Phuket

My friends, five of them, arrived on my last night in Samui. We left the next day via a ferry-mini-bus combination, and arrived in Phuket Town, the hub of Phuket Province. After a sweltering non-air conditioned night there, we took a local bus to the seaside town of Kamala for a three-night stay.

Kamala was one of the areas seriously damaged by the tsunami, and its impact was visible everywhere. Buildings demolished, piles of rubble..... And many people with stories to tell. The man I bought a t-shirt from had lost his wife. The woman who cooked my lunch had lost the business she'd built up over a lifetime of effort. No one seemed untouched; everyone had lost family or friends.

There were good stories as well. A young woman who served me a beer had taken her baby inland to the doctor just twenty minutes before the tsunami struck. The primary school, located on an unprotected ocean site, has 340 students. If the tsunami had hit on a weekday instead of Sunday, the death toll among the kids would have been horrendous. My friends and I did a magic-juggling-theatrical show for the school while we were there. Sweet kids. When I left Kamala (and my friends), the taxi-driver who took me to Patong also had a good luck story. Normally parked along the ocean, he'd had a call for an airport delivery half an hour before the tidal wave hit.

And on and on and on. Death, loss, hope, grief, destruction, rebuilding.....

So now I am in Patong. When people talk about Phuket, this is often the place they're refering to. It's located on the coast, and is best known for its beaches and nightlife. Patong was also devastated by the tsunami, but the rebuilding effort here appears to be better funded. McDonald's was wiped out, but Starbuck's has already reopened. Subway and KFC seem to be fine. Bangla Road, the main action scene for alcohol and sex, is thriving.

But the streets fronting the beach are almost all still under construction. Makeshift businesses have been set up among the girders and half completed walls. It does make you want to help, somehow, in some way. A person in my TEFL course fasts one day a week, and then gives the money he's budgeted for food to someone in need.

Yes, once again here I am studying how to teach English as a foreign language. There are 13 students in the class. One week finished, and five more to go.

I am also taking Thai classes. Quite a process! Thai is a tonal language, with five different tones that alter the meaning of a word. 'Ying,' for example. Ying, pronouced with a high tone, means a type of plant. With a low tone; arrogant. Neutral; shoot. Rising; a girl. Falling; 'the more' (as in, 'the more you do something...). Here's a classic example to illustrate the point. 'Mai, mai mai mai mai?' (yes, it is a sentence) means: 'New wood doesn't burn, does it?'

Last weekend I took a lengthy bus ride to Khorat, a few hours north-east of Bangkok. So now I have a job (three jobs, actually) waiting for me when I finish my course.
1. In exchange for room and board at the temple, I will be teaching English to monks one night a week.
2. There is a buddhist university in Khorat, and I will teach a couple of classes there.
3. I will also be teaching English to children, ages 6 to 12, in a language school.

In the interim, I'm having a good time living in Phuket.

Chok dee (good luck),
Greg