Under de Sea

[Above photo:  A mangrove tree at the south end of our beach on North Surin Island.]

3 May 2023

Returning from Asia with great fatigue recalls a terrifying time to me, for in 2008 when I came back from teaching and scuba-diving in the Philippines it was fatigue that signaled my lung cancer. This time, however, I suspect it is because I have not slept well for awhile and just completed a 25 hour plane and airport ordeal returning from the other side of the planet.

My flight from Bangkok to Boston included three planes, massive amounts of time sitting, and one near-missed flight. Our plane from Seoul left over an hour late and my connection in Minneapolis was already tight.  I had to retrieve my checked suitcases and pass them, and myself, through Customs. I saw friends from the first leg of the journey ahead of me in the Passport Control line and they encouraged me to cut, which I did. Delta had already booked me a hotel for the night and a flight out the next day, assuming I wouldn’t make my original flight. Intrepid traveler that I am, I dumped my bags on a conveyer belt and raced to the departure terminal, commandeering an electric transporter en route. The driver was only too happy to press pedal to metal and we sped along, warning sluggish travelers to get out of the way. I was the last on my flight and they secured the doors 7 minutes later.  Arriving in Boston at 12M, my luggage had made it aboard, as well, to my surprise. Of course, I took a taxi in the pouring rain to the Hampton Inn Logan Airport (Chelsea) instead of the Hampton Inn Logan Airport (Revere), where my reservation had been secured. Manuel, the Uber driver, happily shuttled me to the correct hotel and we chatted away in my primitive, dusty Spanish. He likes California much better than Boston but has found it much easier to make a living in the latter.

After a wonderful visit with Kelly and Liz in Laos, I flew to Phuket and hopped a ride up the west coast to Khao Lak. My hotel, at $35/night, was a lovely spot near the beach. The room faced inward toward a large garden area with two fancy swimming pools. A later comparison with the bleakness of the $180/night Hampton Inn (Revere or Chelsea) left me wondering, again, how working people can make it in the US. Barely and with difficulty for many, I’d guess.

A lorry gathered me and others in the early morning and drove an hour up the coast to Kuraburi Pier, where we collected snorkels, masks, and fins and boarded a speedboat for Ko Surin Nuea. The Surin Islands, a National Park, are 5 be-jungled bits of paradise 2 hours offshore—and this boat ran 4 250hp Honda outboards. To sum up, we snorkeled 4x/day at different spots, slept in tents 3 feet from the top of the beach, and were fed 3 wonderful Thai meals per day. Our island was filled with wildlife—the monkeys and monitor lizards, up to 4’ long, were the most striking to me.

The snorkeling was variable. Some of the coral was bleached and dead whereas in other areas it was colorful and flourishing. In the latter areas I swam constantly through columns of brightly colored fish. The undersea is endlessly fascinating for me. I saw different fish each time, all strikingly patterned and colored. Schools of larger and smaller fish passed by calmly. Often small groups of the same kind of fish would feed with excitement in an area, then move as one to an adjacent spot. Our snorkeling was generally in 45 minute periods, after which we’d return to the long-tail boat and head for yet another area, not unlike the fish. I began to fantasize about scuba diving on a subsequent trip to the Similan Islands, a near-twin set of islands to the south, renowned for its diving sites.  Maybe I’m not too old, maybe it wouldn’t be excessively risky.

A highlight for me was a Dutch grandmother and her 13yo granddaughter on a birthday trip for the latter. Sonja’s husband, who apparently loves to travel, didn’t come on this trip. Sonja works to help immigrants in Friesland (N. Holland) acculturate. Veerle, a perfect 13yo emotionally right on target, swims on a water polo team and is powerful in the water. She was assembling a clever video for a report to her class when she returned. We shared meals, talked a lot, and slept in adjacent tents on the beach. It was the end of the season; monsoon rains cause the crystalline water to become turbid so the area closes for 4 months at the end of April, giving everything a chance to breathe and recover.  The tents can accommodate 500 people at a time; there were less than 50 during our stay.  Full house would be a nightmare but we were so widely dispersed that it felt almost deserted.

After returning to Bangkok, I discovered that Kelly and Liz were there to send him off to California. His brother was retiring as a successful film guy and Kelly was crashing his party as a surprise. We had a delicious supper, including curried soft-shell crab, together at Steve, a café overlooking the Chao Praya River. Then I returned to Irene’s apartment, finished packing, and prepared for a 6AM Grab (an Uber-equivalent) ride to Suvarnabhumi International Airport and the beginning of my return odyssey.

I am going to explore creating a business. It is nigh-impossible to get funding as an individual and I am not currently affiliated with a university. So my choice is to start a business. A non-profit in the US requires a lot of paperwork and some $. A business in Thailand, because of an amity agreement with the US, is easy and inexpensive to set up. And, I am assured, would facilitate my attraction of funds to underwrite further training programs I might want to do.  At this time, there is apparently considerable money available for training in mental health. It seems like a good project for the summer.

We are certainly at a number of major inflection points in our history. Between worldwide authoritarianism, AI, and climate change, it is a great time not to be in charge!!  For fun, ask Perplexity AI to write a paper on, say, the lobster industry, including the challenges to it and measures to preserve it, with annotated references.  Wham, it is pretty darned eerie how quickly and effectively AI programs can churn these out. Scary, even, in the “wrong” hands.