Tag Archives: scooter

Krabi area continued . . . part 2

Who is that madly happy woman???
Just love the contrast.
Heading down.
And love the bamboo scaffolding!
The guide book made it sound like the monkeys would attack me. Was very happy to find that not to be true.
Tie a yellow ribbon round that old oak tree.
Couldn’t resist taking a shot of this.
Most of the roads I took were pleasantly free of traffic.
A typical site.
A friend waiting his turn to cross the road.
I went to the “end of the road.” The locals were laughing at this goofy tourist visiting the (what looked like) salt mines.
The next “end of the road.”
Looked like a nice place to hike.

This was one of the nicest roads I was on. But right about then I was wondering if I was going to make it back on the amount of fuel I had . . . I did obviously!

Time to check out, return the moto and head to Railay (a boat ride around the cove from Ao Nang in the Krabi area of Thailand . . . not far from Phuket.

Shots galore from the Krabi, Thailand area part one . . .

I was there July 10th to the 17th (of this year . . . 2011).

Enjoy!

aloha,

-sj

Leaving Bangkok.
Arriving in Krabi area (southern Thailand)
It was raining buckets.
Add the hype about taking a taxi . . . it was 150 Baht to be delivered right to my hotel’s doorstep.
My room.
Love the elephant theme ALL over Thailand.
Ao Nang beach.
Ze hotel.
The end of the road with the scooter.
A school at the “end of the road.”
Looked like the perfect place for lunch.
Ze elephants were right down the street.
The Auntie made a wonderful veggie lunch.
The doggie who “sidled” up beside me.
Her cousin.
Base of the wat with a zillion stairs.
Part of what I saw when I was “lost.”
Stopped here to get out the rain and have an orange fanta.
Where they get their fuel for their motos, i.e. scooters.
Where I was scootin’.
A typical view.
Back at the wat with a zillion steps . . .
Loved their construction rigging.
Do you get a feeling of how steep it is?
This worker took a break.
Do you spy him?
I think it had been freshly painted.
Yeah, I thought it was cool too.
Love that they didn’t use blue tape.
Trash can made from tires. : )
Keep going!
Takin’ a break.
You need some help to bring all the whatever up this mountain.
Ah, made it to the top!
It took about 30-minutes to walk up, 20 to walk down.
What you see from up top . . .
Lots and lots of rocks . . .
Where the monks hang down below . . .
There was a large patio on top . . .
Ze distant mountains . . . looking north.
It was built right over and around the rocky mountain.
These guys are working pretty hard.  :  )
I thought the antennae looked cool.
It was nice to just hang and take it in . . .
The “behind-the-scene” view (or under the patio . . . )

More to come . . .

Made it to the movies! (a l o n g one . . . : )

Hi Everyone,

It’s Friday evening in Chiang Mai, and I made it to the movies! (the 2011 European Union Film Festival) There’s an Italian one (“The Last Pulcinella”) playing as I type, but I figured watching two movies was enough!

What’d I see? “Above the Street, Below the Water” (2009); this Danish film was a bittersweet tail of changing relationships. I’d recommend it . . . but not for kids. Next came a German movie, “Run if you Can” (2009) about an unusual threesome. Also good. Also not for kids really.

How did I get there? With my orange scooter that I rented for 150 baht from a place across the street from the hotel (where I could have rented one for 250 and had it delivered to me; I figured I could handle the walk across the street and save 100 baht! : )

How much did the movies cost? Nada! They were free. And the soda and popcorn was a whopping 55 baht. Some things in Thailand and really, really cool.

“Okay, what else have you been doing?” You ask.

Well, I went on a three-day, two-night trek up into the mountains north of CM.

But before I tell you about that, I gotta (yes, gotta : ) tell you that some more magic happened Monday night after I posted my last glob entry. How the way back to my hotel I ran into one of my new friends! I’d met this nice lady and her son and girlfriend during the cooking class. We’d ridden the same vehicle to the place and hung out with each other all day. Then, when it came time to leave, they threw me (not literally, but almost) into another bus since I was a lone duck. I got to quickly say goodbye to this nice British lady, but not the other two. And here it was, around 10 p.m. and I was on my way back to the pad to eat SJ-made phad thai and mango sticky rice when I ran into her! She told me how her son had been so disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to say goodbye . . . I’ll just to to the hotel, I said. And I did. While she went searching for a place to change their plane seating, I found their inexpensive-but-very-nice-350-baht-a-night hotel. Introduced myself to the proprietor who was playing cards with a group of fun-loving women, convinced them that I had indeed just seen the mother . . . and was not a mass murdered, and gained entry into the building. Up one flight and there they were enjoying their specially made food with a Chang. : ) We had a fun visit (with the mom too who returned quickly unsuccessful with her mission) until my eyes were drooping so heavily and my stomach was growling incessantly . . . but, I think my noodles tasted so much better having been tempered with a helping of new friendship. So it goes . . .

Okay, the trek. “What was it like?”

Well, it was fun; it was muddy; it was lazy; it was goofy; it was a great success.

It’s so amazing how you can throw 12 complete strangers together in the back of a truck (they have a special name for it that I’m too lazy to look up, excusez moi, s’il vous plait), stir a little, add some heat, and cook up a tasty stew of new friendships. By the end of three days, we were practically kissing cousins.

“What’d we do?”

We walked. Through rice fields (with water is “regular” rice, without is sticky rice, so they say . . ), down muddy paths, up paved roads, through Karen villages, and in a bamboo forest . . . and we hung out–till noon the second day. We played cards, smoked bad cigarettes (well, some of us watched, but it was fun), learned goofy Karen jokes, listened to locals play some intruments, tried the instruments ourselves (one was a 7-string somethingorother), ate rice, lots of rice, and noodles, and well, drank Chang beer . . . oh, and we swam in two different swimming holes with waterfalls (the water was mostly clear). At the first one, the water was quite strong and two of the darling Spaniards almost got washed away (for real), but our 25-year old Karen guide moved the quickest he ever did during the 3-days and “caught” them and then got them to safety. His name? “Call me potato,” he told us the first day. And we did. I lost track of how many times the lovely Spanish ladies yelled, “Potato! Potato! There’s a spider! Potato!”

: ) Yeah, it made us all smile too.

“And the rest of the 12?” you ask.

A family of five Danes–a really beautiful family, two teenage boys and a fiesty 11-year old girl. She’s strong! She often lead us as we walked. A pair of three who met while backpacking. One is a French former model (male). And two live in Arizona, though they met in Burma. Yep, makes sense in that goofy happenstance way that traveling and meeting people just somehow works out so perfectly.

5 Spaniards, 5 Danes, 1 French man, 2 women from Arizona (an American young lady who’d been studying in Singapore for a year and will be returning “home” soon and a Taiwanese lady who calls AZ home–where she teaches Art, “K through 8,” she explained), and moi, the smiling, laughing lady from Kauai . . .

And on the trek, we also rode elephants. I enjoyed it overall, but my heart didn’t feel like they were treated well. Our little guy was so hungry; he kept stopping to eat leaves, branches, whatever he could grab. We gave him two bags worth of bananas and sugar cane . . . but something just didn’t feel completely right.

And we rode these long bamboo poles (about 7 or 8, I think) that were temporarily strapped together with strips of black tire. There were four of us to a raft. The group I was with (the 3 backpackers) was fairly tame; we sat, laughed, got wet bumps, but generally, played it cool. The three Spaniards and eldest Danish boy (who speaks very good German AND English btw) had a rip-roaring time! They rolled the raft several time, got dunked even more, and even took the bamboo poles and steered their way down. The guide looked a bit terrified at the end (for real! his eyes were BIG when they came in ! lol ; )

It was definitely a trek machine . . . a very well organized and oiled machine cranking out one batch of 12-tourist-trekkers after another. Some mastermind has organized the movement of this chain of people from one Karen hut and one Karen “7-11” to another. And they all seemed to be having a good time. And the natives? Well, I think they’re definitely making use of their resources (the terrain and themselves). We often hung out with the small family at the two places where we stayed overnight (we 12 slept in the same hut; there were groupings of 3 mats under the corresponding mosquito nets. The rustic toilets had the kind of basin that you stand on and squat . . . there were large containers of water from which we’d scoop water to pour into the tiny bowl . . . you get the picture).

Tomorrow I head out for BKK where I’ll do heaps of laundry and get myself organized for the next 8-week portion of this saga (Cambodia where I’ll volunteer teach).

The rest of the evening promises some fun scooter riding and some food . . . maybe a heap of tasty noodles. Today I found the wat on the hill 16 km to the northeast of town, along with some sleeping dogs, waterfalls, and pretty scenery.

I’ve enjoyed this part of Thailand; yes, it’s been my favorite so far . . . but I do still remember fondly that trip along the River Kwai . . . and the fun boat ride in BKK, and, and, and . . .

Didn’t read through this, so please excuse me for my missssspellings and Freudian slips.

Do hope you’re all well and enjoying yourselves wherever you are–having a good meal, watching a good movie, reading a good book, or just hanging out with friends and family.

Aloha and a bientot,

sj

OMG! I had so much fun today!

Today, for the first time in my life, I rented a scooter. Yes, for the first time in my life. I’ve ridden on the back many, many times, but never had I been on one alone as the solo driver. Today, I broke that spell!

I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous at first; so I took it slow and easy. And then, I surprised myself by how quickly I took to it. It was F U N!!!

The main reason I rented it (for a whopping 150BHT for 24-hours, remember, $1=30BHT about, I spent 160 and 70 BHT on gas . . . ) was to go see this wat, or temple. It’s called Wat Tum Sua (and many other names too with similar yet different spellings).

When reading about Krabi, I read about beaches, boat rides, the movie “The Beach,” rock climbing . . . and this wat on the hill. It was said to be a pilgrimage site for many. To me it looked like a fascinating place to visit. But first I had to find it! I allowed myself to meander along the road heading out from Ao Nang beach area and came across some spectacular views of big ole rocks just sticking up out of the water. After I found my way to some pier and realized that I had no idea where I was, I decided it was time to get focused. Fortunately for me, there was a really nice Thai couple at the pier with their baby. She was singing lullabies, and he was fishing. And for a double dose of fortunate-ness, he spoke English (and very well at that). “Can you please show me where I am?” I asked. “Right here,” he said pointing at a peninsula well off my “desired” route. (Why the quotemarks? Because I must have really wanted to go there, or I would’t have!)

“And how to head towards the Krabi airport?”

“A right and another right,” he replied.

At that point, I realized that I knew where I was, or at least that I recognized the roads I’d gone past . . . And with that I was off. Ready to make my way to the wat.

But first, mother nature decided that a orange fanta break would be a good thing. And how did she let me know? With a downpour of rain. I found the perfect place to wait it out just before I was even a little bit wet. As I sat there, I watched a man on a scooter come rolling up with a little kid in tow. To my amazement, he was stopping there to get fuel. In the same vein as a rolling cart to cook up some Thai grinds, there was a little booth I hadn’t noticed (right where I’d parked my scooter), with a variety of bottles hanging down. Yep, inside was some fuel. As I sat and sipped my orange fanta, I watched the kind clerk open this one and that one and send a mix to his da kine. I also watched a tabby cat take a bath. And while this was happening, a little Thai boy was watching me. Maybe he’d never seen a farang (foreigner) before; he was certainly intrigued by me.

Okay den, at this rate, we’ll never get to the wat!

Suffice it to say that I mosied on down the road and found the wat–past the main town and then left on a fairly remote road northwest of the airport. But first, before I climbed up those 1,200 and a lot more steps, I realized that I hadn’t eaten since breakfast (and it was 3:15 p.m.). I drove right up to this open-air kitchen/restaurant sort of place where 2 young boys were playing pool, asked if there was any food to be served, and waited as they round up the cook! It ended up being a very nice woman who stir-fried up a wonderful mess of veggies (seasoned perfectly, they were very tasty) with some white rice. I enjoyed my lunch while I watched a dog !saddle up beside me and proceed to take a nap. Meanwhile, the kids kept playing pool. And as I ate, watched and listened, I heard the roar of elephants down the road. A very typical afternoon in Thailand. : )

“But did you ever make it to the wat?” you ask.

“Yep, I did.”

And wow, were there ever a LOT of steps to the top. It took 32-minutes to go up (and 22 to come down). I hung out there for over a half-hour and took a zillion pictures. Since I don’t have my computer here with me, I’ll have to wait to post them. But in the meantime, I found a shot on-line of part of the view at the top.

“What do you mean by part?”

Well, there was a lot more to see than that! It was so beautiful . . . in the rugged Thai kind of way. The actual wat was beautiful, but like most places here in Thailand, they’re surrounded by an assortment of this and that (yep, matches the theme of my glob very nicely, if you please : ).

I most thoroughly enjoyed myself.

: )

And then, as I listened to the rumble from the elephants far, far below, the sky decided to join in. Taking this as a sign that it was time to leave, I headed down the kazillion steps–just in time to take cover at the base. After a short wait (and enough time to down my cold water : ), it slowed enough for me to feel comfortable to head on.

And like a local (okay, maybe a very, very “green” local), I merged with traffic, (*) squoze between various vehicles, and (**) helied on back to my pad–after a few more detours. : ) Yep, I’m hooked on the scooter kind of travel–so much fun!!!

So, just a few days ago I said that I wouldn’t write anything for a while. Okay, I lied. I wrote lots and lots.

And am I smiling?

I think you can figure that one out all on your own.

And with that, I’m signing off and heading on to bed!

-sj

p.s. and happy anniversay to the total solar eclipse we saw aboard the SS Constitution in 1991 on this day . . . wow, 20-years ago!

! A great adventure, love your exuberance! I got a kick out of the dog that “saddled” up–presumably to be ridden out of there at full gallop! “Sidled up” I knew was what you meant–love those inadvertent jokes!
Take care,
Wil

-He was right, of course! But I kind of like the Freudian slip; maybe I wanted to ride that dog on out of there . . . or not. Poor fellow looked like he needed to be carried!

(*) squoze

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English

[edit] Verb

squoze

  1. (nonstandard, humorous) Simple past tense and past participle of squeeze.

[edit] See also

(**) from Hawaii . . .