Good bye Ko Phayam

After four days of being beach bums, we are saying good bye to Ko Phayam and heading to Ko Tao via Chumpon on the east coast, Gulf of Thailand, where we plan to get scuba certified. 

We have had delicious food, but I must say freshly roasted, locally harvested cashews are my favorite so far.

The kids were adopted by the local pack of seven dogs. They will be missed.

Another day in paradise

After all the planning of the last few months I've found it hard to slow down, relax and live in the moment.  Today after a day and a half on this beautiful island, I'm there.  I'm going to post this is Thai so you can see the beautiful alphabet. Ann-Kristin

หลังจากที่ทุกการวางแผนในไม่กี่เดือนที่ผ่านมาฉันได้พบว่ามันยากที่จะชะลอตัวลงผ่อนคลายและมีชีวิตอยู่ในขณะนี้ วันนี้หลังจากวันและครึ่งบนเกาะที่สวยงามนี้ฉันมี ผมจะโพสต์นี้เป็นคนไทยเพื่อให้คุณสามารถดูตัวอักษรที่สวยงาม

Cashews, in the stem, below is the tree

Today's takeaways - 2/21

1. You can download a book from a library in Olympia, WA USA from an island that has no cars and is located off the coast of Thailand. How cool is that.

2. Mankind dumps almost 9 million tons of plastic in the earth's oceans each year. Believe me, that's disgusting!

3. It takes effort to do nothing.

4. I am totally addicted to coffee. 

5. I learned how the gecko got its name. The male gecko has a shrill mating call that starts with a 90 dB trill and ends with: "GECKO...GECKO...gecko...gecko...ko."  We have two of the horny little boogers in our bungalow trying to attract the ladies at night. I have an audio file, but Google's Blogger and Apple devices don't get along making posts from an iPhone difficult.

 

Ahh! sun!

It's one of those brilliant days where you jump from shady bit to shady bit to keep from burning your feet and pasty white men with thin hair seek shelter.

Treasures from the sea

Here is Jack's collection of stuff from the beach.

I think this is a porpoise skull.

Perhaps this is what inspires the intricate temples.

Ko Phayam - Beach life

This morning we left the luxury of Bangkok and flew southwest about 300 miles to Rangong where we caught a speed boat to Ko Phayam, an island in the Andaman Sea.  We plan to kick back for some R&R. We have primitive bungalows on the beach (4 paces from high tide, I checked) with no AC and power only from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The kids have not seen a screen since we got off the plane. With no credit cards accepted and no ATMs, this is the kind of place you might consider if you needed to hideout.

 

 

 

 

Chinatown revisited

We went back to Chinatown for the New Year’s Eve celebration. Again, it was quite fun.  Sorry, no photos of the late night fireworks. Today the whole city had a different feel to it. Incense and flowers improved the smell  and we saw more children than on previous days.

 

Restroom signs

With the exception of “WC” I thought restroom signs were more or less universal. Apparently not. Forgive me, but here are the signs from the ultra-modern Siam Shopping Mall where we refueled on sushi and tempura.

Bangkok Day 3 – Long-tail boat ride

We went another long-tail boat ride on the klongs (canals) of Bangkok this morning.  We ended at an orchid farm. It was interesting. For some reason I had hadn't realized so many orchids were epiphytes. Most were very pleasant, but the red orchids smelled like sour socks. They probably felt the same about me. All walks of life live side by side along the canals. The average elevation of Bangkok is 4 feet above sea level. Significant areas are now below sea level as a result of subsidence due to groundwater withdrawal. In the next 50 years, it is projected that the homes of 5 million Bangkok residents will be in jeopardy due to sea level rise.

Overjoyed (not!) 2/19

The kids were overjoyed (not) to go out today. Here they are on the first leg of the journey.

The girls have been swimming each morning

We have all been swimming in the afternoons, but the girls have been swimming each morning between 6:00 and 7:00.  We have had the pool to ourselves, but this morning (2/19) a gaggle of French women showed up.   The look on the girls face was priceless. I wish I had caught a photo.

Bangkok Day 2

We again pressed through the sights, sounds and smells of Bangkok with its 8+ million people and 90+ degree heat. We went back to the skytrain and water taxis on Chao Phraya (the main river). We haphazardly wandered through Bangkok's Chinatown occasionally taking a random "soi" (alley) that were 4 foot wide and crammed with vendors selling everything imaginable (food, knives, garments, plastic ware, glassware, safety pins, paper clips, paper, impotence cures, other cures, etc.). I'd guess one soi went on for a third of a mile and left us looking for exits. Tomorrow is the Chinese lunar New Year's eve. Fire crackers are going off everywhere. They are not intended for celebration, but are intended to drive off the mythical creature Nian that comes out at the New Year to attack people. We eventually made it to the flower market which lined both sides of Chakphret Road for quarter of a mile. Yellow and orange chrysanthemums symbolizing wealth and prosperity predominated for the New Years celebration. Beyond that was a vegetable market of similar size. We also saw a fabric/garment district that was amazing with lots of silky and lacey fabrics but a definite lack of plaid. 

A vendor convinced us to buy 4 turtles so each of the kids could release one to the Chao Phraya. It was intended to release their bad juju. I personally wouldn't want to be released to the Chao Phraya, but then again I'm not a turtle. We have seen people swimming in the river and the klungs (canals). Fisherman also ply the waters beneath the floating plastic debris along edges of the Chao Phraya.

Sorry not many photos today. I am not at ease taking photos of people in their daily lives.

Bangkok Day 1 Part 2

We visited the Grand Palace with amazing pagodas, temples and statues.

We also went to Wat Pho and saw the reclining Buddha.