Kra-bi and Fam-ily! - June 30th. 2008

I'm officially in the south now and man its never felt better to get out of Bkk - and THANK HEAVENS.

I surprised my host mother by coming down 12 hrs early (she was eagerly awaiting my arrival) and to accomplish this feat I had to really want it... I mean really want it... I wrestled with Bkk mass transit, taxis, motorcycles, & bumper to bumper traffic which only came about after I was half way there and too far to turn around. Pressing on is rarely a good idea in the city where every one is pressing on.

I ended up walking with 3 heavy bags while bumper to bumper traffic sat and generated heat (needless to say I don't have any photos of this). I was soaked (sweat - eeew...) all the way through by the time I got to a parallel street where traffic was moving. I was afraid I was going to miss the last bus entirely(it left at 8pm) but we arrived at about 8:10pm and I ran (w/3 bags) to buy my ticket and by 8:13 I was on the bus - slept like a baby.

Moral? - No transport is easy in the city of heat and soot.

I was also very relieved and happy to be able to meet my good friends P'pin and P'wa before I left - though all the photos I have of them were deleted accidentally when I moved them over from my camera (sorry - there will be more I'm sure!).

My preparations for my research are moving very slowly but the day of reckoning is coming upon me soon. I will need to be ready to work - and work hard.

It is probably time that I explain more fully what it is that I am doing over here:

Well, I have made contacts with a few people that I hope will assist me with procurring remote sensing imagery for my area of interest (Koh Phra Thong. Phang-Nga, Thailand). One is at the Phuket University Biology department. The goal is to get high resolution imagery from just after the tsunami (My research advisers, Jen Morse and Mirco Boschetti, have already procured pre-tsunami images) that we can use to try and detect change in mangrove location and (hopefully) species makeup from before and after December 26, 2004.

My field work will be extensive species surveys (as opposed to intensive) and ground-truthing exercises. Long story short a lot of time in one of the most hostile (to big soft skinned/fat intruders) ecosystems in the world.

Before all that sweat and mosquitos I just got back from a day trip to Krabi. I've never really BEEN to Krabi proper before so this was a real treat:

OK so this happened about 30 seconds after we got on the boat to go out to the islands. He was very professional about it - Driving the boat while bailing it out. Luckily he didn't need to do this the whole trip long.

Distant view of Nang Bay (Ao Nang).

Coming up on some pretty spots to drift away... The weather today was really perfect - for the wet season.

Men at work...

This is one of the small islands near the big island behind - which is called Chicken Island (Ko Gai). There is a small sand walkway which one could walk from this island and its neighbor all the way to Ko Gai. At low tide the walkway is about 1 ft deep and at high tide it is still walkable.

The change in the water color signals the location of the path. Or you could just snorkel across for the scenic route(recommended).

:-)

My host mother and I snorkeled off of this island(to the right). We saw some soft corals and sea urchins as well as some big heads of hard corals. The visibility was poor but there were quite a few friendly fish that came out to greet us.

So one is tempted to call these anything but islands but they are... This is considered a 4 island tour. A four island tour in chich they knock out 3 islands right off... GENIUS MARKETING... But geez - its beautiful. This whole trip was about $25 per person - including snorkel gear.

The infamous long tail boats. We rented one for the half day and the driver just hung out and waited for us to tell him where we wanted to go... We were pretty happy where we were, however.

Fatty-face pose... It was pretty bright out there... in that sand.

Back in the boat going back to the mainland - we stopped off at Railay. I will be volunteering not far from here beginning tomorrow.

Don't worry... this lady is not lost. It just looks that way. At moments like this I think of you Scott. Bring your kayak when you come brother.

If you look pretty hard you will find a little yellow dot in the center of this photo. Thats a kayak. It is exploring princess cave (where long ago a princess drowned). Scott... once again...

The last beach before home.

Anyone want to be ambitious and findo out how these formations came to be like they are? Any geologists want to leave a quick post and I'll publish it on this blog? I don't know but they are fantastic. They draw people from all over to world to climb them. If you fall, you fall into water... maybe some jagged rocks... but water...

Ahhh... nestled.

And friends to sleep next to when I get home...

Tomorrow I leave for volunteering in Ao Nang(yes I am going back for work now) so we hit up Tai Sai Seafood before leaving - a must for anyone that knows anything about seafood in Phang-Nga. Come and you will find out. My host family re-iterated that you are all welcome for a visit - and by visit they mean anywhere between a week and a couple of months. There is plenty of room and seafood.

:)