Krabi, Thailand - A visit to Paradise

(This post is out of order. It's from our time in Thailand, mid March)

We said goodbye to our host family in Ban Song and boarded a bus to Krabi for a two-hour ride.  When we first arrived in Krabi Town, we weren't quite sure about the claims we had heard about it being one of the most beautiful places in the world - it really didn't seem that much different than some of the other places we'd seen.  We wanted to explore the area a bit to find a good place to stay so we hadn't booked any lodging yet.  So for one night,  we checked into an inexpensive hostel and rented a scooter to begin our exploration of the region.  Not more than 10 minutes out of town, we started to discover the beauty of the area and agree with the claims of paradise!  The mountains were spectacular formations covered in tropical foliage rising up from the sea.  We drove along winding roads and canyons and eventually ended up on Ao Nang Beach.  There we found some beautiful beachfront and a lively boardwalk area and decided to splurge a bit and treat ourselves to a luxury resort hotel right along the beach for about US $50/night.  Our first day there we just relaxed by the pool and soaked up some rays before heading out for a late evening dinner and a nightcap at a reggae pub with a live band playing.

Get into Reggae Cowboy :)

The next morning, I connected with a small group of climbers, rented some climbing gear, and boarded a longboat for a short ride to Railay Bay for a day of climbing some challenging routes.  The mountains around Railay Bay offered some world-class climbing which tested my ability.  I had claimed to be an "intermediate" level climber and, although I completed all but one of my route attempts, I can honestly say that I could not have done any of them without a belay.  The climbing routes offered numerous "problems" as they are called in the climbing world.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of my fellow climbers who were from Austria and Australia, but enjoyed their company and help in overcoming the obstacles.

The stalactite moved a bit when you used it for balance - hope in never breaks and falls on the belayer below!

Taking a well deserved rest

This is an official rock climbing technique called "using your head"

As I said above, I completed all but one of the routes I attempted - good thing I was being belayed on this one!

I wanted to share the beauty of the place with Brenda so that evening we hired a longboard boat and took the short ride from Ao Nang to Railay Bay.  We hiked for a short time around the bay before watching the sunset. Before the end of the evening, we found ourselves sitting on the beach appreciating the beauty of the night sky and the company of the other travelers.  We watched a fire juggler who wanted to teach his skills to his observers, so I gave it a go.  My moves weren't as impressive as the pro's, but I did manage to keep control of the baton without setting fire to myself or anyone else :)

Railay Bay

Sunset at Railay Bay

Val juggling fire at Railay Bay

The next morning we came upon Monkey Trail during our morning run.  The trail runs through the jungle up and over the side of a mountain and is actually the only way (other than by boat) to get to an exclusive resort area in a secluded bay.  Monkey Trail is the official name of the trail and we can attest that it was appropriately named - take a look at the photos below.  The monkeys were not shy at all and one particular fellow even got so bold as to take Brenda's prescription sunglasses right off her face and run off with them!!!  Although we first thought it kind of funny, we soon started to get worried this pesky little creature would refuse to give them back.  Finally, we determined that we needed to speak to him in his language and asked nicely for him to return the glasses.  Then, fortunately, a woman who'd been playing with the monkeys a few minutes before, helped us negotiate a swap with the little fellow - Brenda's glasses in exchange for a banana. Brilliant!

Aww - How Sweet!

Sharing intelligent conversation with my kin

Brenda was a bit scared at first

Then she thought it was kind of funny

After returning from our "Monkey Run", we took a day trip to the Phi Phi Islands in the Andaman Sea about an hour off the coast of Krabi.  We stopped at several islands and coves along the way and went snorkeling in some of the clearest water we've ever seen.  We thought Ao Nang Beach and Railay Bay were a couple of the most beautiful places we'd ever seen until we got to Phi Phi where the movie "The Beach" was filmed.  Spectacular!!! We'll let the pictures below explain the details:

The cove where we went snorkeling

The most beautiful clear water we've ever seen

Some interesting tree roots

Phi Phi Island where "The Beach" was filmed

Thought this natural rock formation looked like an eagle in flight

This is Chicken Island - The Thais pretty much call them as they see them :)

Returning to Ao Nang Beach from our day trip to Phi Phi

One of the nice things about being on an extended vacation is having the ability to adjust our schedule as we wanted and we liked the Krabi region so much that we decided to extend our stay for another day.  So, on our last day in Krabi, we set off on our rented scooter to see a national park about an hour inland from the coast.  Along the route we passed through some beautiful Thai villages.  We found out that we could buy a pretty nice new residence for less than $30k - something to consider.

The real reason for our adventure, though, was to hike through the jungle and visit some waterfalls.  I believe Brenda has already mentioned a couple of times how HOT it was in Thailand but the coastal breezes actually kept things pretty cool in comparison to the inland jungle!  Although the waterfalls were beautiful, the hike was steep and challenging in the heat and we soon learned why not many Thai folks exercise.  The slightest bit of strenuous activity made us sweat buckets.  We finished the six-mile hike and enjoyed the scenery but were pretty happy to get back on the scooter to generate a 35mph breeze to cool us off!  We capped our day with the most delicious dinner at a locals place a bit off the beaten path for a cost of about $1.50.

Between the beauty of the region and the extremely reasonable cost of lodging, scooter rental, meals, and activities we've determined that we'll probably return to Krabi (and other parts of Thailand) at some time in our future.

Another beautiful spot somewhere near Krabi, Thailand

Home

Thursday morning, April 26, 5:00 am.  Yikes.  We hadn't been up that early since Thailand. Our flight was at 8:45 and we needed to be at the metro stop, which was just a few blocks away, by 6:10.  Everything went according to plan and we said good by to Barcelona, Spain and our grand adventure right on time.

We decided in order to get our internal clocks adjusted quickly that we'd sleep on the first flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf but try to stay awake during the flight from Dusseldorf to NYC and then to Denver.  Two things happened on the way home that made me think of lessons learned on the trip.  There will be more, I'm sure, but these stood out for me today.   One was how much we counted on people to help us navigate airports, bus and train stations and the metro.  And most everywhere we went, people did help and that made the impression we had of their country even more positive. So, in New York when we noticed an Indian woman woman trying to find which terminal to go to for her Delta flight, we paid the kindness back and helped her like so many others had helped us.  Another happened at Customs in NY.  We'd been away for two months and it was good to be back in our own country. We approached the customs desk.  There was a woman frantically looking through her carry on baggage for her declaration slip. The agent in front of us shouted very pointedly to the rest of the us standing in line, "Please remember to get out your paperwork BEFORE you get to the counter." Nice that she thought to say "please" although her tone of voice negated any politeness she was going for. I wasn't sure if she was helping or supervising so I asked her if she was open.  She said, "I am neither 'open' nor 'closed.'  I am not a minimart." in the snippiest tone of voice possible.  This is the kind of welcome visitors and U.S. citizens get? I asked her for her name and grabbed a comment card on our way out.

A friendly smile, a kind word, a welcoming tone can make all the difference.  I won't dwell on that woman, though, instead I'll remember the man checking passports at immigration  New York who said to us as he checked ours, "Welcome home."

Fútbol (Val)

Although some of our nieces and nephews have keen interests and athletic abilities in soccer and, although we have seen some of their games and a few international games, our visit to Spain may be the beginning of a new favorite pastime for both of us.  Soccer - as we call it or fútbol, as the rest of the world calls it - is almost a religion among Spaniards and most of our other international friends.  We chatted a lot about fútbol when we stayed with Stu and Susie.  Stu is a scout for the South Hampton English team and goes to matches several times a week trying to entice some of the Spaniards to join the English team.  Stu commented that the Spaniards seem to play the game more collaboratively and strategically than some other teams.

As the fútbol season is in the semi finals, you can imagine the excitement in the pubs when the matches were on.  First, we watched Barcelona play Chelsea, England one evening in Roses.  When in Barcelona, we watched 3 more matches- Barcelona vs Madrid, another Barcelona vs Chelsea, and finally a Madrid vs Bayern, Munich.  I kind of adopted Barcelona as my team of choice but, sadly, watched them fall to their opponents for 3/3 matches.  We especially enjoyed the energy in the pubs and noticed that people aren't necessarily loyal to their home city team.  In particular, we watched the 2nd Barcelona vs Chelsea match at a "locals" English pub in Barcelona.  It was really a fun experience!  Pints in hand, we tipped our glasses and cheered for the successes of our adopted Barcelona team but some of the Spanish-speaking locals were actually rooting for Chelsea.  It was really fun experience.  English and Spanish friends speaking in both languages (or a combination thereof) cheering successes, discussing strategies, and occasionally cursing - pretty much the same scene as you might experience watching a Broncos vs Green Bay game at Tony's (a Packers Pub) in downtown Colorado Springs :).  

We're not sure yet if allegiance for Barcelona is temporary or permanent  - we may need to watch a few more teams play before we decide but one thing is pretty certain - we will be tuning into a few more fútbol matches or heading to the pub to watch them and participate in the excitement!

Watching Barcelona vs Chelsea at an English Pub in Barcelona

Festival in Barcelona (Val)

Before we got to Barcelona on Saturday April 21st, we heard from our hosts Alan and  Mercer that the weekend we were there would be full of festivity but we had no idea what we were in for!

First of all, there was the Barcelona vs Madrid fútbol match on Saturday night.  Alan and Mercer reserved a table at a nearby pub where we began to get acquainted and watched the match.  Excitement was high as Barcelona would have a chance at the finals if they won the match but, unfortunately, Madrid claimed the spot with a 1-0 win.   Alan and Mercer lived in a suburban community about 20 minutes away from the city center called Hospitalet Llobregat.  There was a Spring Festival in progress all weekend with lots of activities including parades, carnival rides, arts, crafts, food vendors and, to our amazement, at least two hundred woman making lace. These ladies sat at long tables that stretched for nearly two city blocks. There was one woman who had to be in her eighties (see photo below, the lady in the red sweater) and one we saw who might have been 13 or so, learning the art of lace making.

The spring festival in Hospitalet Llobregat ended on Sunday evening with a parade of drumming battalions and a 2-1/2 hour long non-stop fireworks show with people dancing under a spray of continuous spinning spark canopies followed by what seemed like at least five "grand finales" each more elaborate and grander than the next.

Proud Father of Son who had just danced under the Fireworks

The fireworks display that evening was the grandest we've ever seen.  We thought Spain was undergoing some financial difficulties but the fireworks display that evening alone must have cost millions!

On Monday, although an official workday, the residents of Barcelona were still celebrating. February 23rd is the Catalonian equivalent of our Valentines Day known by Northern Spaniards as "La Diadi de Sant Jordi" or (less formally) the "day of books and roses".  Apparently the origin of the day has something to do with a legend of the Patron Saint of Catalonia, Saint George, who allegedly slew a dragon about to devour a beautiful princess.  From the dragon's blood sprouted a rosebush from which the hero plucked the prettiest rose for the princess - hence the beginning of the traditional annual rose festival to honor chivalry and romantic love.  In 1923, the lover's fest merged with International Book Day which marks the simultaneous deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare. Now, they celebrate the "day of books and roses."  On this day,  all men give roses to their lovely ladies and all women give a book to their man so you can imagine that there were book and rose vendors all over the city capitalizing on the day just like American Vendors do for Valentines day.  There was one major exception - the Rambla (pathway from city center to the coast) became a mecca of booksellers, authors, florists and thousands of people strolling the Rambla to take it all in.

Our host, Alan, an author himself, had a booth along the Rambla promoting some of his literary works about the Spanish Civil War.   Even in Spain, the guys have it easier than the women since all that's required of them is to give a rose but women are challenged with the task of selecting a book that their man would enjoy from thousands of options.

So basically, we've come to the conclusion that Spaniards will find just about any reason to celebrate just about anything and may even invent a story or merge a couple of events to justify their celebrations.

Us at the Rambla in Barcelona celebrating the Day of Books and Roses

The Spanish Coast

The time we spent along the coast after we left Màlaga turned out to be a study in flexibility and moving to Plans B, C and beyond.  We didn't have this leg of the trip planned out to the level of detail the first 5-6 weeks had been.  We had a rough schedule but intended to firm up details as we went.

The first change in plans came when I thought I booked a hotel in Almeria town, when I really booked one in the town of Roquetas del Mar in the province of Almeria.  Val wrote about that in an earlier post. After that night we decided that we really didn't like that area and we wanted to  move on.  So we cancelled our plans in Alicante and drove up the coast.  As we were driving, we saw this intriguing sight.  There was one town that had an inordinate number of high rises for the size of town it was.  What was the deal with all those 10 to 20-story buildings, we wondered. So we took the next exit to investigate.  That's how we found the seaside town of Benidorm. We drove around on narrow side streets and decided we'd find a cafe with wifi and do some quick online research to find a place to stay there. Well, once we were online looking at the million options for lodging in that small resort town (how hard could it be to find a place to stay, right?  Except that we wanted the perfect place for the least amount of money so we kept looking at "just one more listing" and just ended up confused!), two hours went by.

Two hours later (if you want to see steam come out of Val's ears bring up how much time we wasted on a couple occasions spending time on the iPad looking for lodging), we walked to our car and found an invitation from the local Benidorm police to donate 90 euros to their You-weren't-suppose-to-park-here Fund.  That did not set well with a certain driver who shall remain nameless.  So, we got in the car and headed out to find the hotel we finally landed on after two hours of searching. And couldn't find it.  The GPS just wasn't helping. Frustrated and tired, we found a (valid) parking place and set off on foot to find this darn hotel.  As we walked past this nice place just a half a block off the beach, I said let's see how much this place is. Knowing it was outside our budget, but hoping anyway, we walked in and asked "What is your best price for two weary travelers?"  The front desk clerk gave us a pretty good price, but still outside the amount we'd planned for.  So we left. Got halfway down the block and turned around to go back. We decided to treat ourselves.  In the grand scheme of things would the 30-euro difference really matter?  And then that wonderful desk clerk went one better - she gave us a 6th floor room with an ocean view! Fabulous!  We went to sleep that night with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

Along the boardwalk at Benidorm; artists spend a week or more shoveling sand and building - in this case - an actual sand castle.  All for spare euros that passersby toss into their tip jars.

Some of the high rises that intrigued us enough to take that exit to Benidorm.  This resort town has the most high rise buildings per capita in the world. The population is only about 72,000 but the skyline is such that people call it the "Manhattan of Spain."

We walked along the coastline on this concrete path.

Photo of shoreline #107 - it seemed we couldn't take enough pictures, trying to ensure we would be able to remember just how beautiful it was.

Another piece of good news was that we found out the parking ticket was unenforceable, given out by the local "parking police" with  no real jurisdiction.   Just ignore it, we were told (we'll let you know how that one turns out). We had the best experiences as we stayed along the coast.  We were going to spend four days in a town south of Barcelona called Sitges, but we spent one night there and decided we weren't impressed. So we actually drove past Barcelona and spent four days in a small resort village called Roses north of the city. This is a wonderful place! It's only about 15 miles from France so there was as much French spoken as Spanish.  And most everyone spoke English.  We found a good hotel across from the beach and really enjoyed our morning runs along the boardwalk.  The price for the hotel included  a nice breakfast so we felt like we got our money's worth.  Especially when I discreetly placed some extra fruit, ham and cheese into my day pack.  We bought a loaf of bread and made yummy sandwiches to take with us each day.  We had such a good time.  There was a lot to do in the area so we planned out what we wanted to do when and set out.

One day we drove to Cadeques, a quaint, picturesque fishing village that Salvador Dali used to spend time in and then a short drive to Port lligat to tour Dali's house.  We got to the entrance to the house only to find out when we got there that we needed to reserve space on the tour.  So, we regrouped and decided that instead we'd drive to Figueros to go the the Dali museum and come back on Saturday to tour the house.  Then we'd head to the Barcelona airport to return our rental car and take the train and metro to our host's home.

Cadeques - Sometimes only the panoramic shot could capture the beauty.

The view from an old building turned into a restaurant, adjacent to the Dali house and museum.  Not a bad place to wait to learn if there had been any cancellations and we could take the tour that day or if we'd have to make reservations and come back that Saturday.  As it turned out, we had to come back. Not a problem.

We also did an easy hike around Roses.  The 10-mile route took us through neighborhoods with costal villas that we dreamed about living in, through a national park, on a road that wound around farmland and vineyards, to a trail that brought us to a pasture with cattle grazing high on a hillside overlooking the mountains and the sea.  Honest to Pete, I don't think I've ever seen a place more beautiful. We could've stayed a week in Roses, but on Saturday we spent our last day there walking through their annual Festival of Roses, a fun market with crafts, jewelry, good eats and beautiful roses, of course,  before we drove back to Dali's house, and then on to Barcelona.

A beautiful day for a hike. 

A local vineyard. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to tour a winery, just enjoyed the products and the views!

Just can't get more peaceful than this.  The bulls were off to the right of this group of cows and while they meandered over our way to see what we were up to as we walked through on the trail, they kept their distance.  Me, too - from them!

The number of stone fences we saw all over Spain was incredible. To realize that each stone in the literally miles and miles of fences were placed there by hand over the centuries was impressive.

One of the rooms in Dali's house.  The swans you see are Dali's swans which he had stuffed and mounted when they died.  The tour guide said he loved the swans, which swam in the sea and in his pool.  There was also a huge stuffed bear in the entry way - a place to hang one's hat, I guess.

A view from Dali's courtyard.

A part of the swimming pool at the back of the house.

It was at this point in the trip that we started to count down the days.  Just six days from today, we said, we have to leave to go home.  I started to make room for thoughts of family, and Buddy. :).  I think I didn't let myself think of what we'd left behind during the seven weeks we'd been gone and to my surprise didn't experience any homesickness like I thought I would.  And of course it helped that we spoke to Dick and my mom every once in awhile and  emailed them more often.  Now, thoughts of them, of work, of our normal life started to creep in. We found ourselves both wishing for more time and looking forward to being HOME.   Six more days, though.  Barcelona awaits!

Valencia

We'd been looking forward to visiting Valencia since talking with Carmen's friends, Luis and Ester, who used to live there.  They loved the city and we weren't there long before we understood why. We stayed with a couchsurfing host, Bérengère (Bébé)  who is a French woman originally from Toulouse, France but who has lived in Spain for 15 years.  The borders are open here so if Europeans want to live and work in a different European country, they can without needing a Visa or anything like that.

Bébé lives in a 3-bedroom flat just blocks away from Old Town, the city center.  Her neighborhood is a lively place, with shops, restaurants, bakeries, tapas bars - anything you'd want, all within a few blocks. There was a great bakery around the corner where we found ourselves far too often and a small market across the street where we stopped every morning to buy fresh fruit.  She's renting her place and is in the middle of an extensive renovation of the new flat she just bought a couple months ago. Just about from the ground up, new walls, new almost everything. She's so excited and we had great fun when she gave us the big tour, seeing the work in progress and imagining the finished space.  It was fun to be excited with and for her.

We first got to Bébé's about 6:00 Saturday evening, after driving around a bit trying to find a parking place - just about impossible in the busy city streets.  We decided then and there to return our rental car BEFORE our five-day visit to Barcelona the next week!  We ditched the car when we found a place and carried our backpacks the last few blocks to her place.  We settled in and had a nice chat, getting to know each other a bit, while we waited for Fernando to arrive.  Fernando was another couchsurfer staying there, a 25-year old PE teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who is spending two months traveling Europe. Once Fernando got there, we went to a bar to have a bite to eat and listen to a friend of Bébé's who played in a band. Another friend of hers also joined us, Nuevella.  Nuevella is from the Italian part of Switzerland and speaks not only Swiss and Italian, but also English, French, Spanish, and a dialect of Spanish spoken in the Catalonia region of Spain. She was so friendly and interesting to talk to. She ended up joining us for most of the places we went to while we were there. The band that night played enthusiastically if not particularly well but we had a great time.  The bass player was about 45 minutes late so they started about 10:00.  The three of us who had traveled that day were a bit tired so we called it a ( relatively) early night and were back at the flat by midnight.

One of the best parts about staying with Bébé was the great places she took us to and the  suggestions she gave us when we went out on our own.  We told her one of the things on our must-do list was to see a Flamenco dance so she took us to this small bar in the next neighborhood to see an authentic and impassioned show - it was wonderful! Because of the size of the place it was mostly standing room only and the stage was about 10 feet from where we were standing. We could see the dancers' expressions and the sweat on their foreheads.  All for only 8 euros and that included a drink!

She also took us to the local couchsurfers meeting on Sunday afternoon.  We had a picnic on the beach.  It was also the day of the kite festival so there were fun, colorful, some amazing kites flying.   Val has some pics and a video that we'll soon post. For the picnic, everyone brought something to eat from their home country and many people shared. There were chicken legs, a rice dish, pastries, bread and an Argentinian tea called Mata that was shared.  The custom is that first the "host" pours herself a cup, then a cup for another person, then herself, etc. (I guess this tea is a big deal in Argentina because when Fernando met up with us later he was almost heartbroken that he missed the tea sharing.  He said he missed his family and friends after two months of travel, but he missed his Mata more :) ) At any given time there were conversations in Italian, Bulgarian, Spanish and French but since English was the common denominator  - and that was the only language Val and I spoke, they were all nice enough to mostly speak English.  After the picnic, we wandered down the beach to find where they were judging the finalists in the kite contest.  This wasn't a children's contest, these pilots were professionals! We only caught two of the final flights, but the two we saw were incredible. The flights were choreographed and set to music. It was hard to believe a few people working the strings to these kites could fly them with such grace and precision.

Our picnic on the beach.

Passing the Mata around.

Just a small view of the kite festival.

Bébé was generous with her time. But Val and I also spent a lot of time exploring on our own.  We walked, we rented bikes one day, and walked some more.  We loved sightseeing in this city! It became our favorite city. It was very easy to get around and because it's still a little early in the season there weren't crowds of tourists we had to navigate around.  There was so much to see! Val just loved all the architecture and the juxtaposition of contemporary (like the opera house, aquarium and science museum) with the historic (the city center with its century-old walls, gates, buildings and cathedrals) and the green,  open spaces (there was an old riverbed, now a park  that ran over six miles through the city not far from the city center.  We spent hours there, running, walking and riding bikes. The people we had dinner with in Thailand, Rety and Bruce, told us about it that night and it happened to be just down the street from Bébé's). Valencia was truly another highlight of our trip - the city, the architecture, the people we met, the parks and open spaces, the markets, bakeries, restaurants and pubs down every street and around every corner.  Val especially liked the city - he said he felt a kinship with it. VAL. VALencia. (He thought he was very clever with that one.)

Opera House - this building took nine years to build and will hold 40,000 people.  

Outside the City of Arts and Sciences; on this boardwalk there were these "candy wrapper" sculptures of each state. 

A view of the park near Bebe's house. 

Valencia!