Visiting Thailand's tsunami areas




五一长假就要来了, 亲爱的读者朋友是否打算出游呢? 东南亚应该是个不错的选择. 可能很多朋友会联想到海啸, 心存余虑. 任教于厦门WECL学院的加拿大老师Ron Lyons在海啸后前往泰国披披岛旅游后, 一点都不后悔自己的选择.

When we travelled to Phi Phi Island, which is a two-hour boat ride from the mainland of Thailand we were struck by its incredible beauty. It has high limestone cliffs, mangrove swamps, coconut palms, wonderful snorkelling, swimming, beaches and the most beautiful and friendly people. We knew we had found paradise. Our hotel room was a lovely thatch roofed cabin with a side balcony where we could sit and read and watch the sea and marvel at its changing colours. The hotel however had not had many guests since the tsunami as hundreds had cancelled their holidays. Many hotel workers had lost their jobs. Our hotel was perfectly intact but people were worried about travelling to Phi Phi Island.



When we took a long tail boat around the island to see the spot where the tsunami had hit we were stunned by the damage it caused. We walked the streets which were covered with whatever the wave had swept ashore. Old T-shirts, shoes, tree branches, garbage and stock from many stores lay in the streets. Two thousand people died on this small island mostly in the small village of Tonsai Bay. The people here had lost so much, including family and friends, homes and possessions. There were many volunteers here from around the world helping the people clean up the damaged town and the sea that was full of garbage. They were all working so hard. When we saw pictures of what it looked like the day after the tsunami it was amazing to think of the work that had already been done.



As we walked along the street we would notice one home or shop was still standing while the next one had been swept out to sea or lay in ruins in the street. One man told us that his shop was still standing but the one behind it had been destroyed killing nine people inside. It was sad to hear these stories. It was also so sad to see the people picking through the piles outside trying to find some of their valuables. One lady we met had just reopened her jewellery store so we stopped to talk to her. She told us she had worked every day since the tsunami cleaning her shop of mud and debris and ruined stock and every night making new handcrafted jewellery. She said working hard helped her not to feel so heartbroken.

Our experience on this island was wonderful and sad at the same time. It was wonderful, as we loved our hotel and the peace it allowed us for a few days. It was sad because of the terrible tragedy inflicted on the people. But now the local people are looking forward and trying to put their lives back together as humans do. They are working very hard and told us to ask people to please come back to Phi Phi Island. We hope to return to this island paradise some day and to see the whole island restored to its former glory.

A note from the editor

Each year many foreigners come to China to work for a year or two-many not to work for a living but just to work and live here so they can see more of China and visit other countries in Southeast Asia. There is no better and cheaper way to learn about the culture and customs of a country than to actually visit that country. The October, May and Spring Festival holidays provide visitors with opportunities to travel within China and many countries nearby. Weekends, both short and long, also enable our visitors to visit the popular tourist sites within China. This Spring Festival was no exception and the following article describes a place some of our visitors to China visited. Please read and enjoy.

Vocabulary
limestone 石灰石
snorkelling 潜水
debris 碎片
inflict 折磨

Yves Saint Laurent
By Michelle
Photos collected by Aggie



"优雅不在服装上, 而是在神情中". 这位在时尚圈展现跨年代魅力的重量级设计师Yves Saint Laurent, 对于奠定法国巴黎为时尚之都的情势功不可没. 他拥有艺术家的浪漫特质, 对于色彩精准拿捏, 挑战世俗的大胆作风. 他的出现, 为时装界注入一股新兴动力, Yves Saint Laurent的精神将长存经典.

With all his youth and passion contributed to fashion design, Yves Saint Laurent, the founder of his world-famous brand YSL, had lived a dramatic career as a fashion designer.



Growing up in a rich and noble family with numerous parties and people dressed luxuriously, Yves inevitably absorbed these inspirations into his own sense of beauty and later conveyed them in his works. Yves began to display his talents in fashion design when he was only 18 years old. In 1955, he joined the group led by the top fashion designer of that time, Christian Dior, formally starting his career of fashion design. Despite being a beginner, Yves performed excellently with his unique ideas and creations in the group. Moreover, it was in the next year that a third of Dior's products were designed by Yves Saint Laurent.

Later in 1962, cooperating with his best friend Pierre Berge, Yves established his own brand and fashion shows. His sailor and hippie designs, tulip figured strings, long boots and so on are even still the most popular models amongst fashion designers nowadays. Furthermore, until 1966, his classical design of trousers had become the symbol of YSL. Also, YSL was the first to produce women's coats using transparent materials suggesting not wearing a bra.



The peak era for Yves Saint Laurent started from 1976. Since then he has begun to create a Cossack fashion series which includes various styles from countries such as Turkey, India, Gypsies and so on. What made his designs different from others was his deep fascination with arts, history and literature which he expressed through his works. The 80's was a time of awards for YSL. Throughout the 10 years, Yves received many prizes and awards one after another, as well as establishing his status as the front model in the fashion field.

Stepping into the 90's, with people's value for beauty modified becoming simpler and more casual, YSL risked being abandoned by fashion trends because of his traditional styles. Therefore, YSL decided to cooperate with GUCCI and gave his supervising role to Tom Ford, the creative manager of GUCCI, who finally brought back his status as a mainstream fashion brand. At the same time, YSL enlarged its range of products which now contain accessories, perfume, watches, glasses and so on.