Restful day in Phuket

I feel like I need a rest. My nose has had a battering and I was worried for a while it may go to my chest, but I think I must have had the flu now. If anyone at work has extreme cold and/or flu symptoms last weekend or prior I want their name and number. There are plenty Russians here I can talk to and most of them don't make their $$ working at the supermarket.



Anyway, apart from recouperating today, I did some exploring. The Kata lookout was first on my list, famed for all the world as one view gives many of the most famous beaches in the Andaman Sea. You can see the rocky headland where my hotel is at the top of the second long beach from the bottom. Big Buddha was another thing to see, although it's nothing compared to some. It does however look out from the centre of this large and mountainous island over Phuket Town and hopefully Buddha keeps a watchful eye over the woman in the Panda suit down there. I bought some fruit: mangosteen, mango and maprang. Sadly rambutans, unlike in Indonesia this time of year, are not in season. Snake fruit is here, dragon fruits, Thai maple apples, all kinds of goodies, but the two best are mangosteen and mango. I bought one kilo of each and will eat them all tonight. It is worth the trip for them alone. I went to a cashew nut factory, the amazing veggie that has a nut as a biproduct. The large fruit gives juice and a very precious oil, if it were not for the fine oil it makes cashews would not be grown. Each nut is pushed out of its shell by hand. In the picture you see a hard working person under tourists eyes all day long. I did ask before I took the picture, but I do feel sorry for people having to live like that each day. She earns 15 baht a kilo, and there's a lot of cashews in a kilo. The yellow thing in front of her machine is the size of the cashew fruit. I do like fruits an vegetables - lets face it, it is why I talk to all of you. Ha ha ha. Talking of fruity, in Buddhist nations, 'lady boys' abound. One was working the 7-eleven in Karon today where I bought cheese and onion chips. Every nation on the planet has Cheese & Onion chips EXCEPT NORTH AMERICA. What is wrong with you? OK so where was I going with the story? Yes, I know: Do you remember the steel teeth Japanese murdering schoolgirl from Kill Bill Vol 1 ? Well, that person is now a lady boy working at a 7 Eleven on Karon beach, I swear to God.






Horse shoe shaped beaches are always prized, they keep their sand, collect more and have sheltered waters. They are rare. This island is surrounded by them. I need to treat this photo when home to remove some haze.





My parents always said money does not grow on trees - and they lied. This tinsel-y tree has people pinning money to it like leaves. I want one.





The other amazing thing about this part of the world, although it is not as green as Indonesia, it's still pretty much the same story. Anything dropped on the ground will grow with amazing vigour. I for one would love to live in a place like that, driving past all the little markets selling orchids and palm trees for your back yard, wouldn't it be fun to pick out giant palms for your garden? Doesn't seem like much to ask, does it? Plumeria, the adopted symbol of Hawaii is also abundant here. Nothing more tropical than those, and, yet again, cannot grow those at home either :(



Oh well, I dipped my feet in the Andaman today at Karon beach - a long public beach that is pretty full of people, mostly Euro, few American, and again this is one thatwas in all the pictures of the giant waves. I booked a trip to Phang Nha for tomorrow, famed for 'The Man with The Golden Gun' 007 movie among other things and sadly the Surin and Similan islands will have to wait for another day to have Dave bless them with his prescence. It also turns out, apart from not packing a bathing suit I also failed to pack the underwater housing for the camera. Am I a Bieber, or what? So I may go snorkeling in a pair of old shorts but no pics I suppose, sadly.





This post is a ways from the beach, and it marks the high water line.


I do not leave Phuket until late Saturday, which is awesome (and part of my super pack-it-all-in planning) as I can use part of that day. I am now going on a quick trip to the Phi-Phi islands on Saturday morning, pronounced pee-pee ( insert your giggles ), the hotel here sold me on it, I should have bought it in town with the other one, for far less. Phi-Phi is where 'The Beach' was filmed. Anyway it is a speedboat ride away, which the last time I rode on one produced projectile vomit that flew horizontally sideways because the boat was so fast. I will try to Gravol this ride ahead of time and reduce the available fish food. Arriving late at Changi airport in Singapore that night, right after midnight, I am sleeping at an airport hotel then flying the Sunday morning at 8am for Kathmandu in Nepal. So no more time to recouperate, it's gonna get busy.




You know this pic could have been much improved if I had focused on the ocean, not the banana leaves...


Asia has a passion for assembling electronics, but not it seems a good way to bury cable. Even in Tokyo, only now are they getting rid of the masses of overhead cable.








Phuket doesn't have the tranquil and almost mystical spots that say Bali has, it seems as though it's go-go-go here in most of the island. Phuket has better infrastructure though and at this time of year the wet weather is on the equator and below so its quite dry here - and that seems to come with higher prices. There's undoubtedly benefits to both, and since air to each from KL or SG to each is so low, I guess I would say, do both!

This is your friend, the snot ridden Dave, hanging out in front of a gorgeous sunset and signing off for the night. I have a free hotel dinner tonight, not sure if I am brave enough to do Patong town afterwards, or tomorrow... We will see... Either way I hope you all have a good night too.

























- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on picture for larger image and gallery.

Phuket or Die

We landed a few minutes behind schedule in Singapore, and it was a wacky hour after that to check in before gate close, transfer to another terminal, I could not leave my suitcase behind as I had planned as there was no time. It felt like I was 007 racing through those terminals dodging damn slow people who think they can be slow because they're on holiday, sheesh. But it's OK now, because I flew everything over here....the flight was tranquilizer free, I only took Gravol. In the preceding days I think I had become generally numb to the fear of flying, maybe the stuff accumulates. We could have been flying to the moon, not sure it would have made a difference that morning. In a few days when I fly back to SG we will find out.

Anyway, here in Phuket life is tropical and green. It's a shame I will not be going diving though :( I guess that means I need to come back. Some of the best diving in the world is here. I did however miss the giant snowstorm that would have trapped me in New York, and I missed a large earthquake in the Andaman Sea with is right outside my bedroom window here. And some unfortunate place in Canada hit -49. I won't mention then that this is my upper limit for heat here, the humidity makes a gentle walk create a raincloud around you. Sweat, heat, but oh God, those mangoes!







View from hotel cafe.

















My hut in the foliage with partial sea view.

















My hotel is a little wacky, to say the least, perched on a hill side, with no beach, the staff I am sure have been swallowing my tranqs as they seem so damn mellow, I should yell FIRE! And see what happens. I didn't mind so much when I was going diving having no beach but as things turned out it would have been nice, my original plan was to stay at a cheap shack on Kata Noi beach, maybe next time. Nice views of Karon beach and Le Meridien hotel from here, which you all will have seen time and time again from the tsunami videos from years back. There is good snorkelling off the rocks at the bottom of the property apparently.






I went in the afternoon on a long taxi ride into Phuket Town, where Ken and Katy are, don't they look happy and healthy ? Ken says he would love to go back to help shovel snow, and Katy is sick and tired of the sea and cheap food... I agreed they looked totally worse for their experience here, but was too kind to mention how ill they look with all the sun and heat...

They are off to Kuala Lumpur soon, I tried to talk hem into stopping off in Tokyo too, since they pass through on the way home. If you are going to be there K&K, I am at the Best Western Astina in Shinjuku March 2-5. Shinjuku is handy for the NEX train to Narita airport, so 2 mins in cab from station to hotel.

Phuket Town is an odd place, a person dressed in a panda costume, and must have been dying in the heat, was asking me to enter what I thought was a restaurant, as I raised my line of sight I see it's a massage place. So a panda suit?

Anyway, I spent and hour looking for the perfect backpack and for 900 baht found one that I hope will do for a while, I chewed them down from 1400, but I have to say, unlike other places in this region, including Thailand, they really are not bothered about haggling here. It was Chinese New Year too, so on the taxi ride home fireworks were shooting all over the beaches as we came back up the hill.

Anyway, I came back to the hotel, pretty tired as it turned out, I got a phone call from Mana in Bangkok, which was kind of him, and then it was time for bed.

Tomorrow, I am not sure what we will do.... I have to book a trip to see somethng somewhere since I cannot dive. OK, good night!

























- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on picture for larger image and gallery.

Farewell to Broadway

Today was a much better day, sun shining, a bit colder but less wind, and my homeless friend had moved on to pastures new. Being Monday I am guessing the office workers arriving en masse scared him off. Lots more people in the city.










The Worlwide Church of Cupertino, a.k.a the flagship Apple store, is on the corner of 5th ave and the Upper East Side, so, I went to church first to give my thanks, then went for a sunny walk through one chunk of Central Park. Hard to imagine the apartments over looking the park go for the 10s of millions. I guess for a short time you can get the same view for free.


What a beautiful temple!












After that it was a stroll through the Museum of Modern Art, they have some of my favourite classical works there. And that was it for day 3. Just after 4pm I was supposed to catch my ride to the airport - however, I put it back for an hour gambling with the rush hour traffic awaiting a UPS parcel which never arrived. Well it finally did, when I was waiting for boarding the plane to Frankfurt... I guess it will eventually go back to its origin for a refund. Damn UPS - if the interest of American efficiency they work delivering until 9pm, when the rest of us are all home and done the dishes from supper... Oh well. It was booked for delivery on the Friday... I guess some stuff is bound to happen, but now I have no backpack...Ii dont know what to do...






This is me before I put my face on for the day.





This painting is called 'The Persistance of Time' I have friend who herself named it 'Floppy Clocks' and if say that a few times it sounds like something else entirely. Or, is that the mastery of the artist at work? The gallery is full of 'experts' putting their spin on sexual ambiguity or revulsion at war when staring at black and white pictures of old ladies in America's Golden Age. Personally I think you can assume just about anything into these.





The Van Gough Museum in Amsterdam does not have this lovely picture. It looks as good as the day I ran it off on my new bubble jet printer.


The last few days has been slightly surreal, the scene from the movie "7 Monkeys" runs through my head a bit, as I spread that cold virus from airport to airport and now millions will feel limbless all over the world.... Here at JFK the control tower has multi colour changing LED lights brightly twinkling... Just like Times Square. There's an awful lot of people waiting to board this aircraft, and the windows are so dirty there are no good photos, at check in they told me it was no where near full. How many more with all their bags can get on this horseless buggy?







I wish I could get better pics of the Chrysler building, the Empire State is very bland in comparison. It captures that age of America quite well.


Toys R Us is where the UPS store is. I guess the ride is for when your package doesnt show...


Oh well, overnight flight to Frankfurt. See you all later... Sleepy time.

At Frankfurt we had to park on the runway and come down stairs, they are reworking the airport and there were no spare gates - and apparently a flood of flights out of Egypt as a 'emergency'. Don't they know it's me in here?This was going to add a delay, the one thing I cannot risk on this leg. I had avoided a big snow dump in New York on Tuesday, but the bussing and stair disembark seems crazy for an airport like Frankfurt. We walked all across the airport to another security gate, went through baggage searches then got back on buses to take us back to the plane. We are about 22 mins late taking off, so I dont know how much of that can be gained en route to Changi. I did have them flag my bag on check in as being a business class unload, they are supposed to come up first, the crew on this plane have said they will notify ground crew to help speed me along. I have to go through customs and immigration at this next stop, even though I am flying out straight away. There is no further transit through allowed since I already chose one in Frankfurt. A mess!














The bus around Frankfurt dodges aircraft...some get a little close...would be good to stand outside taking pictures though... I am shocked they didn't stop me.









Now we are 3 hours from Singapore, this flight, without stop time is 20 hours, so a long haul. I get to stop in Phuket for the next three nights, assuming I catch my flight in time, so lots of room to stretch some legs. I've had 2 Singapore Slings and I feel quite merry...

I have also decided to ditch the diving in the Similans, I did not have long for it anyway, but with this cold and the congestion I have already. Popped both ear drums blowing my nose. I think to squeeze a dive in now would be foolish, I will have to do the Similans next year.

Mana called, my friend who is a driver guide in Thailand. He wants to call me at the hotel. Be nice to hear from him.

OK, more sleep needed, still a while before coming back down to Earth, gawd why bother? With tranqs and alcoholic fruity drinks I think we should bring back tht old airline ad "Come FLY with Me."

Being tiddly and in a melty pill filled world, I see no reason for anything to change!



- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on picture for larger image and gallery.