Klong Khong Beach on Koh Lanta Island

Sunday morning we left Trang for Koh Lanta, 3 hours and 2 ferry crossings later we were on the island heading for our hotel room.  Driving through the countryside of southern Thailand, the rice fields change into miles and miles of date palms and rubber tree plantations.  We saw trucks loaded with clumps of dates and people up the trees cutting down the clumps and lowering them to the ground where men were loading the trucks.  I couldn't get the minibus driver to stop so we just had to see this quizzing by.  We also drove by Palm Oil crushing plants, seeing trucks loaded with the clumps turning into these places.  The trucks were mostly old tandems but also anything with a box, 4 tires and a motor worked also.  We found out what all those rows of trees with little cups hanging  on the trunk were, they are the rubber trees.  This is what Fred found out about them, they only collect the rubber in the rainy season when the tree is in full bloom.  All the liquid collected is exported as they don't manufacture here in Thailand.  It is hard to believe the diversity of the country.

We found a great place here on Klong Khong Beach so are planning to R & R in the sun , shade, or sea for a few days.  We promise to stay hydrated with a few cold ones as it is in the mid 30'a here with a nice breeze off the sea.  We will blog again when we do something exciting or move on so till then just know we are ENJOYING...

Swimming through the Emerald Cave

Saturday was an awesome day! We were picked up at the hotel for a 4 island Trang Sea Cruise.  We travelled about 40 min. To the pier and to our surprise it was Fred and myself along with approx. 50 Thai people.  No one was able to speak any English except for 2 young men.  All day we thought they worked for the boat company but found out only 1 of them worked for the boat and the other was on tour just like we were.  Alex, guy on tour like us,  helped us out all day long explaining things or making sure we were enjoying ourself.  Fred and Alex soon started questioning each other out about the other person's country.  Can't imagine anyone being as curious as Fred but Alex seemed to be.  Fred got his worn out pictures to show them what snow was like and the conversation continued...

Our first stop at Morakat Cave (Emerald Cave) at Kooh Mook Island, was the reason we chose to do this excursion.  It was a fantastic cave wither earls green water running through it.  We can't remember the name of the movie where the boy swims through the cave, but that is exactly what we did.  We formed a human chain as we got off the boat and paddled our way through the dark cave.  It was pitch black, as it was approx. 200 m to the other side .  Every once in awhile our guide would shine his light so we could see the inside of the cave.  It's hard to describe but in places it was very low and the colors on the walls and ceiling were red, black and cream.  We were told that in Feb. and Mar. The colors are brighter before the rainy season begins ( couldn't understand the reason for that). Emerging from out of the cave we came to a small beach with lush jungle growth surrounded by four solid limestone walls.  There was no way out except the cave or begin to climb.  What an incredible sight, our pictures won't do it justice.  We spent about 1/2 hr. enjoying and taking pictures, then we formed the human chain to paddle our way out and return to the boat.  What an awesome experience.
We had our buffet lunch on the boat.  It consisted of green curry and fish cakes (very spicy and hot), steamed rice, battered squid, fried noodles with vegetables and watermelon for dessert.  I went up for my lunch and Fred said a few Thai ladies were very concerned that he wasn't going.  They were pointing and trying to get him to get some food, so he did get up to get some lunch.  One of the Thai ladies dished him up a huge bowl full of rice, not much room for anything else.  He is wonder how they eat this much rice 3 times a day???
The second island stop was at the beautiful Koh Kraden Island.  Most of the island is in the Haad Chaomai National Park and the rest of the island has rubber and coconut plantations.  It had a powdery white sand beach and the water was crystal clear.  This isn't where we stopped to snorkel but it is suppose to have beautiful coral and colourful fish on the beach's north end.
The third island, Koh Chueak, was where we stopped to snorkel.  The fish were abundant and all around the boat.  People were feeding bread to the fish and it was great watching the fish attack the bread and sometimes even a finger.  There were many fish but not a lot of different kinds if fish.
Koh Ma was the fourth island we stopped  at to snorkel and see various kinds and colors of coral.  On the face of the rock island's wall there were tons of bats hanging in the trees.  The bats stay on the wall during the day and at night they fly to a near by island to have supper (eat the insects and scare the tourists).  We weren't able to get a real good explanation as to why these huge bats were out in the  sunlight all day long.  Their wing span would be like a big crow.  It was very interesting to see.  We had a great day and arrived back at the pit by 4:00.

Supper was at the night market eating at the vendors.  We are getting quite brave - not really -  we watch to see which vendors are busy and go to those ones.  Good pork on a stick...yum.

Trang & The Wedding

Wednesday we left Krabi, at noon, along with Dave & Tim (Les's friends) heading for Trang for Les and Kanny's Wedding.  Can't believe we will get to take in a Thai wedding while we are here.  Fred and I have been joking, ever since Les invited us to the wedding, about being 'Wedding Crashers'.
We visited with Rhonda & Gail (Les's sisters from Manitoba), Howard & Kitty (Thailand), RJ & Claudia (China), Dave & Tim (Les's friends from Manitoba),            (Vietnam), & Les.  This was a very interesting group of people so a lot of interesting stories were shared.

Thursday, January 24, 2013, Wedding Day
We were up early to get ready and were down in the lobby by 8:00am with the other guests to begin the procession to the Buddhist Ceremony.  Rhonda & Gail (Les's sisters) led the procession, along with many other Thai ladies and myself carrying food gifts that would be offered to the monks.  This was where I just wanted to blend in and not really be seen.  The 'Wedding Crasher' was in the procession beside the sisters and in many of the pictures.  Fred is wondering why I was looking so important and having quite a chuckle, I just kept smiling not knowing why I was there either.  I'm sure Les and Kanny will wonder who this person (me) is when they look back at their video and pictures in years to come.  The joke was now really on me as I was a 'Wedding Crasher'.

The procession ended at Kanny' brother's house, where the ceremony was held.  We presented our food offerings leaving them on a table in the house and then went back outside.  The immediate family were the only ones to take part and witness the ceremony inside the house.  We did see pictures of the ceremony.  While the ceremony was being performed (approx. 1 hour) the rest of the guests were drinking and eating traditional Thai dishes.  After the ceremony Les & Kanny came out.  They were dressed in traditional Thai wedding attire.  She looked gorgeous in her red and gold dress and Les looked very handsome in his off white suit and red sash.  After many pictures they joined everyone for some food and drinks.  By about 1:00 we were all taken back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon until supper at 5:30 pm.

We went down for the evening about 5:15.  Pictures were being taken as this is customary for the bride and groom to have a picture with all the guests.  The bride looked absolutely stunning in her white wedding dress and Les looked very handsome in his black tux (American attire).  This is common for the bride and groom and the guests to change their dress from the morning ceremony to the evening dinner.
We were seated at a table with 4 other couples that we knew, so that was good to have someone to visit with.  We were just trying to keep a low profile, but no such luck.  I was one of the ladies who received a corsage.  I'm quite sure "the wedding crasher" wore someone else's corsage.  The meal was traditional Thai dishes that were very good.  Howard and Kitty helped us out telling us what the dish was and how to eat it.  The drinks kept flowing and your glass was never empty.  The speeches took place during the meal and were translated for those of us not knowing Thai.  After that the bride and groom went around from table to table handing out the favours to each guest.  By 8:00 most of the Thai guests had left (we were told this is very usual) and the Canadian guests stayed on for awhile listening to  Karaoke and Les's music.  The evening ended early and we were very pleased to have been part of Les and Kanny's special day, a Thai wedding celebration.

Congratulations to  Les and Kanny, we wish them much love and happiness for many years to come.

Koh Phi Phi

Tuesday we arranged for a Speed Boat trip to the Phi Phi Islands.  These islands were devastated by the December 2004 tsunami, every structure on the bays were destroyed, although much has been rebuilt.
Our first stop was on Maya bay where the movie "The Beach" was filmed.  It was hard to picture the movie set but the beach and jungle part were definitely there.  It was a very busy place as all the tour boats were there at the same time, I'm quite sure of that.  Maybe that was why we couldn't picture the movie set there.

Lohsamah Bay was where we were able to snorkel seeing many colourful fish but not the coral as it was mostly destroyed by the tsunami.
Viking Cave was an interesting photo stop however we were on the wrong side of the boat and the Captain didn't want any more people on that side of the boat so no photos.
Phi Phi Don was where we enjoyed a very nice buffet lunch sitting with a couples from Finland
and Hungary.  We had an interesting visit with these people as they were both able to speak English quite well.
Our last stop was at Bamboo Island, this was a gorgeous beach where you were able to snorkel.  They said you saw some coral and a lot of different fish.
The limestone cliffs, the aqua coloured water and the white sand beaches made Ko Phi Phi beautiful but it was the crowds of people that are there to take in the beauty of this place that make it difficult to appreciate all that beauty, so we think.
The ride back was in a rainstorm, very pleasant warm rain, but a wild trip across the waves (about 60 - 70 km/hr).  This just shows you how quickly a storm can develop out on the sea.  We had a lot of power (so Fred thought), we had 3 - 225 hp Honda Outboards pushing us through the waves.  It was quite entertaining watching some people trying to stay dry (umbrellas, towels, beach mats).  We were soaking wet, but not cold.  Oh well, it was a good day.
We made supper plans with the couple from Finland.  Before we met them we were able to get some beautiful sunset pictures here on Krabi Beach.  That was a great evening to end our stay at Krabi.

RaiLeh Beach

Monday we were off to RaiLeh Beach (spelled many different ways) on a longtail boat (old wooden boat).  We arrived early so had a lot of choice for a spot on the beach.  This beach is in a cove surrounded by limestone cliffs which are suppose to be great for climbers.  Didn't try it, not brave enough.  The lush vegetation  and limestone  cliffs make this the postcard perfect beach.  Before long the beach was filled with many people arriving by taxi ( longtail boat).  Spent the day there, arrived home sunburned and tired.

Krabi

Sunday we had our first early morning walk on the beach, it felt great.  We were able to catch the sun coming up over the mountain. Beautiful.
We went back to the beach, enjoyed walking out in the water for quite a distance before it reached our waist.  The water was so warm and inviting.  This is what we had been waiting for.

Sunday Night Krabi Town Night Market -Same Same - we strolled through the many vendors enjoying a kebab and a roti (banana pancake).  These markets are starting to look the same to us.

Krabi

Hello Phuket.  Goodbye Phuket.  Didn't get to see much of it.  We started early for a 3 hour trip in a comfortable minibus seating 10 and 5 hours later we arrived in Krabi with 17 people including the driver with our luggage tied to the roof.  A lot of laughs with a great bunch of people being very accommodating made this another good memory.  Very beautiful scenery (if you had a window seat, which we did), limestone mountains and very lush  vegetation.  Krabi looks like a very nice town and we are looking forward to spending the next 5 days here.

Phnom Penh

Friday we started the day at the Royal Palace.  The Royal Palace was closed as the King was in residence.  Fred thought with his status as Reeve he might be allowed to visit the King for  an early morning tea, however no such luck.  We always wonder at the influential people living in such grand residences when the majority of the people live in poverty in these countries.
We did get to walk around parts of the gardens seeing the Silver Pagoda which is very extravagant.  The floor is covered with 5 tons of silver, there is a Crystal Buddha sitting on a pedestal near the entrance, and a life-sized gold Buddha weighing 90 kg with about 2000 diamonds (the largest diamond weighing 25 carats).  Unbelievable beauty.  There was no photography allowed in there, so we have no pictures.
From here it was quite a ride out to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek but very much worth it.  We had headphones to tell us the story of the genicide.  We found it hard to believe that something like this only happened 35 years ago.
There were 129 mass graves found here and approx. 17000 men, women& children executed by the Khmer Rouge between mid 1975 and Dec. 1978.  The human bones and skulls were excavated in 1980 and housed in a huge white stupa at the entrance way.  The remaining bones and skulls will remain buried.  By the evidence on the skulls, the people were bludgeoned to death so as not to waste precious bullets.  The people killed were the educated people and their families.  The whole family was killed so that no one would miss them.  Can you imagine the set back for a country to loose all its intelligence?  This was only 1 of 300 Killing Fields in Cambodia.  Such a sad and eerie place.  Can't understand how someone could do this horrible act of torture to your own countrymen.

Next we were off to the airport to head back to Thailand.  We arrived in Phuket at our hotel at 11:30 pm and told we would be leaving for Krabi at 7:00am next morning.

Leaving Siem Reap

Thursday was a travel day by bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.  Oh, the things you see.  So much poverty outside the cities.  The roads are very narrow and not in very good shape.  They are shared by   big trucks, cars, bicycles, motos, cow s pulling carts, motos pulling carts, bicycles pulling carts and if there isn't enough confusion on the roads you have people setting up their stands right on the side of the road selling everything - fruits, vegetables, chickens $ ducks ( I'm  sure oven ready),  baskets and much more.  We arrived at the bus stop and before you could even collect your bags, I'm sure 50 Tuk Tuk drivers pounced on us to see if they could take us to their hotel.  We were to be picked up so I knew we had a ride.  I'm getting very good at saying 'no' and walking away.  Once again this took us most of the day so we weren't able to check anything out.

Siem Reap

Wednesday morning we took it easy and booked Rambo 2 and his Tuk Tuk for the afternoon and evening.  While we were on our way to the floating village which was about a 40 minute drive out of Siem Reap, we noticed, the houses quite run down and it looked very dirty.  There were rice fields everywhere.  Cows, dogs, chickens and children running around everywhere, cows pulling loaded carts sharing the road with bikes pulling carts, motos pulling carts, Tuk Tuks, vehicles and anything else you could imagine.  We got to the lake and loaded into a wooden boat.  Two young lads took us, one was the captain and the other not sure, other than to tell us all about how sad his life was.  The main motive, we think, was to get us to buy rice from one of the stores out there for the school children.  There were no other boats at the store or the school so we think that it was a scam of some sort.  We didn't fall for it.
The people looked very poor in this floating village on the lake.  The houses were run down and they used wooden boats, some with small Honda motors powering them and others just rowing their boat. The water was as brown as your shoe, I can only imagine what might be in it.
In the rainy season, we were told the lake could rise 5 m.  Thought that was a lot but along the. Way back we saw markers which looked like the waterhad been up at least halfway.  Very sad to see all the poverty here, we do feel sorry for these people.

Supper was at Bayon II Restaurant where we had a buffet dinner with everything you could imagine. After our dinner we saw a performance by some classical Cambodian dancers.  Very nice to see the beautiful costumes and spectacular performances by both male and female dancers.

Angkor Wat

Tuesday we were off early with Rambo (2), our Tuk Tuk driver, to see and experience the wonder of Angkor Wat.  The 'lost city' of Angkor is the heart and soul of the Kingdom of Cambodia.  We started at Angkor Wat, the mother of all temples.  It's surrounded by a moat, the central temple consists of 3 levels and each level has a square surrounded by a gallery/walkway.  The central tower is 55mabove the ground so there are many steep steps to get to the top where you see the greatest carving - the Churning of the Ocean of Milk.  This carving depicts 88 demons on the left and 92 gods with crested helmets on the right, 'churning up the sea to extract the elixir of immortality'.  Many people were sitting and drawing/sketching this wonder.
Bayon is known for its 216 faces watching over the visitors to the temple.  It is believed that the faces resemble the king himself  (Avalokiteshvara).
Angkor Thom was built by Angkor's greatest King, Jayavarman VII.  This temple houses the important monuments of Bayon, Baphuon, the Tertace of Elephants & the Terrace of the Leper King.
Ta Prohm was used as a set for the Indiana Jones movies - Tomb Raider & Two Brothers.  This temple has been left to its natural jungle state.  The temple is a maze of narrow corridors, crumbling rocks, and the roots of the trees seem to be growing right out of the stone walls. Very hard to believe these monsterous trees can anchor themselves to this maze of stonework.
We were glad to see a lot of the temples were being reconstructed to their original state so that this will continue to be a tourist attraction for Cambodia.
Once again the history of this ancient wonder and the beauty of its temples left us in awe.

We met  Holly and Jan at the Old Market Bridge, it was exciting seeing familiar faces.  Two months in Thailand has certainly been good as they looked great ( tanned and smiling).  How much better could it get???  Had  drinks and supper with them and exchanged travel stories.  Great evening, hope we will be able to catch up with them again in Thailand.

Cambodia

We had an early start on Monday for Cambodia.  We drove through Bangkok heading east, what an impressive city, very modern.  At one time on the freeway there were 2 highways below us, 1 above us and the Skytrain running along side us.  There are 14 million people in Bangkok, if I understand correct it is about the size of Calgary.  So Shaun, Shane Homes has some catching up to do, a lot of construction happening here.  At one point in time I counted 58 cranes.  This city has an unbelievable skyline.  I also don't think I have seen that many BMW, Lexus & Mercedes in one hour.
Finally we were out in the country.  There looks to be very good farming practises here, wet land is used for rice and vegetables, drier land is used for the other crops like corn, sugarcane, bananas, mango.    There were a lot of canals for irrigating the crops.  The land seemed to have gotten drier as we drove and the farming turned into Teak Wood Farming.  They seemed to be cutting the trees at all stages, I think it takes about 15 years for a tree to reach maturity.  There isn't a lot of equipment being used for farming but when you have 65 million people and another 20 million from Cambodia.  I guess you will still find enough people to work that don't mind getting their hands dirty.  Sugarcane harvesting is a very dirty job after the field has been burned and same as the rice harvesting.
We couldn't ask our driver any questions as he was driving 100 - 140 km/ hr the whole trip even through Bangkok (very good driver - didn't feel unsafe).  Most of the vehicles run on propane so we had to stop for fuel twice as he rarely used 5th gear (no power).

We got to the Cambodia border at noon, 3 hours later and 3000 b less (100 dollars) we walked across the Cambodian border.  It was another crazy border crossing and what a shock.  Talk about a time warp, wow, back to oxcarts, bicycles and broken down vehicles.  We stayed downtown Siem Reap so went to the Night Market and stopped for supper.  Deals, deals, deals.