Singapore Bound

It seems that this being a return visit to Thailand, the desperate need to wander about daily, looking at all the touristy things, also limits the items that I  have to talk about. This would partially explain the infrequency of the blogs.

One thing that I forgot to mention from Phuket was the big coincidence. Yes, there I was ,in a Seven-Eleven, and there in front of me was my old friend “Johnnie Black” 😀 Apparently he also enjoys being in Thailand, and I, of course, invited him back to our hotel. for a bit of revelry and reminiscing.. We all had such a good time, and as Johnnie had no intention of going back to Scotland, I invited him to join us in Ao Nang. An offer he graciously accepted.

Actually, Johnnie was not the only one who we ran into from Scotland. Well — nearly Scotland. This fellow was from Newcastle where they seem uncertain as to where they are Scottish or British. The gentleman was sporting a dandy new “Phuket Tattoo”. Any of you who have traveled to Asia will have noticed the multitude of establishments offering tattoos. These are generally applied by needle and ink, by some very gifted artists. This body canvas, on both men and women, is quite noticeable on the beach. The “Phuket Tattoo”, however, has more the appearance of road rash. I guess that this is because it is road rash, and generally indicates an error in judgement whilst trying to control a motor bike. The Brits seem particularly succeptible  to this condition as they normally drive on the wrong side of the road, as do the Thais. The Brits  thus believe that they are well versed in the rules of the road. Wrong — there is only one road rule to remember in Thailand, and that is that there are no rules. Traffic merges, it must as there are no traffic controls, so it appears that whoever has the largest cajones has the right of way, and everyone else just makes way and smiles. Also, any motor traffic has precedence over pedestrians. It would seem that those from the U.K. have not caught on to this yet, and so get to sport dandy new body markings.

We are now in Bang Tao, on Phuket Island. We must do our visa thingy, and so are off to Singapore, tomorrow a.m.. This will be a new adventure for us as we have not been to Singapore and nearly everyone must go there. Even my buddy Verne has been to Singapore! We did have a really good time in Ao Nang, staying at the smaller, family-run hotel, the Royal Nakara. The family was extremely kind and helpful to us, and we certainly enjoyed their hospitality.. It is people and places such as this, that keep us coming back to South East Asia.

Actually, it is not just Bonnie and I who are leaving Thailand tomorrow. Our luggage was starting to vigorously complain about the weight which we expected them to contain, and I was loudly whimpering myself, so yet again we sent a couple of large packages back to Canada. This ain’t cheap, and what is really scary is that we still have a couple months of holidaying yet.

Will keep you posted.
T

Krabi bound

Krabi bound requires that we arise before first light. This does not make for a happy Bonnie 🙁 but it am what it am and if we are to make our boat we have no choice. The price of our ticket includes minibus transport from our hotel in Kata to Phuket town, and our transport to our hotel in Ao Nang. The ferry ride is about two hours and the taxi rides total about an hour. When we arrive at the ferry dock in Phuket, and turn in our ticket, we are identified by a little colored sticky badge, which identifies which ferry we are to catch. You then put your faith in a higher power and several dockworkers, as the ferries are all rafted together. You climb from one to the next and stop at whichever one somebody points to, based upon your little colored sticky. While this is going on, these same workers are passing your luggage from one to another until it hopefully arrives at your boat. Now I know that the luggage that Bonnie and I have entrusted to their care, weighs more than the fellows trying to pass these from boat to boat and it crosses my mind that if I were in that situation I may accidentally hurl those heavy suckers into the brine. These individuals are obviously more dependable than my own sweet self, for both our luggage and our bodies arrive at Ao Nang, on the same boat and at the same time. 😀 Actually we have one small transfer before our land arrival. The bay is a tad too shallow for the ferryboat, so “long-tail boats” transport us to our mini bus shuttles for our delivery to our respective hotels. All this for about $45. Listen up B.C. Ferries.

The Andaman Sea on the west coast of Phuket is very open, with few small islands. Phuket Island are like connected mountain ranges (tall hills). This is not the situation around Ao Nang. The bay takes on the appearance of the lower jaw of some prehistoric creature. Numerous small vertical islands thrust skyward from blue – green waters, erratically spaced like staggered teeth, in varying degrees of decay. These islands are very steep sided, and have generally about the same height. It would appear as though they were all submerged as a general landmass, and the softer materials eroded with water action. This same general appearance carries on to Krabi Island itself, as though the general land mass was forced upwards, with some areas only rising high enough to break the waters surface. Hey, what the heck — it’s my story, and who’s to argue?

Ao Nang is a beach town and touristy —- like the other tourist beach towns. Same, same –but different. Still have the same friendly peoples, the same tuk-tuks, the same suit outlets and the same sidewalk vendors. It is, however, a bit smaller than beach towns on Phuket, and thereby seems a little more laid back. Or maybe it is just us? I’ll have to put some thought to this to see if it is realistic to do less than nothing. Well not totally nothing, we still have to find sustenance. You can eat your way for blocks via the street vendors, or eat your way for blocks via the restaurants—–decisions, decisions. You can get quite a good chicken-on-a-stick from the street vendors. They are cooked on small charcoal barbeques fastened to the side of little motorbikes. They also cook fish on the same barbeques. As much as Bonnie enjoys the vendors fare, she has not worked up the courage to try the fish. Neither have I—not even on a bet. 😛 These delectable little morsels are about the size of baitfish, and once properly cooked, take on the appearance of an overcooked tongue from an old sneaker. Add to this the fact that it is still looking at you. I guess that we have to keep the tasty head bits attached. Takes some getting used to, methinks. Lots of other great stuff though, from noodles to dessert. There are also lots of vendors selling “Muslim Food”. Now this is actually food prepared by Muslims, so there ain’t no pig. Well pig is really called moo in Thai, so I guess that you get no moo in Muslim. Food is still good.

Krabi Island is apparently comprised of about 50 percent Muslims, 40 percent Buddhist and 10 percent whatever. Notice a significant difference in the ratio of mosques to temples. They seem to tolerate each other well and nobody has tried to measure me up for a black bag over my head, at least not to this point in time. I’ll soon be so brown that I will probably just blend into the crowd, — well maybe I’ll look like a crowd by myself. They keep trying to sell me items for big! big! “Got your size, papa, big! big!” I’d smack them if I wouldn’t look like such a bully. Maybe just Bonnie will blend in.

Nuff for now – more to follow.
T

It’s in the eyes of the beholder!!

I should have known, or at the very least been better prepared. All this time I have been fooling myself into thinking that I am very nearly as young as I always was. This foolishness, even though I have noticed that the face that I shave each morning looks more like that of my father.

What brought about all this enlightenment you ask? I believe that I mentioned last year, the friendliness of the Thai peoples, and in particular, that of the young ladies who would volunteer their time to escort the elderly male visitors, about their towns. 🙂 Now I would have to wonder why a senior person, who borders on drooling and looks like he would forget his way home from the corner market, would travel at any rate? However, their choice is not my decision to make, and it is an extreme kindness to know that there are people here who will ensure that these old duffers are looked after. I felt quite comfortable in the assumption that it was those “ old guys” who required this assistance, until one day when Bonnie felt compelled to go on yet another shopping spree. Not wishing to subject myself to another outing in the hot sun, I agreed to meet up with her at a later time, and have yet another meal. 😛

I must also say that any time I was in Bonnie’s care, the young tour guides could see that I was in capable hands and did not require assistance, but as I strolled down the street, unattended, a group of these young ladies endeavored to attract my attention. They had an obvious concern for my well being as they were quite insistent that I should not be left alone. They must have been very good guides indeed as they offered to take me places I hadn’t been, and show me things that I had never seen. Now it is possible that I lost a bit in the translation, as my command of the Thai language is somewhat limited. All this and they didn’t even know that Bonnie and I had walked pretty much every street in both Karon and Kata, and had thought we had seen it all.

As tempting as this offer was, I thought that it would be in poor form to take advantage of a guided tour while Bonnie was indisposed, so I graciously declined their kind offer. It is still somewhat disconcerting to know that I appear as though I am now of an age that I require additional care.

I did manage to find Bonnie and enjoy yet another meal. They didn’t even have to put my food through the blender——yet.

On the subject of eating,— notice how I cleverly swung this topic around to food once again,— should you find yourself strolling down the beach road from Karon to Kata, you will come to a “T” intersection. Rather than taking the road to the right, or Kata Noi, try taking the road left. When walking at a goodly pace for about 10 minutes, you will notice a small restaurant called the “Red Chair”. Well actually you won’t notice it as it says absolutely nothing in English about a red chair, but if you look closely, there is a small picture of a red chair in the upper left hand corner of the sign. In large letters in English, it says “Sea Food” and “Thai Food”. You may also notice, as there are no walls on this building, that it is always filled with people eating, the majority of which are Thai. Yes the food is that good, plus it is “on the cheap”. 😀 Bonnie and I could both stuff ourselves for about seven bucks. And oh yes, all the chairs are red.

It is now time for a change of venue as even the street vendors are starting to call Bonnie by name Rather than waking up a “little bit grumpy”, I can now be somewhat Krabi, as we are off to Ao Nang on Krabi Island.

More to follow—-ttfn.
T

Primitive man

It amazes me that when safely ensconced in a warm climate, with a roof over your head, that we resort to the base instincts of primitive man — the need to forage for food. Fortunately for us, there is ample supply within walking distance from our shelter and thus we survive yet another day.

On the subject of food, it would seem that since fresh dog has been removed from the menu here in Thailand, the old faithful pet has become just that, the old faithful pet. With careful selective breeding brought about by the animal husbandry skills of the Thai people, they have managed to raise the genetic profile of the basic dog to that of a mutt. These canine creatures are the most non-descript animals that bark and wag. They bear absolutely no resemblance to any recognizable species known to man. This is with the exception of the favorite pets of the King, with whom he is often photographed. It is possible that only the king is allowed to have a dog that looks like a dog, just as only he is allowed to own a white elephant.

The sole purpose of  “mans best friend” now, would seem that he must take up sidewalk space. I come to this conclusion in that they can generally be found anywhere; most frequently sprawled across a sidewalk or in the walkway of the shelters of the sidewalk vendors, sound asleep. Having to no longer fear the cooking pot must have driven all semblance of energy from their bodies, as they are able to hold this position for long periods at a time. On a positive note, they must also be too pooped to poop, as I have seen more doggy scats on the docks at Port Sidney than are found on the streets of Phuket.

Bonnie and I decided to splurge 30 bucks on a taxi to drive us up to the big Buddha on the mountain behind Kata. Actually we have to travel over to the Chalong side of Koh Phuket (Phuket Island), which is the east side. When Troy and Chad were with us last year, we made the same trip, and this year we wanted to see how the work had progressed. This statue of Buddha will be the biggest in Thailand, standing approximately 150 feet in height and about 80 feet across the base. The construction was all by hand, and the general form was brick and concrete. Over this, concrete was applied like stucco until the actual, desired shape was reached. All this was done while the workers were balanced on rickety-looking bamboo scaffolding. When the concrete work was finished, the entire statue was covered with white marble, which had been cut into 6-inch squares. The marble was then ground smooth, by hand, to remove all of the rough edges. This does make for one impressive structure. The tourists, and the faithful, could purchase one of these tiles and write your name on the back, later to be cemented to the statue. Somewhere on the beast are four tiles with Chad, Troy, Bonnie and my names on them. At least that is their story and we will certainly never know the difference. They have only the lotus flower to tile and that portion will all be done. They are then going to make the interior of the statue into a Buddhist museum, as the structure is hollow. Quite impressive!!

Time to meet Bonnie down town and see if we can scrounge up another bite to eat. Can’t miss that.

Take care of yourselves!

Deja vu — all over again

Have you ever done something, and immediately felt that you had done that before? Well as I strolled down the sidewalks of Karon, on Phuket Island I felt just that. Oh hey, that is probably because we were here last year at about this time so maybe it is not really déjà vu. But once again, I precede myself.

After spending a great Christmas with family, deep in the snows of Seattle, we made our way back up to Sidney for our December 30 departure. Although Sidney had no where near the snow that we had experienced in WA, it was still cold, but we persevered and hardened ourselves to the elements, steeled by the thoughts of warmer climates and soft sand beaches. My sister-in-law had volunteered my brother-in-law to taxi us to the airport for our early morning flight, and we were on our way. Thank you both!! A short hop to Vancouver on Air Canada Jazz, and hey, no lost luggage or anything. Next step, Vancouver to Los Angeles, still Air Canada, still no lost luggage! I may become a believer. A six-hour layover in LA until we catch our Thai Airlines flight to Bangkok. Now they may partner with Air Canada, but that is all that they have in common. As we are doing this trip on air miles, we decided to fly business rather than baggage. The Air Canada business class from Vancouver to LA gave us bigger seats, a semi meal and a moderately grumpy stewardess. Thai Air business class gave us seats that reclined into a thousand different positions, with massage. It gave us a real meal, drinks, (booze), snacks, all served on actual linen, by smiling attendants who even gave us real cutlery to eat with. The only downside was that the flight was 17 hours long, and I don’t do sleep well on a plane. This may come as a shock to those of you who have noted that I can generally sleep most anywhere, and usually before my head hits the pillow. As Thai Air provide us with individual TV screens and about 30 different current movies, I tried the old tried and true sleep assist method of plugging in a movie. I can generally watch a DVD about 5 or 6 times prior to getting the entire movie, as my eyelids keep getting in the way. Even this did not work. I did get to watch half-dozen movies in total massaged comfort at any rate. A smooth touch down in Bangkok and an eight-hour wait for our flight to Phuket. A one-hour flight to Phuket, and out comes the linen for the tables, and the silverware, all for a bad piece of cake. No time for seven courses. From Phuket airport to Karon is about an hour by taxi, and this has made for a very long day, and so to bed.

Now back to the déjà vu thingy. The streets of Karon are as we remember them; the excellent food is how we remember it. The smiling faces are as we recall. The only thing that seems different is the tourists. I don’t recognize a single set of bosoms on the beach. However, the background noise still sounds Scandinavian so I assume that the majority of the tourists here are escaping the Nordic cold.

Caught up on our sleep, so ‘tis time to move. The “Sugar Palm Grand” sits atop a small mountain at the south end of Kata, and as they have only been open for 2 months, Bonnie was able to score us a deal. Rather nice digs, so we will hide out here for a couple of weeks. The vertical climbing up a mountainside to our room should have me rakishly thin in no time — or maybe not.

Now when we arrived, it was a bit overcast and a little cooler (not quite in the 30’s) but the weather has warmed up nicely. By the time I waddle down the hill and back it looks as though I have been swimming. Speaking of swimming. The warm weather has also brought the people to the beaches. I did happen to notice a young lady in her warm weather swim suit the other day. Either that or she was just flossing. Not certain if it is the walking or the viewing that keep giving me these heart palpitations.

My favorite tour guide, (Bonnie, that is) and I are trying to decide if our next jaunt should be to Krabi or Samui. Life is hell when one is pressed to make decisions — but I suppose we must do something with our day. Will keep you posted in the blog. Until then, take care

T