Singapore – December 10-13, 2010

Singapore is the last stop on my adventure but this definitely won’t be my last blog since I am way behind on several of them. Hopefully I’ll have some time when I’m flying or sitting in airports. I should be able to get this last tour finished and that would include Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Melaka in addition to Singapore. I still have Siem Reap to do from the second tour and still have 7 or 8 outstanding from China. Who knows when they will all be completed? I fly home on the 14th, leaving Singapore at 8:30 a.m. and arriving home at 5:30 p.m. but there is a whole extra day in there as I cross the International Date Line so the travel day is actually much longer than that schedule sounds. It’s been a great three months but I’m really not looking forward to the flight home. Sometimes I think I should have just continued on with my travels but it’s too late for that now.

Okay, back to Singapore. I had to change rooms this morning so couldn’t get away early. By the time my other room was ready it was looking quite cloudy outside. The girls at the desk said it was raining to the north and to the south so we could count on it raining here soon as well. I decided just to reorganize my suitcase for tomorrow’s journey and sure enough, it is now absolutely pouring outside. I normally have a good view of the Singapore skyscrapers but they are only faint shadows now. I’m really glad I didn’t go out as the wind is whipping the rain in every direction – one minute one way and the next the other way and this is definitely what one would call a torrential downpour. I’ve been out in light showers throughout this trip but not in a rain like this one. My room is much nicer and drier, but hopefully the rain will have cooled things off a bit. The temperature has been in the 30’s every day with the “feels like” temperature in the 40’s and the humidity is always in the 80’s or above. I get about ten blocks before I am totally soaked and that’s how I stay until I get into some air conditioning for half an hour or more. The city is beautiful but I don’t think I’d like to live here in these temperatures, and that goes for much of South East Asia.

Singapore is a total contrast to some of the places we visited in Malaysia. It is a thoroughly modern city with skyscrapers everywhere. It is also more western in nature so you can find many familiar places, not just McDonalds and KFC but also places like Tony Romas, which I would love to go to but can no longer remember where I saw it. I think it was down by the marina in the posh neighbourhood of shops – the ones I can’t afford so I won’t bother going back. Prices are definitely a drawback in Singapore. We have been used to museums being free or 50 cents in other places but now they are $10 or $12. Hotels are expensive too which was why I ended up staying at the tour hotel, the Hangout Hotel on Mt. Emily. It is definitely a no frills kind of place but it is clean and comfortable and definitely the best accommodation we had on this trip. And despite the fact that you have to climb up the hill every night when you return to the hotel and you’re already tired and your feet are sore, the location is not bad for seeing all the sights. So far I’ve just been walking but the girls at the desk think I’m crazy and keep telling me to take the subway or whatever they call it here.

We arrived in Singapore in the early afternoon of the 10th. We took the public bus from Melaka and left the bus station at 9 a.m. We took vans to our hotel, had about 30 minutes to get organized and then went for our orientation walk around the area to find money exchange places and ATMs and local food places. We split up after that and I followed Paul to the National Museum since he knew the way and said it was supposed to be the number one highlight of Singapore. Once we got to the museum we went our separate ways and it was fun getting back to the hotel that night in the dark because I really hadn’t paid a lot of attention to where we were going in our rush to the museum. I didn’t have a map with me or even a card with our hotel name and address on it. However, I did remember enough landmarks that even in the dark I made it back safely. I think the wonderful sandwich at the Subway I found along the way helped fortify me for the trip. It really is amazing how wonderful something like a sub tastes after three months of Asian food. I’m not saying that the Asian food wasn’t good because some of it was indeed delicious. I just think I’ve had enough for a while.

The National Museum was as fantastic as the tour books said it would be. We got there around 4 p.m. and only had two hours to see the Museum of History as it closed at 4 p.m. When they did the 5:30 warning announcement that the Museum would be closing in half an hour I was almost to the point of WWII. As a result, I had to rush through a whole lot of history at the end. The museum is huge and in a beautiful old building that looks like a European parliament building. Technically it is a neo-Palladian style if that means anything to anyone. It was built in 1887 as the Raffles Library and Museum and then expanded several times since. There was a major expansion and revamping from 2003 to 2006 and the museum is now over 18,000 square metres. It has a large rotunda with a high dome and stained glass windows from the original construction and now has a glass rotunda from the new construction. The museum also has artwork in the yard and one was of five life-size dolls sitting on a bench. The first time I saw it from a distance I just thought they were real people but in rather strange outfits. It’s quite cute. Another sculpture in the museum has a series of eight chandeliers moving in synchronized patterns above one of the walkways. It looked like one of those perpetual motion machines.

The Museum of History itself, as opposed to some of the separate galleries within the National Museum, was what I was interested in. Everyone has their own audio guide and it would be interesting to know how many hours of material they have on the guide because it was impossible to listen to everything, especially in the two hours I had. You started out walking over a suspended bridge about three storeys high while you got the introductory commentary. Then you went into a round room where images were projected around 360 degrees on the wall. They were all modern images and that seemed to be what the commentary was about so I didn’t stay long there either. Then you had to walk down to the first floor again down a spiral staircase on the outside of the round cylinder. The Museum covers history from the 14th century to modern day and it is told by event or by personal story and you choose which route you want to take. I started out with the personal path but it seemed to be all old British people from years ago and I really wasn’t that interested so I switched to the event path. However, I soon discovered I was bouncing back and forth between the two continually and just didn’t want to miss anything because it was all so interesting. You would have been lost without the audio guide and yet the audio guide was sometimes very confusing to follow. Okay, I was just reading more about the audio guide, or “companion” as they call it. The guide contains more than nine hours of audio, visual and textual content. No wonder I couldn’t get it all done in two hours!!!

The museum was great though and covered almost everything in very interesting ways. One room was simply five small display cases with a wash basin, an abacus, a wine decanter, a portrait and a letter. If you just walked into the room you wouldn’t know what it was all about except for the sign at the beginning talking about all the Japanese women who came to Singapore in the 19th century. The stories were short clips generally spoken by the women; all of them were prostitutes so they were quite moving stories. Next to it was a room talking about opium and it was also quite moving to listen to that story, this time from an aristocratic lady who was witnessing the situation and the conditions for the first time.

I went back the next night between 6 and 8 to see the Living Galleries. If I’d know they existed I could have done them the first night after the Museum of History closed but I didn’t know there was more to see. There are four main galleries of: 1 - Film and Wayang, 2 - Food, 3 - Fashion and 4 - Photography. The last one, Photography, was the most interesting with just a few photographs but you got to hear the stories behind the photos and meet the people involved as they discussed issues like polygamy or interracial marriage in Singapore. The other galleries were okay but not as intriguing, although reading about some of the food and spices they use was interesting. I also enjoyed seeing the puppet stage, puppets and opera costumes in the Wayang section. In Fashion, the only thing interesting was an old Singer sewing machine that I swear was the same one Mom used to have in the basement. There was also one other display area at the end of the galleries that showed official gifts given to the state by other nations. There was gold and silver and beautiful glass works, all quite rich looking. Canada’s gift was a piece of wood carved into a shape but I’m really not sure what it was supposed to represent. It looked like there might have been something on the one side but that side was not the side I could see. It was not very impressive.

On my other days in Singapore I did additional museums but more on that later. It stopped raining so I went out for a walk. The walk turned into 8 hours so I didn’t get the blog finished. I’m now sitting in Vancouver airport so my goal is to finish the Singapore blog and post it before I leave. I’m not making any promises though. My walk yesterday included Little India, the Arab District and China Town. Singapore is a real mix of people and each of the areas has a distinct feel and culture. Little India is full of shops with beautiful materials and the women are all in bright saris. There are several temples but none of the ones I went to were open. There were also a couple of churches in this area. Little India was only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel so very easy to get to. From there, the Arab district was just another 10 minutes away. It too had beautiful materials in the shops but the people were dressed much more conservatively and many of the females were completely covered and wearing veils. The Malay Heritage Centre is in this sector so I took some time to look at the museum, which is located in the old Istana Kampong Glam or sultan’s palace built over 160 years ago. The building is quite impressive and the exhibits were also interesting. From there I wanted to go right next door to visit the Sultan Mosque. However, it was prayer time again so I missed that one too.

China Town is a bit further away and because it was starting to rain again I took the subway to get there. The subway charges by distance and I never paid more than $2.10 for any trip and $1 of that you get back at the end as a card refund so it’s a pretty cheap way to get around. It was now after 5 p.m. so china town was in full gear with all the little shops open and the food stalls all cooking up a myriad of dishes. I walked around for a while and went into the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. The name says it all for that place. Supposedly there is a tooth from Buddha in the display case and there are lots of old relics around. Parts of the building were closing when I arrived so I did a quick tour around the upper floors and a more leisurely walk around the bottom floors. The place is quite amazing because there is so much gold around. It is obviously a working temple and in the main room there are beautiful golden Buddha statues everywhere. The main room is large and there are tables and chairs set up in meeting room format and colourfully adorned. I assume they have actual temple meetings here and the important people sit at the tables. It looked quite official but still very “golden”. Some of the older relics were not gold but they were very old and intricate in detail, and looked like things I had seen elsewhere on the trop. The whole temple and museum was one of the “goldest” I have seen on this trip and very impressive.

The China Town Heritage Centre was just outside the temple so I went there next. It was expensive for a small museum but it was very interesting. I have to say it was also a bit confusing to follow and at one point I ended up in the back of a restaurant. The Centre is in original buildings from hundreds of years ago, three shophouses to be specific, and there are a lot of dark hallways and stairways so it was sometimes difficult to know which way to turn. The exhibits involved older Chinese people talking about how they came to Singapore and what it was like over the years. There were lots of pictures and artifacts. The displays covered everything from the ship crossings and festivals to night markets and food; and even the seedier side of life in Singapore including prostitution, gambling and opium. The end part showed a complete tailor’s office, work shop and home and that was really fascinating. The space was only about 15 feet across but then very deep. The shop and office space and kitchen were not a bad size but the living quarters were definitely cramped. The apprentices lived here too. The tailor, his family and the apprentices lived downstairs and then the upstairs rooms were rented out to other individuals. Each room was set up differently but the largest was probably only 10 by 10 and several people lived in it and stored all their worldly possessions there. The renters were coolies, Samsui women (construction helpers), a shoe seller, majies (house maids who mainly lived at their employers) and seamstresses – exactly those who lived there originally.

Oh boy, am I fading fast! I bet it took me an hour to write that last paragraph. I may not get this done and posted before I get home after all. But I’ll try. My mind is still flashing on some memories. For instance I just remembered that I went to a Christmas concert in the park on Sunday night. I had been wandering around Fort Canning Hill and park the one day and there were people on the outdoor stage rehearsing for a concert. When I walked by the tech tent I asked when the show was and they gave me their flyer. It was a local church doing a Christmas show and they were expecting 3,000 people and everyone was invited. So I went. The place was packed and by that I simply mean that all available patches of grass were taken. The stage was at the lower end of the lawn and the backdrop behind us was the old Raffles Mansion, which is pretty spectacular. Now it is a culinary arts and management school and would be a perfect location for such a school. Anyway, the show was good. They had several dance numbers, several musicians playing different instruments, several vocal performances and some carol singing. The latter was done by candle light for those who didn’t know the words, so each guest or family was given a goodie bag which included a candle and fold-up holder, a fan, a couple of cookies, a bottle of water, a program and sing-a-long sheet. The audience was very young and there were lots of young couples with lots of kids. The kids were running wild everywhere and the parents were talking most of the time so I wasn’t really sure why they had come. They guys beside me never shut up and it was really annoying as I could barely hear what was happening on stage. It was the first church setting I’d been at in a long time where I was actually one of the oldest in attendance. I was at first impressed that their congregation included so many young people but later decided that many of the audience really weren’t church people – a point made clear to me by the group beside me hoping there wouldn’t be “any religious propaganda or anything like that.” I’m not sure what they expected from a Christmas Concert and Caroling.

I wandered all around the hill and old city area and visited the Armenian Church and the Peranakan Museum. Peranakan means child of or born of and the term is used to refer to people of mixed ethnic origins. Mainly these were Chinese with the locals but also Indians and other countries. There were many galleries that covered everything from societal acceptance (or not), lifestyles, clothing, religion, etc. Mostly it was exhibits with narration from people who are now old and who were Peranakan and experienced it all first hand. Our guide for this tour was Peranakan but very young. She told us stories from her parents and grandparents. I was with a group of students and their teacher was also Peranakan and threw in some information along the way. One interesting detail was that the wedding ceremony was 12 days long and literally everyone they knew had to be invited. People brought the bride and groom gifts but the bride also had to present a gift to every lady who attended the wedding, normally something that she had made. Their special exhibit was on Ramayana Revisited and it was about one of the mythical characters I had heard about and seen before many times, Rama. This exhibit was well done and very enjoyable. Rama’s wife, Sita, was kidnapped by Ravana and Rama had to rescue her with the help of Hanuman and his army of monkeys. There were paintings, carvings, statues, puppets, and other ways of conveying the story over the years.

In my walk around the more modern harbour area of the city I wandered into a couple of their shopping centres, more to get cooled off than to shop, and they were typical shopping centres. The Raffles Hotel is quite luxurious but I didn’t stay for tea or anything. The waterfront walkway is very nice. The first night we did Clarke Quay and that is definitely a restaurant/pub area at night. The rest I did during the day so it was a little quieter. They have a statue in their harbour and it is a Merlion. I think it’s someone’s invention but basically a mix of mermaid and lion. They have an outdoor stage right on the waterfront and it would be a wonderful performance space. Their indoor theatres are in very modern facilities right along the waterfront (bay and river/canal). And just to balance it off, many of the other buildings are original old British brick buildings like the Parliament House. There are lovely gardens and parks throughout the city and beautiful sculptures and statues. There are river cruises but I never did make in one of them. The bay was full of round white balls of various sizes and it looked quite strange. I guess they are balls that people have written their wishes for the New Year on and they will be used on New Year’s Eve but I’m not sure exactly how they will be used.

In my travels along the riverside I visited the Asian Civilizations Museum. I went to find out about Asia but they also had a Congo exhibit on and it was an open house day for that so there were lots of people around to listen to the tribal drums and watch the tribal dancers. Those are the only parts I saw. Obviously there was also tribal face painting for the kids as most had painted faces. The galleries covered aspects of trade and trade routes, Chinese heritage, Islamic heritage and 2,500 years of Southeast Asia history in general, as well as an exhibit on the Singapore River development. It was a good museum but very crowded and noisy that day so hard to really get the gist of some of the exhibits. The air conditioning was nice though!

Singapore had many more sights to enjoy but I did not have any more time. This may be another spot to visit again. And I can’t believe I only got this one finished today. However, the planes were all full and it’s hard to have papers and laptop all set up at once. Besides, the lights were out for most of the last flight so I would have disturbed others if I’d had my light on. Hopefully I’ll find some time soon to finish the rest of the write-ups. If not, this may be it for this trip. Right now I’m looking forward to a quick nap on the plane and then a long night’s sleep. Ahhh!

PS – Please forgive me if parts of this don’t make sense. I just fell asleep at least twice trying to spell check it so I can just imagine how coherent the whole thing is. Sorry!

Krabi, Thailand – December 1-3, 2010

This is definitely a first for this trip. Some of this just happened today! Don't expect it to happen again soon. Enjoy!

We arrived in Krabi in the early afternoon after a 2.5 hour trip in a minivan that was definitely more comfortable than our previous transport. Some of the group went for an introductory walk to find out where the shopping and beaches were. I stayed home and did some laundry in hopes that it would dry in this hotel. Besides it was a rainy afternoon and I really didn’t need to get any wetter. Our hotel is a couple blocks off of the main street which parallels the ocean or more appropriately the Andaman Sea. You enter our hotel on the fourth floor and our room is on the first floor where there are only two rooms. It’s quite a large room in comparison to our last and the bathroom is three steps up from the main area. We could actually put another person in here very easily. There is a fan in the room but I paid to also have the air conditioning. So far it really hasn’t been needed except to cool me off occasionally and assist with drying clothes.

We went down to a local outdoor restaurant for dinner and it was great. The beachfront just at the end of our street is quite busy with local restaurants and small local retailers. The main town is a couple streets away and has larger stores. It even has places like MacDonald’s and Subway and KFC but we’re trying to avoid those. Krabi as a province only has a population of 18,500 so it’s not a big place. We are in a village called Ao Nang and tourism is definitely the main attraction here. There are tourist shops everywhere for boat tours, snorkeling, diving, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, cooking classes and dozens of other things. And there are lots of restaurants and places of accommodation to handle all the tourists.

There are over 200 islands off the coast of Krabi and many are part of the Hat Noppharat Thara Koh Phi Phi National Park, including the famous Phi Phi Islands. The area is full of limestone cliffs and caves. Most of the latter are Buddhist temples, monasteries and centres for meditation. The mainland and the islands are thick with vegetation and the main crops are rubber, mangos, coconuts and coffee. There are mangrove and cassia trees throughout the forest. The same type of high rock formations on the mainland forms the islands in the sea. The majority of the inhabitants are of Thai origin but about 15% are Chinese in origin and there is a strong Chinese influence in the area. They also have a group of people living here called the Sea Gypsies who are nomadic and move around the sea fishing, collecting shells and diving for sustenance.

On our first full day in Krabi some of us took a 4-5 island tour which included lunch and snorkeling time. It was a cloudy day but never rained and that was perfect for me as it wasn’t too hot at all. It was a good tour but there was too much time in the boat and not enough time on land for my liking. And when we did get on land we only had a limited time so you really didn’t have time to do anything. For example we visited Bamboo Island and had 30 minutes there to look around the beach but there was nothing else there. It was a beautiful island but I would rather have had a couple of hours to sit on the beach and go for a swim and dry off again before getting back on the boat. I just sat for a while and relaxed but some did go in for a swim. We also went to Hin Klarng, a lovely bay with coral and fish for some great snorkeling. One monkey did wander across Monkey Beach where we also stopped for some snorkeling.

Maya Bay was the bay and beach used in the movie The Beach. Prior to the movie it was a nice quiet isolated bay but now every tourist comes here and there was a solid line of boats anchored at the beach and only about one fifth of the beach is actually available for swimming – not that many people can go swimming because most boats allow such little time to see the place. We had half an hour and that just gave me time to walk to each end and take pictures and to take the path back to the toilets and out again, not that I had to use the toilets but because I wanted to see some island vegetation and flowers and that was the only route. All of the beach and all of the trails were full of tourists like me wandering around.

We went to see the Pi Leh Lagoon which is an almost totally cut off lagoon with beautiful blue water surrounded by small beaches and sheer cliffs. We even went to see the Viking Cave which is so named because of the ancient drawings in it that some believe to be from the Viking era. There is scaffolding all over and inside this cave as people live and work in it collecting birds’ nests for birds nest soup. It is a protected area just because of this delicacy. Lohsamah Bay was another stop for snorkeling.

The snorkeling in both places was good as the water was very shallow. Of course this was bad if you were one of the unlucky people who happened to put your foot on some coral. The fish were plentiful and very colourful, and they ranged from very tiny to very big. The biggest would be the shark, which I didn’t see, but apparently they have a small, friendly shark in these waters. The clams were a brilliant purple on the inside – quite spectacular. The parrot fish were big and bright with brilliant greens and blues and other almost florescent colours. There were lots of yellow and black striped fish and some fish with long trailing dorsal fins (if that’s the one at the top!). I held a piece of watermelon at one spot and quite literally had dozens of fish eating out of my hand. The sea urchins had incredibly long spines and the sea cucumbers were really plump and fat. I don’t remember what else I saw but it was all quite lovely and very relaxing. The water is not as clear and clean as in other places I’ve been snorkeling and the fish weren’t as plentiful or as colourful but it was still good. I think the Great Barrier Reef spoiled me for reefs although some of the Caribbean islands have pretty good snorkeling as well.

We had lunch at Tonsai Bay on Phi Phi Island (pronounced as Pee Pee by the locals). Lunch was nothing great but it was okay. There were certainly lots of boatloads of people coming in to enjoy it. I then sat for awhile at the beach and enjoyed the view. Had I known how much there was to see I would not have sat for so long. As it was I walked to the one end of the beach and then to the other where I caught the boat. I missed out on walking across the island to the other beach as it’s a very narrow part of the island, and I missed all the little shops along the way. However, I did see the monkey sitting on the corner of the house waiting for people to feed him. He was cute but obviously had the humans well trained. Anyway, there is a walk all along the beach front and it is just store after store with a few restaurants mixed in. Their prices were higher than in other places but they seemed to be doing a great business.

We got back to the hotel around 5 p.m. and I had to shower and wash my hair to get rid of all the salt. I also had to rinse out my bathing suit and T-shirt so they’d be ready for the next day. We went out to dinner in another local restaurant and I then came home and went to bed.

Day 2 in Krabi was similar to day 1 but much nicer. Our tour guide, Golf (so named because his brother thought his head looked like a golf ball when he was a baby) and one other guy on the trip, Paul, and I went on another boat trip but this time to closer islands with enough time on land to allow some kayaking, which I guess really isn’t on land at all but at least it’s not on a big boat. The boat this time was actually much smaller and quieter than the day before and I assume slower because the ride was quite smooth and we weren’t bouncing around as much as yesterday. Because they were expecting strong winds in the afternoon we did the route in reverse. We were supposed to kayak first thing in the morning, which I thought was good since it’s generally calmer then, but that got moved to the afternoon and everything else came first.

Our first stop was Daeng Island for some snorkeling. The current was very strong so they warned us to stay away from the rocky edge of the island, which was a sheer cliff straight up, and the water quite choppy so I decided just to enjoy the scenery. It was another of those quick 30 minute stops so hardly worthwhile anyway. Most people went in but hardly any stayed in the whole time. Again I’m going to confuse the order of the island visits and I only just finished this expedition an hour ago. Oh well, you probably won’t know the difference. We went to the Lagoon on Hong Island and it was quite impressive with just a narrow opening. They weren’t sure they would get in because it all depends on the wind and wave action, along with the tide which I’ll come back to later. It was a lovely lagoon totally surrounded by sheer limestone cliffs and green vegetation. Some of the people were swimming off the one boat and it did look lovely. However we couldn’t stay and our guide told us the others would have to leave soon as well.

From there we went to Paradise Beach on Lading Island. The beach was lovely and located in a small bay. There were only a couple of boats on the beach and not many people. Some were having their lunch there. We spent 40 minutes here and I did the walk across the island to the other beach, which was a stony beach, not sandy, so Paradise Beach seemed much better for swimming. The water was very shallow and you just had to walk in to be able to see the fish as they were all around you. Snorkels weren’t really required although some people went out to one of the points where sea horses sometimes appear but they weren’t spotted today. I should say that the water must be just about air temperature because you really don’t feel any temperature change when you get in. It’s just refreshing.

Our last stop was Hong Beach on Hong Island. Yes, this is the same island as the lagoon we visited earlier. The beach is beautiful and is in a small bay. Again there were only a couple of boats around and not very many people. We had our lunch here and it was delicious. We then had about 3 hours to relax and enjoy the setting. The three of us had signed up for kayaking so we just had time after lunch to do the nature trail. It was nice and had some interpretive signage along the way. The area is actually in Than Bok Khorani National Park so it’s well maintained and presented. At one point in the walk there are the remains of several boats and they are left there as a memorial to the December 26th tsunami that happened several years ago as the boats were wrecked at that time and left quite a distance from the water.

We had six kayaks out for the journey around the island. Paul and I had one kayak with me in the front and him in the back. We did reasonably well but occasionally he would forget which side to paddle on when we had to change direction. I actually think he was a bit surprised to find out that the one in the back was in charge of such things. We paddled around the entire island which is about 4 kilometers. There were times when we went into caves and out the other end. Sometimes we went through narrow passages between the main island and smaller islands around it. We saw lots of caves and even a couple of really large caves that are used for collecting bird’s nests. The saliva the swallows use in building their nests is what makes bird’s nest soup a true delicacy. Yummy! The cliffs beside us were always high. As they are limestone there are some stalactites hanging from the cliffs. When you don’t have cliffs beside you the lush green vegetation is everywhere. There were several more nice sandy beaches around the island as well and most of them were deserted as we kayaked past. We stayed close to the edge of the cliffs and there were often lots of fish in this area. No matter where we were there were lots of large jelly fish but they kept telling us that these weren’t the dangerous kind. They looked like large white plastic bags floating in the water at first but then when you looked closely you could see the neat fringe all around them. They were about the size of a basket ball and certainly the largest jelly fish I have ever seen.

The highlight of the journey around the island (apart for going through one shallow, narrow passageway backwards since my navigator got us totally turned around!) was visiting the lagoon again. It was about four hours after our first visit and it was now low tide and there was literally no water in the lagoon at all. We could take our kayaks in only to the very beginning and the rest of the lagoon was just all sand and stone with some little trickling streams and little pools. It was amazing to see the change and quite understandable why the other boat had to get out shortly after we left. We could see the water mark on the rocks above us so there is certainly quite a tidal change, probably about 10 feet between our two visits. We wandered around and looked at some of the pools and streams. There was a lot of activity in most of them and the crabs were particularly entertaining. There was a dead fish, or at least part of a dead fish, and the crabs were fighting over the remains. Two seemed to be in control but it wasn’t clear whether they were working together or working against each other. Everyone once in a while another crab would try to get in on the action and there would be a great commotion and a lot of claw snapping. And when they were eating their mouths were going continually so they were having a real feast. So were the tiny little fish that hovered around the area and picked up the morsels that were being ripped apart by the crabs. It was obviously a good feeding time for everyone. We wondered what happened to the fish and whether he just got caught in a tidal pool and couldn’t get out and the crabs killed him or if he died some other way. I guess we’ll never know. Our kayaking guide picked up a large sea cucumber, which really felt like a blob of jelly. I guess that’s why they say it tastes like jelly when you eat it. I think I’ll take their word for it and not try it for myself as it just didn’t look that appetizing.

At one point on our journey we saw a wonderful mansion up on an island hillside. It apparently belongs to the Prince of Thailand. It was quite nice and definitely very isolated. Our boat ride back to Ao Nang took about an hour and it was a little wet. The wind was blowing just enough to send all of the spray back on us. Luckily the sun had decided to shine and it was warm enough that we really didn’t care. It had been a perfect day and we were all content. We got back to the hotel around 4:30 and I had time to shower, wash my hair, rinse out my clothes, type this blog and do some packing before dinner. Tomorrow morning we are off again and it is a long travel day as we cross into Malaysia and leave Thailand behind. This last day in Thailand was certainly a highlight for me.

Khao Sok, Thailand – November 29-30, 2010

I am now on my Intrepid tour and I’m going to start with and call this blog Khao Sok even though Khao Sok started on day 3. Day 1 was just the arrival day for everyone to gather in Bangkok. Day 2 was a free partial day in Bangkok and then we moved on to our new destination. There isn’t much to say about those first two days. Day 1 I stayed at the Sheraton and relaxed, which was good since I wasn’t feeling very well and had to stay near the bathroom. They weren’t busy so a 5 p.m. checkout was okay. Whew! Day 2 the rest of the group went off to see the things I had already seen in Bangkok so I took it easy and just went for a walk around our hotel area where there are lots of outdoor markets and small streets between the canals. Our hotel was right on one of the canals and I didn’t even know it until I went for my walk.

On the evening of day 1 we had our first tour group meeting. There are ten of us on this tour with one couple and eight singles, five males and five females. There are four in their early twenties, two or maybe four in their forties, one (me) or maybe three in their fifties, and one in his sixties or seventies. Four are from Britain, two from Holland, two from Switzerland, one from the US and one from Canada (guess who). With all the diversity it’s quite an interesting group and very different than my other tours. The first Globus group was mainly teachers, the second group was a lot of doctors and this one is a total mix with 40% being students or recent grads. I am definitely not on a 4 or 5 star trip with Intrepid. I am now sharing with a lovely young lady named Nadine who is from Switzerland and in the 7th month of her travels and heading home in December. She is very easy to get along with. Our hotels are definitely not hostels but they are also not what I’ve been accustomed to. However, it’s only for two weeks so I’m sure I can rough it for that long (although I did just go to the front desk here in Krabi where I’m writing this and pay the extra for air conditioning so I’m obviously not quite ready for really roughing it!)

Okay, back to the tour. Late on the afternoon of day 2 we took taxis to the train station and boarded an overnight train for Suratthani. It was a 12 hour trip. The train left almost exactly on time and we arrived just a few minutes late so I was quite impressed after all the stories I’d heard about Thai railways. The sleeping compartments were not what any of us had expected. When we first got on the train there were two seats facing each other on each side of the train in each compartment and probably about ten compartments the length of the car. However there was nothing other than a wall as wide as the seats to separate the compartments. A table could go between our seats so we could have our dinner if we wanted to order something. Nadine and I ordered the same thing and it was delicious. There is no dining car on the train but obviously a kitchen somewhere and the waiters and waitresses run up and down the train continually taking and delivering orders. Others also try selling things but we’d been warned about them. They are just local people who buy pop and snacks in bulk and then try to sell them at a higher price on the train. The train prices were fine so we stuck with them. I have to say that it is no small feat just walking up and down the aisles as they are very narrow, so carrying food and drinks is really a challenge. They stopped wandering the aisles about 11 p.m. and started again at 5 a.m., which was way too early in my opinion but I guess some people got off before us.

Anyway, after dinner they come around and make up the beds. The two bottom seats slide together and an upper bunk comes down from the ceiling. Each bed has a one to two inch mattress, which is stored in the upper bunk when it’s up. The sheets and pillows and blankets are also stored there and they make up the entire bed for you. They were done this process by 9:30 so with no seats to sit on any longer everyone just goes to bed, listens to music, reads or sleeps. We each had curtains to pull beside our bed and it was a pretty slick process with only one glitch. The cars are not air conditioned. They are fan cooled and the fans are on the ceiling in the aisle. If you closed your curtain totally you got no air whatsoever. We had our windows wide open earlier which provide a nice breeze (and a lot of noise). When they made the beds they closed the windows and pulled down shades. After a while with the curtains closed your little cubicle got very warm. I was on the lower bunk so I had my curtain hanging by about one of every three hooks and it was very easy to do this. That provided both some privacy and some cooler air from the fans. Most of the people up top couldn’t do that so had to leave one or both ends of their curtain open. I guess I should have said there were two glitches. The second one was that the lights in the aisles stayed on all night and they were very bright. Opening your curtains definitely let a lot of light in. Anyway we did all manage to catch a few hours sleep and it was an interesting experience. You have to realize that even at night it’s still hot here. It might cool down to 80 degrees but it’s still humid and feels a lot hotter. Air is a good thing. Cool air is better.

We got off the train in Suratthani and had breakfast at a local restaurant right across from the train station. It probably held about 30 people at most on plastic chairs inside and out and it was full by 7 a.m. mainly with tourists. After breakfast we boarded our sangtaew for our 2.5 hour trip to Khao Sok. Now a trip by sangtaew might sound exotic but let me tell you it’s nothing more than a pickup truck with two rows of wooden benches in the back. We pile our luggage in first and then ourselves and it was a hard, uncomfortable, windy ride to our destination. Luckily we didn’t have a torrential rain pour on the way. Anyway we made it around lunch time, had our group meeting and lunch and people headed off in various directions. I decided to go for a walk in the park instead of doing anything organized. In retrospect I should have gone tubing because I was so hot and wet I might as well have been in the water. I had no problem skipping the elephant rides though as I had already done that.

The park is beautiful and it is really an inland rain forest that they call a jungle. It is very green and thick with vegetation, especially lots of bamboo. There are also lots of rivers and streams and waterfalls. It was one of the waterfalls I headed off to see. It was 4 km up the path and I had several hours to kill so that sounded like a plan. And there was a 2 km view point as well so that was a bonus. An hour later I reached the 2 km point. Most of the path had been up but there was a lot of down just to make some more up. Some of it was climbing very good cement stairs. Some of it was just a path and some of it was climbing dirt stairs – very uneven and sometimes unstable. And of course, because it’s a rainforest in a very humid area, everything was wet and covered with leaves and very slippery. And just to make matters worse as I reached the 2 km point two things happened. One, there was a torrential downpour for about 15 minutes but luckily there was a small kiosk at that point so I had shelter and didn’t get too wet. I also had time to contemplate whether I should go any further or just head back. I decided not to go further. Now I could have gone back the way I’d come or crossed over the river and gone down a different route. I wasn’t really looking forward to going down what I’d just climbed up so I decided to cross the bridge. That’s when the second deciding factor came into play. There was a lovely suspension bridge that looked reasonably stable and it had a big red arrow pointing up or ahead so I knew I was going in the right direction. However, when I got closer I realized the bright red arrow had a black circle around it and a black line through it, which to me meant don’t go this way or don’t cross. So I turned around headed back down the way I had climbed up and made it without any problems except for getting rather wet as it continued to rain lightly. It stopped raining as I got to the road again so I decided to go down to one of the resorts where the monkeys are supposed to come out to play around 5 p.m. There weren’t any monkeys in the river but there were a lot of humans making a lot of noise so I decided no self-respecting monkey would join such noisy characters and I continued back to the hotel.

We had dinner at the hotel and in fact all our meals. The restaurant and lounge were all raised, open air wooden, thatched-roofed huts so it was a very nice setting. We were supposed to go for a night safari but because of the rain and how slippery it was we postponed it until the next night. I think we were all just glad to get some sleep after our train sleep of the night before. Our rooms are bungalows – very small but acceptable if you remember to step over the suitcases when you try to get to the bathroom. We have mosquito nets over our beds, which we used but luckily we never had a problem in our room. Others seem to have more problems. The roof overhangs on all sides so the windows are left wide open all the times. The sounds of the night are quite amazing and provided nice music to go to sleep by but particularly to wake up to. The only concern for me was the heat and humidity. Without air conditioning I just couldn’t get dried off, nor could my clothes. I am definitely more of a desert person than a rainforest person although I must admit that their flowers are absolutely wonderful. The gardens are full of orchids and lilies and birds of paradise and dozens of other things I can’t even name. Every drink, even just a simple orange juice, comes with several flowers adorning the top of the glass. That part of the tropics is very enjoyable.

On the 30th most of us decided to take the Rajjaprapa Lake tour (spelled Rachabrapha in another spot so who knows). We drove about an hour to get to the dam by the same name. We boarded a longtail boat and took a one hour trip to one of the raft houses. The lake was formed in 1980 when the damn was built and the area flooded slowly (10 years) by natural rain water and streams. The lake and some area around it were included in Khao Sok National Park – the one I went walking in earlier. Khao Sok National Park is over 700 square kilometers. This inland rainforest is over 160 million years old and is the oldest in the world. Two neighbouring parks put the protected area at over 4,000 square kilometers. The karst landscape (I hope karst really is a word!) was formed when India pushed into Asia 66 million years ago forcing the limestone upwards. With the flooding of the lake, many of the hills or karst formations became islands and it is beautiful to ride through the lake admiring the many cliff faces and caves and landscapes that suddenly rise straight out of the water. I should also note that the scenery all around Khao Sok is beautiful with these same hills or mountains rising everywhere in wonderful shapes and colours. Unlike China’s Three Gorges Dam where over 2 million people had to be relocated, only about 600 people lived in the area flooded by the Rajjaprapa Damn. They were relocated and given different land. On a side note, one of our guides told us that the government had to flood the area because there were too many communist rebels in the area and the government was trying to get them out as this is a strategic part for the country (narrowest part? middle part? dividing line between north and south?) The damn now supplies hydro for all of Southern Thailand and for some surrounding countries. Not only people had to be relocated. As islands appeared in the lake, the people had to go in and rescue animals and relocate them as well. And apparently after the lake was full they went in and logged the trees that were under the water. Once cut the trees floated to the top and they were pulled by tug to a pier and trucked to a mill. I thought that was rather ingenious, cutting after it was flooded, although I can’t imagine how you cut a tree under water.

Anyway, the boat trip was great except that these long boats are as noisy as any I’ve seen so it was a noisy trip. We docked at a raft village, one of about 10 on the lake. Everything at it was floating and anchored together and to the shore. There was the central restaurant / lounge / reception area which was two large pontoons with thatched roofs. Behind it there were several other buildings which I assume were the kitchen and then about 10 houses that I assumed were for staff. To the left there was a pathway and about 12 small thatched cottages. To the right there was another pathway and about 20 newer cottages and another restaurant area. The washrooms were at each end of the pathways. One of these was floating and much easier to reach. The other was up on land but the path was wobbly planks suspended on both sides from poles. The cottages were basic. The older ones were simply one room with mattresses on the floor. The newer ones had beds and perhaps a table between them. All of them were on their own floating platform and joined by floating plank walkways to the main floating walkways. It would have been a very interesting place to stay overnight. Most people who were staying came in around noon, had lunch, went swimming or kayaking at the village, or took a long-tail boat to another dock where you could climb up a hill and back down to get to another lake and take a raft trip to a cave. Other than these activities and enjoying the scenery there really wasn’t much to do. However, it still seemed like it would be a neat thing to try at least once. Our group had lunch at the raft village and then some went off to climb the hill and tour the cave. With all the rain they stressed that it could be very slippery so I, and others, stayed behind and relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. The group that went said they had a good time but so did we. And it rained several times while they were out so we were certainly drier. About 4 p.m. we took our longtail boat back to the damn pier and headed back to the hotel.

I should comment here on how green and beautiful every landscape is as you drive along the road. Palm trees, banana trees, pineapple plants, coconut palms, flowering trees, etc. are all prevalent. It is obviously very fertile soil and they seem to make use of all the land. With the hills/mountains in the background it is a very beautiful sight to see. And all along there are little stores and local markets with people selling fruit and vegetables and cooked food of many varieties. We went into one local market and it was very busy. The most unusual thing I saw was one person cutting a pig’s head. It was no easy task and it was being taken quite seriously. They don’t waste a lot over here in Asia. When they kill a chicken or pig or almost anything, they literally eat it all while we tend to throw away a lot at the butcher’s table and at our own table. I had fried rice with shrimp the other night and the shrimp was all mixed into the rice but the tails were still attached. I ended up picking up each piece separately and setting the tail aside as garbage but apparently that was not the expected behaviour. They just eat the whole shrimp tail and all. The same is true for much larger prawns as well and tour members have since tried eating them and say they taste just fine. I guess that’s something for you to try the next time you have shrimp or prawns.

One of the items that is very important in the local economy is rubber. There are many rubber tree forests and they are laid out in perfectly aligned and evenly spaced rows. Each one has a gash or slice in it with a half circle bowl below so the bowl can collect the rubber sap that drips from the gash. Individual farmers harvest the rubber and make it into one of two forms: white balls or black mats, both of which they sell along the side of the road. The mats are more expensive because there is more work involved with them. For the balls they just keep rolling the sap as it comes from the tree and solidifies. Thus there is not a lot of work or materials needed in the process. The rubber mats on the other hand are harder to produce and I don’t actually know the process used for them. I just know they sell for as much as 3 times as much.

On the second night two of us and our tour guide joined the park guide for a night safari in the national park. It was quite interesting and took about 2.5 hours. One of the interesting things was how hot and humid it could be from 8 to 10 in the forest/jungle. Of course I was totally covered so no critters or barbed vines could attack me. During the day one of our group ended up with a few leeches on him and that didn’t really sound all that enjoyable. I had my head lamp on and under the brim of my hat thinking I was going to mainly be watching where I was walking and only looking up in the trees when things were spotted. However, I changed that arrangement quickly when I discovered just how many bugs could be drawn to the light and trapped under the brim of my hat and directly in front of my eyes. Even if I did stumble a bit more in the darker pathway, it was much more enjoyable when the light was above the brim. We saw some civet cats off in the trees and that was our main excitement for the evening. We saw a green snake coiled up in a tree. It looked quite small and harmless but is apparently quite dangerous. We saw lots of butterflies and spiders and bats moving or sitting still but there didn’t seem to be much else out when we were there. They do have wild elephants in the park but not often in the area we were in which is so close to town. They also have lots of monkeys but I guess they were elsewhere. We had a brief stop at one point, I think just so the park guide could have a smoke. I turned off my lamp at that point and it was amazing just how dark it was even with three other people nearby with headlamps on. I’m glad I had the light and I’m glad I wasn’t alone.

We got back to the hotel shortly after 10 p.m. and when I got back to the cottage Nadine was still awake. The two of us read until after midnight and then decided we should finally get to sleep. The next morning it was pouring rain and beautiful to listen to but we had to pack to leave. Two days was not near enough in the area to see everything that should have been seen and yet two days in the heat and high humidity was probably all I could have handled. I’m hoping our next stop is a bit cooler. Even if the temperature isn’t cooler at least there should be some water to cool off in as we’re headed to Krabi and the coast.