The Waiting Room

Monday mornings are crazy. The waiting room in the outpatient department is like a crazy bus terminal with dogs sleeping under the benches, Buddhist monks in their robes, crying babies, and everyone drinks water out of one cup. Awesome.

The Moei River separating Burma and Thailand

As you can see, it's a secure border. There is no way to walk across the Moei River here or anywhere else.

The Bridge to Burma

The official name is "The Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge" or something like that. I've been running to the border and back again at night for exercise. It takes about an hour. No, I haven't been going alone, but it's quite safe and quiet.

Mae Tao Clinic parking lot and registration area

That silver beast is my bike! And that crowded area in the distance is the registration area. Mae Tao Clinic is a free clinic surviving on donations. It turns out that it is a sort of safe haven for unregistered Burmese. The patients come from across the border or live in the surrounding area working in sweat shops (14-hour days, 2 days off a month) so they can send money back to Burma. I've seen a lot of bizarre cases, including what I think was scleroderma. There are a lot of new diagnoses of liver failure, cancer, nephrotic syndrome, malaria, TB, parasites, and stress that I see in clinic. The wildest case was scleroderma. This is pretty amazing considering my only tests are a urine dip stick, a glucometer, a malaria prep, and hemoglobin.

My bedroom for two months

This is my crash pad for a couple months. I am surrounded by mango trees and birds in the morning. It is a good place to be.

Highway 1 -- The Asian Pacific Highway

This is supposed to go all the way to Istanbul, if you were allowed to cross through Myanmar by land.

Mae Tao Clinic

This place is great. Wierd, but great. I've settled down in a nice guesthouse and met a wierd mix of folks. Virtually everyone I have met is here solely to volunteer with one of the many non-governmental organizations (NGO's) in the area. I have met only one person who has actually been backpack travelling through SE Asia. Most of the folks at the guesthouse are either volunteering to teach English to Burmese or volunteering at the Mae Tao Clinic (a few medical students and EMTs, but strictly observing, apparently). It is a strange collection of people from all the world, a bunch of do-gooders, actually. Freaks.
So I'm not really up to speed on the situation here, but the government in Burma is a military junta that placed the leaders of the popularly elected political party under house arrest back in the 1990's, and they have skirmishes with the rebel army in the Karen state in Burma (across the border from Mae Sot), which sometimes causes refugees to flee into Thailand. At the same time, like many border towns, the local economy thrives on the illegal border crossings. I have heard that maybe a third of the local population consists of illegal aliens, many of whom work in sweat shops in the local economy. These Burmese have no rights, so there are NGO groups here helping out with their plight (I can rhyme!).
The Mae Tao Clinic, where I have been the past couple of days, sees Burmese people who are either living in the area, or have travelled from smaller villages in Burma. The clinic looks like a refugee camp and makes the Krabi Hospital look like a modern sparkling facility in comparison. They have "medics" who do almost all of the caregiving in pediatrics, primary care, ob/gyn, and surgical departments. There are only two or three Western docs there right now...After tomorrow, there will be only two (me and someone else). The clinic sees a couple hundred patients a day. It is awesome. I have only been there a couple days (I'm working in the outpatient department!), and I've already seen a few cases of malaria. Back home, someone with fever, mild headache, back/neckache, and general discomfort would probably have a viral syndrome; here, it's probably gonna be malaria. My first patient was a doozy -- a 13 year old kid jaundiced with ascites! I was thinking, "Dude, are all your patients this messed up?" There are also lots of amputees from landmines in Burma. (Reminder to self: don't go trekking in Burma.)It is a whacked world, but it is fun being here.
This weekend a group of us went off to visit a gibbon sanctuary, where there were rescued gibbons in cages. Some of them were blind, crippled by polio, and amputees...man, it was like Mae Tao clinic all over again! We also visited a waterfall which was nice and cool. I will try to upload some photos soon.
I would tell you that I've rented a 100 cc scooter for the month ($86!), but I don't want to scare my parents. (Hey, Mike D! Remember me getting crushed by your bike? You should see me now!)
Tomorrow I have to help give a lecture on heart problems, which will be interesting since they have no diagnostic tests other than a blood pressure cuff and a stethescope. This is an awesome time.

I finally broke the Sirens' hold...

After three weeks in Krabi, I finally took a long bus ride to the northwestern Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot. It took 24 hours of travel, but I am done. The second bus trip from Bangkok to Mae Sot was on a "2nd class bus", which wasn't bad except my air-conditioning vent wasn't working; so I was sweating like a pig for the eight hours up here. In contrast to the "VIP bus" to Bangkok which was filled with "farangs", I was the only foreigner on the bus to Mae Sot. Immigration officials checked my passport at the city limits. The border between Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and Thailand is sort of a sieve for blackmarket traders. I'm here to volunteer in the Mae Tao Clinic for a couple months. I've paid for a month's accommodation. It's a clean place with a shared bathroom. It's just over $100.
It has been hot in Thailand for the past few weeks. It's probably around 100 F during the daytime.

Besides diving, last week in Krabi, I went to see a Muai Thai boxing match. It was great. They had nine matches with the boxers varying in age from 7 years to 22. The little kids were tough as nails taking and throwing punches without a wimper. I don't know how they do it. Jean Claude van Damme would have had his ass beaten.

The photos can't really show the amount of fish I was surrounded by. I took shot some video with my camera, but I don't know how to post short videos on my site.

A large school of barracuda lurking at the surface chased up a lot of bait fish. It went on for about ten minutes in an ever increasing ring.

At sharkpoint (used to be lots of shark there before they were killed off), I chased this turtle for a minute. It's wierd to be using all the scuba gear to be chasing an animal that is holding its breath effortlessly.

A lobster (clawless, as they usually are found outside of the northeastern United States). Or a langostine...I'm not sure what the difference is.

There are lots of lionfish along with sea urchin.

At anenome reef, there were loads of anenome. This is the clownfish made famous by "Finding Nemo". There were hordes of these critters everywhere ducking in and out of the anenome.

I did a dive at the king cruiser wreck. This was a ferry boat that sank when it struck Anenome Reef. No one died, but the wreck makes for great diving. I went down to 26 meters on this dive. Visibility wasn't great, but there were loads of fish. Here are some fish streaming over a barnacle-encrusted railing on the ship.

A flounder camouflaged in the sandy floor.

I thought these things were dead (or plastic toys), but I was told they sleep like they're dead.

We did a sand dive at Mosquito Island to find some small nearly invisible shrimp and seahorses. This one is pregnant.

A giant moray eel poking its head out.

I went diving a couple times this past week. I got to visit a couple sites around Ko Phi Phi on the first day. It was fantastic diving. I was surrounded by fish. This is a six-foot leopard shark I saw sleeping in the sand at Ko Bida Nai. Eventually, it woke up and swam away.

Viewpoint over west and east Rai Lay. East Rai Lay is on the right side, and west rai lay is on the left. The grove of palm trees on the left bottom corner is a five-star resort. The cheapest accommodations are actually at Tonsai Beach which is on the west side, but on the right side past some cliffs. The climbing community there is pretty tight. Everyone helps everyone else getting stronger and stronger as the weeks go by.

The only evidence of the tsunami.

Esplanade at Ao Nang beach. These guys are waiting for tourists going to Rai Lay. They're the longtail boat touts that yell, "RAILAYRAILAYRAILAY!!!"

Pad Thai, or fried glass noodles I made.

Lots of curry dishes and soups.

Some of the food we made at the Thai Cookery School.

Less steep, but thinner walls over here.

A steep roof at Tonsai beach, the climber's ghetto at Rai Lay.

Hans, a Swiss climber, clipping in on a 7c testpiece at Tonsai beach.

This one of the sections of rock that you have to climb to get to and from the lagoon. There are about five of these four-meter sections levels going into the lagoon from the top.

This is a crappy photo of the lagoon. It's actually quite large, surrounded by sheer cliffs. To get there, you have to scramble over slippery rocks. Fortunately they have ratty ropes that you can use (if you dare) to help yourself along.

West Rai Lay beach. The only way to get to Rai Lay is by longtail boat (or by bushwhacking for an hour through the jungle).

Thaiwand wall at west Rai Lay beach.

A longtail boat...the common transportation getting to and from Krabi to Rai Lay beach. They use a four-cylinder car engine on the back connected by a driveshaft to a two-blade propeller.

Beautiful Pra Ngan beach at Rai Lay

This is splendid. A beautiful beach surrounded by turquoise water and great sand. You have to take a longtail boat to get here as there are no roads. There's great climbing too! Limestone cliffs are everywhere.

Awesome limestone cliffs all over the west coast of Thailand.

Lazy days in Krabi

I've spent over a week in Ao Nang beach, paying 300 BHT ($7.50) for a room with cable tv, a fridge, and fan. The tv is sucking my life away. It's so easy to lie in front of it and watch the world spin 'round and 'round. I keep tempting myself by going over to Rai Lay and Tonsai to see the climbers there, but the tv keeps drawing me back home. It's pretty sad. But hey, besides boozing and eating, swimming and running, I also took a cooking class. It was pretty good, and I can now make three types of curry and soups and stir fried rice and pad thai. Even more importantly, I got a copy of the recipes so I can remember what I learned. I've also gone hiking at Rai Lay to explore the view point and the lagoon. To get to the lagoon, you have to scramble up a nearly vertical trail (aided by big hand and footholds and ratty ropes), then descend down nearly the same distance. It gets slippery with the clay everywhere, and it's quite easy to fall, but I've been extra careful; I've been wearing fisherman pants and Tevas. Ah, how to describe Rai Lay? A peninsula with limestone cliffs jutting out of the ground everywhere...soaring a few hundred feet high. Dripping limestone crags that appear to be melting. Jungle life clinging to the steep cliffs. No roads in or out. Bungalows next to a five-star resort. It's a paradise with an awesome beach at Phrang-Nga bay. Lots of climbers and tourists find their way there for a few days, and the climbers tend to stay all season. It's an interesting mix of people.
Yesterday I went climbing a little bit (it's all I could handle) on a 6b climb at Tonsai. I top-roped it with little difficulty, but quickly peeled off of a 6c climb further down the beach on a pretty big flake. What can I say? I suck. Today my arms are a little sore, which is good. Pain is weakness leaving the body.
I think tomorrow I will go diving at Ko Phi Phi. That's where they filmed the Beach. It was also pretty devastated by the tsunami, and there are a lot of tourist-volunteers rebuilding the expensive tourist resort there. I think it's kind of silly, but hey, a thousand points of lights. Stay the course. It's sort of like people going to Las Vegas to volunteer rebuilding the casinos after a fire. I've seen some backpackers wearing t-shirts that say "www.kophiphi-org -- rising above the wave". Um...LAME. But it's supposed to be pretty good diving there.
I visited a Thai Emergency Room last week, which was kind of interesting. A dude had slipped while hiking to the lagoon at Rai Lay and split his scalp and broke a rib. I escorted him to the hospital and spent the afternoon presiding over things. The Thai medical system is pretty efficient. There was no waiting, and the nurses, as usual, did most of the examination and stitching. The doc wanted to admit David, the injured Swiss, to monitor for a pneumothorax, but from the look of the facilities, I suggested checking into a hotel. There were ants crawling over the food trays. Yum. But I can definitely say the actual medical care they practice seems to be spot on. They had a little girl (about 9 years old) intubated AND awake, being bagged by the nurse in the ER. That sure takes care of the need for any expensive monitoring. I'm not sure how she could tolerate the tube, but hey, I think the Thais are on to something. They brought people in quickly, treated, then streeted them. No silly colds or sore throats in their ER. After the xrays and stitches and medicines, the total bill for the visit was 1100 BHT, about $27. So what if there are ants on the food trays?!

waterfight!

During Songkran, loads of people ride around in trucks and scooters to take part in the nationwide waterfight. I don't know what they do in times of drought.

The streets were full of revellers during Songkran.

Washing away bad luck during Songkran.

Happy Songkran, the water festival!

Today is the water festival Songkran, marking the end of the year. If you've seen the DVD of "the Beach" I think they show scenes of Songkran in the deleted scenes. Okay, that may be a little obscure. Basically, it's a giant waterfight to wash away your sins or all the bad luck of the past year. People have garden hoses, buckets, water guns, bottles, basically anything that will carry water, and shower pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cars. They also put scented, mentholated baby powder on everyone. It's glorious fun! I was out there for six hours getting soaked.
An awesome time!

Thai army checkpoint in southern Thailand.

...entering Thailand.

Leaving Malaysia...

The river dividing Thailand from Malaysia on the east coast.

Passport control -- leaving Malaysia for Thailand. Surprising there was no line, no armed guards, no barbed wire, no security guards. I guess Thailand isn't afraid of an influx of immigrants from Malaysia. This was only where passports were stamped for departing Malaysia.

Volleyball at Coral Bay.

Coral Bay at the Perhentians. It faces west, so it has no waves and the beach is thin, but it has nice sunsets.

This was the view from my bungalow.

I think this is a bird of prey. It was hanging around on the beach for a couple days.

Pretty spartan digs, but the mosquito net was vital to my sanity. There was a little fan to keep cool. It was cheap, but expensive in comparison to my other places in Malaysia at 35 Ringiits, which is about $8 a night.

This was my bungalow.

Matahari Chalet, where I spent a few nights.

Long Beach at Pulau Perhentian Kecil. It is pretty deserted.

Back in Paradise!

After many hours on the road, I made the trek from the northeast corner of Malaysia to the west coast of Thailand. I am now in Krabi. I was here back in 2001. It's good to be back.
From the Cameron Highlands, I took an overnight bus to Kota Bharu. A taxi ride and fast boat later, I arrived at Pulau Perhentian Kecil, or small Perhentian Island. There was not much at that place. It was covered with a jungle, a couple steep mountains, and some beautiful beaches. The sky was partly overcast for the three days I was there, and the surf was pretty big, so I didn't do any dives. I did watch the "lifeguards" rescue two girls (separate incidences) from the strong rip currents during my time there. It was fun bodysurfing in the waves, fighting the rips. It was definitely a pretty place to be.
It took me about 12 hours to get to Krabi from the Perhentians. Travelling is definitely easier now that I am out of Indonesia. I just tune out with my headphones and earplugs (earplugs to shut out the high pitched drone of the motor and the Thai/Malay music). Thailand is a lot more developed than I remembered four years ago. The roads and cars are new. In fact, I would guess that Toyota has built a new plant here recently as most of the cars are one or two year old Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs. In the south, where the Thai army continues its battle with Muslim rebels, we had to cross several checkpoints. An army dude just wanted to checkout the male occupants of the vehicle. That included me, but they quickly lost interest when I could speak English.
I think the second largest minority group in Thailand are the Swedish tourists. Holy cow, there are loads of young Swedes here. I think the most casualties of tourists in the tsunami were Swedes. It's baffling how the Swedes more than any other nationality come to Thailand.
Anyways, I am beat, so it's time for bed now.