mean a probable night of heat. That's the breaks. The photo is of Bob and I, already weary from heat, trying to induce sleep by way of a large Chang beer. Happily, I slept quite well as the train cooled off during the night. I have a couple of stories from the roughly 15 hours on the train.

A young Norwegian family of parents and 3 kids, one a 8 mos old traveling and roughing it... talk about chutzpah! Then again, Norwegians are given 6 mos of paid maternity leave (either parent)!

We also met Walter, an ex-pat from San Diego, Ca. A Viet Nam vet, retired merchant marine, age 67 now living in Ko Samui, Thailand. Another middle to late aged Anglo male with a younger Thai girlfriend, a common combo we see all over Thailand. Is this a last hurrah with youth, a mutually workable "arrangement" ...or is this LOVE? Often, I have noticed, that there is minimal verbal communication... lot's of hand signals. Ed, you'll have to resist the urge to add humor here. She is the guide, he is the provider? ...and they both get a vacation out of the deal? I really don't pretend to know or understand. I do notice that after a dozen or more of these couplings are observed, there are some common threads. The male rarely gives eye contact to other male westerners when with "their" Thai females. One can guess this comes from some sense of being judged... but there are likely many other possibilities. One does see a gov't campaign posted in signs with regularity stating "sex with children is a crime!". In a conversation along these lines with Bob, he pointed out that often these particular Thai women were small and very slight of build... that perhaps there is some form of pedophilia being acted out in these couplings... obviously not in all cases. It is an interesting topic and probably runs the whole range of human emotional possibilities ...like any relationship. To be sure, one must keep in check the tendency to be judgemental on such a foreign topic.

Back to Walter more specifically. "I voted for Edwards" he says, "he's the real deal, after those corporate jerks...". He ranted on about how America was going all to hell and how he no longer has any direct attachments to it (though he still proudly votes in the elections) ...he was an anomaly in many ways. He expressed somewhat "liberal" views in some ways yet felt the mixing of the races was the real problem in America. "In the end, it just doesn't work... just look at Israel, a real racist (homogeneous?) country, and look at how well it works... they got it right!" he adds. And Walter is one of the more "functional" Viet Nam vets living abroad... in a mixed race relationship, I might add! "It all won't matter anyway" he says, "I think we'll all go down in a nuclear disaster within ten years anyway" he predicts while barely able to order a sweet from a passing vendor in the train... and this is after 15 years living in the area. The topics of ex-pats is another fascinating topic to me and one which would be a kick to explore... probably as many different "types" as the stories one would hear. Enough.

By 7 a.m., we had the entire train car to ourselves as everyone else had exited at previous destinations. For 3 hours we could observe the countryside at our leisure, farms, rubber plantations (Thailand is the world leader in rubber export), jungles and beautiful stone karsts rising majestically from the flat lands... only interrupted by the occasional train station.

By 10:30 am we arrive in Trang, find some breakfast and find our way by van to our destination of the day, Hat Yao on the coastline of Southwest Thailand, a small fishing village and our jumping off point to the islands beyond. This picture above is our room (nicer than it looks) just a few meters from the high tide water. Our beach is shaded by Casuarina Pines, a nice frame for the sea view. This is Sinchai "Resort" (a stretch in a name) but we are very satisfied with our spacious place and the quiet location.

For the next two days, we veg, swim out to a lovely deserted beach around the corner, read and wander into the small village nearby. This is a village that was quite damaged by the Tsunami. This is a Muslim fishing port with a small mosque. People are very friendly and though the damaged small houses (often "huts" by most standards) and ruined fishing boats are evidence of a tough time, it is apparent the Thai government has been trying to do its best. Large signs pay tribute to those lost, sign posts showing the high water mark and a system of signs showing the distance and evacuation paths all should follow in the event of an earthquake. There is a new cement pier and of course a warning system tower with microphones. Mr. Sinchai explains in broken English "water come in fast, but Sinchai get phone call and take all people out before... nobody die here". He has lived here all his life and never before had such an experience.
This is a view of the "chandelier" hanging from the huge stone karst on our secluded beach next door to Sinchai's Resort.

And of course I will close out with the obligatory sunset shot... a hopeful beginning to what we expect to be a week of island hopping and beach bumming. Though this is the mainland, it is very easy to imagine it as an island and we are hesitant to leave such a nice find. Never the less, by Monday morning March 16th (I think), we are ready to get a transfer of some kind to some of the many real islands off this coast.

We go back and forth on logistics and destinations before Tri (pron: tree) suggests we go to Ko Kradan rather than our intended Ko Mook... "more pretty and good snorkeling" he says. We bite. He facilitates the arrangements and by 10 am we are wading into the tide to board a longtail boat for parts unknown. This is how one of our best ever islands started (Gili Meno with Greg) back in '94 or so. I hope you are all enjoying your weather as much as we are here. All the best, Mark