Thursday, April 24, 2008

The trip to Burlington or Out of Asia

We got another early start on our last day in Asia with a 6 am wake-up call. The complimentary buffet breakfast provided by Mabuhay Manor hit the spot. (And it was set up in an enclosed room so no worry about more bug bites.) The cab ride to the airport was interesting as Manila seems to come alive early (much earlier than we’d seen in Tokyo). At 6:30 am, the streets were teeming with people going to work. There’s a strange sense of third-world here with tension high as life is tough. Even the cab driver seemed nervous and locked his doors when we stopped at lights.
The line-up for check-in was long and it took us almost 45 minutes to reach the counter. I can’t remember ever going through so many security checks on the way to our departure gate. The JAL flight to Tokyo was uneventful except for the realization that the space provided for each passenger (especially leg room) is not based on a North American model. Even as transit passengers, we had to go through security again at Narita before proceeding to the American Airlines departure counter. Fortunately, our bags have been checked through to LA.
Landed in LA early in the morning, made our way to the Travelodge LAX and tried to stay awake until a reasonable hour that night. With all the time zones we’ve crossed, we’ve been on the go for almost twenty hours but we built in the overnight in LA to help us adjust to this time change and we need to stay awake for a while longer. We had thought (in the planning phase) that we might take the complimentary shuttle to Manhattan Beach to kill some time but it was surprisingly cool in LA and we didn’t bother. I hadn’t thought I’d need my jacket until we landed in Toronto on Saturday night.
Security at the LA airport the next morning was a bit of a problem. Because it was cool in LA and we were expecting it to be even cooler in Toronto, I had dressed in long pants and jacket. I hadn’t worn the long pants since Cambodia and didn’t think to check the pockets. All my carry-on gear went through the scanner without a problem but, when I stepped through the portal, the alarms sounded. Oops, I’d forgotten I was wearing a belt this time. Second time through the portal and again the alarms sounded. Double oops. I’d switched out batteries in my camera while we were visiting the temple ruins at Angkor and the old batteries were in a side pocket of my pants. (I’d wondered where those extra batteries were.) Third time was a charm.
The West Jet flight to Toronto went smoothly and we were on the ground by 8:45 pm. It was surprisingly warm in Toronto (much warmer than LA). There was very little Saturday night traffic during the limo ride to Burlington and we were home by 10 pm. The first order of business is to visit the grocery store so there’ll be some food to eat when we wake up in the morning.
And now we’re home again after two long travel days. Coming east is always harder as we adjust to the time change. And then there’s the mild depression that sets in at the end of any adventure. Lots to catch up on but no energy or enthusiasm for the tasks. It’ll take us a few days to settle in but, inevitably, life’s routines will take over and we’ll fall back into familiar patterns. At least until the next trip. But that probably won’t be until June when we head to Atlanta to spend some time with our grandchildren. In the meantime, we’ll relish the memories of this amazing trip.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

The clownfish save the day

Are we headed to Dumaguete or Doom-agetti? It certainly appeared to be the latter as we sat in our room on Sunday night and contemplated the disaster which seemed to have overtaken us. It had started badly early that morning–very early. Jet Star Asia had moved our departure time to 6:30 am which meant being at the airport by 4:30 am which meant being up by 4 am to check out of the hotel and get a cab to the airport. It didn’t help that Doreen woke during the night, misread her watch and, in a panic, woke me at 2 am. Not a quality night’s sleep.
We knew from their website that Jet Star Asia had limitations on their carry-on baggage but we didn’t know how serious they were about enforcing those limits. As we waited in the check-in line, several people were turned away and began re-arranging their baggage. Now we were worried. Doreen’s carry-on weighed in at just over 10 kg and mine at 8.2 (the limit was 7 kg). But, when we reached the counter, there were no problems. They took our check-in luggage and didn’t even ask about our carry-ons. Great. Until we went to the security check. They had a scale there and were enforcing the 7 kg limit. We were told the bags would have to be checked. With our checked luggage already gone, we couldn’t even re-arrange things. We finally did move some things around and were able to clear my carry-on and my computer bag. Doreen had to check hers. With no lock on the bag, she was not a happy camper.
The flight to Manila was fine, even if no frills. We weren’t too impressed with the Manila terminal but we managed to find the Cebu Pacific shuttle bus which would take us to the domestic departure area for our next flight. Eventually. We had to wait until there was a full load. Either that or the driver wanted to allow enough shopping time for the young lady who batted her eyes and convinced him to stop at the shopping center to retrieve her along the way.
When we arrived at the domestic terminal, it was complete chaos. We were shuffled from counter to counter until finally being allowed to check-in. Hard to tell if the domestic and international terminals share the same air field. It was a longer bus ride than I’d expected and we seemed to go through part of the city. Because our first flight had been moved to an earlier time and our second flight was late, it was a long, boring wait in a crowded, noisy, hot room with uncomfortable seating. The flight to Dumaguete was fine though the landing was a little scary. It seems the runway is so short that the pilot practically has to put his wheels in the ocean to ensure hitting the runway just past the threshold and allowing enough room for roll-out. Somewhat similar to the short runway in St. Bart’s.
The pick-up from El Dorado was waiting, our bags were there and it looked like we were close to arrival. Wrong. The driver informed us that he’d been instructed to wait in town for some resort guests who’d gone on an excursion to another island. They’d been delayed and wouldn’t get back until 6 pm. The resort is only 20 minutes from town so waiting two hours didn’t make much sense but, to the driver, the boss was the boss. By now, the heavens had opened up and it was pouring. The boss changed his orders and we proceeded to the resort. We weren’t too impressed with what we saw through the rain. The sight of walls with glass-imbedded and spiked tops was reminiscent of San Andres and very depressing. Not much incentive to explore.
The room itself was fine–very similar to Octopus Resort in Fiji but without the feeling of hospitality. The Filipino staff are nice enough but nothing stands out–or maybe we’re so tired and hungry that nothing would impress. We’ve been on the go fourteen hours, have had only two snacks in that time, it’s pouring and, again, English is the third language here. We considered whether or not we should cut our losses and head back to Manila in the morning.
The next morning was raining and we waffled on a final decision. The tipping point was that we had no plans for Manila and hadn’t done any preparatory research. So we decided to stay with El Doarado and resign ourselves to a few miserable days before we began the journey home. Maybe Angkor was so fascinating that everything else was going to be anti-climatic. But the sun came out in the afternoon and things began to take on a different outlook.
And then we went snorkeling. The next morning we managed to hook up with a dive group headed to Apo Island, under the expert guidance of Lito who was described on the dive board as “the master of disaster” (I think in reference to a motorcycle accident he’s had last week). The dive group was German so there wasn’t much conversation but the crew were friendly and the trip aboard the catamaran was pleasant and relatively quick. The first spot we stopped was ‘the Chapel’. Off the boat, the water was quite deep but, as we swam toward the shore, things improved noticeably. We drifted down the coastline and the coral was terrific. The fish weren’t anything out of the ordinary, except for a couple of Clark’s anenomefish. We made it back to the boat just before the divers reappeared.
The crew provided fruit and tea/coffee–a nice touch. Before leaving the area, we stopped for an hour so that people could browse the wares the village women had lined up to display. Doreen couldn’t resist a green tee shirt. Then it was off to our second stop–Kan Uran. This was even better. The coral was about as good as I’ve ever seen and the fish were better than earlier. One area in particular drew Doreen’s attention–an area called ‘Clownfish City’. We saw groups of a dozen or more anenomefish and lots of smaller groups–more anenomefish than I’ve ever seen outside an aquarium. Doreen was really frustraated that her camera had died in Singapore. Now, if only they were going back to Apo tomorrow.
Lito suggested we walk down the beach to the Dauin Reserve–about a 20 minute beach walk--where we could snorkel right off the beach. He said the coral was very good. That afternoon we followed his advice and were rewarded with some great snorkeling. The beach isn’t a great beach and the walk wasn’t a great walk but the reserve was a delight. We’d hardly put our faces in the water when we saw two regal angelfish. There were fish everywhere and some very large ones. The coral was terrific. This is what we’d hoped the Similans and Tioman would be like.
We went back the next morning and our second go-round was just as good as the first. Doreen rented a digital camera from the dive shop but the battery wasn’t fully charged and died on her after about eight pictures. They refunded her money when we went back but that didn’t help her get the pictures she wanted. I did get some good shots of the clown anenomefish and some shots of Doreen using her fingers to imitate the anenomes in hopes of luring the fish closer. That didn’t work as well as she hoped but she had fun trying. Then it was back to the resort, rinse off the salt water, finish packing and ride the shuttle to the airport. Things looked better in the sunlight than they’d looked in the rain on our arrival but the area still was depressing and uninviting.
We had a short flight after another long wait in a hot, un-air-conditioned room. Collecting our baggage at Manila’s domestic terminal was a bit chaotic (Manila seems to thrive on chaos). We caught a cab to the hotel and checked in for our last night in Asia. The only place to eat was at the hotel’s pool-side restaurant which turned out to be noisy, splashy and buggy. Besides which, the food wasn’t very good. We had ordered talapia and ended up with the whole fish, head and all. I didn’t know talapia was such a bony fish–the Costco filets are always so nice.
Hopefully, the bed’s comfortable. I need a good night’s sleep as we’ve got a long travel day ahead of us tomorrow. The last five nights at El Dorado haven’t been the most comfortable. The bed was just barely long enough if you lie flat on your back with your head and shoulders on the pillow but, with raised headboard and footboard, there was no room for stretching. I had to sleep on an angle and it resulted in disturbed, uneven rest. (Good thing I’m not as tall as Travis–he’d never fit in this bed.)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Singapore, we hardly knew ya

And that goes double for Malaysia. We had an uneventful flight to Singapore and a quick taxi ride to the New Seven Story Hotel. (Their literature tells us the hotel opened in 1953 and has been in the same place ever since.) But the room was nice and the people were great. They’re going to store our extra bags while we’re on Tioman Island so we spent some time re-sorting our luggage. We’re flying Berjaya Air and, according to their website, they have very strict weight limitations for luggage (checked luggage can’t be more than 10 kg) and we never travel light.
Check-in the next day was a unique experience. Berjaya flies out of the old airport (out in the boonies) which is next to a military airfield–sort of like Torbay years ago. We go to the desk and present our passports and tickets. We are then directed to go sit in the green room until we are called. There are already a half dozen people waiting there and we eventually get called. All our luggage (check-in and carry-on) gets scanned and then we are finally able to approach the check-in desk. We receive our boarding passes and proceed to Malaysian immigration and further security screening. We then were directed to the departure lounge, which was an old Quonset hut.
The flight was more than an hour late, it was pouring and thunder was rumbling. I went looking for someone to find out what was going on but there was no one around. Turned out, the people who checked us in were now out on the apron acting as ground crew for the plane which had finally arrived. Then they unloaded and loaded luggage. Talk about multi-tasking. The plane was an old prop plane. It reminded me of going to university in Prince Edward Island in the late 50's and flying with Maritime Central Airways. Watching the outside air seep into the plane through the seams and immediately turn to fog was kind of surreal.
But it got up and down without any problems and we were on Tioman Island in Malaysia. The Paya Beach Resort people were waiting with their boat and, after a short ride, we were settled in our room. One of the couples that arrived with us (there were two) also speak English so we’re already ahead of the game. Richard and Robin are from Adelaide, Australia. He’s a dentist who (along with a Chinese colleague) also sponsors a free clinic in East Timor. The beach is nice but not too long–short walks only. The food is different but we’re only here for a few days and we’ll manage.
We did a snorkel trip the next day. The first stop at Renggis Island was very good with some excellent coral. The only drawback was a strong current which kept us from circling the small island. Our second stop was to be the Marine Reserve and we were really looking forward to this. What a disappointment. I don’t think I’ve ever snorkeled a poorer reserve. There was very little coral and mostly large, grey, aggressive fish–the kind that flock to sites where people feed the fish. The main attraction seemed to be a series of three large platforms from which people could jump into the water. We swam off looking for something other than sand but the visibility was very poor and there was little worth seeing. We did see some small sting rays so it wasn’t a total waste. We did another snorkel in the afternoon at the north end of the resort beach around the point which becomes an island at high tide. This was so much better than the marine reserve.
When we went for breakfast the next morning, the tide was really out. It’s no wonder this area is not noted as a good swimming beach–too many rocks, too low water. Doreen had decided that she wanted to see some of the Malaysian countryside so we’re not flying back to Singapore. Instead, we’re taking a fast ferry to Tanjung Gemok on the Malaysian mainland and then a bus to the city state. Just before the ferry arrived, it started to pour. Didn’t matter as the ferry is an enclosed boat with no outside seating. We sat up front and froze as the A/C was cranked. We did get to watch the latest Rambo movie. You couldn’t hear the dialogue over the noise of the ferry but you could hear the explosions. I’m not sure if they settled on Chinese, Malay or Tagalog for the captions but it really didn’t matter as all are equally indecipherable.
The bus from Discovery Tours was waiting, complete with driver and tour guide. The tour guide’s only commentary related to where the clean restrooms were at the two stops we made and instructions for getting through Malaysian and Singaporean customs. It rained sporadically so, even sitting up front, we didn’t see much. The on-line information had said this was a three-hour trip but they obviously weren’t counting the border-crossing time. We arrived in Johor at the height of traffic and it took a couple of hours to get out of Malaysia and into Singapore.
The bus driver was nice enough to drop us at the Golden Landmark Hotel so that solved one problem. It’s a nice hotel, probably the best we’ve stayed at since Tokyo. We had a room on the 15th floor with a great view of the surrounding area. We could see the New Seven Story Hotel from our window so we decided to walk there to collect our left luggage. We presented our tags and they opened the room where we’d left our bags. No bags!! Wait, they have a second room upstairs. Maybe the bags have been moved there. Some feelings of dread until the bags are found. It’s so close we decided to forego a cab and walked back with the bags in tow.
We just couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for Singapore. Maybe it was because we weren’t supposed to be here. We had originally planned a week in Palau where we wanted to snorkel in Jellyfish Lake. This has been on our list ever since we first read about it years ago. But Asian Spirit dropped its flight from Manila to Palau after we’d put our original package together and we were left with a lot of free time in this area before our flight home. We split the time between Singapore, Tioman and Dumaguete. Or maybe it’s because Singapore seems to be a more Westernized city than Tokyo or Seoul. There certainly are more Western-style fast food outlets and we’ve seen more over-weight people here than we have anywhere else on this trip.
We did get to do some shopping and ride the underground train. I checked with the Canon regional headquarters about the concerns I was having with my camera and underwater housing but, since we weren’t staying around for 7-10 days, they could offer little help. We browsed the Sim Lim shopping complex–six floors of electronics with cheap prices but with a catch–a no-return policy. In the afternoon, we went to another electronics outlet, the Funan–more upscale, more expensive. So we went back to Sim Lim and I bought an attachment to cut down sun glare when I use my housing. Doreen bought a new battery for her camera as she’s been having problems with battery life.
I don’t know if it was coincidence or if we somehow angered the gods, but Doreen’s new battery didn’t work out for her. It wouldn’t charge properly and, when she tried it in her camera, the camera died on her. Worse, her two old batteries couldn’t revive the camera. We went back to Sim Lim the next day and got a refresher in Singaporean business. Yes, her old batteries were dead. Yes, her camera was dead. No, they wouldn’t take back the new (now useless battery). But, they would give her a trade-in if she bought a new camera. We’ll wait until we’re back in North America.
Saturday was my birthday and we decided to celebrate with high tea at Raffles. It was great. I was surprised at the quantity and variety of food available. It definitely wasn’t just scones and tea–more like an early dinner. We had some pictures taken. That night we headed to the wine bar at Parkview Square. This is the most opulent office building I’ve ever seen. It was built about eight years ago by a Hong Kong businessman who spared no expense. The courtyard features fountains and statues of artists (Chopin, etc.), politicians (Sun Yat Sen, Lincoln, Churchill, etc.) and similar famous figures from history. The lobby where the wine bar is situated must have cost at least a million dollars alone. What a setting. Of course, the prices reflected the setting. We had two glasses of Grigio Chianti Classic and it cost us just under $60 (the bottle probably cost $15 at the LCBO). But it was an experience. And, hey, a guy only turns 67 once. A nice way to end our stay in Singapore.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The temples are awesome

If the temple ruins at Angkor aren’t on your ‘bucket list’, you’ll be missing one of the world’s greatest destinations. It didn’t have quite the same metaphysical tone as Uluru, but the size, variety and intricacy of the Cambodian sites are mind boggling. How people centuries ago could have conceived, much less constructed, such wonders is difficult to fathom. Having seen the results in Cambodia, we now want to see the sites in Egypt, in Mexico and central America as well as Machu Picchu in Peru, Stonehenge in England and others to be named later. Oh, to be young and rich.
After a rather uneventful overnight in Bangkok at the Sananwan Palace, we left early so we could have plenty of time to wait at the Bangkok Airport. The Sananwan is no palace but they did a good job with airport pick-up and delivery. It’s an older place, all angles and with a family residence feel. There was a/c in the bedroom only and the shower was part of the w/c–no separate stall, water everywhere. The flight to Siem Reap was delayed an hour or so but we finally got off the ground. Though the flight lasted only an hour, we were served a lovely boxed breakfast. Talk about an efficient crew.
Efficient isn’t the word that comes to mind for our passage through Cambodian customs. First off the plane, we were the last to make it to the baggage carousel. Some confusion as to what forms needed to be filled in when and where. Guess we should have opted for the e-visas. In any event, we’re finally here and the guide we’ve hired, John Teng, is waiting with a driver to take us to the hotel. He’s already had to set the Angkor Holiday Hotel straight as they had us arriving tomorrow.
It’s hard to say enough good things about John. He came highly recommended and fully lived up to his billing. Hiring him may be the best decision we’ve made this trip. He’s very good with English, very knowledgeable about the ruins and the area and very passionate about the future of his country. He made our time in Siem Reap a wonderful experience.
We drove first to the South Gate of Angkor Thom–the road lined on one side with gods and on the other side with demons. What an opening. We continued on to explore the three levels of the Bayon, with its 54 towers and 216 faces of Buddha. It is a magnificent temple and the detail in the carvings is awesome. Simply amazing workmanship. The same amazing detail was visible at the ‘Terrace of the Elephants’ and the ‘Terrace of the Leper King’. You could spend a week on just this one area. We exited through the Victory Gate.
Our next stop was the temple at Ta Prohm, where the most outstanding features are the tree roots which are somewhat holding the temple together. We entered through the west gate and walked through to the east gate. Restoration is clearly an ongoing process and there are jumbles of large rocks everywhere. It was interesting to hear John explain just what an international effort is involved with the French doing this, the Japanese doing that, the Koreans, the Germans, and on and on. Of course, it is such a colossal job that it requires that kind of commitment from the world at large.
We started the next day at 5:30 so we could watch the sun rise at Angkor Wat. (Us and hundreds/thousands of others). We stayed at Angkor Wat until about 6:45 am and then drove out to Banteay Srei. This is a very small but beautiful temple built in the late 900's. John’s timing was perfect–as we were leaving the site, the crowds started to arrive. On the way back, we stopped to visit the Land Mine Museum, a tribute to the tragedy that befell Cambodia during and after the Vietnam War. Canada’s flag is proudly displayed in recognition of its role in developing the museum and in promoting the international effort to ban land mines. After our mid-day break, John took us back to Angkor Wat so we could explore it in the afternoon light. This temple is magnificent. John kept us moving and we spent an enthralling two hours wandering from one fantastic sight to another, equally beautiful and compelling.
We managed to do the dinner and show at the Koulon II just down the street from our hotel. The show was interesting and the dancer’s costumes (especially the women’s) brought to life some of the carvings of apsaras we’d seen on the temple walls. But, two consecutive 5 am mornings take their toll, at any age, and we crashed early.
On Sunday morning, we didn’t start until 8:30 so we had a relaxing breakfast. (Saturday, the hotel had provided us with a boxed breakfast and we ate in the car as we drove out to Bantrey Srei.) John took us to the local market–the real, local market–not the ‘Old Market’ promoted in the tourist literature. What an experience. It was like a large food market combined with a large WalMart. Very different from our market experiences in Tokyo and Seoul but just as vibrant and chaotic. Very similar to our experience in Port Vila, Vanuatu but much larger in scope. Everybody in Siem Reap seemed to be here shopping and there were motor bikes and bicycles parked everywhere outside.
After the market, we visited the Roulous group of temples. These were the first temples built in the area (they date from the 800's) but were later abandoned for the Angkor area. Preah was the first clay block temple and Bakong, the first sandstone temple. Our last stop for the morning was Lolei, a very small temple in very poor condition but with an active Buddhist monastery. That afternoon, we started at the North Gate of Preah Khan. It looked like a small temple but the more gates we went through the larger it seemed to grow. Lots of doors and windows. Even an afternoon rain shower couldn’t diminish our enthusiasm.
Our last stop was at Phnom Bakheng, the site of the first temple in Angkor. It is on a hill but the trek isn’t too difficult. The ancient Khmer had cut the top off the mountain so that the base for the temple was bedrock. The climb up the temple steps from level to level was harder than the hike up the hill, with narrow risers on a steep slope. Coming down was just as, if not more, dangerous. But the view from the top was worth it–just to see the towers of Angkor Wat rising from the jungle and to realize that you couldn’t even see the vast complex at Angkor Thom. There were lots of people gathering along the western edges of the temple to wait for the sunset but, since the temples lie to the east, we didn’t join them and headed down the hill, drove back to the hotel and said our farewells to John and Giwa, our driver. They’ve both done an excellent job and made this a remarkable experience.
We checked out the ‘Old Market’ in the morning as we killed time before heading to the airport. Not a patch on John’s market. Got to experience the perils of being a pedestrian in a city where pedestrian traffic is low man on the totem pole. They don’t seem to have any parking along the streets so cars, scooter, tuk tuks, etc. all park on the sidewalk and you have to navigate around them. We took a tuk tuk back to the hotel. The flight to Singapore is taking us through Danang but we won’t get to set foot on Vietnam soil as we are restricted to the plane during the layover. At least in Hong Kong, we got to walk around the airport before re-boarding (but, I guess it would be incorrect to say we touched the ground in Hong Kong).

Monday, April 7, 2008

Elephants, elephasnts, elephants

Her name wasn’t Babar, but rather Bumbam. We went with Sairung Elephant Trekking through Khao Lak Land Discovery and found that the group consisted of just us, Bumbam and her mahout, Dam. It was a wonderful experience though Bumbam did not seem fully committed to the adventure. At 35 years old, she should be in the prime of her life but I don’t think she took more than nine steps in a row before stopping to browse. At one point, she stopped to relieve herself–I think it was raining at the time (and I certainly hope so as we did get sprinkled and I don’t fancy the alternative.) It was fun feeding her bananas after her exercise.
This was our second day after the Similan excursion. We had spent the first day relaxing around the pool at the Briza and walking the beach–nicer than the beach at the Suwan Palm. The Briza is a four-star resort (well above our usual choice) but they were offering a very good Internet deal as part of their soft opening. They had originally opened about two months before the tsunami hit this area and they’ve been in repair mode ever since. They opened too late to take advantage of the high season this year so they’re trying to catch up to the competition. We enjoyed the luxury though we avoided the dining room except for the breakfasts which were included in the room deal and one dinner on the day we checked in after the cruise. There are a lot of good restaurants around that offer more reasonable prices.
After the elephant trek, our guide from Land Discovery, Pa Chuck, took us to see Rainbow Falls. Some local kids were having a great time sliding down the rocks into the pool at the bottom of the falls. We then had an early Thai lunch at the restaurant at the bottom of the trail. While eating, we were surprised by Adrian and Sandra, the British couple from the cruise. They, too, had been elephant trekking and visiting the waterfall. We talked for a while and arranged to meet that night for dinner at Jo’s Seafood. We had a great meal and talked about our travels and our kids. They love to travel as much as we do and, from England, they’ve been able to do quite a bit. (Is my envy showing?)
We spent our last full day sunning by the pool and following the elephants from the tourist attraction across the road from the hotel. It seems they work the elephants in the morning and then take them down to the beach area via a back route where they leave them overnight (suitably hobbled, of course, or the elephants would probably wander off and scare the tourists on the beach). Rain shortened the afternoon and we decided to take a taxi into Khao Lak proper for a final dinner. Doreen also wanted to do some shopping.
The next morning we went looking for the elephants before breakfast and found them coming up the back road to get ready for another day of work. There’s nothing like an elephant to raise one’s spirits. Then, a final breakfast at the Briza, a little sun and a taxi ride to Phuket Airport. We have an overnight in Bangkok before heading to Cambodia and the temples at Angkor Wat.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

It's hard to get out of a black hole

When I was a kid, growing up in St. John’s, the newspaper ran a comic strip called “Joe Palooka”. From time to time, the strip would feature a character named Joe Blfsspkk ( or something similarly unspellable), who was always followed around by a black cloud. He represented the average joe for whom nothing ever seemed to work the way it was intended. Now, I just have to get out from under my own black cloud.
The live-aboard snorkel trip to the Similans was supposed to be one of the highlights of our trip and it turned out to be an interesting three days. But not quite everything we had hoped. Things were just a little off–you know, where you turn left off the boat and the shark’s to the right or you turn right and the turtle’s to the left. That old saying–a day late and a dollar short.
There were eighteen people on the cruise, at least two more than the boat could comfortably handle. Throw in five crew and quarters were cramped. It was a good group with six English-speakers--one honeymooning couple from California, a married couple from England and an older couple from Canada (yours truly). The remaining twelve passengers (and the guide) were Swedish, though most spoke some English and several were very fluent. There were a couple of families with children (Easter break for Swedish schools), a couple wishing they hadn’t left the children behind and a single male who seemed adrift.
It took almost four hours to reach the first island–we definitely weren’t on a fast boat to China. While the boat was underway, there was space up front for four people to lie out in the sun. The others had two choices. You could lie on your bunk down below in the dormitory (the air conditioning worked only at night when the generator ran) or you could sit around the table up top on hard wooden benches which seemed to be designed to preclude a comfortable position.
The guide was a nice young Swedish lady named Anna who was working to finance a prolonged stay in Thailand. She had no background in marine science and had only been in Thailand since November so her guidance mostly consisted of announcing where we were, that there were fish in the ocean and we might see certain special things (mostly not). There certainly were plenty of large, colorful fish but not as much variety as we had hoped. There were extensive coral beds in some places but very few soft corals. Most of the places we stopped to snorkel seemed to attract the dive boats also. About 80% of the time we were snorkeling in water that was 6+ metres deep so everything was well below us surface floaters (we like 3-4 m).
The weather was beautiful and the food was plentiful and varied. The islands are a wonderland of rocks and trees and, as a national marine park, well maintained. We had a couple of shore breaks so we could sample the beach sand (much better than the mainland beaches). When we anchored in Donald Duck Bay on Island 8 (the islands are numbered, not named), we went ashore and climbed the rocks to Sail Rock for some impressive overviews. On the way down, I made it all the way to the bottom before disaster struck. Where people step onto the trail from the beach, there was an accumulation of sand. As I made my last step, my foot slipped on the sand on the rock and I found myself sitting on my rear nursing some serious bruises and scrapes on my right arm and some nicks and cuts on my fingers.
I’m definitely getting too old for this jumping around from boulder to boulder and scaling cliffs. I don’t have the same agility and sense of balance as I did even five years ago. I could blame it on slippery footwear but I don’t think that’s the case. As Shakespeare said, “The fault lies not in the stars but in ourselves.” The old man’s just going to have to be a little more careful and pick his spots better. The injuries weren’t serious and didn’t cause any great hardships but it’s interesting how it affects the little things. Do you know it’s hard to put on suntan lotion with one hand? Or brush your teeth with your left hand? Talk about out of your comfort zone!!
The next morning I decided to forego the first snorkeling venture and soak my wounds to remove the congealed blood. Who needs to get into the water with an invitation for any sharks in the neighbourhood? I’m sure the other passengers appreciated my gesture. ;-) As it happened, the first spot was followed immediately by a second snorkel before I could get my gear together so I missed that one too. Doreen tells me that was one of the best spots we stopped. Just my luck.
The other thing we’ve been having problems with are our camera batteries. Doreen keeps changing batteries every day and is convinced her batteries aren’t charging properly here in Thailand. After using only one set of batteries in Japan and another set in Korea, I went through four sets in one day while snorkeling. I popped in a new set of batteries after my camera quit during our first snorkel, jumped in the water, snapped off six or seven pictures and got a camera warning to change batteries. Talk about frustrating. To top it off, my new waterproof case has the same problem that the old one did–you can’t see the viewfinder in bright sun while snorkeling. So it becomes an expensive point-and-shoot-and hope you’ve got something. What really galls is that there are several people on the cruise who have similar Canon cases (different camera models) and their cases have accessories on the front and the back to deal with the problem. An updated model since last fall? There’s a Canon regional headquarters in Singapore so I hope to find a solution there.
I have to give Poseidon high marks for the land portion of the venture. They picked us up at the Suwan Palm on time, stored our excess luggage while we cruised and delivered us to the Briza when the cruise was finished. They even offered storage of valuables in their safe while we were asea. If I’d known that in advance, I could have left my laptop behind with them and saved myself some room (and weight).