Last report from Thailand

Dinner at Mooban Talay, Thailand

The big surprise for us at Mooban Talay was that the resort was catering to hundreds of Chinese tourists each day.   They came off tour boats starting as early as 8am and boats continued to visit Mooban Talay until well after 3pm.   The idea was for the early visitors to stay only in the cafe area and take a drink but that was not what actually happened.   Groups spread out to explore the resort and if not for sentries posted they would have taken the parasols, hammocks and crowded into the pool as well as the roped off area of the sea.   

Mooban Talay Resort, Thailand

The great chef and his fixed fish menu was the big draw at lunchtime and the dining pavilion was overflowing each day for several seatings.  The mounds of food looked delicious and the waiters were literally running to serve the tables.   After the first day when we were quite early, we could not find a seat for lunch.

Seeing what was about, I asked at reception where the residents of the hotel were meant to eat and the man in charge said quite matter of factly that the best would be to order room service.  And that was what we finally did.    

I know Americans are loud compared to the French but the Chinese take the prize.  There seemed a huge need for the visitors to fill each minute with volume:  shouting at each other in the water, on the beach and at table. 

   It was irritating and entertaining at the same time. After a walk along the main road, Dave and I lounged, splashed and read by the pool while I enjoyed the spectacle of the "selfie" taking tourists.  

And what a show that was.

It seems that the objective of the female Chinese was to be photographed in matching costumes, playing with scarfs wafting overhead, walking in the sea in long gowns or gamboling in sand full of sand fleas.    The men and boys were charged with taking the photos and the women were there to change their costumes and act as models.  There were not just young women, but also women in their fifties.

A trio of women dressed to impress, taking one of a dozen photos with these outfits,  Thailand

Later I learned that the aggressive behavior of these tourists is a noted complaint throughout the islands of Thailand. The truth remains however that the Thais need the income from tourism, and the Chinese need to get away and enjoy themselves like everyone else.  

By evening we were back to eating dinner on the sandy beach and in love with the chef once more.   I tried the famous green mango salad which is a popular specialty.  The unripe mango tasted a bit like Jicama. ...not really very interesting, but the sauce was good.  The fish dishes were all excellently prepared.

Mary and her Kamakazee drink,  Mooban Talay, Thailand

Dinner,  Mooban Talay, Thailand

Baked scallops in Cheese, Mooban Talay, Thailand

 Dave at Mooban Talay, Thailand

Let me say that we are pleased with Tell Tale Travel and their teams in Bangkok and England giving us just the right combination of natural beauty and culture.    We felt we had had a varied look at Thailand from top to bottom while making friendly connections along the way.    I wrote this all down in these posts to cement it in my mind and share my photos with Dave, but for those of you who have followed, thanks...it's always gratifying. 

6am departure for Bankok from Ko Samed pier, Thailand

Juliet's Coffee Cafe

Mooban Talay,  7h30 in the morning,  December, 2020

The next day we were to find out how this resort really worked.   In the morning we tried the big pavilion for breakfast and found that our coveted chef was not in residence.  

The big pavilion was a vast open restaurant which could not rival the cozy atmosphere of the fairy lights we had eaten under the night before.   And although the Thais try to please with their sausage, bacon and egg breakfasts, they do much better with fish than they do with pork.  Perhaps we should have ordered Thai breakfast for when we found out that the offered coffee was instant, we knew how spoiled we had become. We vowed then to find our own breakfast the following day. 

And we did find it ...a few minutes away on the main road was Juliette's Cafe.  It was cozy and intimate and had good coffee, eggs and even coconut waffles if you were up for it.  There was also a strange menu of "toasts", some with the popular condensed milk dessert as a topping.    Juliette was charming, shy and without English...which always gave us a fun chance to interact with pointing and gestures.

   It was from her that I bought my banana dress and a few other clothing items for less than a dollar each. On a shelf inside she was running a second hand clothing store .... all of the good quality items mysteriously in petite sizes. 

Juliette's Coffee cafe, Ko Samed, Thailand

Juliette in her cozy cafe, Ko Samed, Thailand

Last report from Ko Samed and Mooban Talay tomorrow.

Last stop: Ko Samed

Ko Samed is a national park, an island amongst many to choose from at the tip of Thailand in the Rayong province.  Our driver, Billy drove us five hours to get to the last destination of our trip : Mooban Talay Resort on the island of Ko Samed.  We had the island stay added on to the end of our trip by Tell Tale Travel to have a relaxing bit at the end of our adventure. 

After three or four hours in Billy's luxury van, we stopped for our driver to have lunch at his favorite little rustic highway cafe and then continued on to wait at the pier for a private boat to speed us over.

Arriving at Ko Samed in December,

From the speed boat the place looked inviting and serene. Indeed we liked our room with its platform beds, huge shower room and a fridge full of bottled water and treats.   We were well placed just behind the pool, the sea and the massage pavilion.

Pool at Mooban Talay Resort, Ko Samed , Thailand

Beds on a platform at Mooban Tallay, Ko Samed, Thailand

We explored a bit, settled in and by the close of day we had discovered the best thing about this resort: an excellent chef.  

Dave had never tried soft shelled crabs and this cook made a good job of them with an accompanying sauce that was sweet and spicy.  We started the meal with a basket of these and for me a drink called a Kamikaze with blue curaçao, lime juice and vodka.   

 We feasted under fairy lights on the sand outside the restaurant.  There were about 7 other tables taken for dinner, mostly western guests staying at the resort.  

Restaurant tables in evening, Mooban Talay, Thailand

Dave before sundown and dinner, Mooban Talay, Restaurant on the sand,  Thailand

We were not to know however, that the morrow would bring an invasion of boisterous tourists to our quiet, sandy hide away.

Khao Yai National Park

Macaque.

So in the tradition of modern life or shall I say my life,  I have been side tracked into necessities and other avenues instead of finishing my recording of our visit to Thailand.    

In my art class I am working on surrealist collages giving me intriquing brain twists which has me throwing my creative urges in that direction instead of writing. 

And finally after a few months delay we have the tree guys here today taking down a pepper tree which has turned itself into a beautiful monster, one eroding the quality of a hundred year old tile roof.

  I had the roof fellow out yesterday and he did not like what he saw.   We are possibly looking at reconstructing the slope of the roof over the kitchen which apparently was done incorrectly in the first place.  And the endless berries and leaves falling from the pepper tree have not helped the condition of the roof either. 

As to my computer, this brave old machine...it is now so old that I cannot download the new software, Catalina.   But, of course, all the shipments of Apple products from China have been interrupted because of the Corona Virus.   So I will see what happens with that before trying to order a new one.  

 Throw in my husband's cataract surgery and you have the rest of the excuses for my change of direction.

But back to the story.  After leaving the North of Thailand, Dave and I were driven by our faithful driver, Billy, from the airport towards The Khao Yai National Park area in the south .   We were to stay a few nights  at Lilawalai,  an unusual garden resort named for the Frangipani flower.  

 There must have been over 300 trees of that species there on the serene and charming grounds.  It would be a real event to be present when all of the trees are blooming.   Gardeners were everywhere sweeping and tending the organic gardens.  

 This area was very isolated and we were reliant on a driver if we wanted to go out into the town.  English was not spoken in the hotel but we did well with a few key words....like "massage", "dinner", "wine" etc. 

   We did go out for one meal to an unusual restaurant called "EAT  at Khao Yai".  I found it just now on Trip Advisor and recognize a photo of the excellent "spare ribs" that I ordered.  There was also a duo singing and playing a soft Thai form of jazz, not unpleasant.

One of our guides for the few days, Pu ( pronounced Boo)  came to meet us the first evening to take us to witness the bats exiting their caves for the night.  It was an astonishing event which went on for more than the 20 minutes that we stayed.  

No one knows where the caves are as it is forbidden to climb the hills to search for the them.  Along with the swarm of bats were groups of raptors hoping to score a meal off the unsuspecting prey. 

  I do have a video but alas it wouldn't download so I will just show you a few pics of our next day in the park where we saw a gibbon family high up in the trees crossing the highway, two kinds of great hornbills ( huge) and a host of other birds and many lazy deer begging by the restaurant area.  And of course there were the savvy little Macaques hoping for handouts at the side of the main road. 

Macaque monkey in Khao Yai National Park

Dave with our guides Jay and Pu ( the pretty one) sitting by a stream to enjoy the birdlife near by.

Splashing along on blogs and in life

 It so happens that my "iphoto" app. has closed down and I can't yet record the rest of my trip through photos.    Yes, I know, no one really cares but it is a way to record the whole thing in my head and it's a creative thing I do.

 Of course, I am also in the middle of using the photo app. to construct some collages... in my perhaps-last-art class at Villa Thiole.   
  Yes,  I have neglected my friends and my house in favor of doing art projects and I think I need a break after 20 years attending the  local art school.  I perhaps take the whole thing too seriously.

 And I do take my machines...(phone and computers)... for granted while hardly knowing what magic makes the things work.  But I am going to try uploading the next software, "Catalina", which may restore iPhoto.   Yes, I know it is late in the game but I always wait for Apple to iron out the bugs. 

 The bad news is that I will lose "Microsoft Word" which I use a lot for poetry, translations, and printing.    It's not really the expense of the download that worries me but the putting it on this ancient relic weighs-a-ton-macbook pro and on the lightweight little number I hope to buy next month.   Apparently for 99 dollars one buys the rights to two copies of "Microsoft Office" though. 

In the meantime, talking about my New Year's Resolve,  I have managed only to do one bike ride and two yoga sessions at home each week since I bragged about it.   It is so tempting to lie in bed in the winter and not get out there on the bike in the cold. 

  So the resolution of the New Year has changed to "keep the balance" both literally and figuratively.   And it's perhaps a more valuable and more reasonable goal.   I hope you are getting through these cold days in fine form and not feeling guilty about a thing. 

Bamboo Nests Day Two

Details of my door to the terrace in my bamboo nest

Today's hike would take us through a Lahu tribe village to the Huay Kaew waterfall to eat our packed lunch and then onto a ride by long tail boat on the Mae Kok river to visit the Akha hill tribe.

In the afternoon there would be time to enjoy the local hot springs.

Faithful Cookie, the dog who adopted us

View from the garden, from the website

Breakfast eggs

Toast brazier

Last night at dinner we met a personable Swiss medical engineer named Severino who joined us at breakfast.  His work was in a hospital inventing new machines and tools for surgeons to use.  He was 26 years old and had traveled to Nepal and Sri Lanka...the latter where Dave and I had been also.   One of the interesting things about wandering is to meet others and hear their stories which I got to do around the bonfire the night before. 

Severino from Switzerland meets us at breakfast

Nok at the counter after breakfast

Looking at the bonfire site in the morning

View from the morning trek

After lunch meeting back with Noi and his dogs

Log across the path that got Dave in the forehead as his hat was covering his eyes.

I had already heard that the school we were to visit  that day was closed for a national holiday.  I did get to interact with some of the kids with my irresistible sticker books before we started the hike though.  
 So after saying our goodbyes to Severino, and seeing the kids, we started our trek to a Lahu village where we paused to talk with one of the locals and hear from Noi about the Catholic influence of this particular tribe.

 After lunch we were led to a long tail boat to visit the Akha hill tribe.   The boatman however soon deemed the water too shallow to navigate so we turned the boat back to where we had boarded.   It was a nice little interlude on the water though...with our pack of dogs.   The Kok is a river from Burma and Thailand and a tributary of the Mekong.  The boatman was very skilled in getting us around the rocks and not scraping his vessel.

 We did sit in the hot spring for a little while ( not hot enough when the water got to the pool) and then headed back to camp a bit early... happy to relax, read and pack for the airport before the sun went down and dinner was served.  
We were well satisfied with our trip to the top of Thailand. 
 Tomorrow we would take a plane back to Bangkok and then a drive east to the Khao Yai National Park area.

Hill Tribes of Thailand

Free range chickens , village life Thailand

I awoke curled in a ball (only 7C, 44 F) during the night but finally figured out how to wrap one of the quilts around me like a sleeping bag to keep warm. It was out of the question to crawl under the sheets which felt like a skating pond.  Finally I slept and woke to first light, a misty view out the window. No point now in keeping them closed as the temperature was the same inside and out.  It was absolutely quiet and still.   

Dave and I and Cookie met for a breakfast of fried eggs, home baked bread and home made berry jam, plenty of fresh fruit, tea or coffee.   There was a tiny grill for toasting the bread over coals.  

Cookie got a few pieces of white of egg which she took gently like a lady,  not like boisterous pack of hounds that we would travel with today,  Noi's three other dogs. Today was a trek to a local tribe to eat lunch in the traditional way. 

The hikes for the next two days were not difficult climbs, but were still a series of little challenges: slippery bamboo leaves on the downhill slopes, shale, fires set by farmers next to the trail, village dogs fighting with our pack in our midst, trees fallen across the path and steep rocks to navigate.    I took it slow and I often trailed behind Noi who had done this a million times, no doubt.    I was still remembering breaking my ankle in three bones on such a trail four years ago.

After about 3  hours of trekking through pineapple and vegetable fields we reached a cooking house owned by a local woman and her  young son.  Noi started the fire in what was the kitchen house of her two dwellings.  We waited on the porch on a mat just for us. The shelter was equipped with a pit filled with sand in which the fire burned brightly without harming the floor. 

About a half hour later the local woman came in with a large bundle of sticks on her back and without a word or glance got busy helping Noi.  

 Dave and I  had been instructed to fill the tube of bamboo with uncooked rice and water.  It seemed doubtful that this would turn into a tasty cooked dish.  How could it expand?  Where would the steam go?

Tapping of rubber trees, Chiang Rai

Village life, Chiang Rai

Chicken house in nearby village

Bamboo residence of local farmer's family

Noi cooking our sticky rice in a bamboo stalk in the kitchen house, Thailand

 That is Noi's big knife he carried uncovered on the hike.  It seems he had lost his scabbard but needed the knife to cut the bamboo.  All the farmer's carried one and we saw them for sale in the village.

Noi explains how to cook the sticky rice

Fresh chicken breasts secured in bamboo over the cooking house fire.

Local friend of Noi preparing our lunch

Dave shows how to eat bamboo sticky rice, you peel it like a banana. 

Local woman tends the fire and the chicken

In the end the meal was delicious and the rice and chicken turned out moist and succulent.  The rice comes out easily from peeling down the sides of the thin bamboo.  It is now wrapped in its own little bamboo membrane which holds it together while you take a bite.  

There was also a sort of tomato omelette in one of the bamboo tubes that was a nutritious accompaniment.  No junk food here.  Unforturnately though, a motorbike arrives in the village during the week to sell candy and other modern "necessities". 

Eating our delicious omelette , rice and chicken , village life Thailand

 Village life looks to be a difficult life.   Sometimes the only medicine is herbal given by monks and the work can be grueling with few modern conveniences though wealthy farmers own trucks.  Noi says the average lifespan in the villages is 66 years.

 I heard that down the road one can pick up a wifi signal and we could see a few young people sitting on motorbikes there with phone in hand.  But life is slow and there is still a lot of "slash and burn" farming to rid the hills of trees for farming and a piles of plastic which no one knows how to get rid of. 

    We see that American commercialism has arrived with a vengeance throughout most of Thailand.  Seven Eleven,  Starbucks. Kentucky Fried Chicken are the most notable franchises but there are many.   The only French one I saw was Auchan but I am sure there are others...that's commerce after all.


Before we left the hut, the quiet woman who had cooked our meal with Noi came out with small items she had sewn which she was selling.  We both selected some and she shyly looked up at us.  When we got up to leave we heard a whispered " bye bye".   We both remarked on that later in the day.  It had seemed significant,  a bridge between cultures, perhaps.