Marine Conservation is a Family Affair

This week I was in Phuket, Thailand. This was my second trip to Thailand, but my first visit to Phuket. The flight there was long. I flew Jeddah-Dubai-Bangkok-Phuket. In Dubai I had to fortuitous opportunity to crash in the Emirates First Class lounge (as it turns out, my manager’s brother works for the airline and while I was flying cattle class, at least I was able to wait for my next flight in style.

The arrival in Bangkok was less relaxing. Upon arrival I was greeted by one of the Emirates staff with a placard that had my flight information on it. She looked me, quite exasperated, and said “you have 20 minutes to make your flight!” What? I thought I had like an hour! Ok, where is my flight leaving from? “The other side of the airport. You’d better run.” And run I did, like 900 m, from one end of the airport to other, with a short stop for immigration in between. I arrived at the gate, panting for air, and the gate was pretty much empty. My flight was not, in fact, scheduled to leave for another 45 minutes. Oh well, at least I got some semblance of a work out.

Phuket is lovely. I was staying at a hotel in Phuket town, which is not near the beach. It’s actually about 45 minutes from the beach, much to my disappointment. I was fortunate that there were several KAUST people at the conference I was attending (they were presenting, I was sitting outside at a KAUST table, in the shadows).

I did meet many of the KAUSTians for dinner on the night of my arrival and we went out to watch some of the soccer matches. We found an English pub to watch the Germany game (three of the people I was with are German) and watched them lose. The Italian and I were trying not to laugh too hard. We then had dinner at a local restaurant where I was able to rekindle my love for Thai food. Green curry, shrimp, soup, papaya salad… yum.

The next day we went to the beach. Yes, we took a 45-minute tuk-tuk taxi ride to Kata beach, because “cata has to go to Kata beach” (they thought they were being so clever). At that was everything there is love about Thailand. The water was clear, people were surfing, families enjoying the sun, tourists, and locals all intermingled in a very relaxed environment of fun, sand, sea, and more Thai food

Then, day one of the conference. I woke up early, and set up the table. I was surprised to see conference attendees with their children in tow. I guess Coral Reef conservation is family affair after all. Although, I can’t imagine a conference (even with pretty pictures of fish) would be fun for a child, but then again, maybe they have different sensibilities than I did as a child (or even now). I have to say that “manning the table” at these conferences is really quite boring. I basically get to sit at a table and smile like a moron at everyone that walks by. Most of these people look very confused when I try to make eye contact and even though I have all of this great stuff to give away, they are looked almost scared to approach the table. Maybe, it’s me. Maybe, it’s KAUST. Who knows?