This morning Solomon (Fritz) and I caught a US Air Force C-130 flight from Bangkok to Krabi. We were hoping to continue volunteering at the hospital here but it looks like the situation is mostly under control. So now we may head on to Phuket to see what we can do there. Solomon has a bunch of cash with him that he has been directed by the donors to distribute it directly to those he thinks could best use it. We may even head north to Khao Lak again, but we are not certain about that right now. At the hospital, there are still aid stations set up with free food and drinks. All of the foreigners that previously occupied rooms and cots here have been flown out. What remains are less injured people coming for cleaning of their wounds. The hospital is still a meeting people for people and there are many pictures posted on the walls of missing. There are also postings regarding upcoming flights to Europe. On one side of the hospital there are free internet computers set up. Also there are free phones for overseas phone calls.

We had planned to take a Thai Royal Air Force flight but they had none going this direction so we were lucky to get on with the Air Force instead. The USA people had arrived from Okinawa, Japan last night. On the flight with us were several advance survey people from the Department of Defense. Their purpose is to look at the damaged areas and try to figure out where to best ship the supplies. They were very interested in hearing our first hand accounts of conditions in the affected areas. Right now it looks like the majority of the lasting damage is in Khao Lak and then a few beaches in Phuket. Krabi was hit, but nothing as severe as Khao Lak. Entire communities were not washed out here like on the other coast. The cargo shipment was to be dropped here and then the plane was to return to Bangkok and pick up another load destined for Phuket.

Arriving at the military side of the Don Muang airport in Bangkok this morning, what first struck us was the enormous mountains of donated goods. Spread through three large hangers were piles of all sorts of items - clothes, water, food, medical supplies. What was most sobering was seeing several hundred wooden and cement coffins waiting to be shipped to bring back dead bodies. Another reminder of the number of people who perished were the 100 or so large black plastic bottles containing formaldehyde. We spent some time wandering through the piles of donations amazed at how much had been accumulated in such a short time. There are collection points in the city of Bangkok from which some of the items are coming from. Yesterday I saw a pickup with several people using bullhorns to encourage people to donate money and other items.

Our next stop today will be to the Krabi Town Hall which is being used as another donation collection point. After that we will either stay here in Krabi tonight or move on to Phuket. Attached are a few pictures showing what we have seen today and yesterday.

John