Koh Lipe and the Tsunami Tale

Hello again, i know your tired of hearing from us and that it seems we have nothing better to do than hang around on the internet.. but well... i guess that at the moment its true.. bangkok is bangkok and after a long day of walking about in the sun... the only thing that will keep you from falling asleep is sitting in the air conditioned internet place before going out for the last beer of the day...

I hope you liked our photos and enjoyed the last food post, this will be the last post before India as we are flying there tomorrow afternoon.

You can see the photos here

I wont nag too much about the "NAME THE GIBBON CONTEST" and although some people have participated very nicely and our gibbon has been enjoying the attention we still think that there could be some more suggestions. So we have decided to lengthen the contest period and as we will not be in thailand when the prize will be given, the prize will no longer be a Thai dog but will be something from India (we don't know what yet as we aren't there). Please post your comments everybody.

Ok... Now where were we?... we just left kao sok and after a much deliberations we decided to head down to Koh Lipe... At first we were a bit afraid about the situation in the south of thailand as a few months ago there were riots and a couple of bombings (the population there is mostly Muslim)... we spoke with a few tourists which passed through the south and some also were on the island and they all said they didn't feel anything out of the ordinary.. we also spoke with a lot of Thai people (both in and out of the tourist industry) and were assured that its completely safe and that the problems were in 2-3 provinces that were not in our plan anyway (we went to Satun province and the riots were in other ones). Anyway it turned out to be the best decision we made so far... ;)

Koh Lipe... Well if we thought Koh Payam was nice... Koh Lipe is really beautiful..
At first the island felt very touristy. It was just before christmas (we arrived on the 23rd) and the island was packed with tourists - over 50% of them swedish families which was a real bummer - we called it Koh Shweepe. But after the tsunami (and i know it sounds terrible to say) the island turned into a real paradise...

(the following recording was taken by our government satellites on the island of Koh Lipe - southern thailand - in a small bungalow near the beach and has been left in its original state)

26th approximately 07:30 am
Hila: "Uri... Something is burrowing underneath the bed!!".. "Don't you feel it ?".. "Uri!!!"
Uri: (in a sleepy slow mumbled voice) "..What..?... Oh its probably just an earthquake.."
Hila: "Its still going on.. It can't be an earthquake.. It has to be something under the bed!!"
Uri: (still trying to open his eyes) ".. There probably will be a tsunami too... " chrhrhrchrh (snoring sounds)
Hila: "Why should there be a tsunami??!?!"
Uri: (waking up again) ".. There is always one after an earthquake in the sea..." chrhrhrchrh (snoring sounds)
Hila indifferently also returns to sleep.

approximately 10:30 am (still sleeping)
Old fat crazy Thai lady on the beach (wearing a funny hat) screaming: "BIG WAVE!!" ..."[screaming a lot of shit in the thai language]"... "BIG WAVE!!!!"
we heard the screaming and saw a lot of locals running to the beach... So we put on some clothes and went to the beach to see what was all the commotion about (we thought it was a beached whale or something - we forgot about the earthquake altogether)
All we saw on the beach is what looked like a very high tide.. And that the sea level was fluctuating very rapidly and that the water was murky... So after asking around we got the notion that there was a small tsunami like wave (when i asked an Italian couple i used the word "tsunami", he answered laughing "ya, but a very small one")... So... we went out for some breakfast.. During breakfast we saw that the tide was going up and down like crazy and that all the locals were very excited, they opened the Thai news on TV and we caught the words "Sumatra" "phuket" but there weren't any pics yet and we didn't really understand what happened... So... we went asking at the dive shop we intended to dive with, if they knew what happened... They just returned from a dive (a very short one). The divemaster there said the big wave (around 2 meters) hit them in the water and that it was a bit terrifying and that there wont be any diving in the next day or two... Back at our bungalows we saw a Swedish guy talking on his cellular excitedly with home so we decided to open ours too... And thats when we understood that you guys were more informed than us, and already anxious (an understatement, i know)... So.. What else could we do? we went up to higher ground as there was talk of a "Second Wave" (its in quotes because it has already become a notorious statement)
Slowly the whole island was walking up to the only mountain (its actually a small hill at the most). On top of which was most of the Thai population of the island sitting with their life jackets on... (some of whom stayed on the hill for at least a week - with their life jackets on). Of course the tourists were sitting in the nearest restaurant ordering more chang beer and food and more beer... Thats where we met a german threesome that we hanged out with in the days to come...
After a few more hours we went back down - as we got the idea that there was no more danger... "Second Wave" was not on its way... At least not to Koh Lipe...

morning of the 27th
Hila and Uri are sitting in their hammock as they see a long line of Thai tourists and island locals (we spotted the lady working in the local "lotti" stand and our hearts missed a beat) still wearing their life jackets! leaving the island towards a Thai navy ship that was sent to evacuate the island
Hila (lazily lifting her head in the hammock): "don't we also need to go with them?"
Uri: " LOOK!! its the lotti lady!! she's Leaving!!! What will we do!!?!?!"
Hila sighs... : "yes your right... OMG (oh my god).. you want to go sunbathing?"
Uri: "ya why not... i think today ill try some snorkeling"

28th - 21:30 approximately
Hila and Uri are sitting with the german threesome and a dutch lady drinking a fruit daquiri and a tequila sunrise.
Old fat crazy Thai lady running down the beach (wearing a funny hat - yes the same damn woman) screaming: "BIG WAVE!!" ..."[screaming a lot of shit in the thai language]"... "BIG WAVE!!!!"
followed by a hoard of thai's on foot and on motor bikes running to the nearest high point... (its a smaller hill than the one we were on the first time but closer to the cocktail bar)
well... What can i say... Hila panicked and 10 minutes later i found myself trekking up the "mountain" (i remind you i was after a beer and a cocktail) with our valuables and documents... again the "Second Wave" was coming... ok.. we sat again in the "mountain View" restaurant and had another beer... We saw some cnn which gave us the "after a pigua" feeling - which was exactly what we were missing in thailand... after understanding that nothing really happened and that there was no "Second Wave" on the way (we were there for about 2 hours) we slowly made the "trek" back down the mountain...

after this incident the "Second Wave" became a coined expression and things slowly calmed down on the island (and on the telephones from home ;) )

in the few days after the tsunami the island slowly relaxed its touristy feel as most of the Swedish families left and only the "mochileros" stayed on.. And it became a real paradise!! (even our gibbon says its was much better - especially after he found some friends among the indigenous monkeys - there were really monkeys on the island!)

After that not much happened - we had a very toned down new years party and we spent the days sun bathing and eating... on the 2nd we took a speed boat back to the mainland (Hila left some of her leftovers from breakfast with the local fish - it was a rough sea) and made our way towards Trang. There we found we had missed the last bus to bangkok and went looking for a guesthouse. We ate some delicious local market food and in the morning went to the bus station. We found that all the buses to bangkok were full!! So we went to the train station... FULL!! Fuck!! for some reason the thai's also have a holiday on the new years and the whole country was traveling like crazy... So... we went to the airport... we found out that the plane was full too... And after 3 hours on the waiting list they managed to find room for us on the flight to bangkok. We shortened the trip to bangkok from 13 hours to 1, but we felt it heavily in our pockets...

Wow this came out to be a long post - but we have finally filled in the gaps to the present time.

tomorrow afternoon we will be on our way to India - and we will try and keep you posted on our experiences there.

I hope you like the photos and will post your comments.

see you all in Bangalore,

the one the only Hila (she is finally actively participating - she says only because it was finally interesting) & Morphhh Sleazy.

(the tsunami story has been slightly - only slightly - exaggerated for artistic reasons)