Paradise Lost

So, after a pretty nightmarish journey south (involving far too many buses with no air conditioning and an added 8 hours to the journey time, but it just wouldn't be travelling without these little challenges would it?!) I arrived on Sunday in Khao Lak, a little town about 2 hours north of Phuket. 3 years ago it was just starting to pick up as a tourist destination when the tsunami hit. The waves were over 9 m high here and killed over 5 000 people. It's hard to even imagine what that must have been like. As I walked along the beach it looked so peaceful (though rather a lot of red sunburnt Germans, do they not know about suncream yet?!), an idyllic spot with palm trees, thai massage on the beach and fruit stalls everywhere. The people are all so friendly (at breakfast this morning I got shown all the family photos from one lady) but the town still feels like it's recovering, there are new smart resorts springing up all along the beach but the tourists are only slowly trickling back.

My first day as a volunteer involved going on a 'post-tsunami experience', seeing some of the effects of the tsunami and the projects now going on to help people rebuild their lives. We saw massive boats in the middle of fields and villages (at least 1 km away from the sea) that had been swept there by the waves, a new housing project with houses designed by a German engineer which were apparently meant to be tsunami proof and a craft centre set up by a Japanese monk for women who had lost their husbands during the tsunami and therefore had no way of making money. The most affecting part of the day was visiting a beach that had once been clear waters and white sand; the impact of the waves had caused the beach to be cluttered with coral from the nearby reef and massive volcanic rocks from the floor of the ocean to be deposited in the shallow water. 3 years later most of the construction work is now done and the volunteering mainly centres on teaching English to the hotel owners, taxi drivers and children in the region, as over 70 % of the English speakers were killed. Not really knowing what to expect with the volunteer centre (www.tsunamivolunteer.net), I was surprised at how small it is; there are only around 10-12 other volunteers apart from me including a Canadian family with 3 kids who I think will be great with playing with the children in the schools. But everyone is friendly and willing to pitch in and it's good to have people to chat to again.

We had our first afternoon teaching today, slightly chaotic but great fun, the children are gorgeous with a great sense of humour. We attempted to do road signs with them, there are some bizarre ones in Thailand such as 'no bicycles, samlaws and motorcycles' and 'no parking on odd days'. I think the kids were slightly baffled by this! The teaching seems quite laid back and the volunteers and people that run the centre are very friendly so I'm pretty happy at the moment! Added to the fact I am 7 minutes walk from the beach and the sea is warmer than my shower...it's a hard life!