Caught the plane from Phuket to Bangkok. We catch the plane home tomorrow at 8am. The taxi has to pick us up at 5 am to miss the morning rush hour! Shouldn't have any problem sleeping on the plane startin gat that time!
We had one last visit to Khaosan Road for one last taste of Thailand. Had our last taste of Pad Thai, satay, banana pancakes and finally got to taste mango sticky rice. Those are all things I'd like to take home.
A tuk tuk driver spotted us and talked us into going to the largest gem factory in Thailand with him. The staff is almost 1:1 with the tourists. You get to see the workers making them, then the massive show/sales room. After 2 hours Norrie has a new jewellery wardrobe. She's a happy girl now.
As we bid farewell to Thailand we are thankful that we saw such a breadth of this country and its people. The Lahu and Akha tribes were a highlight!! We will never forget the phrases "madame, madame , a deal just for you..." and "same, same", and "taxi" and "tuk tuk", and "massage, madame?" And the printed menu items: bloccoli, friend egg on toast, chicken Gordon Blue ; and only getting "very hot" when ever we asked what the temperature was.
Its been a blast. Never a dull moment. Its amazing what we could accomplish in such a short time. We've had a pretty thorough and intimate overview of this country. And recommend it to anyone. Just pack nose plugs and earplugs!
An experience of a lifetime.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30
It is our last day to do any of those things we haven't done yet. Is there such a thing? We tried to find options that included very little sun- as some of us were still a little sensitive!! That is pretty hard to do on the tropical island of Phuket
We ended up wandering, and landed in a beauty salon owned by "Dan" from France. He and his boyfriend ran the outfit, and loved pampering us. Norrie ended up spending 5 hours in there! For $75.00 Cadn- she got a haircut, color, highlights,manicure, foot treatment, and eye brow tweezing- can't do that at home!!!She is a new woman! Esther fit in one more foot massage. Terry got a pedicure, and shopped in the nearby stores, loading up on the big brands for my boys. If I ever see Billabong again I will spit. It is EVERYWHERE and a fraction of the Canadian prices.
Around 4:00 pm we wandered around more, looking for a place to possibly ship our excess cargo home to Canada, to no avail. We'll try fit it onto the airplane after all. We had supper and did some more wandering. Saw the modern side of town, including a shiny new mall, with a huge cinema. We love just landing on this stuff. By the time we wanted to go home we had lost complete orientation to where we lived. The taxi drove forever it seemed, we had no idea we had gotten so far away!!!
Once at the hotel we had our ritual rooftop swim. We enjoyed standing at the top looking down on the action below us. Birds eye view for the interesting transactions! Then we had a downpour, and things got really interesting as everyone scurried in different directions, and tuk tuks loaded with people got into near traffic jams.
One more sleep and we begin the trip towards home! We are both happy to go home and sorry to see the end of an adventure that has been so... soul enriching...It is amazing that five strangers a year ago, travel across half the world , and live together 24-7 with no conflict or unease. It is a blessing and a gift that we still adore each other and have been able to grow individually at the same time.... Thank-you Universe
Watch for pictures and funny stories to come- will add when we get home- Norrie has at least 4000 pics- I promise she won't down load that many!!!!!
We ended up wandering, and landed in a beauty salon owned by "Dan" from France. He and his boyfriend ran the outfit, and loved pampering us. Norrie ended up spending 5 hours in there! For $75.00 Cadn- she got a haircut, color, highlights,manicure, foot treatment, and eye brow tweezing- can't do that at home!!!She is a new woman! Esther fit in one more foot massage. Terry got a pedicure, and shopped in the nearby stores, loading up on the big brands for my boys. If I ever see Billabong again I will spit. It is EVERYWHERE and a fraction of the Canadian prices.
Around 4:00 pm we wandered around more, looking for a place to possibly ship our excess cargo home to Canada, to no avail. We'll try fit it onto the airplane after all. We had supper and did some more wandering. Saw the modern side of town, including a shiny new mall, with a huge cinema. We love just landing on this stuff. By the time we wanted to go home we had lost complete orientation to where we lived. The taxi drove forever it seemed, we had no idea we had gotten so far away!!!
Once at the hotel we had our ritual rooftop swim. We enjoyed standing at the top looking down on the action below us. Birds eye view for the interesting transactions! Then we had a downpour, and things got really interesting as everyone scurried in different directions, and tuk tuks loaded with people got into near traffic jams.
One more sleep and we begin the trip towards home! We are both happy to go home and sorry to see the end of an adventure that has been so... soul enriching...It is amazing that five strangers a year ago, travel across half the world , and live together 24-7 with no conflict or unease. It is a blessing and a gift that we still adore each other and have been able to grow individually at the same time.... Thank-you Universe
Watch for pictures and funny stories to come- will add when we get home- Norrie has at least 4000 pics- I promise she won't down load that many!!!!!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Found Nemo!! Saturday March 29
Another day- another adventure! Last night we booked ourselves onto an island hopping boat tour for today (Saturday). It was a fabulous day!!
We got picked up from our hotel at 7:30 am, loaded into a van with a bunch of Aussies,whom we got to chum with all day. He delivered us to the Phuket pier about 30 minutes away. After we acquired our snorkel gear ( that Terry was sure was sanitized and soaked in bleach before she used it!) we loaded onto a beautiful 42 foot speed boat with three 225 Honda motors and out into the ocean South of the main island.
Our first landing was at Khai Nok island, tiny but with some of the best snorkeling Norrie-Shan has seen (had to use her as a reference point since she is the only experienced one between the three of us). This is where Terry had to learn the ropes from Norrie, as there was no instruction included with this tour. The hardest thing for Terry to do was to spit in the mask- Norrie told her, but she wasn't so sure it was right until someone else told her to do it. It is very hard for a public health nurse to imagine doing this, let alone how many other people have done it!! After a few mouthfuls of salt water Terry quickly learned to relax and enjoy the scenery down under.
Amazing color. Rainbow, clown, angel, spotted, neon, purple, yellow and black, huge, small, you name it we saw it .There were supposed to be nurse sharks here but we were unable to find any. And sound - you can actually hear the fish gnaw off the chunks of food off the rocks - that blew me away. And the fish coming right up to your mask was so cool. It was a first for Terry! Norrie-Shan was in her element. At this spot we got Esther as far as her knees to enjoy the clean, clear water - baby steps!Although Esther got a good view of the smaller cyclid fish as they swim in schools close to the beach. We got to snorkel for 1 1/2 hours here, it was stunning.
Next we stopped at monkey beach/ island and watched their antics. Our guide gave the leader a glass of coke- I'm not sure that is its normal diet, but they all came to look anyway. We were allowed to get fairly close but most of us stayed at the waters edge- a safe distance away. One of the dads kept putting his younger son close to the monkeys so he got a picture- instead the monkey tried to bite the boy!! Yup they are still wild animals!
Then onto the next reef where we once again jumped out to snorkel. Esther stayed in the boat this time because there was no shore. The ref was farther out into the middle of the ocean. Unfortunately this is where Esther started to feel motion sickness- due to sitting in the boat while it rocked in the ocean as we snorkeled.
Again more beautiful fish. Then we had lunch on Phi Phi island - looks just like Gilligans Island. Served us a great buffet Thai/Seafood lunch, and off to some more coves and islands to swim. One was surrounded by tall cliffs, the water was pure turquoise, felt like we were in the Blue Lagoon. And that was Esthers big stretch! She got in and swam with a life jacket in 20 m of water! Esther had never used a life jacket before- but she jumped off the boat like she had done this before. This was huge for her, as she had been feeling "seasick" an hour earlier. She found being in the water better than floating on it!
The sand on these beaches were the texture of cornstarch, and almost as white.
The boat staff kept us well hydrated and lots of watermelon and pineapple for snacking. All this for $36 Cndn. We were delivered back to our hotel around 4:30. A little redder than yesterday!Only we burnt the reverse side today.
We are headed out for our evening entertainment now - will stay away from the "strip"on Bangla Road. We landed on it by happenstance last night. Had our eyes opened to what the foreigners come here for. It was our first taste of sleaze since we arrived. And it was enough for a while.
After our hot and over-stimulating walk on the wild side we ended the evening with a midnight swim in our rooftop pool. Glorious!!!! This is the Good Life.
We got picked up from our hotel at 7:30 am, loaded into a van with a bunch of Aussies,whom we got to chum with all day. He delivered us to the Phuket pier about 30 minutes away. After we acquired our snorkel gear ( that Terry was sure was sanitized and soaked in bleach before she used it!) we loaded onto a beautiful 42 foot speed boat with three 225 Honda motors and out into the ocean South of the main island.
Our first landing was at Khai Nok island, tiny but with some of the best snorkeling Norrie-Shan has seen (had to use her as a reference point since she is the only experienced one between the three of us). This is where Terry had to learn the ropes from Norrie, as there was no instruction included with this tour. The hardest thing for Terry to do was to spit in the mask- Norrie told her, but she wasn't so sure it was right until someone else told her to do it. It is very hard for a public health nurse to imagine doing this, let alone how many other people have done it!! After a few mouthfuls of salt water Terry quickly learned to relax and enjoy the scenery down under.
Amazing color. Rainbow, clown, angel, spotted, neon, purple, yellow and black, huge, small, you name it we saw it .There were supposed to be nurse sharks here but we were unable to find any. And sound - you can actually hear the fish gnaw off the chunks of food off the rocks - that blew me away. And the fish coming right up to your mask was so cool. It was a first for Terry! Norrie-Shan was in her element. At this spot we got Esther as far as her knees to enjoy the clean, clear water - baby steps!Although Esther got a good view of the smaller cyclid fish as they swim in schools close to the beach. We got to snorkel for 1 1/2 hours here, it was stunning.
Next we stopped at monkey beach/ island and watched their antics. Our guide gave the leader a glass of coke- I'm not sure that is its normal diet, but they all came to look anyway. We were allowed to get fairly close but most of us stayed at the waters edge- a safe distance away. One of the dads kept putting his younger son close to the monkeys so he got a picture- instead the monkey tried to bite the boy!! Yup they are still wild animals!
Then onto the next reef where we once again jumped out to snorkel. Esther stayed in the boat this time because there was no shore. The ref was farther out into the middle of the ocean. Unfortunately this is where Esther started to feel motion sickness- due to sitting in the boat while it rocked in the ocean as we snorkeled.
Again more beautiful fish. Then we had lunch on Phi Phi island - looks just like Gilligans Island. Served us a great buffet Thai/Seafood lunch, and off to some more coves and islands to swim. One was surrounded by tall cliffs, the water was pure turquoise, felt like we were in the Blue Lagoon. And that was Esthers big stretch! She got in and swam with a life jacket in 20 m of water! Esther had never used a life jacket before- but she jumped off the boat like she had done this before. This was huge for her, as she had been feeling "seasick" an hour earlier. She found being in the water better than floating on it!
The sand on these beaches were the texture of cornstarch, and almost as white.
The boat staff kept us well hydrated and lots of watermelon and pineapple for snacking. All this for $36 Cndn. We were delivered back to our hotel around 4:30. A little redder than yesterday!Only we burnt the reverse side today.
We are headed out for our evening entertainment now - will stay away from the "strip"on Bangla Road. We landed on it by happenstance last night. Had our eyes opened to what the foreigners come here for. It was our first taste of sleaze since we arrived. And it was enough for a while.
After our hot and over-stimulating walk on the wild side we ended the evening with a midnight swim in our rooftop pool. Glorious!!!! This is the Good Life.
Friday, March 28, 2008
moving south
Well we got a luxury liner for a bus to Chiang Mai - but Esther will remember it as the bus from Hell. She became carsick within the 1st half hour. It was the longest 3 hours of her life. Terry practiced surfing though, as she stood up the whole trip holding Esthers head with cold cloths on the twisty, winding road. Esther was fine after the bus stopped, but we had a drugged out girl (from so much gravol) the rest of the day. Lucky for her the 2 flights we had to take didn't bother her too much.
We arrived in Phuket around 8:30 pm and took a taxi to the west side of the island to the famous "Patong". A true beach resort. After checking into our musty smelling guest house, we went walking to check out the town. The water is only 5 min walk from our accommodation. We wet our feet and were amazed how warm the water was, and so refreshing. The rest of the town comes alive at night it would appear. Lots of "discos", lots of travel agencies, food shops, souvenir shops, bars, and yet still a dominance of Thai culture. Interesting blend. Already we observed lots of foreigners, many sound European. We searched on our tour for better accommodations.
Woke early and were on the beach by 9 am Friday. Interesting system of renting your chair and umbrella for the day ($3) each. And the shopping you can do without leaving your chair - Wow! Even a pedicure. The peddlars are by at least every 10 minutes with something. Theres a mix of all kinds here, and topless seems to be ok. Esther has a new stretch planned for us tomorrow!!!!
By noon Norrie and Terry had taken a stroll and checked out a hotel steps from the beach, that looked very elaborate, but what the heck... It actually turned out to be our home for the next 3 days - for $60/night split between 3 of us. This one tops anything we've seen so far, makes up for roosters, floor mats, leaking sinks, cold showers, frogs, spiders, ..... This has a KING bed and the most luxurious cot I've ever seen, a huge bathroom, with glass wall on one side of the shower, a counter a mile long when you first walk in, with a sink also. The room is divided into 3 rooms and sitting area by sliding glass Japanese style doors. And we have a small patio. All tile floors, its gorgeous, and to top it off we are only steps from the beach!!! We all are enjoying our newfound comfort.
Today on the beach, among the 3000 people sitting our there, beside us sat a Canadian!! Been teaching in Japan 10 years, on vacation from teaching.
Its supper time now - don't know what adventures we'll finish our day with. Will try find a tour or island trip for tomorrow - we all got a little much sun today!
We arrived in Phuket around 8:30 pm and took a taxi to the west side of the island to the famous "Patong". A true beach resort. After checking into our musty smelling guest house, we went walking to check out the town. The water is only 5 min walk from our accommodation. We wet our feet and were amazed how warm the water was, and so refreshing. The rest of the town comes alive at night it would appear. Lots of "discos", lots of travel agencies, food shops, souvenir shops, bars, and yet still a dominance of Thai culture. Interesting blend. Already we observed lots of foreigners, many sound European. We searched on our tour for better accommodations.
Woke early and were on the beach by 9 am Friday. Interesting system of renting your chair and umbrella for the day ($3) each. And the shopping you can do without leaving your chair - Wow! Even a pedicure. The peddlars are by at least every 10 minutes with something. Theres a mix of all kinds here, and topless seems to be ok. Esther has a new stretch planned for us tomorrow!!!!
By noon Norrie and Terry had taken a stroll and checked out a hotel steps from the beach, that looked very elaborate, but what the heck... It actually turned out to be our home for the next 3 days - for $60/night split between 3 of us. This one tops anything we've seen so far, makes up for roosters, floor mats, leaking sinks, cold showers, frogs, spiders, ..... This has a KING bed and the most luxurious cot I've ever seen, a huge bathroom, with glass wall on one side of the shower, a counter a mile long when you first walk in, with a sink also. The room is divided into 3 rooms and sitting area by sliding glass Japanese style doors. And we have a small patio. All tile floors, its gorgeous, and to top it off we are only steps from the beach!!! We all are enjoying our newfound comfort.
Today on the beach, among the 3000 people sitting our there, beside us sat a Canadian!! Been teaching in Japan 10 years, on vacation from teaching.
Its supper time now - don't know what adventures we'll finish our day with. Will try find a tour or island trip for tomorrow - we all got a little much sun today!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Goodbye Mirror- Wed 26/08
Today is a day of mixed emotions as we bid farewell to the people that became like team mates and our adopted children. We played the amazing Race for our learning activity today. There were 7 stations that the kids went to, each station reviewed what we learned over the last 2 weeks. They had to preform an acrobatic feat to get to the next station , ie wheel barrow, three legged race,hopping on one leg, etc., which made us all smile at their antics. After our 1 1/2hour lesson we had a farewell celebration that included a power point presentation, a certificate and grab bags for the kids and speeches from one of the founders of Mirror Art Foundation. It was beautiful, and emotional for all of us as volunteers.
We were happy to announce our intention to raise $6000.00 Cad for Jay to go to Pharmaceutical school in Chaing Mai. So any one who wanted to help before and didn't know what to do --- this would be a great opportunity to make a huge difference directly in someones life. Terry, Esther and Norrie-Shan have committed to fund raising $500.00Cad each to his cause, so if you want to help Jay out, please let one of us know and we can connect you to the right people!!! Jay is a member of the Karen Hill Tribe, who showed amazing intelligence and drive to become better. His tribe is one of the tribes who loses the highest number of children to human trafficking, as it is so poor. The obstacles he has had to face seem insurmountable to us, yet he is still battling through- he really is inspirational to talk too.
Thank-you for allowing us on our soapbox- back to our day!
We had lunch with the children, and got ready to leave. By the way, does any one know why things fit into the suitcase coming but we need twice as much luggage to leave??? After saying our bittersweet goodbyes- sad to leave students, staff and volunteers, but OK to say goodbye to what they call a bathroom and a bed, we headed to town to book our tickets for tomorrow's bus ride to Chaing Mia. After the bus we take a taxi directly to the airport to go to Bangkok. When in Bangkok waiting for our next flight we have to taxi out into town to get hotel tickets, leave suitcases and taxi back to get to our flight to Phuket!!! Who planned that?
But it should all be worth it, since we get to be by the ocean for 3 days- not so bad for a volunteering holiday!!
Next we took a 30 hour certified foot massage course, from a certified teacher who did not speak more than 2 words of English, in less than 2 hours. Lucky for the people we are going to practice on Norrie bought the DVD, as I am pretty sure we will have to review! It was a very hands on course so we will study and practice on each other and let you know how it turns out!!It was the usual Thai miscommunication involving vehicles , people doing favors for people, a guy knows a guy... your getting this I'm sure. Same Same.
Since we were in town, we had to shop the night Bazaar- there is not a bad time to shop! We bought a few things, picked up the girls glasses- all of us got new glasses here for - CHEAP, blogged and are now going home to repack - AGAIN.
You won't hear from us tomorrow as we will be traveling all day , so have a good Wednesday and we will talk with you on Thursday!!
We were happy to announce our intention to raise $6000.00 Cad for Jay to go to Pharmaceutical school in Chaing Mai. So any one who wanted to help before and didn't know what to do --- this would be a great opportunity to make a huge difference directly in someones life. Terry, Esther and Norrie-Shan have committed to fund raising $500.00Cad each to his cause, so if you want to help Jay out, please let one of us know and we can connect you to the right people!!! Jay is a member of the Karen Hill Tribe, who showed amazing intelligence and drive to become better. His tribe is one of the tribes who loses the highest number of children to human trafficking, as it is so poor. The obstacles he has had to face seem insurmountable to us, yet he is still battling through- he really is inspirational to talk too.
Thank-you for allowing us on our soapbox- back to our day!
We had lunch with the children, and got ready to leave. By the way, does any one know why things fit into the suitcase coming but we need twice as much luggage to leave??? After saying our bittersweet goodbyes- sad to leave students, staff and volunteers, but OK to say goodbye to what they call a bathroom and a bed, we headed to town to book our tickets for tomorrow's bus ride to Chaing Mia. After the bus we take a taxi directly to the airport to go to Bangkok. When in Bangkok waiting for our next flight we have to taxi out into town to get hotel tickets, leave suitcases and taxi back to get to our flight to Phuket!!! Who planned that?
But it should all be worth it, since we get to be by the ocean for 3 days- not so bad for a volunteering holiday!!
Next we took a 30 hour certified foot massage course, from a certified teacher who did not speak more than 2 words of English, in less than 2 hours. Lucky for the people we are going to practice on Norrie bought the DVD, as I am pretty sure we will have to review! It was a very hands on course so we will study and practice on each other and let you know how it turns out!!It was the usual Thai miscommunication involving vehicles , people doing favors for people, a guy knows a guy... your getting this I'm sure. Same Same.
Since we were in town, we had to shop the night Bazaar- there is not a bad time to shop! We bought a few things, picked up the girls glasses- all of us got new glasses here for - CHEAP, blogged and are now going home to repack - AGAIN.
You won't hear from us tomorrow as we will be traveling all day , so have a good Wednesday and we will talk with you on Thursday!!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
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