Im in Ko Phi Phi

Its taken the best part fo 12hours to get here, but I finally arrived around 5pm, after starting off at 6am, and taking 2xferry, 1xbus, and 3xminibus to get here. To use the word 'overcrowding' for the bus would not be doing it justice; luggage & people were piled up in all available space, and I spent 1.5hours (half of the total bus journey) standing in teh aisle, along with numerous other people, some of whom were sitting in the aisle or on luggage. I hate to think what the outcome of any human-driving-errors (or otherwise) would have been, but we did all arrive safe & sound, so I can now say that it added to the 'adventure' of travelling in a foreign land.

Ko Phi Phi was one of the many places/islands affected by the Tsunami, and although the main village of TonSai is looking well (proper building, landscaping etc), further up the hill (where Im staying) you can still see buildings under construction, huge empty areas of rubble & rubbish & general destruction. There are also people with limbs missing, so far Ive only seen a couple of people with arms missing who I imagine are lucky to be alive at any rate. Theres also a number of memorials around the village, will add some pics of them later on. Ive just been for dinner at a nice beachfront restaurant called Carpe Diem ('seize the day') and met a local Thai chap who was telling me about his girlfriend who was badly cut up after the tsunami (ribs smashed, huge cuts to her lower back/upper thighs), and has had about 7 operations but in still in pain, and it turns out shes one of the main people behind the local initiative to get PhiPhi back on its feet, using both local & foreign volunteers; so quite an inspirational woman then. When I was walking thru the village earlier, I saw an advert for a webdesigner, so will go down tomorrow ot the meeting place and see if I can help out.