Walked to Royal Palace where there was a monthly changing of the guard. We didn’t actually see the changing of the guard but saw the parade preparation for it. Because of that, we were not able to get access to the palace.

Our next stop was the Retiro Garden which is like the Central Park of Madrid. There were fountains, open grassy areas, and a pond with rowboat.

On to some food! We sat at the Plaza de Santa Anna at the corner of Charlie and Miriams apartment. Beers and Vermouth! We had a variety of sausages, fish and breads and enjoyed the sun and mild temps.

After a short rest, we headed out to some religious goods stores where Russ purchased a white dalmatic at one store and a green one at another around the corner. In New Jersey, we would have to drive an hour to get to one. And the prices were unbeatable.

We found out from Miriams friend, Marisol, that a great hidden gem of a church has limited access but daily mass at 6pm. We headed to the Church of St. Anthony the German for a Spanish mass complete with organ music.

We wandered back to the apartment deciding we could manage without the use of a map and we were surprisingly successful!

Now it was time for more food. Is anyone seeing a pattern here?!? We tried out a few places that were Charlie and Miriams favorites. First stop was Casa el Abuelo for some gambas al ajillo, shrimp in garlic oil and garlic with a hot pepper. The place was one of the oldest in Madrid and had the feel of a neighborhood Carmines pizzeria. Lots of busy-ness and yelling to get food on the table.

Next stop was to chuncettos for some fried pork bits over paprika mashed potatoes. We all had to share a statin pill after that! So bad for you but so good!

Our last stop of the night was for more tappas. By this time it’s 9pm and we are still eating. More vermouth, sangria and beer. We had cheese and meat platter along with bread.

We walked to La Primera for a nice breakfast with a great view . The clientele were mostly business suits but later changed to a more casual dress. We enjoyed coffee with our breakfast of various toasts and eggs and thinly sliced ham. Marie had a toast with tomato and tuna while russ had the avocado.

We headed out with no particular agenda in mind and ended up shopping at el corte  ingles  and primark.  Marie picked up a pair of work pants and a denim jacket.

We took and afternoon rest and headed out for an evening with Miriams friends from Soto. We met at the Plaza del Sol and headed to Mercado de San Miguel for croquettes and beer. It was a neat looking indoor food market with more upscale food and eating than a typical neighborhood food market.

We ended our evening with drinks at another place La Abaceria. Our hosts were way past their bedtime at 11:30pm!

Our flight arrived in Lisbon, Portugal this morning where we spenta 2 hour before catching a flight to Madrid. We arrived in Madrid around 11 AM where Russ’ brother Charlie met us and took us on a taxi ride back to his apartment.

We quickly dropped our bags and headed out for a walk around the city.
The weather was clear and cool.

We hit all of the sites on Marie’s wish list of Day 1 including Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, Plaza Oriente, Plaza de la Sol and right at the corner of there street, The Plaza de Santa Anna.

After heading back to charlie and Miriams apartment, we took a little siesta after our long sleepless night on a plane. After freshening up, we headed out to meet Miriam’s brother and his family and her mom, Lola for drinks and tapas.

But our first stop was to go shopping for religious pieces at the many Catholic shops in the city, aka Deacon Disney, by Uncle Charlie. Really nice church icons, statues, rosaries, and liturgical garb. Marie told Riss he should get a promotion to Bishop to enjoy some of the spectacular pieces.

Our next stop was the McDonald’s where Miriam’s brother Carlos bought Russ his first drink at 16 years old.

We headed over to La Fragua de Vulcano, the whole group of us to have tapas where we all shared a bunch of dishes. We had sangria and tinto de verano,  a Spanish wine spritzer.  Some of the dishes we had were angular, (which are baby eels in a dish of olive oil, garlic, cayenne pepper,), tortillas ( dish of eggs and paotato),

Sunday 5/20 “San Juan”
After sweeping off the fantail to a break taking sunrise, I was ready for a wool raising day working with the Electric rates. Unfortunately, we didn’t do much besides check a few lights and switch them out. We had a drill in the afternoon as per
regulations. We must conduct a boat drill 24 hours after departure and 72 hours before arrival. Once that concluded I sat on deck and watched Puerto Rico get closer until before you knew it, we were at the pier!  Once we were able to get
off the ship, we walked around and I got to have my first Pina Colada! Because it was already dark, we decided to head back to the ship as we still had 3 days left in San Juan.

Monday 5/21
Today we got liberty!!!!!! I got off the ship and immediatley went into the city of San Juan. We went up to see both fortresses that guard the entrance to the Bay. Both provided amazing views of the ship and the surrounding harbor. Lots of
people were flying kites in the large field outside Castle Moora where there was a large battle between the Spanish/local army and the Dutch. Puerto Rico was an important territory to posess in the 16th and 17th centuries because it was the first
place with fresh water crossing the Atlantic from Europe and it allowed a base to defend the Caribbean islands and therefore most of the Southern Coast of America.
After that, we walked to a local beach to enjoy a drink and the water. The ocean was very salty, but very warm and we went looking for sea glass for a friend. The becah was abundant with it and afterwards, we cleaned up against the palm trees
and enjoyed the view. Unfortunately, while I was trying out my wool in the sun, Brendan was picking sea urchin spikes out of his heel as he wasn’t able to see one on a rock in the water. Fortunately, he was ok with no lasting effects. Now I
know why the herders at home make us wear water shoes!
We decided to head back to the ship and call home to talk to family. Because Puerto Rico is a US territory, we were able to have normal cell service the whole time which I loved. I could see how my sheep friends were doing!

Tuesday 5/22 “TIMBER!”
Today, we woke up early to go out onto the island to volunteer. As we were leaving, the Anthem of the Seas pulled up next to the TSES. The Anthem is over 1100 feet long which is over twice as long as our ship. It made me realize that our
training ship is really a small fish out on the high seas.
We were sent to a suburb to clean up trees from a river bank. The river had some debris in it still that needed to be cleaned as it was contamating the water and the crews had no way to get to it. After wielding a chainsaw for a while, I decided
that I do not want to be a lumberjack. The woodchips were stuck in my wool for a few days. While taking a quick snack break, I saw an iguana on a tree nearby. It was a lot bigger than me, so I decided not to go near. We were working with
students from SUNY Albany as they were staying on our ship while volunteering in Puerto Rico. After a long day of working in the sun (mostly sitting because the saws ran out of gas and we had no refills and the cleanup crew picked up the trees we
cut for them) we went back to the ship. The Anthem was pulling out as we got there, so we were once again, the larggest ship in the harbor.
We went out to dinner and because we were so tired, we went back to the ship early to get a little bit of catch-up on sleep before our last day of liberty.

Wednesday 5/23
After waiting all morning to get off the ship, we finally got the call to be piped (another word for getting liberty). While waiting for some friends who haven’t seen the castles yet, we went to Starbucks to get free WiFi. I need someway to
download my Netflix shows to watch at sea! After some time, we caught an Uber to another beach. The driver deserved a 5-star rartng with his enthusiastic dancing and signing to “Don’t Stop Believin.'” We got to the beach with it nearly empty,
and better yet, no hidden rocks with urchins! We spent the day there and went to get dinner and got a ride back to Old San Juan. It was pouring though and I had to hide in the backpack to avoid smelling baaaad the next few days. We went to a
few shops and eventually back to the ship where I heard that one of the herders (Rachel) got engaged on her trip to Iceland! Maybe I should have gone there because the heat was starting to get to me. The cold there is definitely better with my now
growing coat.

Thursday 5/24 “Back on the High Seas”
Our ship pulled out of the harbor around 0830, and thankfully so, because we were again dwarfed by a ship, the Oasis of the Seas, sister ship to the Anthem. We had class where we learned about electric motors and how the create electricity. We
also went to the EDG Room (Emergency Diesel Generator) to learn about how it works. Its a low voltage generator that keeps the essentials up if the ship blacks out such as; navigation equipment, the red emergency light around the ship, and
steering to ensure we don’t crash.
After class we went down to the engine room to start our second tracing, Lube Oil. The lube oil keeps the bearings of the propeller and turbines from overheating as well as lubricated. It’s a viscous yellow fluid that occasionally causes an
absent minded cadet to slip if left unattended on deck.
After calling it a day, I started reading “Endurance” by Scott Kelly, a SUNY Maritime graduate. It’s a book he wrote about his year in space and he credits the school with giving him some of the basic knowledge and character traits he he needed
during his mission. He even tells of his times aboard the Empire State V. (The TSESVI was brought to Maritime in 1990). It is a very good book and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.

Friday 5/25 “
It was another class day where we learned about multi-speed motors, such as simple box fans ( in the ship’s case, the Force Draft Fans that provide the air for the boiler to burn the fuel). It involves sets of wires and coils that switch from one
set to the other and the way it moves around creates different magnetic poles that rotate at different speeds depending on how many there are. I’ll have to look inside my own fan at home to see if I can figure it out better!
The afternoon brought alonng batteries. We learned about different types of batteries such as lead-acid and nickel-cadmium. Our ship has 10 lead-acid batteries in the EDG room (only 6 are used, the others are “backups” aka, the engineers were
too lazy to throw out the old dead batteries).
After more tracing and reading, we started switching our clocks. As to not mess up the watch rotation, we moved the clocks 20 minutes ahead every 4 hours so by 0200 he next day, we were fully caught up to the time change as we were heading east to
Europe.

Saturday 5/26
Today we started another watch cycle, this time 8-12 so I got some sleep first. I got to stand at the watch desk again and honestly, not much happened in the morning. In the evening though, one of the air conditioning compressors for the
original parts of the ship tripped out. The first engineer came down to add refrigerant to the system to try fixing it but unfortunately, it did not come back online so they had compressor #2 turned on. I got to fill out the log book both in the
morning and at night and I made no errors and the rest of the watch group getting their numbers were all on point. All fuel, water, and shaft revolutions were accounted for so it was a quiet watch day.

Sunday 5/27 “Sunday at Sea”
Today I stood the refrigeration watch. The chief engineer came down and was walking around the compressors for old house AC (the one that tripped) and cargo reefer (the refrigeration boxes on reefer flats). After a few minutes, he asked if I
knew what he was doing. After saying no, he told me that he was looking for any sign of which way to compressor is supposed to turn. They think maybe it was running backwards and that caused the trip out. He told me it was a silly idea but
they were running out of options. . We found the arrow showing direction of rotation and we decided that that was not the case.
One of the 3rd Engineers was checking the wires to make sure the phases weren’t switched without us knowing. That was also inconclusive so as of now, I still have no idea what caused the compressor to fail.

After watch, we got to have our first Sunday at Sea. The cooking staff brings out grills up between the covers lifeboats to cook hot dogs, burgers, and steak. It was nice not having fried food for once! Afterwards, I capped it off with a bowl
of ice cream larger than me. After helping out the chief engineer, I deserved this.

Monday 5/28
After getting off watch at 2250 (they changed the clocks overnight). I had to be up at 0530 to clean. We had to work with Utilities that day, which is basically the plumbing department. We spent the morning fixing loose showerheads in the 156
and 138 man holds. Most were reparable by replacing the O-ring that keeps the head from flopping around. In the afternoon we had a bigger project. The vents from the MSD (Marine Sanitation Device) were restricted. What that means is that the
vents from the poop tanks were not working which can cause problems. The hoses would burp out of peoples’ toilets in their holds and smell it up. The problem was with a flange up on the bridge. Rust and water got stuck in it and piled up to
restrict a 4″ pipe to 1/2″. We took the flange off and got rid of the rust while the mahinist/welding rates drilled a hole and fitted a valve to the flange to prevent the buildup of rust without removing everything again. We went back to the
shop and learned how a Flushometer works. It’s how industrial toilets work, like most ones in schools or offices that don’t have their own tanks. When the handle is pushed down, hydraulic oil dyed red flows into a chamber and a vacuum is created
where it was. The oil tries to rush through a small hole that is uncovered and once the oil is returned, the flush stops. Now I can be a plumber in my pasture at home!
There is a tracing due soon, so I started putting the ship’s lube oil system down on paper before I went off to bed.

Tuesday 5/29
Today I got to work with the Reefer/HVAC (refrigeration/heating ventilation air conditioning)rates. We were recovering from the recent compressor trip so we prepared to remove refrigerant from the compressor. We had to get 2 60 lb bottles to
recover it. When recovering refrigerant, you must put it in an EPA approved container that is grey with a yellow top. Each bottle was hooked up to a vacuum pump to pull the air out to a pressure of 30″ Hg, a near perfect vacuum. When the low
pressure bottle is hooked up to the system, the refrigerant is sucked into the tank to replace the vacuum. Before we recovered the refrigerant, first we had to get the lube oil out of the compressor to prevent sucking that into the cyclinder.
The chief engineer opened the valve to drain it and lube oil sprayed all over the place. After cleaning it up for half an hour, the first engineer came up and did the same thing causing another clean up. We finally settled on hooking it up to a
hose going into a 5- gallon bucket that we filled to the brim with the viscous yellow oil. We brought over the cylinders and hooked it up to the compressor to recover the vaporized refrigerant. After that, it was hooked up to a connection by the
receiver (that holds most of the liquid refrigerant) to pull the rest out. I will get into more details about the type of refrigerant later on when I get my Q signed off on it.

Wednesday 5/30
Today was the day of the mid term. Cruise is a 6 credit course and engineers have a mid term and final to do. We spent the morning reviewing and after afternoon formation we changed into our khaki wool uniforms (kind of insulting)
to take the exam. Afterwards, we didn’t have to wait long for grades as there were only 12 exams to grade. As it turns out, our division got the highest average grade! There was not much time for celebrating though as I had to grind out the
tracing. Hours of looking over the system in the engine room and the plant manual helped get the project done. I had to bring it to my 1/c for him to sign it and he said it was the best one he saw. Hopefully I can repeat the 95 that I got on my
steam one!

Thursday 5/31
After going down into the engine room to check one last thing on the tracing, I turned it in. Hopefully I would not get it returned to me, docking 20 points from my grade. We went to class and leanred about rotors, like the squirrel cage rotor
and wound rotor. They are the middles of motors that have current going through them that creates a magnet, and using some PFM (Pure Freaking Magic) electricity comes out! (Try saying wound rotor motor 3 times fast, the instructor cannot)
The seas today we’re very calm. It was a glossy surface marred by the wake of our ship and the occasional jellyfish floating by. The weird part was that we were experiencing heavy rolling. There were slight rolls on the water that would push
our ship enough to really move it. Some people almost fell over during formation.
In the afternoon class, we worked some transformers to show how current gets across them by measuring the voltage in and out of it as well as the resistance. Then we learned about transformer construction such as the ones on your telephone pole
outside. They are wound wires that carry current around a metal box that transfers it to another coil with either more or less turns in the wire. The drop or rise (stepping down and stepping up) causes the voltage to step up or down. That’s
how the power lines with large amounts of voltage are able to power your hairdryer or lights.
Every morning, the division on class must clean the hold and in the morning we cleaned and got no word on weather or not we passed. So we went back to it in the evening and after waiting 15 minutes for the lieutenant to inspect, we found out we
passed that morning meaning we didn’t have to clean. Too bad I got all that dust in my wool for nothing.

Friday 6/1
Today was a work day with the Water rates. We had to make sure the the strainers for the MSD tank are clean. As you can imagine, it’s not a pretty job. Seeing the food on the ship when you eat it is bad enough. We were supposed to scouer the
tanks today which means that we blow air into the bottom on the tanks to get all of the compacted waste out, skip the filtering process, and have it go straight to the strainers. They must be dumped out and cleaned at least 10 times…. it is the
worst work day to have on he entire ship, but the engineers decided to do it the next day which meant I dodged a bullet! What that meant for me is bed time all day! I got 6 hours of naps in and it was wonderful!

Saturday 6/2
Today’s work day was with the machine/welding rates. They are reaprespons for any metalworking projects on the ship and that’s just what we did all day. We cut bent iron and welded it together into a square to make a shelf with a replacable
bottom in the morning. The afternoon was slow but towards the end, a carpenter reqiested some mounts for the wall to hold boards of wood and I was put in charge of that. I got a piece of metal, used a wire whell to remove the rust (after
scraping off the random pieve of gum), cut the pieces to length, and as I was preparing to bend them into shape and drill the holes for the screws, we had to clean up as the day was over. A boat drill earlier in the day severly cut into the work
time. The only advantage was that I saw a turtle in the water and a bird landed next to me as it was too exhausted to keep flying. Later in the day, while watching the sunset, a pod of dolphins started leaping outleaking out of the water and
started riding the bow of the ship. If it wasn’t so chilly the last few days, I would have jumped in and joined them. It would have been a bad idea though because I don’t want to get my wool too waterlogged.

We arrived in Chiang Mai late in the day Saturday and took a red taxi to Center City Chuang Mai. The red taxis are pretty much like our Ford Ranger with two benches in the back that fits a maximum of 10 people if you squish. We were staying in the old city which is surrounded by walls and a mote. The in the guesthouse we stayed in  was decent but kind of quirky. We dropped our stuff and headed out to the Saturday night markets just outside the walled City. We had heard lots about them but were completely unprepared for the vast size of it. 

We started to walk down one side of a street thinking we would see the stalls on the other side of the street on our way back but we soon found that the market was too big to even cover in one evening. There were stalls lining both sides of the street and every so often a musical performer would be in the center of the street. Sometimes there blind musicians or a child with a amped microphone singing and playing an instrument. 

There was plenty of cheap street food to be had so we had our dinner there. The next morning we got up early to head out to find a Catholic Mass. We got a tuk-tuk ride to about 20 minutes outside of the walled City and found a Jesuit retreat center called Seven Fountains. There was a mass in English at 9:30 which we attended. 

There were a few things we noticed that were different than what we do back in the States. They take their shoes off and leave them outside before entering as is a traditional Thai custom. During the sign of Peace instead of giving a handshake which would be customary in the United States, everyone gave a traditional Thai greeting of a small head bow with folded hands to the people around them. We left the church service and looked at the rabbits running around the grounds before heading out for our adventures for the day.

 We decided to rent a scooter to take us up into the mountains. This may seem like no big deal except that there seem to be rules for driving but they are mere suggestions. 

Nevermind the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road. Rachel was my copilot and her job was to constantly tell me stay to the left, stay at the left. We rode for about an hour up into the National Park which had about 10 waterfalls. We managed to get there without getting killed or smeared on the road. We bought some lunch from some food stands that were set up in the perking lot. 

We hiked up to one of the waterfalls and sat and had some lunch. It was a nice day and it was good to see some of the vegetation and watch how the locals interactive. 

The cost of renting the scooter was $8 which was cheaper than getting a taxi to drive us around. We headed out once again to see another walking night market that happens on Sunday evenings. This one was even bigger than the one the night before. Well at least that’s what we understood because we couldn’t see all of it. It was certainly more crowded and the locals know how to push their way through the crowds better than the foreigners. Again, we had some food in the market. It seems to be the most inexpensive but most flavorful way to eat meals. We understand that many locals don’t even cook for themselves rather they eat at the markets. We got up early the next day and had breakfast at the guest house. Their food for breakfast was really good. We could either get an array of American breakfast foods like ham, eggs, bacon, hash browns, cereal. But we chose to have a traditional Thai breakfast which is a soup of rice and you can have chicken, pork, or tofu added to it. It seems that they must sear their tofu because it is a bit of a meat texture to it. 

We got picked up at 8am by a shuttle to take us to the Elephant Nature Park. This is the trip that Rachel and I had booked back in November and the spaces had quickly filled up. As we were driving up there they showed us a video of the work that they do at Elephant Nature Park. They rescue elephants from abusive situations. Some of them have been in logging camps and their feet were damaged by a land mine, others had been mentally abused in circus acts or street performances. One was actually hit by a car in Bangkok while doing street begging. They also have a few hundred dogs and cats that they rescued from the tsunami that happened in 2008 as well as ox and water buffalo. 

First order of business was to feed the elephants. 

There was a large laundry basket of peeled watermelons that we picked up and handed over a fence to the elephants, placed it in their  trunk. They wrapped there trunk around it and put it into their mouth. The elephants would stand there as long as they thought there was food. We then walked out into the field to go see a group of elephants. 

They form social groups since they are very social like humans. Our guide, May, told us to stay near her and to listen if she told us to run. There was one younger elephant that was in her words crazy. 

He was apparently spoiled has a little one and, as a result, didn’t listen well. There’s one mahout, or elephant trainer, who stays close by him regularly and the elephant will listen to him.  So if the elephant gets too close to people, he will steer him in another direction. We stood under a large thatched roof umbrella and were able to get some amazing pictures next to the elephants. 

We pet their trunk and gave them more cucumbers out of our hand. They are gentle giants since they have been trained to be around humans. We returned to the base to have a fantastic spread of a buffet lunch. There was more food choices then we were able to try. This was a great opportunity talk and spend some time with some of the other people in our tour. There were couples from New Zealand and Spain, Brazil and Canada. We enjoyed speaking with May, who has a lively personality, about life in Thailand. After lunch we walked out into the field to see some more of the elephants. 

There are a couple of herds within elephant Nature Park. The elephants can either form friendships between two or three of them, or they can join a heard. Some of them like to be solitairy but that’s the exception. Our final treat was to accompany the elephants in the water and wash them off. I think this is something that the elephants can do themselves but since we’re paying to go there they let us wash them off.

It was a sleepy ride back to Chiang Mai but we were able to re-energize for an evening of walking around the walled City. After eating we headed off to Wat Phra Singh which is one of the most revered temples. It has a sanctuary with the famous Buddha image know as Phra Singh. It came to Thailand from Sri Lanka and was enshrined in the year 1367.
The chapel that enshrined the Buddha has a gilded  Naga (mythical serpent) gables and lai-krahm (gold patterned stenciling) inside.

Well, that was certainly enough excitement for one day. There’s one more day of stories to tell and there’s more exciting stories!

So I left off the last post with the monkeys. …We went into Diamond cave which was a short 10-minute tour of a limestone cave with stalactites and a whole family of bats up in the ceiling. There was a suspended walkway that went through the cave which had some really deteriorated reinforced concrete “railroad ties” as cross members that were very concerning to me but we made it through. We took the long tail boat back to Ao Nang and as we walked the 15 minutes walk back to our hostel, we stopped by a street vendor to get food. Kiosks are set up just pop up tents and families cooking meals. We had spring rolls was some great dipping sauce along with our dinner.

Thursday morning we woke up and cooked some eggs at the hostel and ate in the communal gathering area. We set out and took a long tail boat to Phrang Nang Cave Beach. 

We figured we’d try another area of Railay peninsula. This beach was much narrower and more crowded and densely packed with people then the more spread-out area of Railay Beach.

 Here was the funny part. Rachel and I were in the water swimming and, in a tree, we see a monkey come walking along a branch that a man was leaning along. It was like watching in slow motion where we wanted to tell the guy to run but the monkey came and walked right past him and brushed his arm. 
We laughed so hard watching this guy jumped out of his skin on the monkey walked past him onto the beach. Well that was just the beginning of the monkeys invading the beach. 

All those people there with all of their food and no garbage cans to be found anywhere (no garbage cans seems to be typical of Thailand). You can imagine what was happening. Monkeys were stealing peoples bags and ripping food out of peoples hands. We were concerned about leaving our bags since they might just take our stuff and walk off. One monkey actually walked across are towels as we stood next to it. 

Phrang Nang Beach can’t be accessed by road  so we decided to walk to Railay Beach where there was more beach and less monkeys.
 We walked along some of the same paths we had walked along the day before but this time we shopped, 

ate and stopped to have a drink at a tiki hut bar that had some casual low tables that you sat on the floor next to and reclined on these triangular Thai cushions. 

It was really kind of beachy in a jungle sort of way. 

After our long tail boat ride back, our plan was to get a massage on our way back to the guesthouse. Every place is about the same price and offers the same services. There’s tons of them along the tourists strip. In the end, we each paid $10 for a 1 hour massage. You can’t beat that. 

We enjoyed dinner afterward at a garage restaurant right next to our guest house that we are staying at. I had a coconut soup which was really good but I couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to eat some of the more fiberous vegetables in it. 

I ended up leaving them behind but it was really good.

The next morning, we got up and had a similar breakfast and waited for our tour company to pick us up for a boat tour of five islands. The company picked us up and drove us to Krabi while picking other passengers up along the way. It was a really sketchy beat up old thing! 

We got on the long tail boat with about 20 other people and set out to see some of the islands by boat. 

We made our first stop near chicken Island and jumped off the boat with snorkel and mask to see the fish 

We are happy to say that Rachel got over her irrational fear of fish and actually stuck her goggles in the water to look at the fish that was swimming all around her. 

Some of the other stops included islands that we could just walk around on and another Island where we sat and they served us lunch. It was similar to our family trip down the Colorado River where they pulled everything out of the raft and served us. We had a green curry chicken dish and a vegetarian sweet and sour over rice. 

No paper utensils were used. It was all plates and spoons that they take back and wash at the end of the day. It seems that all the tour companies do this. In fact we saw some people picnicinh at other stops along this trip and we noticed the same thing. That families would bring plastic plates and metal utensils with them rather than disposable plastic and paper. And not to hop on the monkey stories but there is yet another one. 

We were standing on a beach in one of the islands that was a National Park. A family was standing there and the mom was carrying two plastic bags which lookedlike they had childrens’ toys in them. The monkey came up to the woman and grabbed the bag out of her hand and started to rip it open. The mom went over to the monkey to take the bag back, let the monkey have the bread that was in the bottom and take the sand toys back for her children. The funniest part was the little girl, who was maybe 3 years old, grabbed the other bag from her mom’s hand and held it up in the air so that the monkey couldn’t get it. I guess she really wanted those toys. We enjoyed ourselves snorkeling and taking naps on the beach throughout our tour. The boat rides were enjoyable and we met some other people traveling from other parts of the world as well. 

Or last stop on our boat tour was Phrang Nang Beach which was the same one that we had seen the previous day and spent little time there because the monkeys were walking across our towels. We decided to walk down to the other end of the beach and see what we had not seen the day before. We were happy we did because there were a bunch of long tail boats pulled up to the shore and anchored. They were serving food out of them it was like the food trucks at Rutgers except that they were boats on the water. 

After getting dropped off from our boat tour, cleaned ourselves up and grabbed bus out to Krabi. These buses are rather interesting they are about the size of our Ford Ranger pickup truck except that there are two benches along the sides and a cap over the top. It cost about $1 to make the half hour trip from Hunan took Robbie. We wanted to check out the night market which we had heard was really neat. It was a short lived trip since after we were there about 20 minutes, the skies opened up and the rain poured down. We managed to duck into a restaurant to get some dinner for ourselves. Rachel wanted to try tom yum but was disappointed that it was so spicy. We have learned to ask if food is spicy. Because it’s not like it’s food that maybe we could manage to eat. When the Thai say spicy, we know it means thats its literally too hot for us to eat. 

Our plan for our last day in Ao Nang was to get up early and head to the beach. Unfortunately, when we woke up it was raining and we were unable to to stick to our original plans. But it was okay because we ended up hanging around the guesthouse common area and enjoying a little bit of downtime. We walked across the street and had lunch in a restaurant while waiting for our ride to the airport. While we were eating lunch we heard the call to prayer from the local mosque. We noticed that there is a higher Muslim population in Krabi whereas there was a higher Buddhist population in Bangkok. I think if I recall correctly there or about 95% of the population in Thailand is Buddhist and 3% are Muslim the rest are Christians.

We set off around 4 o’clock in the afternoon for our next destination: Chiang Mai. That will be the next post.

We got up at 4 am on Wednesday to catch a 7am flight out of Bangkok. We flew our cheap $38 flight on Thai Smiles airline. It was probably the best flight we’ve ever taken. The seats were roomy, staff was friendly. They even served us a meal on the hour and 20 minute flight. 

We arrived by an airport bus at Glur Hostel in thr beach resort town of Ao Nang in the Krabi Province by 10am and we’re able to check into our room. It is a really neat place. A couple of architects designed a hostel using shipping containers. 

The use of space is really creative and the grounds are nicely taken care of. We have our own room with a large private bathroom, a TV and dvd player. 

There is a coin laundry machine for our use as well as a pool. The common area is an outdoor covered area with tables, hammocks, dvd and book lending library, and a kitchen where they offer toast and tea for breakfast and utensils for cooking something more elaborate if you choose. We bought some eggs to cook for ourselves. Between the two of us, we’ve stayed in many hostels all over and have never stayed at one like this. Simply fantastic.

We changed into our bathing suits and headed out for a 15 minute walk to the beach. We bought tickets for a long tail boat to the get us to another beach, Railay beach that we heard about. The wooden boats can hold 8 people on benches. The driver stands at the back working a motor that has a 20ft shaft with a propeller on the end. He moves that long shafts to steer the boat. These guys are talented and very hardworking (as is everyone else in this country). 

The 15 minute ride to West Railay beach was really neat. The high limestone content creates amazing karst topography that makes this area so desirable for caving and rock climbing. 

The area is a vacation destination so there were people from all over the world. The only Thai people are the ones working. We sat on the white Sandy beach and swam in the warm blue water for a good part of the afternoon. Even Ewey tried out the water. 

We walked down the beach to find bathrooms and found a path that looked worth exploring. It turns out that there are no road to West Railay beach, only walking paths. The path is lined with “roadside” food stands, tiki hut bars, trinket shops, tour operators, and massage places. there are no doors on any “buildings.” It was on a more quiet area of this path that we ran into our first group of monkeys. I was so intrigued in taking a picture of some low hanging electrical wires that we had to duck under that I didn’t even notice the first monkey not 15′ away from us on a wire next to the path. 

As we rounded the bend we were stunned to see 15 or more swinging from branches, climbing poles, and eating any garbage laying around. It felt like we were at the zoo except we were in the cage. We walked past this same area a few times and dubbed it monkey alley. 

I’ll post for now but I have more to pictures and adventures to share.

What a day! We met up with Rachel’s friend Magna from UNH. She is here visiting her boyfriend who works for the UN in Bangkok. We walked around with her for a little bit before going off to do our own thing. We walked through one if the local universities just to see some local sites.  We also walked through a facinating amulat market where they were selling little trinkets for good luck. Although we weren’t sure if we bought one if it might bring us bad luck. We had a dry version of grapefruit. Magna tells us that it grapefruits were actually a cross between an orange and this fruit. I wish I could remember the name. It was very tasty. As we were walking around the streets we went past the Grand Palace near the temple that contains the emerald Buddha. There were thousands of Thai nationals dressed in black for the yearlong mourning of the passing of their beloved King Rama IX. 

Since the grand Palace is on the same grounds as the temple of the Emerald Buddha, it was overcrowded and very chaotic so we decided to go to Wat Pho. It was a really great experience. We saw the reclining Buddha which I can’t think of how big it is but it’s quite impressive. 

The bottom of his feet have in laid mother of pearl. 

As we walked around the grounds we heard some chanting coming from another temple and when we entered we saw a large group of monk chanting as they were sitting in the meditate of position. So we sat on the floor to listen to what was going on. 

We are pretty strict on clothing in Buddhist temple. For instance women must be covered over their arms and all the way down to their ankles. Shoes must be removed and when you sit on the floor you must put your feet behind you. 

There were long hall ways of Golden Buddhas in the cortyard surrounding the temple. 

As we left Wat Pho, we tried to find Chinatown but were unsuccessful. We did pass through the flower market that was getting an evening delivery of flowers. It was a warehouse of chaos of flowers and flowers and flowers everywhere. There were women sitting down weaving the flowers into prayer necklaces to adorn various Buddhist alters and people wrapping up the bouquets for delivery. Entire familys were sitting out on the streets taking part in helping with the family business. At this point it’s getting late we’re hungry and we need to find something to eat. Since we couldn’t find Chinatown, we decided to try and get a tuk-tuk taxi to take us back to the train station to get us back to our hotel. That was quite an adventure. Our tuk-tuk driver who gave us a ride back to the station was really a character. 

He was drag racing with another tuk-tuk driver who wanted no part of it. And then was trying to pass over four lanes of Bangkok traffic to get to where we needed to go. Rachel thought it was quite hysterical. Marie on the other hand was a little nervous. All the while he was playing the Hangover soundtrack! 

We woke for breakfast and managed to get to the hotel lobby by 9:30 before they put the food away. There was some western foods that one would expect to find like toast, small pancakes and eggs. There was also smashed potatoes, fried rice, fried noodles, a spicy vegetable soup, and fried vegetables. We both had tea and what we think was mango juice.

We asked the front desk to help us get a taxi to the nearby Air Link train. It connects the airport to the more downtown portion of Bangkok. The trick with the cab drivers is to make sure they put it on “meter”. Otherwise they will charge you whatever they want. It was 60BT ($0.60) for the trip. We then took the train to our first site of the day. 

We visited the Jim Thompson Museum. He was an architect from DE who loved Thailand after having been stationed in Bangkok as an officer following WWII. He build built a beautiful home on one of the canals and revived the cottage industry of silk weaving. He went missing on a short walk during a vacation in Malaysia. The Thai government has since turned his home into a museum. 

We then walked a short distance to The Siam center. It’s a four-story mall but nothing like an American Mall. Before we entered, we found an Open Air Market outside that had some really great food and some neat vendors.  We had  sticky mango rice  and a watermelon shake. 

Entering the mall, we had to go through a security check: metal detectors and a guard.  The mall had one or two anchors but the rest of it was more or less small independently-owned stalls. 

Our next adventure was to get on a long tail boat on one of the canals. 

OSHA and American lawyers would never allow this kind of transportation in the US. To get on, you grabbed on to some rope and leaped from the pier onto the boat. A crazy woman wearing a helmet then collect your money as the boat was speeding away. It was more Disney ride than transportation. We crossed that off our bucket list! 

After disembarking from the boat, we came across our first temple: Wat  Ratchanatdaram.  It was built for Rama III in the 1840s. We took our shoes off and threw on something to cover our arms.

We sat on the floor with our legs tucked behind us. Feet are dirty and should never be pointed toward Buddha. There were two monks on a large platform on the side wall. One was performing some blessings on people with water on people who approached. The other was speaking and his speech was broadcast outside as well. Both were wearing orange monk robes and had shaved heads. 

We then climbed the stairs in the building behind the temple and had a great view of the area from the 4th floor.

We walked up to Khao San. The road is closed off so tourists can walk freely. It was like the Jersey Shore of Bangkok. There were bars, street food vendors, tattoo places, music, cheesy souvenirs, and sidewalk massage businesses. We got some pad thai from a vendor and ate our dinner while watching the crazy sites. We followed that up with some coconut ice cream served out of a fresh coconut. 

Thailand is still in mourning over the death of their king this past fall. The signs of their year long mourning are everywhere. Black as white bunting, huge framed portraits with flowers and memorials, billboards with his picture and people wearing black. 

We got to take a tuk-tuk back to the train station. We learned that you need to haggle for everything and these small car/ large scooters are part of that. Between that and the long tail boats, we exceeded our expectation for the day! 

We ended with a dip in the hotel pool to cool off and relax our aching feet and get ready for another day.