Stage 5 - 10th February 2014

Although we wake up early we decide to take our time, catch up with the news, have a late breakfast, do some emails, etc. and catch the 12:30 shuttle bus to the beach; we also take a look at the excursions and book a day trip on a boat doing the islands tour, the only one we had hoped to take.

The shuttle bus dropped us off in village car park near Kamala beach but before the beach we decided to take a stroll through the town to take a look at what was there - just the usual, beachwear shops, a chemist, several restaurants, a few bars, some massage parlours and a supermarket. At the end of the road we found the beach. It's a rather large bay, maybe a little smaller than Swanage with a deep beach and an emerald green sea where a few longtail boats are bobbling in the small waves.

We settled down on some sunbeds shaded by an umbrella and paid the guy equivalent of £4 for the day and stayed there until nearly 6:00 pm when we packed up and headed for one of the shore bars to have a beer while watching the sun go down - I also took some photographs.

Through the day we did very little, just read ebooks and took the occasional dip in the very warm sea, probably the warmest I've swam in.

We stayed in town for an early dinner at the Oiy restaurant, the busiest and therefore probably the best in town! We were not disappointed, good food, good wine (SA Pinotage) and excellent service - if we dine in town again we will revisit. The only problem: we had two bottles of wine! Before catching the shuttle back to the hotel we picked up some provisions for the apartment: milk, coffee, washing powder (we have a washing machine in our apartment!), and some wine!

Just arrived at Kamala Beach

Dianne after a dip in the warm sea

Having a drink in a bar watching the sun going down - the lady is a stranger!

Tide coming in as two more strangers cross the beach.

Stage 5 - 9th February 2014

Had a restless nights sleep after Dianne's phone started vibrating at 01:30 with a text message. Tried to get back to sleep but failed. Finally got up at 05:00 to be picked up by a taxi at 06:00 - well eventually after some strange dialogue with a guy on reception who speaks no English! Don't know what happens if there's an emergency! The conversation goes something like this:
Hello, I have a taxi booked for 6 am, could you send the buggy for the luggage please?
Hello?
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes.
I have a taxi booked at 6:00 am, could you send a buggy for the luggage?
A taxi?
Yes, I have a taxi booked.
You want taxi?
No, taxi booked, I just need help with the luggage.
Hello?
Why do you keep saying 'hello'?

What comes to mind is Fawlty Towers, I'm just waiting the 'K?'

Then silence. So I put the phone down and head for reception where there are 3 guys on duty, none of whom speak English but, thankfully the taxi driver has turned up so I take him round to the villa and pack up the luggage.

The flight to Phuket is uneventful with some great views over the countryside, especially as we approach the airport when we fly over some of the iconic islands; looking forward to seeing them from a boat.

We booked a limo from the airport - we've done this each time because it only costs a few pounds more than a standard taxi but there is so much more space for us and the luggage.

The hotel - Treetops Resort - is on the west coast of Phuket Island on a bay called Kamala but it's a mile or so from the beach; thankfully they have a shuttle bus setting off every hour to take people into the town.

We are allocated an apartment - lounge, dining area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, very spacious but on the ground floor. The trouble is all the walls a glass so there's no privacy! So we ask to change and we are offered a second floor room, much better and totally private. Then we discover there's no hot water - again - then the safe doesn't function! So we decide to catch the shuttle into town to find a restaurant, which we do. There are several that look OK but we select one offering fresh fish and both choose the red mullet, which is delicious, with a bottle of French white wine, which isn't but is expensive. The bill was £56, the wine £26!

Back in the room which now has hot water and a functioning safe!

View from our room

Looking from our balcony to other parts of the hotel

Stage 4 - 7th February 2014

Sorry, nothing to blog on the 6th & 7th February about the travels, just had to do some work for some clients in the Middle East so we stayed around the hotel all day, Dianne spent some time at the pool and I had some time off to do some reading - finished my book: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, which is a well written narrative about the life of a slave in the USA in the 19th century; you get the feeling he holds back on much of the cruelty but it is rather harrowing.

Today - Friday - we booked a tour of the Chiangmai temples, or Wats as they are called. There are 200 Buddhist Wats in Chiangmai but we only had time for a few, three we stopped at for some time to browse, wonder and take some photographs - nearly 200 in all.

The first Wat we visited is the most famous. It's situated high in the hills north of Chiangmai but, thankfully, there is a now a road to take you there; we went by taxi and cable car! The following is taken from Wikipedia; if you just want to see the photos skip the narrative!

1. Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.

According to legend, a monk named Sumanathera from Sukhothai had a dream; in this vision he was told to go to Pang Cha and look for a relic. Sumanathera ventured to Pang Cha and is said to have found a bone, which many claim was Buddha's shoulder bone. The relic displayed magical powers; it glowed, it was able to vanish, it could move itself and replicate itself. Sumanathera took the relic to King Dharmmaraja who ruled the Sukhothai.

The eager Dharmmaraja made offerings and hosted a ceremony when Sumanathera arrived. However, the relic displayed no abnormal characteristics, and the king, doubtful of the relic's authenticity, told Sumanathera to keep it.

However, King Nu Naone of the Lanna Kingdom heard of the relic and offered the monk to take it to him instead. In 1368 with Dharmmaraja's permission, Sumanathera took the relic to what is now Lamphun, in northern Thailand. The relic apparently split in two, one piece was the same size, the other was smaller than the original. The smaller piece of the relic was enshrined at a temple in Suandok. The other piece was placed by the King on the back of a white elephant which was released in the jungle. The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep, at the time called Doi Aoy Chang (Sugar Elephant Mountain), trumpeted three times before dying at the site. It was interpreted as a sign and King Nu Naone ordered the construction of a temple at the site.

2. Wat Chet Yot

King Tilokarat commissioned the construction of the temple in 1455 CE after he had sent monks to Bagan in Burma to study the design of the Mahabodhi temple there, itself a copy of the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya in northern India, the location where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, attained enlightenment.

According to the Jinakālamālī chronicle, in 1455 CE the king planted a bodhi tree on the spot and in 1476 CE "had established a large sanctuary in this monastery", probably for the celebration ceremony commemorating 2000 years of Buddhism. The following year the 8th Buddhist World Council was held at Wat Chet Yot to renew the Tripitaka (the Pali Canon).

The design of the central sanctuary, the Maha Pho wihan (also called Maha Chedi, Thai), does indeed somewhat resemble the Mahabodhi temple, clearly having Indian influences. Crowning the flat roof of the rectangular windowless building are seven spires (In Thai: chet yot) which gives the temple its name: a pyramid-like spire with a square base set back from the centre surrounded by four smaller similar spires, and, set atop the two smaller annexes of the main building, two bell-shaped chedis.

The interior of the building contains a barrel vaulted corridor which leads to a Buddha statue at its end. Right and left of the Buddha statue narrow stairs lead up to the roof. In days past a bodhi tree grew on top of the roof but which was removed in 1910 CE to prevent the structure from collapse.

The exterior façades of the building feature 70, partially strongly weathered, stucco reliefs of Thewada (Devas), divine beings, the faces of whom have allegedly been modelled after relatives of King Tilokarat.

3. Wat Phra Singh

Construction on Wat Phra Singh began in 1345 when King Phayu, the fifth king of the Mangrai dynasty, had a chedi built to house the ashes of his father King Kham Fu. A wihan and several other buildings were added a few years later and the resulting complex was named Wat Lichiang Phra. When, in 1367, the statue of Phra Buddha Singh was brought to the temple, the temple complex received its present name. During restoration works in 1925, three funerary urns were discovered inside a small chedi. It was assumed that these contained royal ashes. The urns have since been lost. From 1578 to 1774 the Burmese ruled Lanna and in this period the temple was abandoned and came under serious disrepair. It was only when King Kawila assumed the throne as King of Chiang Mai in 1782, that the temple was restored. King Kawila had the ubosot built and the chedi enlarged. Later successors restored the Wihan Lai Kham and the elegant Ho Trai(temple library).

The whole temple complex underwent extensive renovations under the famous monk Khru Ba Srivichai during the 1920s. Many of the buildings were again restored in 2002.

The temple houses an important Buddha statue: the Phra Buddha Sihing which gives the temple its name. The origins of this statue are unknown but, according to legend, it was based on thelion of Shakya, a statue since lost which used to be housed in the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya (India). The Phra Buddha Sihing statue is supposed to have been brought, via Ceylon(present day Sri Lanka), to Ligor (present day Nakhon Si Thammarat and from there, via Ayutthaya, to Chiang Mai. There are two more Buddha statues in Thailand which are claimed to be thePhra Buddha Sihing: one is housed in Wat Phra Mahathat in the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat and another in the Bangkok National Museum.

It is alleged that the head of the statue had been stolen in 1922. The possibility remains that the present statue (or maybe only the head) is a copy.

Every year, during the Songkran festival, the statue is taken from wihan Lai Kham and carried through the streets of Chiang Mai in a religious procession during which the spectators honour the statue by sprinkling water over it.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep and the white elephant of the legend

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep - where the holy bone is kept

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep - just some of the scores of images of the Buddha

Dianne in the gardens of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

A crystal Buddha at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Another image of Buddha at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep - mostly covered with goldleaf

One of the many images of a dragon on the steps to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

What Chet Yot - the seven spired Wat. A very old temple but not too much to photograph

Wat Phra Singh showing some of the many lifelike images of monks

Me trying to befriend a Dragon at Wat Phra Singh

A monks working on the flower arrangements in Wat Phra Singh with some novices

The sun setting behind one of the buildings at Wat Phra Singh

Stage 4 - 4th February 2014

Today we decided to make the obligatory contribution to the local economy: we booked an excursion! This was a day trip, with an early start and an early evening finish so we were up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:30 and a car to take us to Chiang Mai for an 8:00 am start. There was a bit of hassle from then on which involved a wait, another car, pick up someone else at a hotel, drive to another office, the a further wait....then off we set, well, that is until the driver had to stop for petrol after only 10 minutes! So, off we set, eventually.  The trip was to the Northern mountains so it took us about an hour to get there; we were in a mini-bus with 8 others - a French couple, two Swiss ladies and two couples from Belfast - which took about an hour to arrive at the first stop: the elephants. The 'trek' was in three stages, first on the back of elephants through a jungle trail, the second a walk up the mountain side and the final leg was a bamboo raft sail down the mountain river to meet the minibus.

So, the elephants: this was typical of the elephant rides you see everywhere. It was a rather large camp/village of local people and, I guess, 20 families will be depending on the dozen or so elephants for their economic survival - Mahouts, the vendors selling trinkets, food and drink, the photographers, etc. We had to wait for our ride so we took some photos of the 'unemployed' elephants, including on only a few months old.

The ride was OK but there was a distinct lack of any wildlife in the forest, not even the sound of a bird, which I found strange, but I assume it was too hot for wild creatures to be out, either that or there are too many tourists 'infesting' the area. I think we were on the elephant for about an hour or so during which time he, the elephant, insisted we fed him copious amounts of sugar cane!

We then set off for our walk up the mountain where the trail was much narrower taking us along paths beside irrigation canals that took water down to flood the paddy fields - a bit like the levada walks in Madeira. At this time of the day, midday, it was hot so the climb was a little taxing but we stopped off at a remote village in the mountains where a small tribe of the long-necked women live in exile from Burma. We paid to enter the village where we could take photographs and buy some of their craftwork. Making the necks of the women longer has been practice by the tribe since the 11th century and still continues with girls wearing the extending rings from the age of 5 to 15. In fact the neck is not extended but the rib cage is collapsed but the rings giving the impression that neck is longer. We took some photos and bought a few things - it all helps the economy!

We then continued up the path to, which became much steeper for a while before we came across a rather impressive waterfall. Some brave folk, including Dianne, took to the water but it was freezing so I declined!

The last stage of the trek was the return to the bottom of the mountain. This was achieve on a bamboo raft. We walked again to the bamboo 'port' where we left all our valuables, including cameras, with our tour guide and then climbed on the raft, 4 to a raft, and then the boatman punted us down stream. Mostly gentle water but lots of rapids too, though not what you would call 'white water' rapids. Nevertheless it was not that comfortable, and very wet.

At the end of the trip we arrived at another village, no doubt the home of the boatmen, where we could get drinks and food, clean up and attempt to get dry before setting off to Chiang Mai and, eventually, our hotel.

We dined al fresco in the hotel on pasta and a cold bottle of Pinot Grigio.

The hills to the north of Chiang Mai

One of a dozen or so elephants at the village

The elephant track

Our greedy elephant

The track up the mountain alongside the irrigation channel

One of the long-necked women

...with one of the children

The icy pool below the waterfall

The end of the rafting

A villager in the mountains weaving scarves

Mother and child in the village at the end of the raft ride

Stage 4 - 3rd February 2014

We booked a visit to the Chiang Mai Tiger kingdom with, I have to acknowledge, some reservations. We had heard something about the access to the animals and wondered if they would be drugged to keep them docile.  Anyway, we decided to go to see for ourselves and set off about 12 noon for a 10 minute journey to the Park where we chose to have the Full Monty, i.e. visiting all the compounds which featured Tigers from new-born through small, to medium to large, in all 5 divisions of size. The FM included DVDs of photos for two of the compounds.

The place was rather busy, lots of Chinese people enjoying Chinese NY holidays - good to see the Chinese abroad - so there was some waiting for your 'turn' but it was handled extremely well - we had a Q number and it appeared on a screen for each enclosure so you had a rough idea how long you would need to wait for your turn. The big cats and the very small cats were the most popular so we started with the medium and the large....and with a very apprehensive Dianne....see the photo of her first encounter!

I have to say we were both a little concerned for the animals and didn't like some of the things people were doing but we both felt the claim that the animals are not drugged to be justified. We saw nothing to suggest the cats were not well cared for, they appeared to be well fed and only wanted to sleep while the sun shone. The oldest cats were only 30 months old, older cats were deemed too dangerous, and each cat was hand-reared by a dedicated trainer from birth therefore developing a strong bond and lots of trust. Dianne was most enamoured with the youngsters; I was most enamoured with the big cats - their size is so impressive.

We had planned to be picked up at 2:30 by the hotel driver but we were delayed and, instead, stayed at the Park for lunch and planned to catch a taxi back, which proved a little difficult! We eventually persuaded a taxi driver to take us to the hotel in between other jobs he had, which was a bit of a relief - we were about 5 miles away but would never have found our way back on foot!

With the two CDs of photos taken by the Park photographers and my photos we have nearly 300 from one day! The photography was a bit of a challenge. As you will see there was lots of different shades of light coming through the canopy of trees, very strong sunlight with contrasting with the shadows and colours of the Tigers, etc. This meant fussing around with the camera settings - flash was not allowed so I ended up shifting the ISO settings up and down continually, then over-exposing when shooting the Tigers in the shade! But I think the results will be worth it. Three hundred photos will take me hours to edit so I'll save it for another day, I've just done a few for you to look at.

I have to say I would never have thought it possible to stand next to a Tiger and feel totally safe...can't think of many better experiences with wildlife.

Stage 4 - 2nd February 2014

So to Stage 4 - Chiang Mai, the northern capital of Thailand. Up early this morning - 5:30 am - not something I like doing but it was a religious festival yesterday so it was a 'dry' day, no booze, which made it a little easier to cope with an early rise! A taxi took us to the airport where we had something to eat and a coffee and then caught the flight to Chiang Mai, just an hour in the air. On landing we booked a limo to take us to the hotel; lady driver who spoke good English drove, just 40 minutes, but through what turned out to be an absolutely beautiful place. No high rise buildings but a clean and modern city without the high density housing one associates with large cities, and everywhere it's green and fresh with flowers and blossoming shrubs.

The hotel turned out to consist of a collection of small villas spread over several acres of woodland with a small lake, maybe slightly isolated from the city but near to smaller communities which, no doubt, we will explore over the next few days.  We checked in at mid-day, unpacked, had some lunch then sat by the pool to relax for a few hours; I also took some photos - see below!

We had dinner at the hotel, typical Thai food but the menu offers more 'traditional' fare if we don't fancy the local grub, but we did tonight. The service wasn't great and I suggested we took the service charge off the bill, which didn't go down well, but I complained that we were served our food and then left for 35 minutes before any member of staff came back to the dining area! Not a single member of staff in sight! Not something I've ever experienced. When I asked where they'd all been I was told: at a staff meeting! Crazy.

Checked out the local excursions over lunch and after dinner booked tomorrow afternoon for a visit to a local Tiger sanctuary which should be interesting. More photos of that tomorrow.

Stage 3 - 1st February 2014

Last day in Bangkok so we took the excellent Sky Train back to the river, (I think the attraction of rivers is something to do with living near the Mersey, the Tyne and the Clyde for most of my life). The Sky Train is fast, frequent, modern, very clean and very cheap; it's also a good way to see some of the city. Bridget Walker had suggested we have lunch at the Mandarin Oriental hotel so we booked a late one, 1:30 pm. From the station it's a short walk to the river pier were we took the hotel shuttle boat down river to the hotels private landing stage. Lunch was in the International Restaurant where we had a table with a fine view of the river. It was a buffet style but some great food, including my favourite: lobster! Washed down with a glass of Chablis and it can't be beaten. We followed with lamb for main course with a bottle of claret - eyewateringly expensive - then some cheese and finally a selection of desserts.  After a long lunch we caught the shuttle boat back to the station and headed off to the hotel for a short siesta before packing for tomorrow's journey.

Great place Bangkok, I'd come again.