Koh Pra Thong: Seagrass, gardening, lunch and a long walk
After breakfast (Anh tells us she normally has toast and jam for breakfast so we followed suit), we headed to the Community Conservation and Resource Centre (CCRC) for a discussion with Ning & Jim from Mangrove Conservation Project, and Barry who does seagrass monitoring. We learned about the importance of these habitats on the island and to the community, and about turtle research from Por. The CCRC is to be the main focus for STA fundraising in the near future - structural work needs to be carried out to make the centre accessible to the whole community as a place for them to learn about the flora and fauna on their doorstep, for them to teach visitors to the island about the work they are doing to protect and develop their natural environment, and as a showcase for the wares of the tie-dye group who want to sell their products to locals and visitors.

After a quick lesson on how to monitor seagrass from Barry - Louise and I agreed it took us back to our A-Level Geography days with transects and profiles! - we then headed out to the communal area where the community had turned out in force to tidy and weed the ground. They have planted a good number of Wild Almond trees (a species and not trees that were once wild!), with the dual aim of binding together better the sandy soil, and for the trees to provide much needed communal shade during the hot season. At the moment the trees are about knee height and needed to be mulched with coconut shells and weeded to offer them a better chance of survival. With one hoe between the 25 or so people we resorted to pulling out the weeds with our hands. It was incredibly hot and humid and exhausting work.

Lunch was a welcome break - the ladies of the community had prepared a range of dishes for all us workers to eat together once the hard labour was over. At 12.30 everyone swarmed to the community centre for green curry, rice noodles, fish curry, salads, fresh vegetables and the most refreshing (and sweet) iced tea I've ever had. Lunch over, and we all joined forces to teach some English to the community groups. I joined the tie-dye team to teach them key words for their processes including alkaline, rust (often pronounced by the ladies as lust which made us all giggle) and bitter bush. We did this by a big game of Chinese Whispers. It was hilarious as what reached the end of the line was definitely not how the word started out - and they exacted their revenge by returning the word in Thai, to see us stumble over the pronunciation!

English lesson over and it was time for our long walk. We headed back to the pier and waded across the shallow creek to where the old bridge connecting the village of Pak Jok and the Ban Lion side of the creek, had once stood and had been destroyed in the tsunami. From there it was a sombre stroll along the old concrete path through where the houses once stood. All of the houses had been built alongside the creek so that the fishermen had a good view of their boats at all times. Heading into what is fast becoming a mangrove swamp, you could see detritus of the lives that were once here, even 6 years on. Broken plates, roof tiles and bottles are scattered across the mud, and all serves to remind you of the lives that were lost here - many being women and children. From the old village we headed to the shore, and the impact of the wave became even more apparent. Koh Pra Thong has the "perfect" undersea topography to wreak the greatest level of devastation when the tsunami hit land. The seabed rises gently and consistently and the beach is 10km long - curving in a gentle way all the way to the top of the island where Pak Jok stood. It didn't stand a chance. The community had a number of concrete water tanks which were located at the school - we saw them later that day deposited about a mile away in the seagrass meadows, carried by the force of the wave.

We walked along the beach back to the mouth of the creek that we had earlier forded, and soon realised that we would need to wade through a deeper channel to reach the seagrass meadows and mangrove forests (for which a group had earlier in the day repaired signs explaining the species and the importance of them to everyone and anyone). After transecting the monitoring site, we headed back to the village via a sulphurous mud trap! - for dinner with Anh and Zak, accompanied by a few beers!

After dinner, we headed two doors down to meet with the rest of the group and celebrate Bodhi's birthday with a pancake cake. Having had a yellow curry for dinner (which included potatoes and was served with rice) the stodge of the pancake cake nearly had me weighed down to the floor - delicious though it was! After dinner I rolled into bed and slept soundly!