I'm still alive but not snapping photos

Since my last post I have been skiing at Snowbird Utah; spent 8 days in Hawaii at Ko Olina and gone to Palm Desert to play golf for a week; will go back to Palm Desert next week for more sun and golf.

But I've been extremely lazy and not taken any photos. And my blog needs photos to have meaning. Therefore no posts. Maybe next week, I'll try to take photos in the desert.

Everybody behave in the meantime!

Return to USA Tomorrow

As usual, I have finished my trip in Pattaya, Thailand at the Marriott here with its lovely pool area and the local beaches nearby and the crazy nitelife. The view from my hotel room here:

For some reason the hotel is filled with many US Marines. I think they are having some sort of military exercise here in the Pattaya area. Some are from the Camp Pendleton/San Diego area. I was not allowed to be told what sort of mission they are trying to accomplish here, but their desert camouflage uniforms look very conspicuous so I don't htink it is a secret.

More Thai kids. These guys are at the fish tanks in which you can dangle your feet  and the little fish will nibble away at the dead skin on your feet. Felt to be good for the health of your feet.

Back in Bangkok; Jim Thompson House

I'm back in Bangkok for several days. Back at the Renaissance Hotel. View from my room is above. The weather has been extraordinarily pleasant: low humidity (for Bangkok) temperatures in the high range of mid 80's (F) and in the upper 60's at nite. The poor Thai people are complaining that it is "cold" and wearing jackets and scarves. I think it is pleasant...just wearing long pants at nite.

Jim Thompson House is a landmark tourist stop is Bangkok that has eluded me during my previous visits. Jim Thompson was a CIA agent during World War 2 that was assigned to Asia near the end. He ended up moving to Thailand and revived the silk hand weaving industry. He promoted the industry and conceived designs. He built his house in 1959 in traditional Thai design...on a quiet side street next to a klong (canal).
It is a quiet interlude in the middle of this busy city.

The canal:

A fish pond next to the restaurant at the House:

Thai Kids

It is very common for younger children to accompany their mom to her workplace as I guess cheap day care is hard to find here. They are usually roaming around the workplace  area especially when it is on the streets where a lot of commerce is transacted...selling prepared food, selling fresh groceries, selling souvenirs and stuff to passersby.  As a former pediatrician, I can't resist these little munchkins.
I like to try to take pictures of some of then as they very cute and interactive:

 

 

Excursion to the Similan Islands

My last day on Phuket was filled with a daylong trip to the Similan Islands National Park. These islands are a 1 hour and 30 minute ride by speedboat from the northern tip of Phuket Island...and I do mean "speedboat" outfitted with three 225 horsepower Honda outboard motors.  It was a surprisingly smooth journey on a smooth sea. The water is clear and beautiful with extraordinary varieties of fish and coral; they are reputed to be one of the premier scuba diving spots in the world. We spent time lounging on a couple of lovely beaches and snorkeling in a couple of different spots.

The weather was cloudy and we passed thru a rain squall on the way out to the islands:

But when we got to the islands the squall was over and we 1st stopped at a beach:

The snorkeling was magnificent. I saw the most fish and the most varieties of fish species any where I have snorkeled. And the amount and variety of coral was the best I have seen.

On the island where we had lunch there was a tranquil prayer house:

It was a long day but well worth it. Tomorrow I return to Bangkok.

Patong Beach, Phuket

After a week at the isolated luxury of the Marriott complex at Mai Khao beach at the northern of the island, I moved down to the Courtyard by Marriott (using some Reward points) at the island's biggest tourist area at Patong City.
This place is not at all isolated. It is a beautiful sweep of a bay and white sandy beach that has groups of hotels, restaurants, clubs, dance clubs, bars...straight, gay and Katoey(ladyboy) areas. One must pick a hotel carefully as noise can continue to 5 am at some of the clubs. There a large number of Europeans escaping winter from Scandinavia, Germany, the UK, and Russia that come here for R&R. Of course, Australians are here as they find anywhere that is fun.  And there are many Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists too.
The water and beach are delightful with warm, clear, calm, clean water, and beautiful sand with opportunities for boat rides, jet ski rentals, parachute flights attached to speed boats or sleeping in a cheap rented beach chair with umbrella.

Khao Sok National Park

Yesterday I took a day long excursion to Khao Sok National Park which is 2 hours north of Phuket Island in Surat Thani province. It is a beautiful area of  jungle/rainforest that is dotted with pinnacles of limestone karsts, slow flowing rivers, and many animals.
Upon arrival we took an hour and half float trip in one of the rivers in inflatable canoes. We floated from one beautiful scene to another.

 

 

We had a very good Thai lunch which was followed in the afternoon by a visit to areas with voracious fish to feed and playful monkeys. It started raining (not unexpected in a rainforest!) when we were ready for an elephant trek so we donned ponchos and get soaked in rain and perspiration...no photos since the camera would have got ruined.

 

After this we got back into our bust to return to the resort. The interior of the bus was decorated in typical south Asian fashion:

 

Cozy, eh? Not easy to sleep on the way back with such bright decor.

On to Phuket Island, Mai Khao Beach

Friday I moved on to Phuket Island a major resort area on the southern coast of the Andaman Sea. I stayed at the Marriott Phuket Beach Club which is in the collection of timeshare properties of the Marriott Vacation Club International. This one shares the area with a luxurious JW Marriott and the features nd amenities are interchangeable.

As you can see from the above photo of the reflecting pool at the JW the grounds are beautiful.

One of the 3 swimming  pools on the grounds:

One of the lawns near a swimming pool:

 

The view from my balcony:

 

A couple of views of the beach:

If you look carefully you can see that there is a rather steep approach down to the waterline at this beach....maybe 10 feet up to the ground level where the hotel lay. This is what saved the hotel during the Great Tsunami of 6 years ago. Sea water and some debris reached the swimming pools but the buildings were protected by their setback from the water's edge and the slope you can see above. The hotel actually was used as headquarters for the rescue and relief effort on the northern part of the island.

This is one of 4 resorts on 10 mile long beach that is relatively protected from development because it is a marine turtle nesting ground. I'll have a week here before I move down to the over-developed Patong Beach for 5 days at the Courtyard by Marriott in Patong City.

Ratchaprasong...the commercial "downtown" of Bangkok

 

Ratchaprasong is the area in central Bangkok that has numerous shopping areas including several fantastic multistory shopping malls; several of the best hotels and a complex variety of transportation modes.

Above is a view of the Erawan Shrine from the Skywalk above the street level.

Traffic an be very dense and slow in this area as shoppers, tourists and business people swarm to this area

This photo shows the 4 levels of transportation that moves people around this area.
The first level is the street level with autos on roads and walkers and food vendors on the sidewalks.
The second level is the Skywalk which is an elevated sidewalks that wind between the Siam Paragon, Central World, MBK and Siam center shopping malls as well as office buildings.
The 3rd and 4th levels are the BTS Skytrain tracks...an elevated rail system similar to a subway, but 3-5 stories above the street!

There are vendors and multiple beggars on the Skywalk. This one of the several children at his post looking vulnerable and asking for coins to be tossed in his cup. The parents come around at regular intervals to secure the bounty. After I took this photo, there was no way he would let me go without a contribution waving his cup at me..I gave him 5 Baht (about 17 cents)

A very peculiar thing was the New Year's Countdown Bunnies that dotted the area. They are used for entertainment with musicians appearing with them and passersby take each other's photos standing next to them. Digital clocks countdown the time left until the new year...with Australian time usually appearing becuse it is the first major country to pass into the new year.

I go to Phuket Island on Friday to celebrate the New Year.

Arrival in Bangkok

 After 29 hours of travel from my home in San diego to my Hotal in Bangkok, I arrived at 130am. I went to sleep for 4 hours and awoke with the sun on Monday morning. The weather was good with sun, temperature in the day of about 87F and cooling breezes with reasonable humidity. I took a walk around the hotel area in the Ratchaprasong area of central Bangkok. Nearbby in the center of the commercial district was a spritual oasis called the Erawan Shrine. I took a few photos of the people praying and dancing ladies in traditional costume.

Monday I met my friend Aong for lunch at a Thai restaurant and got the SIM card for my phone that he had purchased for me. I resed late in the afternoon and went out for dinner and some nightlife.
On Tuesday I met my cousin, Jean Walzer for lunch at a small Italian restaurant and we talked. After lunch we walked over to her attorney's office to chat with him and pick up her mail. She doesn't trust the Thai postal service in her neighborhood so she has it delivered to her attorney's office. She has lived in Bangkok for 11 or 12 years...originally teaching English writing at a University and then retired about 5 years ago to live in Bangkok.
I have got my brain acclimated quickly to the new time zone.

Returning to Thailand

Tomorrow morning I embark on a 29 hour journey from my home in Del Mar, CA to my hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. I will fly United Airlines this year thru San Francisco and Tokyo with confirmed upgrades to business class on the first two legs but waitlisted on the third leg. I have 2 hour layovers scheduled in both San Francisco and Tokyo. Hopefully this will go with out complications and I will arrive at Bangkok airport as scheduled at 1145pm Sunday nite.
Return to this space for further entries to my blog.......

Trip to the North Shore of Kauai

Yesterday we took a drive up to the north side of the island which is quite scenic. Above is one of the views from the Kilauea Lighthouse looking toward the east side of the Napali Coast.

Below are 2 more views from the lighthouse. The lighthouse is the northern most point on the island.

 

Along the entire north side are many beaches and coves, some of which are very beautiful. They are also not very crowded.

 

Just before the start of the Napali Coast is the Hanalei river valley which leads into Hanalei Bay

 

After the Bay are more secluded beaches until you get to the end of the road at the start of a 11 mile hiking trail

After we returned to our place on the south side of the island, I spent the late afternoon/early evening reading by the beach and observing some of the people there in the lovely light at that time of the day: