Motorcycle Tour and Boat Release

V-STAY Biker Gang


Renting motorcycles here is cheap (~$4/day), and it feels so amazing to ride with the wind cooling you down and a great view of the beach. We all rented bikes and began a beautiful day by driving north about 25 minutes to a relief camp. The last V-STAY group worked there, playing with the kids and teaching them. The kids at Ban Lam Pi have a lot of energy, but I’m not sure I could endure the never-ending sugar rush the kids at the relief camp seem to posess, They were literally jumping off the walls the whole time we were there. I was sitting down after Weaw showed us around the camp and one little boy ran behind me and climbed up my back to my shoulders. Apparently, I was the monkey bars for him.

We left the relief camp to see the town now called Tsunami Village (I think Ban Lam is the actual name of the town) because it was the most damaged by the tsunami. It has also been the quickest to begin being rebuilt. The military came in immediately following the tsunami and put up several houses within days. There are two huge boats still sitting in the middle of Tsunami Village. The blue one with 3 levels is propped up against a house, but has not caused any noticeable damage to the house. The orange one, which is almost as large as the blue boat, is resting along the side of one of the main roads.

It started raining on our way back to the house. A lot of Thai people pull over under small bamboo structures and wait for the rain to pass. We, however, did not. We were trying to get back and go to this amazing boat release party…
Releasing the boat


When we arrived, the sun was setting and had gone from a soft peach color to a blend of bright purples, pinks and oranges. We watched from the beach, which was lined with coconut trees and a beach with the perfect curvature. It was truly one of the most incredible sunsets I’ve ever experienced. The workshop where the boats are built is one of TVC’s projects. The goal is to build 50 boats and they have finished buildin 25, so they were releasing one into the water to celebrate reaching the half-way mark. We all helped the vessel enter the water and then we partied! A few of us played guitar and sang around a huge bonfire on the beach, which the boat workshop is located on, there was a ton of free food and drinks, and a band from the Ko Samui island played. There were crabs and shrimp spread across a large table and people were gathered around talking and eating straight from the table. There was a very communal vibe about it.

Sunset at the boat yard

Huge bonfire


Although I wouldn’t recommend the band to anyone, I have to give props to them for playing songs that encouraged dancing. They also gave me the once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the first 60+ year-old male ballerina/human jack in the box- a volunteer named Gordon who had a little sparkler firework in hand and was “dancing” his heart out.

The other main entertainment for the evening was a female volunteer with hair down to her shoulders who had her friends help give her a zig zag mohawk. It didn’t look good, so they decided to shave her head completely. I’ve been thinking of shaving my head as well after trying dread locks out for a while- guess you’ll have to wait for the pictures for an update on that.

Later on, some of the TVC volunteers started fire twirling and a group of us went to enjoy a huge bonfire on the beach. We sang, played guitar, and met some of the other volunteers we hope to be doing construction with over the next few weeks during Ban Lam Pi School’s semester break.