Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

I had a rare encounter with Thai Sea Gypsies once, while traveling with a Gauguin of photojournalism. One moment we were leaving a charming cottage hotel in Ranong for secluded white beach on Koh Chang. The next he was swimming out 30 meters to persuade a lone fisherman to ferry us to an island most locals have never heard of, to visit a people few Thai's still believe exist. Two hours later, we were approaching black mud embankment that could suck the flip-flops off your leg, and stilted one-room hovels where topless ladies stood in faded sarongs. We arrived during a funeral. Boats decaying in the shallows, village littered with garbage, the islanders were mourning more than the loss of a neighbor. It was in their eyes - their entire way of life was dying. In the photo are illusions of a Gauguinesque tropical paradise. Missing are the realities.