Island Fever

Koh Larn from the sky

Last weekend we traveled to an island and met up with several fellow members of the teach-abroad organization we came here with. The island was called Koh Larn, and it is a couple hours bus ride from Bangkok, and then another half an hour ferry. Because it is relatively close to the Capitol it was rather crowded with revelers who came for the day, but after 4pm the beach cleared out and it felt like we had the island to ourselves. Of course nothing here is quite as straightforward as it first sounds...

and while we had a great time overall, it was really sad to see ridiculous amounts of trash in the otherwise crystal clear water. We literally got out a couple times because we felt dirty because of all the plastic and Styrofoam floating around us. It was an odd sight seeing many restaurant and business owners place Styrofoam trays of fruit and incense on the beach each morning to pray to the spirits to give them a financially successful day (as was explained to us by our new Thai friend, Golf) rather than just cleaning up some of the trash which would have definitely been stronger encouragement for us to provide repeat business to them.  

Take a second to look at the picture on the left. The water is beautiful, the colored boats dreamlike, but then there's a 7-11 in the background. That picture does a great job of summing up our little island adventure. In words two phrases would do, good times with cool people, and shock at an overdeveloped and poorly cared for paradise.

I know we have mentioned the environmental thing before, and I have a feeling it is going to continue to be a steady theme. For instance: When we got back from our weekend we of course had school waiting for us (which has been trying lately, but that's a different story). On Tuesday night however we rode out the local dam on the little scooter we are renting (which I have fondly names Rough Rider, it needing some manliness associated since it is bright pink!). Again, the sights were beautiful, insanely so in fact. We bought a couple beers and were sitting on the dam waiting for the sunset when it started to snow....black snow. Black snow is the ash that comes from the fields of sugarcane that are are now being burned in this area almost continuously. The farmers start the fires because it burns out all the underbrush and makes it easier for the laborers to chop down the vines (the minimum wage here was just raised to roughly $5.50 per day by the way, kind of crazy). We have heard several different versions about whether burning the sugarcane is legal or not, but either way, there is obviously a huge environmental cost when huge areas of the country, ours being one of them, have 3-4 months a year when it snows black almost everyday. We are still early in the sugarcane harvesting season, but we have been warned that at its worst, people with cars have to wash their windows each morning because the soot is so thick they can't otherwise see out. 

As we were looking at the reservoir on the right the fields behind us started burning

"Just another day in Thailand" has become one of our often repeated phrases as we do our best to care and do what we can, but when things also just seem so overwhelming and insanely out of our control, that caring often feels like a recipe for endless frustrations, disappointment, and even bitterness. I guess that is a feeling you can have anywhere, but it is definitely magnified living in a county where even at their most juicy, your rationalizations are unable to overcome the fact that that you are not having anything more than an incredibly minuscule local impact. Speaking of that however, we are excited to be taking our two adopted strays to the vet tomorrow to get fixed. One step at a time I guess! Till next time, this is Grahamalie signing out!

From our beach hotel with our new fast friends, Gold, Philip, and Brandon. Thanks for a great weekend