remains of the day.....

PHUKET, one year later.....

I am back here in Phuket after not being here for 5 years. I needed to return here to really see for myself what devastations had occured here. I returned to the same bungalows I stayed before though the specific room I requested was completely destroyed. I have also found out that this bay (Bangtao) was one of the hardest hit in the tsunami though I am amazed how everything seems to have gone on "as normal" here. The only remains I see here are bits and pieces of scattered cement, tiles, brush, a few broken trees...there seems to be a lot of rebuilding around me yet it seems all so quiet.

I am surrounded by butterflies here. And for any of you who knows my association with butterflies, you will know I feel quiet peaceful and happy here. A huge butterfly even greeted me on the doorknob of my room when I first arrived. It just sat there as I turned the knob and then gently flew away.

The waters are so amazingly warm here- I am trying to think of a way to describe how perfect it feels....it almost has no feeling at all when you enter it..it is like the perfect temperature of a bath that has been cooled for a minute or two...so gentle....and it is wonderfully quiet here. I sense all children of school age are back in their classrooms....I am happy for this silence. Many of you know I have also been craving this quiet for a long time. I am sleeping very well and very long here. Even the "calls to worship" from the local mosque sounds very soothing here and is a reminder how people of all religions seem to get along so well here.

I will stay in Phuket a few more days and then head back up to Chiang Mai this weekend. It seems much more expensive here compared to where I just was ; though paying 35 dollars a night for a bungalow here (see pic) probably still seems like an incredible bargain to most. I may return here to Phuket when it become low season in March...we'll see.....I need to be in an area where I have cheap internet access as I start teaching my HPU online course next week. It will be fun to share my cultural perspectives to my students back in Hawaii- hard to believe I can teach, being so faraway ! Technology truly is an amazing thing at times.