chanlak khaolak

sorry, we've been really busy. lucy showed up. it's been magical. drinking coconuts. making friends. eating delicious food. the usual. here's the basic idea: we heart thailand. chanlak = i love. the details are as follows:
meet meaw. he works at the coconut grove restaurant in khaolak, thailand. here you can see him teaching lucy how to say something in thai. we learned a lot from him, enough to function on our own when we headed north (more on that later). his name means 'cat' in thai. that's his nickname, and it suits him. even though he is younger than us, he is our pishai (older brother).



meet nong, meaw's brother. the best singer in thailand, also our pishai and a fabulous dancer. he loves thai country music. we couldn't figure out exactly what that meant, but we're learning.








next we have sit, 'the fisherman', who acts tough but is quite possibly the sweetest man on earth.











finally, this is su. how can we describe su? he's the hardest working, coolest kid in thailand. he's basically the boss of coconut grove. he's from myanmar (burma) and might be the sickest breakdancer of all time.
these are our favorite people in thailand. although it's hard to say such a thing, since literally everyone in thailand is sweet and nice and interesting. now we know you want to see more pictures of us. but hang on a minute, cause these are the people we spent a whole week with in khaolak and we love them. so you can look at a few more pictures. such as this picture of sit and bobo the cute puppy.
and this one of all of su sitting in front of his kitchen (the very kitchen that fed us so well for several days) and more fun times in khaolak. we had a lot of beach time and excellent thai massages and our posse was grand. we also met some katouey (ladyboys) that looked way more fabulous than we do.


khaolak was hit hardest by the 2004 tsunami. over 4000 people died in this area. our friends had a lot of stories to tell, lost a lot of people and property, but have remained positive and khaolak is rebuilding. it's not our place to tell their stories, but you can read about them. we stayed at the amsterdam resort in khaolak. mr. khees, the proprietor has info on his website: http://bangniang.freeservers.com. we visited a police boat that was washed 2 kilometers inland by one giant wave and remains there as a memorial. you can't even see the ocean from the boat. we stared at the andaman sea for a days, trying to imagine a wave that big. it's not possible. many people we spoke with said that international donations didn't make it to the people. bureaucracy reigns universal. but interacting, sharing stories and making connections helps. that kind of stuff has been really easy for us. we might not come home. wink wink.

we rode our motorbikes in the pouring rain to the chong faa waterfall, into the jungle. we were totally alone, cause the tourists aren't interested in getting wet apparently, and the thais that live there have seen the chong faa waterfall a million times. so we rode in as far as we could go and then we hiked. lush forest, birds and frogs, warm tropical rain. delicious. after a minor "mari and tara fall in the river" mishap, we made it to the waterfall, swam in the pool and thought we were the coolest kids in thailand, cause we were the only ones there. riding home later, mari found a leech on her leg. we decided to make it back to our bungalow to shower, rather than tear our clothes off in the street. the final tally? tara: 2 leeches. mari: 2 leeches. corey: zero (that's cause she took one for the team getting that crazy massage in malaysia). the big leech bite on mari's leg healed up real nice.

we went to the similan islands, where we were surrounded by fat europeans, flicking their cigarettes into the ocean. the best parts were when we were facedown in the coral reefs snorkeling. we saw giant (really really giant) puffer fish and parrot fish. it was peaceful down there. the hour long speedboat ride was not. we made friends with the boat boys who were sharing headphones, listening to linkin park and totally cool with the giant seas through which we bounced.

a word about farongs: farong basically means "foreigner". this term isn't as negative as "gringo", it merely differentiates us from thais when it comes to both prices and spicy food. they just don't believe that we can handle the real hot chilis. gradually, meaw, nong and sit got used to the idea that when we say spicy, we mean thai spicy, not farong spicy. so one night, corey goes out with the guys after work and they take her to the banana bar (thai techno music is craaaazy) and then the real thai eatery. it's two in the morning. the chilis are finally burning her face off. two nights later, mari and tara come along, and after a night of dancing to thai pop hits and learning the fisherman's special dance (arm extended, thumb pointing out and waving in the air, bouncing up and down) we hit the thai eatery again. this time, they believe us. we can take it. after indulging in the spiciest food we've eaten so far for a while, tara offers corey a special chili. the kind the fisherman has been downing by the dozen, unaffected. she's armed with a big bowl of rice, so she goes for it. not so bad. "no problem," as they say in thailand. when it really hits, however, it brings the tears. tara's next, shouting, "no problem!" over and over. her lips turned the same color as her fuschia shirt. even the boys were hurting. finally. the real thai chili.

leaving khaolak on a ten hour busride to petchanburi was slightly painful. we got used to having meaw, nong and sit around to translate, make us laugh and show us the real deal. but we would have gotten really fat if we had stayed, cause we ate a lot. just ask lucy. she's been writing it all down. we have now completed another excrutiating blog entry. it took a long time. you better appreciate. we miss you a little bit. xoxoxooxo