September_20

Sawatee,

A Thai greeting of hello. Add "Ka" at the end if you are a woman and "Kop" if you are a man. We have hello and thankyou down pat.

We are safe. Thank you to the many people who have sent us e-mail to check up on us and give us information.

Since our last message, we have travelled south to Krabi, Thailand. The day of the tragedy in the U.S. we were waiting in the train station to catch an overnight train to Surant Thani, Thailand. We caught the train at 6:30pm and arrived in Surat Thani at 8:00am. We were supposed to arrive at 6:00am, but time is not so important here. From Surat Thani, we boarded a bus (with air conditioning) bound for Krabi. A two and a half hour drive. We step off the bus, we were bombarded by boat drivers yelling "Railey!". They try to fill their boats with as many people as they can. We went with one guy and secured a spot on a longtail boat. From Krabi it was a 45 minute stunning boat ride to Railey beach. The boat driver takesyour money while you are in the boat and then goes to get gas for the trip. Being newcomers, Brad was little restless, forgetting time does not matter, while the veteran travelers wait calmy. One of these travelers, a guy from Switzerland, asked Brad if he had heard the news about America. It was unclear, but new that some tragedy had occurred. When we arrived at Railey we walked into Ya-Ya's lodge to a room full of silent people watching CNN. The headline read "America under attack". Thank god we had a bit of informtion to prepare us otherwise we might have freaked. It was sad and troubling. Here we are in paradise, a place we have look forward to for so long, and at home our families and friends are in terror. It was hard to make room for both sets of emtions. How were the other travellers feeling? Should we talk with them? Are we safe? We spent the night mourning as best we could and found a place to stay.

Brad bought a rock climbing book first thing and we started to explore. The island is beautiful and surrounded by stunning cliffs. We walked to the beach and took swim. The water is so clear, warm and comforting. Every where on the island, the T.V.s were tuned to CNN. We wanted to watch, but also wanted begin to enjoy paradise...if possible.

The next day we went rock climbing early in morning. A group of Thailand tourists had landed on the beach and were watching Brad...in great astonishment. They took pictures and Brad did a fake fall...they all gasped and cheered. They did not know it was only a 5.9 and very easy. They also gave us caring words which comforted us.

The rest of the week was more climbing, watching the news, and watching the sunset on the west beach. Slowly we began to talk with more people. Everyone has been very caring and compassionate. There are not very many American travellers here. Everyone we have met has been equally shocked and outraged.

We celebrated our first anniversary on Sept. 16. We went rock climbing, got massages and had a worderful dinner of baked shark with garlic (8 dollars).

Now, for what appears to be the "Jennifer's Saga" portion of the journal. For lunch on our anniversary Jennifer ate a crab salad sandwich...not wise. Later that night (1am) she began making regular trips to the toilet. Had we partied that hard? Maybe, but after the fifth trip, it was something more. Food poisoning! We spent the next 3 days laying in our room with Jennifer sipping water and gatorade. It is rather unnerving to be in foreign place and feel like you are going to die. Brad was a wonderful husband and went out for popsicles, water, gatorade, and wiped her sweaty body. We are happy to say Jennifer has made a full recovery. NO MORE SHELLFISH! We had planned to write earlier this week, but had to wait out the revenge of Buddha.

Today we took the boat to Krabi where everything is cheaper. We are sending this message out, emailing everyone and doing a bit of shopping.

We plan to watch the news and plan accordingly. We feel very safe here and had planned on spending two months here to begin with. It is possible we will be forced to end our travels if the world becomes unsafe. We are sad to realize this. We are not afraid, but will be cautious and aware.

Fear is a dangerous word. Maybe for the first time, we as Americans, are waking up with fear. Many other people live in various kinds of states of fear around the world. We think if we are smart we can continue traveling for the time being. We hope for a safe and thoughful world approach to solving this current crisis. The travellers we have spoken with feel the same.

Thank you for your love and prayers. We send ours back to you, you may need them more at this point. For the time being we are happy in our own little paradise.

Click here for a peacful Railey sunset

Click here for the page of pictures

Be safe and be happy,
Brad and Jennifer