Adventure!

Two days of bumming around the beach and hanging out in a resort left me feeling a little empty. I know, poor me. After breakfast buffet at the hotel, I decided I needed to get out of the bubble I was in so I packed my bags and set out walking. I had until Thursday to get to the airport, which was about 60km down the coast. So I did what any rational person in my situation would do: I decided to hike. This picture shows a very different view of the main beach from the picture I took day one. Civilization has a totally different look from the outside. Patong Beach is in a cove, and this picture was taken from the outer edge. I didn't know what was on the other side of the cove, but I would soon find out.

The coast was very rocky, and it took some navigating to get from beach to beach. The good thing about the rocks is that they were totally solid, mostly flat, and had great grip--even when wet. Realizing the fact that I was walking up, down, and around boulders by myself with a backpack, a small bag, and sandals which were goring holes in my feet, I thought this might be a little dangerous. But hey, you should all know by now what I live for: It starts with a D and ends with ANGER!! However, I did have the sense to lay down some ground rules. One: Stay low, whenever possible. Try to stay close to the water, so if I fall I don't kill myself. Two: Take the easiest path possible. Never take any unnecessary risks and don't climb anything unless there's no other way. For the most part, it was a safe path, albeit a physically exerting one. Every once in a while, though, I would run into areas like this, where there was nowhere to go but up.

The journey wasn't without rest. After scaling the cliff, which wore me out, I found the road and followed it. Wow, there's a road that runs along the coast--how convenient. I stopped for lunch at a small roadside restaurant and feasted on some ludicrously hot, yet extremely delicious green curry. There have been many beers consumed in my lifetime, but I'm not sure if any one of them were as satisfying as this one. I took a picture of the menu because I felt it was indicative of the service I received all week. Everywhere I went it the nice local people bent over backwards to accomodate my every need and desire. Before I move on, I have to say again that this curry was savagely spicy, and ridiculously tasty.

I walked on the rest of the afternoon, down the coast. The walking was not too treacherous after lunch, and I didn't have to scale any cliffs. My feet were really killing me, though. Speaking of my feet, I have to back up for a moment. When I took the road, the sandals were too uncomfortable to handle, so I put on some socks. I thought of how proud my father would be seeing me walking around in shorts, black socks, and sandals.

Early evening, I arrived at Kamala Beach, which is close to halfway to the airport. I covered alot of ground this day, and it was time to rest. At this spot, my eyes were opened to the effects of the tsunami. While it's easy to stay in resorts and go about like nothing had happened, there are people whose lives have been devastated, and they're still rebuilding. This area was ground zero, and I talked to many of the locals. One person told me that in seven minutes his business, his life, was completely underwater. He said he was lucky he was a strong swimmer. Think about that for a moment. I talked to a nice lady who owns a restaurant. Her and her family run the business from 9am to 11pm every single day...every single day. They lost family members and friends and were now working like hell to pick up the pieces--much like every other person I talked to in this small community. On top of all of this, none of these people had ever met Eileen. Despite this devastation, however, the people were cheerful, friendly, and extremely gracious. For me, a really poignant representation of the spirit of these people was in the construction zone just across the street from the guest house in which I was staying. While the men were working well into the evening, there was music blaring and a large group of children under the newly built structure: Dancing.