Dec 26

Beach chairs on Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

I'm up at 8:30 am to take photo's and walk on the beach. The tide is really high this morning and I found a great big clear jelly fish bigger than a dinner plate washed up on the shore. The sand is white and the water is that fantastic turquoise color that fades to navy blue way off in the distance. This is Chaweng beach. The biggest, loudest and most popular beach on Koh Samui but this morning it is simply paradise and the water and sand are warm at my feet. We spend most of the day loafing about, playing frisbee and cards, eating, swimming then Sean and I head off the beach to the main strip where all the shops, more retaurants and bars, banks and the Starbucks exist. This place is far more busy than we had imagined but it's a great place to be none the less. The big party is tonight and the place where we are staying has tickets for sale that will get us to Koh Phangan and back on a speed boat so we all line up to buy our tickets. When Sean and I are done we head into the restaurant and there are a few people watching the news. It's about 3 in the afternoon at this point and we are watching live footage from Phuket about 7 hours after the first tsunami hit. The images are really shocking and the number of dead estimated at about 5000 combined for Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India seem unreal. I suddenly don't feel like going to an all night party anymore. As the afternoon wears to evening more footage is released and the death toll keeps rising. CNN broadcasts these numbers as if there's some sort to competition to see which country can amass the most victims. It makes me angry and the thought of a party now seems completely inappropriate.