The Similan Islands

Today's adventure was a snorkeling trip to the Similan Islands, off the west coast of Thailand.  The Similan Islands are known for some of the best snorkeling in the world, and since this was my first time, I can honestly say it was the best I've ever had. 

Unfortunately, we did not have an underwater camera so the only pictures we have are of rocks and water, and 47 images of a black dot that might be a flying fish.



Tomorrow is our last full day in Khao Lak, and then it's back to Bangkok on Saturday for our flight home.

James Bond Island

On Wednesday, we took a tour of Phang Nga Bay which began with an exploration of a mangrove swamp by longtail boat.  Mangrove trees, at least according to the guidebook, are the only tree species that can survive in the brackish water of the swamps.  Their roots shoot knife-like through the muck and can hold on through the changing tides.

Coming out on the far side of the swamp, we switched to sea kayak and paddled through the bay's amazing limestone formations.  The most famous of these is Ko Tapu, known locally as James Bond Island for its role in the movie The Man With the Golden Gun where it served as the hideout for Bond's foe Francisco Scaramanga.  In reality, it is not nearly as big as it appeared in the movie.

Heading back toward the mangrove swamp, we stopped for lunch on Panyee Island, which is home to a small Muslim fishing village.  Founded more than 200 years ago by three families from Indonesia, today the village counts about 1500 villagers and has its own school and cemetery, all connected through a networks of piers.  About half the island's economy comes from fishing and the other half from tourism.

On our way back to the Sarojin after lunch, we stopped at Wat Suwankuha, a Buddhist temple located inside a limestone cave.  Outside the cave were the usual array of food and souvenir vendors, along with dozens of monkeys that live in the trees above the cave entrance.  The monkeys hang out in the plaza and beg and steal food from tourists.

Sri Phang Nga National Park

First, a sunset photo from last night:

Yesterday was the second sunny day in a row after two weeks of rain.  Parts of southern Thailand are still flooded, mostly northeast of Khao Lak, in Krabi and Surat Thani provinces.  Surat Thani is the largest of the southern provinces and received 34 inches of rain, where the normal rainfall for March is about 2 inches.  Fortunately Khao Lak just got a lot of rain and no flooding, and the weather outlook for the rest of the week appears very good.

Today we went trekking in Sri Phang Nga National Park, a 40-minute drive north of the Sarojin.  We arrived early enough to see some gibbons just as we were getting out of the car.  They were very high up in the trees and scampering away from us, but Chris managed to get a good shot of this one.

Then it was off for what turned out to be about a 3-hour trek through the rainforest.  The hike started off easily enough but there were some pretty challenging stretches, both up and down.  And leeches.  Lots of leeches.  The hike concluded at the 64-meter Tamnang Waterfall, which had been used in the film The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  After taking a few photos from the top, we climbed down to the bottom for a swim.

OK, I actually just waded.  The water felt good but it was very cold and I have never been much of a swimmer.  The scenery was breathtaking nonetheless, and a beautiful day overall, all blue sky and sunshine.

Welcome to Phuket!

Today we flew from Bangkok to Phuket, a trip of about 90 minutes, followed by a 90-minute car ride.  I tried to upload some photos but the server is not letting them through...I will have to get help and try again tomorrow.  Anyway, we arrived at the Sarojin around 5 p.m. and took a short walk along the beach, then had dinner at a restaurant at a nearby resort.  Lots of hermit crabs on the beach, along with some of those little sand-colored crabs we used to see in North Carolina.  After the sun set, we could see the stars and easily picked out Orion.

Tomorrow, we're taking a jungle walk that will include a swim in a waterfall...hopefully I will have the picture thing worked out by then.

Bangkok

After 25 hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Thailand around 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning.  We checked into our hotel and cleaned up a bit, then set out for the Grand Palace, the official residence of the kings of Thailand from the 18th century through 1946. 



 

The buildings were amazing, with every surface covered intricate mosaics of mirrored glass and tile. 

From there, it was off to Khao San Road, the so-called hub of backpackers in Southeast Asia.  (I don't think I've ever seen so many body piercings.)  After that, I must admit that we got lost and just wandered around for a bit...you don't realize how far you've strayed from the tourist district until you can pull out a map without a tuk-tuk driver approaching.  Eventually we found our way back to the river and caught an express boat back to our hotel. 

For dinner, we took the skytrain to Cabbages & Condoms, a restaurant where all the proceeds go to support the Populations and Community Development Association, a local family planning initiative.  

Sunday, we spent most of the day at the Chatuchak Weekend Market, an enormous flea market where more than 6,000 vendors cover an area the size of five football fields.  All of the guide books encouraged visitors to haggle, but after two or three attempts, we gave up.  Everything was so inexpensive anyway, it just wasn't worth arguing over what would only amount to a dollar or two. 

Getting Online

So this is me, getting online.  Finally.  And it only took going halfway around the globe to get me to do it.

Tomorrow we leave for Thailand, and, as you might imagine, we have 1,001 things we need to get done.  So naturally I am not doing any of them, but rather sitting at the desk, creating a blog to track our travels.  I have never been very successful at keeping a diary so we'll see how it goes.  And hopefully two or three years from now there will be more here than this message.