For kicks, I put together some stats on the trip…

• Total distance travelled: ~48,953 miles (29,568 + 19,385). This is almost exactly twice around the earth!!
• Flights: 25 (15 to and around South America + 10 to and around Southeast Asia)
• Countries visited: 7 (Cambodia, Thailand, Kansas City, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Antarctica, Argentina. And anybody who thinks that Kansas City isn’t another country, clearly hasn’t been there.)
• Hotels: 15 (8 + 7, not counting the ship to Antarctica or the live-aboard dive boat in Thailand)
• Nights away from home: 71 (46 days/45 nights + 27 days/26 nights). And for any smartaleck who notices that the blog title is “69 days” instead of 71 days, my response is “suck it.”
• Photos & videos: ~27,465 (20,000 + 7,465). On average this is 376 photos per day! Our biggest day on the second leg of the trip was 1638 photos (Cambodian temples). Interestingly I only took about 1/3 of the photos on this trip, whereas on the first leg it was pretty close to 50/50. (This is a little skewed because we dive with Sam’s camera and I take most of the diving photos, but still).
• Scuba dives: 19 (6 + 13)
• Books read: 36 (22 + 14). I already mentioned the books I read on the first leg earlier in the blog, so I won’t repeat them. This leg I read the following.
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula, by Bram Stoker
  • Midnight’s Daughter, by Karen Chance
  • The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Charles Dickens
  • The First Men in The Moon, H.G. Wells
  • The Invisble Man, H.G. Wells
  • When the Sleeper Wakes, H.G. Wells
  • Marsbound, Joe Haldeman
  • Odyssey, Jack McDevitt
  • Map of Bones, James Rollins
  • Dante’s Equation, Jane Jensen
  • 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, by Jules Verne
  • Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn
  • Red Lightning, By John Varley
  • A Brother’s Price, by Wen Spencer

That’s all for now…

For kicks, we splurged on a fancy theater that included drinks, food and big couches instead of normal movie seats. The theater was called “Enigma, the shadow theater.” No, I have no idea why it was the “shadow theater".

We were definitely the only foreigners in the theater, and we were happily watching the previews sipping our drinks when suddenly the rest of the audience stood up as the final preview came on. We looked around, and then decided to be followers and stand up. It turns out that it was a short preview that basically showed the good works of the King and heart-lifting things that he has done around the country.

Most of the preview was in Thai and in English writing, and at the end of the preview it faded out with the words “Long live the King.” It felt like a cross between the Pledge of Allegiance and meeting the Pope. (I’ve done one of the two, so I can compare). It actually brought a tear to my eyes, partly because it is such a wonderful country with such nice people, and partly because the King really does seem to love his people, and the people absolutely love their King.

The King is worth somewhere north of 30 billion dollars, which is a lot by anybody’s standards, but when you consider the average Thai dentist makes $700 per month, and the average chamber maid makes around $120 per month… compared to the Thai people the King is REALLY rich. But he spends the vast majority of his time travelling, meeting his subjects (always with camera in hand) and sponsoring projects to improve the country. Look him up, it’s actually a fascinating story, and he truly does seem to be an amazing man.

Long live the King.

• Eating our way around the world (Sam) – March 29th
• Ohmygodthespa!!!! (Sam) – March 17th
• Cambodian Bedtime Story 2 (Eric) – March 15th 
• Cambodian Bedtime Story 3 (Eric) – March 15th
• Cat Reunion (Sam) – March 2nd

We arrived at the Grand Palace compound, bought our tickets and started by going into the royal coin and jewel museum. This seemed like it was going to be interesting, and the sky was a bright grey – too bright for good pictures – so we thought 30 minutes might improve the conditions. As we were nearly done with the coin museum (which was interesting, but I won’t remember it since we couldn’t take photos) we started hearing a noise – then Sam said “I think that’s rain.”

It was rain, all right. Rain like I’ve rarely – if ever – seen in my life. In the 30ish minutes we were inside the museum, the sky turned from clear grey to torrential thunderstorms. We tried to wait it out in the museum, but after 30 or 40 minutes, we finally decided to make a run for one of the wats, the entrance of which was only 30 feet away. Here, in a square covered walkway that surrounded the temple itself, we sheltered for another hour and watched with amazement as nature overpowered the sewer system.

Eventually the rain stopped, but not before it filled the square in the middle of the temple to a depth of more than 10 inches… watching the water rise was surreal. Check out some of the pictures below.

We laughed pretty hard at this. Those of you who have been following along on our trip will understand part of the reason – it seems every major monument we’ve gone to we’ve either brought fog or rain. The other reason for our amusement was that the night before we watched the movie Evan Almighty at the hotel, a comedy about a modern day Noah and his Ark. So it seemed especially appropriate, and amusing. Needless to say, we didn’t get the postcard perfect pictures you can imagine, but we got some really wacky pictures of the palace and temples during and after the rain.

It was also amusing seeing people navigate the flooded terrain. It took about 3 hours after the rain stopped before the sewers had caught up and drained the area. Check out some of the more interesting pictures of people below.

After we visited the Emerald Buddha (very cool but again, no photos), the skies cleared and we moved on to the Grand Palace itself. A striking building… and funny little guards who stand at attention without moving. I can only imagine how funny it would have been to take pictures of them during the rain. And they are probably about 6 feet tall, when they are standing on their pedestal. Of course, the machine guns made them slightly less comical.

After the Grand Palace, we walked across the street to Wat Pho, the home of the reclining Buddha. On our way their we passed several “wily strangers” who tried to convince us that Wat Pho lay in the opposite direction – presumably they had some scam in mind. At one point, Sam responded to one of them with the exclamation “shame on you!” That’s my girl.

Inside Wat Pho they allowed us to take pictures, so there’s a small chance that I will actually remember this place. The reclining Buddha is truly awesome… hundreds of feet long and it basically fills the main temple nearly to bursting. Behind the Buddha are 108 little pots, for 20 baht you get a little container with 108 little coins that you can drop one in each pot. I couldn’t resist. I have no idea of the significance, for all I know I was praying for a good season of crops in my garden.

As we left the main temple and wandered around the grounds, the water was still fairly deep in places  and made for some interesting shots of the temple’s grounds, as you can see below.

With all the rain, not the day we imagined, but we had a great time nonetheless. We got a particular kick out of seeing the sights like few other tourists have.

One interesting thing we found out is that there are about 27,000 temples in Thailand. I’m not up for visiting all of them, but next time we’re in Thailand I would like to see a few more. Another interesting fact is that a temple has to have a minimum of 8 monks to perform all the duties, and of course many temples have dozens of monks. So there are a bare minimum of 216,000 monks in Thailand, and probably quite a few more. Thailand has a population of 63 million, so that means more than 1 in 300 people is a monk. If the U.S. had a comparable percentage, we would have more than a million monks. It explains how common a sight monks were throughout our travels.

Here are the rest of the photos from our last day in Bangkok…

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That said, I have to say, I love Thailand. The people here are a kick – I can’t figure them out. The best description I have is that Thai people are like Japanese who smoked a little too much ganja. They’re a contradiction… in most ways they are disorganized and half-ass, but then driving through the country you note that ALL the forests are planted in rows. All of them. Seriously.

They are the friendliest people, except tuk tuk drivers, who are demonic. They have a crazy chaotic government (something like 19 constitutions in the last 60 years) but idolize their king. By the way, their king is a super cool guy, he’s the longest reigning monarch (he became king in 1946). Oh, but be careful, Thailand is one of the few countries that still has lèse majesté laws, so it’s actually illegal to criticize the king (and foreigners occasionally get put in prison for doing so, then pardoned a month later by the king himself).

Thai’s are funny and they are sweet and overall they are just a really neat people. Thailand is cool, I will definitely be back.

But enough about that… Yesterday we took a tour to the floating market, about 80 kilometers outside Bangkok. This is a popular tourist destination, but since it is somewhat far we took a formal tour. Our guide and driver showed up in the morning and were super cute. Our guide’s name was Pooh (well, her nickname). When she introduced herself, we thought she said “Poo” and we just nodded, not sure that she knew what it meant. Needless to say, we didn’t use her name a lot… at the end of the day she gave us a business card, and it turns out her nickname is Pooh, and yes like Winnie the Pooh. I wish she’d given us the business card earlier in the day, as it would have spared some imagined awkwardness.

Overall it was an amazing tour. On the way to the floating market we stopped at a local market and a coconut farm, which were both well worth the stop. The local market is located ON a railroad track. An active one. So 4 or 5 times a day, they move any goods that are high enough the train will hit them (anything low they just leave and let the train drive over) and let the train pass. It’s crazy, and yet it’s an awful good use of space. Here are a few pictures.

After short visits at the local market and coconut farm, we stopped at a pier to take a longtail boat to the floating market. The boat travels through canals that were built to irrigate the fields, but are also used by the locals (and tourists) for transportation. The floating market was really picturesque and interesting. The variety of stuff sold here is impressive, and it’s interesting seeing how much stuff they cram onto little wooden boats. This is definitely a situation where a picture is worth lots of words, so here are some pictures of the market.

After the market we stopped at a wood carving place. Here we got to see Thai artists in the process of carving as well as finished products. This was especially impressive because some of these carvings take a year of work or more to complete… truly impressive. Below is an example of an amazing carving. It is about 12 feet wide and 4 feet tall, and yours for the bargain basement price of about 1 million baht (about $28,500). A lot of money, but not when you consider that one person spent nearly 9 months carving it – 8 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Overall a very interesting tour and it was fun to see a different side of the locals than we’ve seen so far. Here is the full album from the day…

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But we also have really enjoyed the great variety and quality of foods we’ve had a chance to taste around the world.  Food can often be an important reflection of the places and cultures you visit and this trip has been no exception.  Plus, it’s yummy.  Well, sometimes yummy.

The foods we remember most:

• Antarctica: The chefs on the Orlova did quite an impressive job – and we’re still in wonder how we could still be eating quality produce up until the last day of our 19 days at sea.  The chefs would do multi-course meals with at least three different main course options each day and even the most finicky eater could reliably find something they liked.  The bartender served drinks with glacial ice (yes, really).  But the pastry chef was probably the most out of control.  Beautifully presented, delicious desserts were on hand after both lunch and dinner – and don’t forget the platefuls of dainties at teatime.  I’m surprised the ship could stay afloat with all the weight gain of the passengers.

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• Argentina: This place is famous for its steak of course, so we certainly had our share.  But probably the best thing we had in Argentina (well, apart from the gelato of course ) was the empanadas they served at our hotel in Ushuaia.  If you ever find yourself in the southernmost city in the world, you’ve gotta stop by the Hotel Albatross and taste these… while you ponder how lucky you are to be in such a cool place. 
  
  
  

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• Peru: Before my mom asks, no we did not eat the guinea pigs Anthony Bordain talked about in Peru – but it was pretty easy to find, as was llama and alpaca.  What we did eat was a LOT of lomito saltado – sautéed steak and veggies over rice.  I’ve also eaten a lot of lomito saltado at the Copacabana restaurant at Pike Place Market in Seattle and I had been a bit worried whether the “real thing” would be as good.  It was – and even thinking of it now is making me drool.  If you aren’t able to make it to Peru anytime soon, you should hit the Copacabana so you know what I’m talking about.  But if you’re looking for some coca tea to go with it, you’re gonna have to catch a flight – ‘cause it ain’t legal in the States. 

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• Ecuador: Quito = McDonald’s (sadly), so all we have to report is that the names of the food might be a little different but it’s otherwise same same.  So, for Ecuador, really the only memorable food we had was in Galapagos and most of the good options were seafood.  But what stands out the most for us was a restaurant called Red Mangrove Inn in Puerto Ayora that had good sushi and a chicken teriyaki that would blow your mind.  Plus the place has a great view and vibe.  Highly recommend it.  You should also check out the soda they have in Ecuador – Fiori Vanti – tastes like a Shirley Temple.  Yum.

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• Brazil: Again, they like their steak here.  And it’s good – though I do notice that both Brazilians and Argentineans tend to overcook their steaks to my personal liking.  I’m more a medium rare kind of girl and everything I got there was very well done.  But I love steak about as much as they do, so I was happy no matter how I got it.  I also enjoyed plenty of caipirinhas and caipivodkas (vodka instead of cachaça) to wash it down.  When in Brazil, I always say… 
  

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• Cambodia and Thailand: Both countries serve pretty similar food (although only in Cambodia did we see snake, kangaroo and crocodile on one menu).  Great fresh fruit everywhere (also true in much of South America) has deepened my passion for mango along with crazy Asian fruits you don’t see anywhere else, like dragonfruit which has a very light but refreshing flavor and is the prettiest/most interesting looking fruit I’ve ever seen.  As for the rest of the food, for awhile I was mixing things up between Phad Thais, cashew chickens, and curries of every color of the rainbow… but now I’ve settled into nearly a curry-only existence.  And it’s a pretty happy existence I must say.

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Thailand:

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After all that variety, our stomachs are pretty much entirely confused.  And, thanks to a steady three (plus) meal a day schedule, about ten pounds heavier.  If just for that reason, it’ll be good to get back to Seattle… 

So we can go back out and eat Thai and South American food there in the cold and rainy comfort of home.

We spent two nights (March 25 and 26th) on Phi Phi Island, which is in the middle of the Andaman Sea. We debated coming here because we’d heard mixed things about the island. It’s a famous tourist destination and has apparently been overdeveloped. It was also severely damaged in the 2004 Tsunami that devastated the region.

But we ran into a Seattle couple in Railay who had just come from Phi Phi and convinced us to give it a shot. It didn’t hurt that they had just come from a resort we’d been considering (The Phi Phi Island Village) and gave it high marks.

So we set out early March 25th to take the local 9:00am ferry to Phi Phi from Railay Beach. The ferries are quite convenient – and reasonable. For 450 baht each (about 13 dollars) we got a ticket on a 90 minute ferry to Phi Phi. It picked us up off our beach (we had to take a longtail to the ferry – which was amusing with all the luggage). You can see some pictures of the ferry, and ridiculous piles of luggage, below.

But apparently our travels have been too smooth for the gods. We got to Phi Phi, met the hotel staff at the pier, who said they hadn’t heard of us. This wasn’t a huge surprise since we had just booked online the night before and we thought that perhaps their printouts were prepared earlier. But, sadly, after speaking to one of them more they informed us that the hotel was full and that they didn’t have a room for us. We explained that we had a confirmation that a room was reserved, which we eventually showed the guy. But we eventually figured out that there are two confirmations that are sent when you book, we got the first, but not the second (of course, there is no indication on the first confirmation of this and it sure looked official). So, actually, the hotel was full and we were supposed to figure out by the missing second confirmation that we didn’t have a room.

You can imagine how happy we were to learn this news. Did I mention it was 90+ degrees and we were hot and sweaty and really looking forward to the resort pool? We wasted about 5 or 10 minutes of our lives explaining to the guy that if this was really how the website worked (which he confirmed) that perhaps it needed to be changed (which never seemed to get through). Finally, we decided to give up.

Luckily, apparently this is not uncommon, and right next door was a greedy travel agent who was happy to hook us up (for a fee) with another hotel. So we ended up at the “Phi Phi The Beach Resort”, which was fine but not nearly as nice as our original hotel. We had a bungalow set up on a hillside which was cute and rustic. The view almost made up for the hassle, as you can see below.

(Left: the view from the deck of our bungalow. Middle: the hotel as seen from the water. Right: The beach in front of the hotel)

A few beers and a nice spicy curry later (total bill ~300 baht), we had shaken off our malaise and dedicated ourselves to exploring Phi Phi. We walked into town the first day (quite a hike involving slippery rocks, trekking through the jungle and wading through water at low tide), and eventually found our way by longtail boat to “Monkey Beach” which was beautiful, but devoid of monkeys. We had a small accident along the way, as you can see below…

It looks worse than it really was. I slipped as I was wading through some rocks and fell on my ass. I didn’t notice that my leg was bleeding until 5 minutes later. Not because I’m particularly tough, but because I sliced the tip of my finger open on some coral and I was busy being a sissy about that and didn’t see the bloodier and deeper cuts on my leg. Luckily, after another 30 minutes of walking and wading (sterilizing the wound) and a few beers later (medicine), everything was ship shape.

Here are some photos from around Phi Phi Island…

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The next day we went diving with Long Beach Divers, who were one of the many dive shops along Long Beach. Whoever tells you marketing doesn’t work is lying. We chose these guys because their sign made us laugh. We took a picture below… check it out. Read it and if you don’t laugh then you should go to the doctor.

We had a nice day diving with them, although the diving wasn’t as good as the Similan Islands the week before. The best encounter was with a few different green turtles and some interesting colors, but nothing amazing that we didn’t see before.

Overall they were a great dive shop and a great crew. I will say I was a little disappointed in our “super good looking dive master” – in fact I think I’ll sue. The sign didn’t say our dive master would be a dude. Isn’t there a truth in advertising law or something? Oh, wait, this is Thailand. It also turned out that one of the dive masters was the dad of ours – both married to young Thai girls – but who’s counting?

Here are some of the pics we took diving…

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On to Bangkok!

We went 5 different places:

• Sea canoeing through limestone caves (Tam Lod) where a guide does all the paddling
• “James Bond Island” (real name Kao Tapoo) – the island where the Man with the Golden Gun was filmed in 1974, now a HUGE tourist attraction in this area and the namesake of the tour
• Visiting a floating Muslim village (Koh Panyee) - a village that has grown out of a small island where some is on stilts and some is actually floating. Interestingly, this village is all Muslim and so we were advised not to wear our “skimpies” when visiting this place
• “Monkey cave temple” (Wat Suwankuha) – a temple in a cave with a 200 year old reclining Buddha, and literally hundreds of monkeys that live in the area and are fed by tourists
• Waterfall – a “refreshing swim” at the end of the day at the “beautiful waterfall” (actually a muddy stream with a tiny little thing I wouldn’t call a waterfall)

Overall, except for the waterfall, the trip was better than expected.

The sea canoeing was super cool – the water has carved the limestone into fantastic shapes and even cooler than the caves were little grottos where you went in through a small opening and were in a protected lagoon with 50 foot walls but open to the sky. And we’re proud to say we support child labor since our paddler couldn’t have been over 15 years old. In the middle picture below, note the umbrellas – that is a floating bar where you can stop and get a drink while your guide does all the hard work.

After sea canoeing we went to James Bond island. We were actually expecting this to be fairly uninteresting, but it was surprisingly picturesque. Whoever picked this location for the movie did their job well. Sure, it was mobbed with tourists and filled with little crappy souvenir huts, but what a location. We’re inspired now to go see the movie again and see how much it looks the same. You can see a few of the pictures below.

Then it was time for lunch and so we stopped at the floating village. This was a little of a letdown since you don’t really get to explore the real village, instead they have self-contained restaurants with little gift shops on the fringe of the island where tourists stop. Hundreds of tourists stop here every day, so I guess I can understand that they don’t want them walking through the village, but I still thought that at least I should be allowed to go. You can see the mosque of the village in the picture on the left.

Finally we got to the Monkey Cave temple. We were looking forward to this because, well, Sam is a loon for animals. Unexpectedly, the temple itself was really interesting. In addition to the main cave with the reclining Buddha, there were several other interesting Buddhist statues, and also a satellite cave with really interesting rock formations. Oh, and lots of bats.

But of course the monkeys were the hit of the show. They are semi-tame, and are not at all afraid of humans. They climb all over the statues, inside the cave, outside the cave, up the trees, on cars. They are really cute. There are vendors who sell peanuts and bananas, and boy they go bananas for bananas. Here are a few…

The one on the right was especially cute. The monkeys are very competitive for the food, this was a baby who Sam fed some peanuts. Note that he’s not eating them, yet. He’s just storing them in his cheeks until he can get away from the other monkeys and then eat in peace.

Here is a video of me feeding one of the monkeys. Super cute. If our bags seem a little heavy, and maybe mobile, when we get home, it’s just the monkeys that we are bringing back with us. The Thai masseuses won’t mind making room in the luggage, since monkeys are cute.

And here is the full album of photos we took on the day trip.

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Overall a fun day.

P.S. You’ll note that there are no pictures of the “waterfall.” That’s because it was lame. Even though we were hot and sweaty at this point, there was no way I was jumping in the green and semi-stagnant water.

On the left, the view from our hotel pool on Railay Beach. On the right, sunset on Railay Beach.

We’re still in the province of Krabi, but we’ve moved beaches. We originally left Phuket (1) to come to Krabi to Ao Nang beach (2) and now we’re on Railay Beach (3). Here is a map for reference…

Coming from Phuket, we first found a resort in Ao Nang that seemed really nice – the Krabi Thai Village – and so we booked it for two nights, thinking we’d add nights if we liked it there.

Sadly, the resort was not so nice. It was the most expensive resort we’d stayed at so far and had great bones, but the staff were not friendly and it had not been maintained well. Our first room smelled strongly of dead something. We opened the door, turned on the fan and gave it a few hours, and went to the pool. But it still was rancid when we came back, so we asked to change rooms. Our second room was better, but still musty. It seemed like the smell actually came from the A/C… I’m trying not to think about what little creatures might have been growing there.

But as we were exploring the area, we took a day trip to Railay beach – which is a little area on a peninsula completely cut off from the mainland by limestone cliffs. So it’s effectively an island, there are no roads there (and just footpaths while you are there – no cars or motorcycles). It is much lower key than anywhere else we’ve been in Thailand, fewer people and only a few little bars and resorts. And as you can see from the two pictures above, the scenery is striking!

We checked into a new hotel here – the Railay Bay Resort – but are suspicious now so only booked for 1 day. The room and hotel are lovely however (in spite of being only two-thirds of the price of the Krabi Thai Village resort) and so we’ve extended our day another 2 nights, and may end up extending it another 2 nights. It’s truly magical here.

Given that it’s effectively an island, it’s surprisingly affordable here. Everything comes in on the crazy longtail boats, which seem like a very inefficient way to transport anything, let alone supplies. (We learned later that the engines on these boats are actually old car engines – so long after you are done with your car – somebody might pull the engine out and bolt it on the back of a crazy wooden boat. You didn’t realize you were that good at recycling did you?) To give you a sense, an entree here is between 100-200 baht ($2.80 to $5.70), whereas in Ao Nang we were paying 90 – 150 baht. I can handle that.

Railay is apparently world-renowned for rock climbing. It’s supposed to be in the top 5 destinations in the world for climbing enthusiasts. There are hundreds of rock climbing routes up the vertical limestone cliffs that surround the area, and there are lots of young and stupid people walking around who apparently think climbing up cliffs is fun. This makes for some interesting sights like the pictures below.

There are several caves in the area and 4 beaches (of which we’ve explored 3 so far). The pictures above were taken at Phranang Cave Beach.

Here are a few more pictures taken around Railay…

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