Hello! Thank You! Delicious!

Frightful tales from Amy and Ramon's honeymoon around the world.

by Amy Pickard

Update from Jan. 24-Feb. 1

After leaving Cheow Lan Lake (where we stayed in a floating river house surrounded by enormous cliffs and hooting gibbons), we were uncertain what to do next. Our passports were still at the Vietnam embassy in Bangkok, but there was still Khao Sok National Park to see, as well as something called a homestay program that we'd read about. We figured we'd skip the park and call the NGO that ran the homestay. If they could accommodate us right then for a night or two, we'd go to them. Otherwise we'd get our passports and be on our way to Cambodia.

So we called. Kelly at Andaman Discoveries told us to come on over, they'd find a place for us. Our connection was bad and even after speaking with her, we had no idea what to expect and we weren't sure — whatever it was — it was something we wanted to do. It was unknown, unfamiliar and when you're traveling and tired there is something very like inertia that can take over. There's the temptation to just fall back on the known, do what's easy. Fortunately for us, we battled that demon and said, what the heck? A homestay sounds cool.

But before Khuraburi, a harrowing bus ride from Ban Ta Khun to Takua Pa. At one point, Ramon leaned over and told me he loved me in a this-is-it, goodbye-cruel-world type of way. And he read my mind completely. As we hurtled around mountain curves, swerving around the other cars, all I could picture was us lying in the twisted wreckage of the bus, pinned under burning metal, crying out to the rescue squad the only words we knew in Thai:

"Hello!" "Thank you!" "Delicious!"

So. We arrived. Dizzied, but safe, and were taken by Kelly to a village called Tharn Kirin, where we thought we'd stay two nights, max.

That was a week ago. Since then we've been teaching English at the local high school (highlight being Ramon and I co-teaching a class to sing John Denver's "Country Roads"), making recycled paper, but most rewardingly, spending time with the people in the village.

One of the most amazing days was when Pi Su (homestay mom, about 28), Gor Dam (homestay dad, about 56), and Tik (29, Gor Dam's daughter from a previous marriage, speaks very good English) took us and about 10 of the children from the village to the swimming hole for the day. Amazing.We rode out there all crammed in the back of a pickup and had an incredible picnic and a good long frolic in the water.

The landscape here actually reminds me a bit of Tennessee, though it's about a billion times hotter here. It's mountainous and green with some rivers and creeks.

The village itself is a new one, built by Secours Populaire Francaise when the original village, Bak Jok, was destroyed in the tsunami. Our host family escaped the tsunami by climbing up a tree. One tree in the village, Pi Su said. Ten people in it. We visited another, more remote village called Tung Nang Dam for an overnight stay. It is the surviving village on an island that once had two. Everyone in the other village was killed except for a single baby.

The company we're here through, Andaman Discoveries (andamandiscoveries.com), is part of a larger NGO, North Andaman Tsunami Relief, that has worked with the villagers since the tsunami to develop alternate means of generating income — homestays being one of them. All I can say is, our stay was incredible. If you come here, be sure to stay in Tharn Kirin. The people will melt your heart.

Our host mother, Pi Su, has also started her own card-making business with the aid of the program. She makes recycled paper using leftover paper from the school; then she uses that paper to make gift cards. Thank you so much, homestay family! We miss you already.

Amy Pickard and Ramon Monras-Sender are Philly-based musicians. They recently got married and, in lieu of a traditional honeymoon, quit their jobs to go traveling for six months. Read their updates at citypaper.net/honeymoon.