Where Are You Going...?
The rain came down in the night; torrents of rain. Anadi and I got out of bed and stood watching it on the balcony.
And then when we woke this morning it was grey and overcast, a heavy feeling in the air...
We had seen a little muddy path yesterday leading from where we live and decided that we would explore.
It wound us away from where we are staying past houses set into the tangle of jungle; we emerged to a stretch of beach, ‘people are living here’ Anadi said.
We carried on and reached a bigger house, we walked beyond it and saw five wild monkeys playing just ahead of us...
More monkeys, the monkey totem of dark and light is in my energy field at the moment it seems.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil...
A man came out of the building; ’Where are you going?’ He asked us.
‘We don't know, can we carry on up there?’ we asked, pointing up to a mass of dense vegetation, a canopy of trees above us...
‘No no, monkey is everywhere, Mosquitos everywhere, no, no you can't walk there....’
We retreated and found steps to the beach and decided to carry on exploring on the rocks, we scrambled along and then a man emerged from what looked like the undergrowth...
He looked western, so as he came towards us, I said 'Hi'.
'Hi' he replied... and smiled, he was hot and sweaty and had muddy shoes, he was carrying a stick.
‘Can you get through there to the other side of the island?’ I asked...
'Yes, you can get to Outriggers' he said; 'Is this Ton Sai bay' - we had to admit that we didn't know...!
Anadi said, 'We only arrived a couple of days ago.'
'I think we should know where we are' I laughed...
'Yes, so that you can get back' he laughed in response.
He was friendly and wore a hat over his blond hair; he spoke with an American accent.
Fellow explorers of this tiny island...
'You might need a stick ' he said, 'there are lots of spiders', 'See you on the way back...'
And on we went...
The path was steep, rocky, muddy, dark and dank, through the jungle...
Up, up, up and then down we clambered, after about forty minutes of clambering we met another couple coming the other way, they said they were staying at Outriggers where we were heading; but that they needed to get to Ton Sai for an ATM...
We emerged eventually onto more of a path...
And right into the centre of Tsunami land, signs were everywhere warning us we were near a Tsunami hazard, and there were more signs pointing to escape routes...
The signs had the picture of a big wave and a person running...
Then we came to a post measuring a meter, with the date of the Tsunami on it, Dec 26th 2004...
We leave here the day after the anniversary...
As we walked along the path we were aware that ten years ago a wall of water travelling at 300 miles had raced into the island creating a graveyard where we now stepped....
We found our way to Outriggers, which is a centre with restaurants, massage rooms and cocktails advertised on boards outside restaurants, all the things we find in other resorts.
It was very quiet...
But the restaurants, the stalls, the massage centres were bright and well cared for.
More evidence of the continuing emergence of the new.
But at the same time there is a constant reminder of the tragedy....
We walked to the end and the headed back the route we came.... We had walked for an hour and a half and it felt good to get to know this little island better, to embrace it, to love it, to become part of its rebirth...
Later...
We are both in the Sunflower bar, this table is now our office and we are left alone.
We pay our rent with regular purchase of food and drink...
I have just eaten some delicious cheesy garlic bread, which is the first 'western food' I've eaten for many days...
I love Thai food, but my tummy feels like it would like something more grounding, as my appetite has dropped while I am here...
It is going down rather well!!
I have just had an email from my wonderful sister Rosy; she tells me that she and my beautiful niece Jess have taken to reading my daily report at bedtime together...
It was a lovely surprise; I didn't know they read it!
I love to think of that....
