Much Nature. Also tropical rainstorms is no joke

18122016

Asia, Cruise, Thailand

Last excursion of the cruise, last stop in Thailand, breakfast was again the buffet, so nothing new. We hurried down to the embarkation deck to take the tender to the port.

Koh Sumui was the stop for the day, this is one of those tropical paradise spots that attracts apparently Russians and Australians. The primary activity was a hike up the mountain to swim in a mountain stream. The itinerary even mentioned it was VERY STRENUOUS, but apparently some of the other tourists didnt take the itinerary seriously.

But ill get to that.

Once the tender got us to the pier, our group was broken into 4 micro-buses, each with their own guide, so really it was basically a ten person private tour. We were taken to a seafood market, that wasnt all that interesting after all the markets we have been through, but as i said, the primary activity was the hike.

So after the market we get up to the base of the mountain, got some fish food, and fed the fish in front of a Buddhist temple, to prove we were good people.

Laura and i actually saved most of our fish food to share with the various dogs in the area, especially the puppy.



So the river in which the fish were was the mouth of the river which we would eventually be swimming in up the mountain. It seemed to be moving very quickly.

Turns out overnight, it had stormed pretty hard, which as you can imagine swells up the riverbanks pretty significantly. We started walking up the mountain, crossing the first of many streams that were much larger than normal, and people started complaining. A lady asked 5 minutes into the walk “how far are we? how much longer?” the guide nearly laughed and said; we're not even one quarter of the way up.

It was very very strenuous, the hike would have been hard on a normal day, the rains made it a little dangerous. Laura and I got ahead of the main group and joined a sporty older couple from Seattle Area (we spoke to them some about moving there). The itinerary said a 30 minute walk, it took us a little over an hour.

When we got up to the top we saw the waterfall, and it was beautiful, but violent. The pool that we were supposed to swim in would probably have killed us if we had gotten in. When a guide made it up to us, he suggested we swim in one of the lower areas.

So we climbed back down, found a spot and disrobed to hop in the fresh mountain spring.

Firstly the water was very cold, it took a little while to get used to. As you eased into the chill water, you felt ALL THE LITTLE FISHIES NIP AT YOUR FEET.


That was weird, some people pay for this treatment, i certainly wouldnt. Luckily the water was moving so quickly, as soon as you got a few feet from the shore the fish couldnt handle the current.

We swam around some, didnt die, and then went back down the mountain.

Getting back down the mountain, after collecting up all the people that couldnt make it up we made our way to lunch. Lunch was at a restaurant near the pier where we are a more local meal than we had yet have, and it was unsurprisingly one of the better meals we had.

After lunch we had a few minutes to wander around the little town some, Laura bought some more elephant pants (loose fitting inexpensive cotton pants), and we made our way back to the tender.

The boat brought us back to our bigger boat, for more trivia and another dinner with our Aussie friends, before going to sleep, ready for our last full day on the ship.

100 Year old Market

17122016

Another early day for fighting Bangkok traffic. Ate the buffet, Laura has been eating Eggs Benedict nearly every day, and i've been rotating through sausage patty sammitches, and yogurt/granola.

This tour was not actually taking us into Bangkok, but to Klong Suan area. The tour guide was great. Her English was very good, and she knew lots of things about Thailand, and Bangkok and local social/cultural nuances.

We took another river tour, this on smaller boats through smaller canals

We saw more of the “local” life here, people fishing, and living on the river/canals.

We were taken to a market that was built up on stilts over the water.



We wandered around, and took pictures of the cats that were around. This market was big enough to absorb 40-some Western Tourists, so it was more comfortable than the time in Cambodia. We walked around and saw all the ware, paying extra attention to the foods. We were hesitant to eat anything on account of our soft-american tummies.

The bus picked us up right outside the market, and took us to a temple deeper in the city.

this was a really cool temple the Wat Sathon Wararam Worawihan (wiki link), full of people making devotions to whatever buddhist incarnation they needed to to get whatever ends they needed. And around the temple were all the shops selling the specific offerings for said devotions, be it eggs, flowers, incense, or trinkets.

After the temple we were taken to a Spa Resort outside the city for lunch. The food was pretty good, the guide warned us that Thai food was very hot, though we didnt find it to be too hot. We should have learned to temper our hopes, these guides are used to dealing with white-bre(a)d westerners, not spice chasing twentysomethings.

Again we were all about the WiFi in the hotel lobby.

The bus then took us back to the boat relatively early, as the next port was a ways away.

We were back in time for the various Trivia games, attended the Gala night in the Dining Room with our new Australian freinds. The food and company was great.

After dinner we played more trivia with said australians, stuck around to chat more with a third couple (these ones American) before going to bed.

Hungry FIsh

16122016

We landed in port very early in the morning, we felt the directional thrusters on the boat particularly violently this morning.

Ate the normal breakfast buffet, and made our way to the bus. Unfortunately the port the boat landed in Laem Chabang, is actually well outside of Bangkok, as in its over 100km away, plus Bangkok is notorious for its terrible traffic. So the way in the city took us a little over 2 hours. The little countryside we saw looked much like the Vietnamese and Cambodian countryside, various rivers and canals, rice paddies etc. However the city of Bangkok was clearly much larger the previously visited SE Asian cities.

Our tourguide on the bus wasn't so great, he didnt dispense is knowledge overly freely, and he was easily distracted by some of the people asking stupid questions (like the rules around driving a goddamn scooter).

When the bus finally got into the city it dropped us off at a pier for our river cruise. The boat was pretty big, easily fit all of us (25-30ish). The boat then took us along the river, (wiki link here), we saw various temples and government buildings.

At one point we stopped to feed the fish. Traditionally, people will feed animals, particularly around temples to show their generosity and generally illustrate that they are a good person.

The boat then took us over to one of the fancy hotels on the river for lunch. The food was overall pretty good, they had some good traditional Thai foods. Honestly we were more interested in the WiFi in the hotel lobby than the food.

We piled back on the bus, it drove us through the Chinatown of Bangkok. Which after being in ACTUAL China, wasnt all that amazing. They did seem to have way more Sharkfin soup places than we saw in actual China.

We then disgorged from the bus to visit the flowermarket. This was another not so great stop, it took us about 25 minutes to get there, they walked us through it taking about 15 minutes, and then spent another 35 minutes driving to the next stop.

I struggle to appreciate the reasons for taking us to the flowermarket, none of us can buy anything, as we are prohibited from bringing fresh fruits/vegetables/flowers back on the boat, and we are hurried through too quickly to have a snack or chat with anyone.

We then went to the Marble Temple (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Benchamabophit).

Other than how pretty the temple grounds were, we didnt get much. As i said the guide didnt explain all that much. So read the wiki

Then we had the coup de gras of the day, the wonderful time in the Gem Market. This was the most egregious waste of our time on the trip (and as i am writing this well after getting off the boat, the ENTIRE trip).

The tour hurried us through the actual historical/cultural sites to ensure we had enough time in the Gem Market. This was one of the tourist traps where things are overpriced, the staff are overly pushy and the lights overly bright.

This place didnt even have the informational pitch like the lacquer shop and the pearl stop earlier in the trip.

After no one really purchased anything, we were hurried back on the bus to sit in 3 hours of traffic to get back to the boat.

Our bus was actually late, and we forced the boat to stay in port an extra few minutes.

Having missed trivia, we simply went to dinner, ate the tasty food, and went to bed.