Yesterday we took a boat from Ao Nang to Railay Beach. We are now staying at Railay Great View Resort. There is lots of wildlife here including horn bills, eagles, one scorpion and… monkeys! Just this morning we saw a monkey right in front of our balcony. It was a dusky langur monkey also known as a spectacled langur. It is black with white spots around the eyes. On the internet I found out that, “The newborns of these monkeys are colorful. The color of the fur is orange or bright yellow which changes to gray in six months’ time after birth.”. I hope we see a baby! Signing off for now, Evan.
Our stay at Glur Hostel in Ao Nang, Thailand was very enjoyable. It was the first place where me and Denise got our own room! At Glur, you could get a bunk in a dorm with a shared bathroom or a private room. We chose a private room, it was very nice in my opinion . Glur had a very beautiful common room that was very open air and it had a ping-pong table (hours of fun). The gardens and hammocks were top notch. It had breakfast including toast, butter & jam, fruit, and coffee. The staff were very nice and the room was reasonably priced. I would rate Glur Hostel an 8 1/2 out of 10.
Our recent visit to two large caves in Khao Sok National Park (see Evan’s post) reminded me of a guest post I wanted to write when we were in northern Thailand two weeks ago. The administrator has granted me an exception to go out of order (he runs a tight ship but it’s a pretty good work environment). In Chiang Rai we were about 50 kilometres away from the cave where that kids soccer team was trapped for 17 days last summer. I kind of wanted to do a day trip there but lost that vote 3-1. Probably for the best as we weren’t going to enter the cave even if allowed (doubtful).
But just being in the region gave some interesting context for a story that lots of people followed somewhat closely as it was happening. For example, while the cave is in a rural area and probably minimally marked, the region itself is much more developed than I pictured. I remember hearing eg. that a few of the players had no official nationality as they were from tribes that spanned over the Thailand and Myanmar borders. But Chiang Rai is very close and is a pretty big city with hospitals that look modern and fully equipped, large highways in good shape and an international airport. Even the closest town to the cave has a few pages in the Lonely Planet with a map of the ‘downtown’ and some recommended guesthouses. So that all makes a bit more sense how they were able to deploy a lot of specialized equipment and local/international personnel in pretty short order (although it probably did not feel that way for the kids). Also interesting that it was a soccer team as we came to learn that the Chiang Rai soccer team punches above its weight in the Thai first division (with some sponsorship from Singha beer). Perhaps these kids are part of some kind of Vince Carter effect local youth soccer boom. As a further aside, the logo of the team (above) is an elephant beetle. I read that there are places here that stage elephant beetle fights and associated wagering. We haven’t found the stadium yet.
Not to make light, especially as one of the Thai divers was not able to get out, but from our month of travels I can imagine the potential finger pointing and regrets eg. about snacks not packed if we had, say, missed a bus connection. Never mind hiking into a cave that promptly flooded and being trapped for over two weeks. Incredible that they stayed calm and the rescuers got them out, and kind of cool to have been so closeby.
We are now in Ao Nang and are staying at Glur Hostel, I really like it. Glur Hostel has a nice pool that is the perfect temperature. Lately, me and Denise have been practically living in the pool. The pool is about 9m long and 130 cm deep. It is perfect for flips, dives, and handstands. Denise says in emphasis “It is awesome”. I would rate the Glur pool an 8 out of 10.
3 days ago, we flew from Luang Prabang, Laos (via Bangkok) to Phuket in southern Thailand. We took a van from Phuket to Khao Sok National Park which holds 5% of animal species in the world. We are staying at Khao Sok Riverfront Resort. Yesterday, in the middle of our stay, we took a boat to floating bungalows which you can see in picture 5, on Lake Cheow Lan, which is 45 metres deep!!! We were going to stay there for two days and one night. We swam so much in the lake. On the first day we hiked to Nam Talu Cave. We had to wear life jackets because the cave had water that was pretty deep. Our guide was named Kiki. He spotted so so many spiders in the cave. I got a little freaked out at times. One time that I was freaked out was when we had to climb down a waterfall in the cave, because it was so narrow that it could only fit a single file line. When we finally came out of the cave I was exhausted. We took the boat back to the bungalows and swam some more. That night, we had a delicious dinner of fish and noodles. Then we were rocked to bed by the waves. The next morning we woke up at 6:30am to go on an early morning boat safari. We saw monkeys, gibbons, and giant hornbills (a species similar to the toucan). Can you spot the langur monkey in picture 7? Gibbons have a lifespan of 25 years in the wild, and are monogamous mammals that form lifelong bonds. Gibbons are members of the ape family but are faster then most primates and can travel as far as 10 metres in one jump and can swing through the trees at speeds as fast as 56km/hr. After the safari ended, we returned for breakfast and swam, again. Next we took the boat to a cave called Pra Kay Petch Cave. We walked through the cave while learning about the species in the cave such as spiders and bats. Then we took the boat back to the pier and took the van back to Khao Sok Riverfront Resort.
The pool at Pan Kled Villa in Chiang Rai (before we went to Laos) was amazing. It was spacious and not too cold. We swam in it every day because we loved it so much. It had a thermal pool that was a little warmer than the regular pool. I loved to do flips and handstands in the pool. The pool also had very good lounge chairs. I would rate the Pan Kled pool a 8 out of 10.
We ate at Tamarind on our last night in Luang Prabang. I ordered the kid’s sampler, it came with sticky rice, salsa, vegetables, dried buffalo, pork sausage, egg, seaweed, and sticky rice crackers. It was so so so so delicious. The workers at Tamarind taught us the traditional way to eat sticky rice; roll it up into a ball, then dip it in the salsa with your thumb, then plop it in your mouth! I would definitely go back to Tamarind to eat the scrumptious food they have to offer. I would rate it an 8 out of 10.
Le Banneton
Luang Prabang was colonised by the French in 1893, so there are a lot of bakeries with croissants and baguettes. Le Banneton had the best croissants and crepes. We went there 4 times!! Once I ordered an almond croissant, once I ordered a banana-chocolate crepe, once I ordered a ham and egg crepe, and once I had a chocolate crepe. You can see my crepe in the 2nd Le Banneton picture. I highly recommend Le Banneton. I would rate it a 9 out of 10.
Night Market
The Night Market was a great place to get dinner or lunch. It was practically always busy but had awesome food. Food we got there included rice, dumplings, fish, sausage, smoothies, and most importantly, cake!! The picture above shows the stall where we got fish and sausage. I would rate the Night Market a 7 out of 10.
Today we went to Kuang Si Waterfalls near Luang Prabang, Laos. The waterfalls were stunning and perfect for a sunny day swim. We took a private minivan to the falls, it was about an hour, but guess what we saw on the road? Water Buffalo🐂🐃! When we got to the falls, we went to the Moon Bear Reserve. Adult moon bear males weigh 60–200 kg while adult females weigh 40–125kg. The bears looked so cute. Then we went to the falls. They were big and were so pretty that we were looking up at them in awe. We got to swim and it was so much fun. Can you spot us swimming in the 5th picture? Then we hiked to get to the gigantic level of the falls. We hiked up along the waterfall to get the top of it. It was so scary because it was 60 metres (200 ft) high! At the top there was a little pool with a swing that you could swing off of into the pool. When we got back down we had a delicious picnic lunch of croissants and baguettes from our favourite bakery in Luang Prabang, Le Banneton. Then we went back to the minivan and rode a pleasant way home.
This morning, we went to the Morning Market. The market is always bustling with people bargaining with vendors and selling goods. The market opens at 5:00am and vendors start to pack up their stands at 11:00am. We went around 9:00 am, and it was pretty busy. Food we ate at the market included sticky rice on a stick, coconut pancakes, and fried mung bean cakes. The trip to the morning market was great.
This is us eating food we found in the market. Me and my dad are eating sticky rice on a stick while Denise is eating a seaweed snack. In my opinion, the sticky rice on a stick was very good but a little salty for me. Denise loved the seaweed snacks.
This is me walking through the market. The market has everything from fried fish to jewelry to fresh lettuce and spinach.
This was a tent that was practically all chili peppers!! It had like 12 kinds of chili peppers. Even looking at them made me feel like I just ate something really spicy. I was way too scared to try one. Maybe next time (probably not). 🙂
These are coconut pancakes. They are made from condensed coconut milk. They have a little bit of a weird texture but they taste really good. They usually come in a banana leaf just like practically all other snacks. Coconut pancakes are a great snack.
At a lot of tents in the market sell rolled up banana leaf with orange flowers on them. At first we did not know what they were but soon learned that these are offerings that Buddhist people give to the Buddha. Flowers represent purity in Buddhism.
From Away 