The narrow fishing boats took us across the water thru the storm. After the ten minute voyage, we arrived at our destination, Naga Island, which is located just off of the greater island of Phuket. We knew the villagers that we were staying with made a living by harvesting rubber trees and catching fish. Most villages are muslim communities in the southern parts of Thailand. Aside from that, we weren't sure what to expect.
At the shore, we were greeted by Khun Deen, whom I later learned to be the son of the household matriarch. The rain was still coming down effusively, so we hurried ourselves to their house. The dwellings here are set up on stilts made of brick, concrete or wood poles, with sheet metal roofs, woven bamboo walls, and wood planks for floors. The 16 of us arranged ourselves in a shape closely resembling a circle, sitting on large area mats on the covered deck of the house. The host family brought us food: fried rice, with vegetable soup and bottled water. While we ate, the rain ceased and the clouds cleared up, all rather suddenly. The chickens and cats emerged from their hidind places in the yard below, and soon the air was filled with their respective animal sounds, echoed by the wildly chirping forest birds and the softly crashing sea foam in the background.
The sun came out and we were divided up into groups of four. One group composed of four males. The other groups of females. (We're a rather disproportioned group.) We were led off to different homes. The male group remained at Khun Deen's house - which later came to be a sort of headquarters. Then we had about an hour of freetime to relax and explore the immediate area. I walked on the concrete pier, which probably extended a good quarter mile out, and read from my book, Howl's Moving Castle (yep, it's a book). After our group of 16 students reconveined, we were led out to the beach to observe the villager's method of fishing.
The sun was making it's presence very well known; it beared down on us so intensely that you wouldn't have guessed that we had ran for cover from a storm just a bit earlier. We sat on the beach under the shade of coconut trees, while the fishermen prepared their synthetic nets. Once their gear was in order, they hopped in their long tail boat and shoved off using a wood pole. Slowly the driver guided the boat thru the turquoise bay while the other fellow released netting into the water, until they made a full cresent from our spot on the shore, where a third fisherman had anchored the end of the net, to a place in the water near the opposite shore.
The sand felt like cookie dough. Not silky, but still very soft and pleasant. Occasionally a little spot on the bay would ripple and sparkle, as if rain were splashing upwards from it, apparently caused by enthusiastic schools of tiny fish. Sometimes I would see a few larger fish leap out of the water to get on the other side of the net. Their strategic capacity must be very limited, because sometimes they jumped from outside the crescent to the inside, from liberty to... non-liberty.
After casting out their full net. The boat was mannuvered around the bay in a strange fashion while the man on the helm "pumped" the water with what resembles a toilet plunger at the end of a pole, making a slapping slash punching noise each time. We were told that this mannuvering of the engine and the pumping action was intended to scare the fish into the net. After intimidating the fish to their satisfaction, the two men went back to the end of the net and slowly hauled their net back into the boat. I was surprised at how few fish they caught, but perhaps I wasn't looking close enough. Anyway, that was my spontaneous intuition.
Our Thai guide, Wilson, next told us that we were free to do what we want until dinner. He suggested that we go to the beach on the opposite side of the island, a prime swimming location. Most of the group was lead away by a one-armed villager. I went back to headquarters to retrieve my swim suit. Wilson then took Bob and myself on an exciting adventure thru the interior of the island.
We got lost. More descriptions soon to come.
***note*** The images I am using are not photographs that I have actually taken. As I cannot install my camera's software on most computers that I encounter in this country, I am forced to scavenge through the infinite archives that is the internet. I want to give you some sort of idea of what these places look like. I'll upload my authentic photographs when I return to Seattle, if not sooner.
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