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Caveman's Wake By Antonio Graceffo
ARTICLES, SPEECHES AND OTHER READING
WHAT OTHER'S SAY
Caveman's
Wake
By Antonio
Graceffo
Beneath a clear blue tropical sky, the yellow kayak rocks on a transparent
ocean, amid green mangrove forest and majestic limestone peaks. Rays of an
orange sun play on the water. A small opening in the limestone beckons with
mystery. The tiny boat is specially designed to bend around corners, squeeze
through tight passageways, and float in mere inches of water. Passing
through the narrow corridor, you lie on your back and watch the show of rock
formations passing overhead. Suddenly, you are through the rock. The sun
returns as the tunnel opens into a hidden lagoon. You find yourself at the
bottom of a round canyon, staring up at thirty meters of rock face, covered
in rare plants, playing home to numerous endangered animal species.
 If you are lucky, you will see a giant lizard hunting on the beach, or the
crab eating monkeys come down to take their morning meal.
This is the sea-kayak experience. It took nature millennia to create these
wonders for us. It takes man only a few years to destroy them.
John "Caveman" Gray, who runs John Gray's Sea Canoe, in Phuket, calls
himself a natural historian. One of his many programmes aimed at saving the
balance of nature is taking tourists on environmentally safe tours. The
kayaks don't pollute the oceans. The tourists are absolutely forbidden to
throw away trash or to remove anything from nature.
The company policy is stated clearly on the website: "John Gray's Sea Canoe
is an activist organization Your booking is a stand for honesty, quality,
enlightened human resources, environmental conservation and basic human
rights. We need your participation if we are to promote these concepts in
our host communities."
Thailand's coasts are under constant threat from a variety of sources. The
high-speed power boats and massive party boats preferred by many tourists
create an environmental hazard, as well as a dangerous situation for larger
marine animals and coral reefs which can be hit by these fast moving
vessels. Tourists in party mode often forget that they are guests in nature
and guests in a foreign country where they need to behave themselves.
Poverty also adds to the environmental threat. Locals, who often earn less
per day than many tourists spend on a single meal, are tempted to harvest
protected sea-products or endangered plant and animal species in order to
support their families. Fishermen often catch fish using dynamite or cyanide
which are both major environmental hazards.
Anytime you deal with environmental issues, awareness is one of the biggest
obstacles you must overcome. Rich people, living in western countries may be
the ones who possess the most power to influence legislation and change
government policies in favour of the environment. But many of them have no
knowledge of the wonderful coast of Thailand. Taking tourists there and
showing them the unprecedented beauty under threat will make the
environmental issues a reality for them.
You can't possibly fight to preserve a resource that you didn't know you
possessed in the first place. "I want people to develop an appreciation for
the wonders of nature", says John Gray. For this reason, his tours are one
part education, one part adventure, and two parts fun.
Is it possible for man to save the environment? "Humans can do anything we
want, as long as we never forget that we are just over-grown monkeys", says
John, who is also called Ling-Yai, the big monkey.
It is easy for people to forget that we are part of the food chain.
Reminding us that we are monkeys helps us keep in mind that we belong to
nature too.
John Gray, a vegetarian, lives in a small wooden Thai house with 18 dogs and
an eagle he rescued. "I found her because a neighbour tried to sell her to
me, after he had shot her with a slingshot", explained Gray.
The poor animal had its wings clipped, and could no longer fly. "She was a
target for dogs and cars." Now, John would have to hand-feed raw meat to the
great bird until the wing grew back, which he told me would normally take
about six months.
Gray, a former professional rugby player from Hawaii is an absolutely
massive figure. At sixty-two years old, he is still powerfully built. One
look at him, and you wouldn't even consider hurting his environment.
Unfortunately, raping the environment is so lucrative that the struggle to
preserve nature can turn deadly. The poaching, smuggling, and illegal sale
of birds nests from the islands is a huge business. After harvesting, the
majority of the nests go through a variety of middlemen, all of whom tack on
their fees, till they are sold to end users in Japan. John Gray has fought
tirelessly to stop the harvesting of birds nests. In October of 1998, Sea
Canoes' operations manager Panwong "Pan" Hirunchai was shot in the stomach,
right knee, and bicep by two men, allegedly working for birds nest
gangsters.
John Gray doesn't limit his environmental protection work to Thailand. He is
also active in Vietnam and the Philippines, among other locations. In the
Philippines, he was credited with being instrumental in helping the Tagbanua
Colomian Tribe to establish ancestral domain and receive exclusive land
rights to the beautiful island of Coron. "He helped them with connections,
introducing them to the right people", said Rannie, a former employee of
Gray. After establishing his sea kayak company in Coron, John brought Rannie
and others to Thailand for training. He then gave the company to the locals
as a means of creating jobs and entrepreneurship. While he was in Coron, he
learned about the plight of the Tagbanua tribe and joined in their fight to
protect their island.
"One of the lawyers helping the tribe was shot and almost died in the
hospital", said Rannie. "A family of businessmen run the local politics.
They have interest in the island, so they don't want the tribe to get the
ancestral domain. For example, on another island, El Nido, the permits to
gather birds' nests is run by the municipal government. People have to bid
for the right to harvest the nests and sell them. But here in Coron, only
the Tagbanua have the right to gather birds nests."
John fell in love with a Philippine city called Puerto Princesa, located on
the Island of Palawan, where he works together with a progressive mayor,
Hagedorn, to protect the islands many endangered species. John was involved
in a program to repopulate the giant clam population, which had been
decimated by poachers. When a disreputable Korean concern offered to set up
a hotel on the beach, John warned the Mayor. "Don't sell to them, they will
probably eat all the giant clams."
Working together with the islands leading reptile expert, Dr. Glen Rebong,
the two men hope to save one of the world's most endangered alligator
species. "There are only 70 left in the wild", said Dr. Rebong.
Starring out the window of the mini-van, watching the pristine forests of
Palawan pass by, John Gray said, "This is last place in the Philippines with
trees."
To appreciate the natural beauty of Thailand's coasts, you have to
experience a sea kayak trip for yourself. And so, I joined a tour, headed to
Panak Island and Hong Island. Before stepping into the boats, a Thai guide,
named Beer, runs through a safety briefing. "At high tide you cannot go into
the caves, or you could be trapped inside and have to wait six hours. Go in
late when tide is slowly lowering. When the guide tells you to lie down, he
is not kidding, be careful. Long nose people can have problem."
Beer was half stand up comedian. "My nose was longer before, but now, it was
cut off. So, be careful. And, remember you are on holiday, so don't hurry."
"Please don't collect anything in the caves or on the island. If you want to
collect things, collect them in your camera."
The highlight of the sea kayaking expedition is exploring the hongs, or
caves, which would be inaccessible by any other means of transport. Sea
kayaking felt like spelunking as we wormed our way through the narrow
corridors of stone. Each time we emerged on the other side, in a fantasy
world of natural beauty.
In the more difficult caves, tourists were merely passengers; the paddling
was left to the expert Thai guides. "We are much bigger than they are", said
a huge American man from Texas. "We should be paddling while they rest."
"Actually, we only paid for 80 kg. So, you and I have to pay for overage." I
answered.
After the caves, we were permitted to take the kayaks out alone. The big
Texan and I tried to set off on our own, and suddenly realized why we needed
guides. The large inflatable kayaks were unbelievably difficult for two
novices like us to handle. We spun. We drifted. We went three strokes
forward, and one back, then did a 360. Finally, after what seemed like hours
of paddling, we made it to the safety of an island about fifty meters away.
Planting one of our oars in the earth, we wanted to claim the island in the
name of lunacy. It turned out, however, that we had been beaten to it by a
family of fierce looking waterfowl.
The trip over had been good practice and paddling back to the boat,
exhausted, only took twice as long.
The tour made four stops in all. Toward evening, Beer and the other guides
helped us to make Kratong, a type of floating offering made during
Thailand's Loi Kratong festival. This was a way of introducing foreigners to
both Thailand's natural beauty and its ancient culture. The Kratong are a
delicate affair, constructed of carefully folded leaves, decorated with
flowers, incense, and a candle.
As night fell, the surface of the water was alive with a phosphorescent
plankton that sparkled and danced. One by one, we released our Kratong,
making an offering to the ocean gods, to say thank you for a pleasant day on
the sea.
"Don't forget to say a wish", said Beer. "But don't bother to wish that you
win the lottery. I already wished that, and I don't want your wish to go to
waste!"
Wishes are supposed to remain private, but my wish was that the natural
wonders of Thailand's coasts would be preserved. And I also wanted to come
in second in the lottery.
Adventure and martial arts author, Antonio Graceffo has lived in Asia for
nearly years, publishing four books, available on amazon.com and several
hundred articles in magazines and websites around the world. He has worked
as a consultant and writer for shows on the History and Discovery Channel
and appears on camera in Digging for the Truth, and Human Weapon. Antonio is
host of the web TV show, "Martial Arts Odyssey." Antonio was embedded with
the Shan State rebel army in Burma, documenting human rights abuses, and
doing a film and print project to raise awareness of the Shan people.
To see all of his videos about martial arts, Burma and other countries:
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search=Search
Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him
Antonio@speakingadventure.com
see his website
www.speakingadventure.com
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