Koh
Lanta
About 4 am I was awoken by the sound of a drunk Scandinavian
singing old Viking songs. Apparently he had just arrived
back at the bungalows and, feeling good after a night
of partying, decided to let loose with a few old war
hymns. I considered the repression and conformity
that must exist in the Scandinavian society and the
role that alcohol must play in relieving stress and
inhibitions. I considered the rhythmic hypnotic quality
of the tune and that his voice was not that great
but not that bad either. I considered the strong racial
consciousness that Scandinavians must have, being
almost a completely homogeneous population and how
this might have led to isolationism and nationalism
particularly in light of Viking pagan mythology.
Then as my mind switched from the the alpha waves
of peaceful slumber into the beta waves of crass waking
reality, my mind rearranged things as they should
be and I realized that I was not listening to old
Viking songs at all. I was listening to the early
morning call to prayers at the local mosque.
Rock
climbing at Railay
There
were Muslims everywhere in Koh Lanta. But they were
not the black hijab-wearing Arabs I saw on Arab street
in Bangkok. These Muslims wore bright colors - the
men wore sarongs and the women were pretty with their
colorful head scarves and clothings. The seemed smiley
and gentle.
Koh
Lanta is the latest island in Thailand that has boomed
in development for foreigners purchasing second homes
or vacations. Most of the foreigners are Scandinavians
or Germans. For them, the land here is cheap. Before
Koh Lanta, there were booms in Samui and Phuket. Now
it's Lanta and Koh Chang. Clearly the way to make
money is to find the next island, as there are hundreds
of them and buy the land before the destination gets
popular. Most of the unknown islands don't even have
electricity yet. If you get in on the ground floor,
you could be a real estate mogul by the time of the
next boom.
Karst
Topography
My
favorite Lonely Planet description concerning Krabi
is the scenery which they describe as being replete
with "Karst Topography." It sounds like
some avant-garde painting school. I can picture the
art dealer saying,"This painting is an original
Hans Humpner, notice the chaotic brush strokes that
epitomize the naive angst of the Karst Topography
School of 19th century Impressionism".
Cave
Entrance East Railay Beach
Although
I was sure it is the technically correct term, I had
to run to dictionary.com
to figure what it means. Dictionary.com gives the
following definition for Karst: "An area of irregular
limestone in which erosion has produced fissures,
sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns".
It's
true. The landscape of Krabi has cliffs and caves
and stalagmites and huge cliff-like structures popping
straight up out of the ground as if the earth got
horny for the moon and popped a series of boners.
The Karst topography is beautiful and stark, like
some other planet with sheer cliffs and craggy overhangs
creating underwater caverns with low hanging stalagmites
dangling over head. It reminded me of old Yes
album covers. In fact I would like to take the liberty
here to coin a new term that I think expresses the
natural rock formation better than "Karst Topography".
I would like to call them "Yes Bonography".
