Making Roti in Thailand: a video

Well, we’re mid-winter, have cabin fever after a few snow days, and are feeling the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder. There’s not much else to do but dip into the memories, and relive some great moments.

Here’s one from Thailand: in the night market in Chiang Rai, wandering the aisles between vendors, when this guy caught our attention. Callum captured this video of him performing his magic, as he made Roti Sai Mai – a sweet green pancake – and totally impressed the socks off of us. Check out his left hand – what talent!

 

The Chiang Rai night market was incredible. It went on and on, seemingly without end, and full of food stalls, artisanal products, and basic necessities like sunglasses and shoes. We can still taste the fresh oysters fried with eggs in coconut milk – divine! We were there during the Flower Festival, which meant the added bonus of a massive stage with traditional Thai dancing and singing, as well as floral sculptures throughout. A fun tuk-tuk ride to and from the market sealed the night as one to remember.

Here’s the original post, with more pictures from the market:

https://alottabiota.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/exploring-northern-thailand/

As we endure this first winter back, we’ll continue to upload videos and post them here, hoping to warm our cockles with flashbacks to our grand adventure.

Stay warm out there!
Theresa

The Money Post

It is finally time to lay our cards on the table. I’ve inputted all the data, and done some basic summaries and statistics to get a sense of what we spent, and how we spent it. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I had a bit too much fun with this – I might miss working with spreadsheets more than I thought. But if you’re at all curious to see the breakdown of our budget (and to find out if we even managed to stay on budget!), your wait is over. Are you ready? Here goes!

A bit of background, in case you’ve forgotten (it has, after all, been 6 months since we’ve been back in Canada!):

1. There were 4 of us, travelling for 8.5 months.
2. We did not use Air Miles or Points for any expenses.
3. We saved the money for the trip ahead of time, and came back with zero debt (high-five!).
4. We did not do a Round the World (RTW) ticket, thus bought every flight individually.
5. We took leaves from our jobs, and did not work on the road (i.e. we’re not digital nomads).
6. Our daily budget was $200 CDN, including food, accommodation, transportation, and activities, but NOT including flights; we expected some countries to be below and some to be above this figure.
7. I did not use an app to record expenses…I wrote daily in a journal, and jotted down every time we spent money (hence the delay getting this post up – I had to re-read and enter everything into a spreadsheet upon our return home).

PRE-TRIP EXPENSES

Before we left, there were some major expenses we had to incur:

• World Nomads Insurance (for 6 of the 9 months)
• Gear – suitcases, clothing, travel toiletteries, UV sterilizer, headlamps, etc
• Electronics – laptop, smartphone, external hard drive, and quick charger
• Immunizations and Medications

Other than the travel insurance, most of these items will be used at home or for subsequent trips (including the immunizations); and the medication was covered with our benefits plan, so I am not itemizing nor including these costs in the averages.

FLIGHTS

We flew a total of 16 legs x 4 people = 64 flights; the grand total of all flights was $11,641.

FROM	TO	AIRLINE	COST (CDN, for 4 flights)
Toronto	Singapore	United	$2659
Singapore	Kota Kinabalu	Air Asia	$330
Kota Kinabalu	Kuala Lumpur	Air Asia	$190
Kuala Lumpur	Medan	Air Asia	$212
Medan	Denpasar	Lion Air	$460
Denpasar	Darwin	Air Asia	$360
Melbourne	Auckland	Emirates	$990
Auckland	Bangkok	Thai Air	$2208
Surat Thani	Chiang Mai	Air Asia	$243
Chiang Rai	Bangkok	Air Asia	$260
Bangkok	Siem Reap	Air Asia	$429
Ho Chi Minh City	Danang	Jetstar	$176
Hanoi	Toronto	EVA	$3124

*Other forms of transportation, including car rentals (all of Australia and New Zealand), trains, and buses, are included in daily averages, below.

I think the cost for flights was actually really good! Of course, the distances travelled weren’t around the world (we mostly stayed within one continent), but considering all we got to see and do, I am impressed. It would have been nice to use points, but we don’t collect, so that wasn’t an option. Also, we chose to not always opt for the cheapest flight, but paid slightly more to get the most direct routing, while avoiding red-eyes – it was a small price to pay (literally) for our health and sanity.

DAILY AVERAGES

The daily total spent on the entire trip (excluding flights) was $51,400.22.

Average daily cost for the entire trip (256 days), broken down by country:

Country	Num days in Country	Average daily costs	Average nightly cost of accommodation	Average daily cost of food
Singapore	4	$185.27	$166.20	$48.86
Malaysia	44	$162.25	$79.68	$43.30
Indonesia	28	$196.27	$80.22	$42.82
Australia	64	$214.04	$80.98	$42.11
New Zealand	40	$229.48	$93.32	$47.01
Thailand	30	$177.03	$89.78	$31.92
Cambodia	17	$202.52	$83.75	$37.86
Vietnam	29	$182.91	$69.12	$41.78
TOTAL	256	$200.78	$81.63	$41.80

NOTES:

1. For Australia and NZ, purchased camping equipment is included in these numbers
2. Australia: 39 nights camping, 25 nights hotel/Apartment/AirBnB
3. NZ: 20 nights camping, 12 nights hotel/AirBnB, 8 nights at friends’ home; the average price per night calculation excludes the 8 free nights at a friend’s.

If you’re more of a visual thinker, here are a few charts for your viewing pleasure:

A few things to keep in mind when digesting these numbers:

• Daily averages include one-off expenses such as entrance Visas, or souvenirs.
• We didn’t stay in hostels, but we definitely didn’t choose luxury. Our accommodation was usually basic, middle of the road, found on Booking.com or Agoda.com, and booked within a week of arriving somewhere.
• We pretty much only ate street food, at night markets, or very simple restaurants. There are gourmet foods in fancy restaurants that would blow a gourmand’s socks off, but we found delicious food for cheap and thoroughly enjoyed eating through the trip.
• Our boys were 8 & 10 on the trip, and they ate as much as adults, if not more.
• I tried to separate food & accommodation costs from transportation & guides in tours, but my breakdown was a guesstimate.
• Transportation costs can vary widely depending on how much ground you’re covering, where you’re going, and how you want to get there; because of this, I decided not to include averages here. However, just an FYI, while we did take ferries, motorbikes, buses, trains, subways, Ubers, and taxis, we found the price of a single private car to be almost the same as public transportation for 4, so we sometimes chose this for efficiency and comfort.

THE *BIG* ACTIVITIES

We actually didn’t do a whole lot of tours; we were quite selective in deciding where and how to spend money for organized activities (i.e. guided trips). There were smaller expenses I’m not listing here that were <$200 (ex. snorkel trips, entrance to temples or national parks, etc), but these are the major ones. All prices are for the 4 of us, and in Canadian dollars.

• Great Barrier Reef full-day snorkel tour (full day, lunch incl., guided; Australia): $530
• Kaikoura Albatross Encounters (½ day, guided; NZ): $333
• Kaiteriteri Full-day Kayak Excursion (full day, lunch incl., guided; NZ): $387
• Danum Valley Field Centre (4D/3N, transport and food incl., no guides; Malaysia): $1096
• Sumatra Jungle Eco-Tour (8D/7N, guided; some food incl., Indonesia): $1960
• Sukau Greenview Kinabatangan River Tour (3D/2N, food incl., guided; Malaysia): $543
• Ha Long Bay Cruise (3D/2N, food incl., guided; Vietnam): $1489

IN SUMMARY

We anticipated spending $200/day, and ended up spending $200.80/day.

So, in other words, we are ROCK STARS. I cannot believe that we managed to stay on budget, without tracking our spending, for such a long trip. Yay us!

But there was SO MUCH MORE we could have spent money on, I can’t even begin to tell you how much we missed out on because of how cheap we were. There was ziplining and scuba diving in Thailand; waterfall day trips, swimming with whales, and jeep overnighters to Fraser Island in Australia; Maori shows, sleepover island visits, and glow worm caves by boat in New Zealand; river dolphins in Cambodia; and on and on. But we have zero regrets. Every decision we made, we were happy with, and every activity we did, we loved. We had a blast doing all the cheaper activities, too – hikes to see platypuses and pittas, ice cream or noodle soups on the street, jumping into schools of fish off the rocks – all of that was so much fun. And by doing things cheaply, we got to have very real and raw experiences – you can’t hear a koala bellowing outside your tent if you’re sleeping in a hotel, you don’t get to help make roti from the little old man in the back of the kitchen if you’re always eating in more expensive restaurants, and you feel far more rewarded when you finally find and see an elusive bird compared to if a guide pointed it out. (Actually, that last part isn’t true – seeing a bird is always rewarding, no matter how it’s been spotted!).

Adventure doesn’t have to be expensive to be memorable. Yes, we could have seen or done more. But we choose to live our lives looking forward, and being content with having enough instead of wanting it all. So – no regrets: it’s a good philosophy to live by.

I think we did a great job staying on budget, and I think we managed to check a whole whack of bucket items off our list while doing so. It was a brilliant trip – in fact, we’ve already started saving for and planning the next one. It won’t be soon and it won’t be for nearly as long, but we have to feed the wanderlust, whichever way we can.

*Feel free to fire me any questions you might have, I’m happy to help, if you’re planning your own trip, or just curious about the breakdown.

Cheers,

Theresa

The Highs and Lows of Cambodia

It doesn’t always go perfectly, no matter how hard you plan. Sometimes it’s the weather, sometimes it’s an illness, sometimes it’s just life. There’s usually nothing that can be done but to just roll with it, looking for glimpses of light to keep you going.

It all started great – flying into Cambodia on AirAsia was the way to go. It was super easy to get the visa on arrival at the airport, and we had a tuk tuk waiting to take us to our hotel. We had connecting rooms – space and privacy, win-win! – and were not in the crazy part of Siem Reap, but were within walking distance to a strip of casual and cheap restaurants serving local food – another win-win.

But then things took a turn…we blame the fresh sugar cane juice gifted to us by our tuk tuk driver. Some of us started having tummy troubles, which is not ideal when embarking upon early, long hot days exploring Angkor Wat. Through resilience and determination, we didn’t let that stop us, but it made for exhausting days, as we pushed through the illness.

To make things worse, it was the onset of Lunar New Year, or Tet. This meant that there were busloads and busloads of tourists, mostly from China, who were spending their vacation the same way we were. Everything was busier – the streets had traffic jams, the restaurants were full, and Angkor Wat had lineups to get through the ruins.

So many people!

Still, we did get to see the awe-inspiring temples in the jungles of Cambodia, and they were truly incredible. It was hotter than Hades out, and we didn’t go for sunrise or sunset, opting for sleep to help get over the sickness. There were some birds to be seen as well, including 2 new species of raucous parakeets (Alexandrine and Red-breasted). We spent one day on the “small circuit”, taking in the classic popular temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom, Bayon, and some smaller ruins. We were impressed by all of it – stunning with it’s scale artistry, and presence. Of course, it was harder to appreciate it when dodging selfie sticks, and while feeling claustrophobic caught in a tunnel with a few hundred other humans (praying there wouldn’t be any immediate earthquakes), but we persevered.

The next day we went further afield, visiting Banteay Srei, the pink sandstone temple with incredibly intricate carvings. We then proceeded another 10 km up the road (40 mins in the slowest tuk tuk ever) to bird Kbal Spean, where we saw White-crested Laughingthrushes, and the boys had monks ask for selfies with them – go figure. We got here late, and wished we had more time exploring the forest.  But the sun was setting and we still had a 2-hr tuk tuk back, mostly in the dark. While we only had 2 days of checking out Angkor Wat, considering our health, the heat, and the crowds, we were content with what we accomplished.

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We had heard about a local social enterprise in town called Phare Circus, where kids are given an education and training in the arts to help keep them off the streets, and then they participate in creating and performing a show. They tell meaningful Cambodian stories through music, dance, comedy and acrobatics. Ours was set in the modern urban jungle of Cambodia’s bars, and talked about the dangers of making ends meet, and trying to find romance. What a wild ride! We were oohing and aahing, amazed by the tricks, while also impressed by the humour and emotion. Really well done, and something totally different for us – a fantastic night out!

Siem Reap also has a workshop called the Artisans d’Angkor, which was an open studio where you could watch artists at work, painting and sculpting traditional products. It was neat to interact with the artists, and to see the process involved, as they transformed wood and stone and silk into detailed artworks.

We managed to meet up with a couple other travelling families we had met through a Facebook group, and had a great day of adult conversation while the kids got to interact with other kids – both of these have been rare over the course of our trip. We played in a park, went to a museum, and headed out for dinner together. It’s awesome to meet others who put an emphasis on travel like we do, and to bond over similar experiences.

It was time to leave Siem Reap by bus, and spend the next few days in Phnom Penh. Originally we had booked 3 nights in the city, which would have been enough to get our Vietnam visas and be on our way. However, Tet derailed our plans, again, as the Vietnam Embassy was closed for the weeklong holiday, so we extended our stay for 2 more nights until the embassy reopened. Our illness got worse, and we barely managed to leave the room to get food, and to drop off our passports at a travel agency who took care of the visa process. Being sick was bad enough; being sick in the gritty, loud city of Phnom Penh made it worse; but being sick in an unfriendly hotel, in a moldy, stained room, with the permeating odor of sewage, was awful. We were too weak to move elsewhere, so we endured; we were in a dark hole. It was an unfortunate low point in our trip, but these things happen. We are grateful for our emergency supply of antibiotics that we had brought with us from Canada, and for free wifi that kept us sane. But it was definitely rough.

Thankfully we were all better by the time we checked out, and we were happy to be on our way (in a private vehicle, just in case) to the near-coastal town of Kampot. We had a wonderful little hotel, with an amazing French-inspired breakfast (crepes anyone?), in the heart of the little town. Kampot has a vibrant ex-pat community, which meant little bistros and bars, coupled with a Cambodian culture: a nice blend for weary travellers. It’s a lovely spot along the river, with thousands of Germain’s swiftlets constantly chittering and circling overhead, and a nightly exodus of fishing boats headed to the ocean.

Here we managed to fit in a few activities that made our days magical:

• a boat cruise downriver at sunset, where we stopped to watch the fireflies dance;

• a fabulous cooking class at Khmer Roots Cafe where we learned to make coconut milk and curry paste from scratch, and then devoured the delicious dishes that we had proudly concocted;

• an early morning trip up Bokor mountain with the Kampot Cruiser, where we had a great day of birding, watching termites marching, studying thorn spiders, and checking out viewpoints.

Great Hornbill

Wreathed Hornbill

• A visit to the local night market for dinner meant we stumbled upon a mini amusement park, where the kids laughed their heads off and riding bumper cars and flying roosters.

We switched hotels for a couple of nights so we could be outside of town, and enjoyed the peace and solitude. We swam in the river, and kayaked at dusk down a loop through a green cathedral of palm trees. We saw a few birds – Mountain Hawk-Eagle, and Plain-backed sparrow – but mostly enjoyed reading in the hammock and doing homework on the porch.

There was also a bakery/restaurant that was owned by a Canadian that served (drumroll please)…Poutine! The kids were elated to have a taste of home. Here we bumped into another travelling family from Montreal, and we chatted and bonded and had a great night eating poutine together in Cambodia. The bakery was drool-worthy, and I’m not lying when I say that after living more than 40 years on this earth, we have discovered the best donut in existence: caramel banana cream. So fresh, not too sweet, a big pillowy pile of ambrosia; I doubt we will ever encounter it’s equal.

There were some major ups and downs to our 17 days in Cambodia – the lovely thing about memory is that over time the bad moments fade away, while the highlights become even more golden with each retelling.

A little birding excursion: Pak Thale and Kaeng Krachan National Park

After a few days battling the crowds in steamy Bangkok, it was time to flee the city and see some of the countryside. We decided to head a few hours southwest of Bangkok to the sleepier city of Phetchaburi, using the state train system as it was the easiest, most affordable means of getting there. The central train station in Bangkok was easy to find and quite well organized, but with only an hour before departure, the seating options on the train were pretty limited. So, it would seem, we ended up with seats in third class. To briefly describe the experience, think of a blend between a freight train and a yellow school bus. It was sweltering and it was also a bit of a milk-run, but we arrived safely (and only an hour behind schedule).

 

We decided on Phetchaburi as it was a convenient base for accessing the world-renowned shorebird site called Pak Thale, a huge series of salt pans located adjacent to the Gulf of Thailand. Not only does it attract huge numbers of shorebirds – often in excess of 40 species in a day – it is one of the most accessible sites in the world for seeing the extremely rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper. According to estimates, there may be as few as 400 individuals of this species remaining on the planet, with numbers declining steadily each year, primarily from habitat loss. If declining trends continue, the species will likely disappear in as little as a decade, so it seemed important that we all make an attempt to see it.

We didn’t have any expectations for our stay in Phetchaburi, and we settled on a small, inexpensive guesthouse for our 3-night stay. The guesthouse was a neat little family-run affair, with the family living onsite (including daily visits from both grandmas). They were the nicest, kindest people, and they helped us plan out the logistics and food options for our entire stay. They even arranged cheap motorbike rentals for us to get around, which worked out beautifully. They recommended we visit the local night market, which ended up being a goldmine for our “foodie” family, with an utterly amazing “muslim food” stand (various curries and a simple but fantastic saffron rice and chicken dish), as well as delectable fried oysters, pad thai, dessert, beer, and all at ridiculously low prices.

After a nice breakfast on our first morning, we headed out to the salt flats at Pak Thale. A bit of a winding, but easy, half hour ride out of the city took us to the shorebird reserve where we began our search. The salt pans are each about the size of a football field surrounded by a narrow perimiter dyke, filled with a few inches of highly saline water. The birds were a bit scattered, with somewhere in the vicinity of about 20,000 individuals of close to 35 species to sort through. There was no shade, no breeze, and the sun was wickedly hot. So, after about 1.5 hrs of unsuccessful searching, we needed to take a break for some cold drinks, shade, and a bite of lunch. Back at the main road, we managed to find a small food stand selling an assortment of Thai curries, along with rice and some cool drinks. After getting through much of the spicy food, often containing various unidentifiable meaty animal parts, we were ready to try our luck again.

While we were satiated and re-hydrated from our lunch, it was even hotter and dryer in the early afternoon than it had been in the morning. We scanned the pans looking for large aggregations of shorebirds and picked a few to try and get a bit closer to. After an hour of carefully combing through flocks of feeding shorebird, we were still coming up empty on spoonbills. The kids, despite being total troopers thus far, were beginning to lose interest and I was so hot that I may have begun to lose consciousness. I suggested we try one last group and hope for the best. So, we all sat down and started one last scan. After a few false alarms, Theresa noticed a bird that seemed to be foraging and moving much differently than many of the similar stints and other peeps in the area. We both got onto it and quickly confirmed it to be our target species, a genuine Spoon-billed Sandpiper. We all had decent looks and I managed one satisfactory photo. It was Hi-5’s all around and a brief pat on the back for a family’s perseverence (or stubbornness on behalf of their father).

 

We decided to keep the motorbikes for another day and spent our second day in Phetchaburi driving the outskirts of town to see some of the rice paddies, temples, and one of the King’s summer homes (a huge series of temples and buildings scattered on a mountain-top).

Temples = Monkeys

We visited a local food market and sampled some authentic Thai snacks and desserts before heading back to the night market for another evening of enjoying the various foods on offer. We also managed to try some delectable coconut ice cream, a hot coconut bubble porridge dessert, and an interesting local milkshake with palm syrup and long green jelly worms. Although we knew nothing about Phetchaburi before we arrived and had close to no expectation of it being a successful stop, we had a great time exploring the sites, food and culture of this interesting historical city.

Our next destination was Kaeng Krachen National Park, Thailand’s largest park, which borders the dense forests of its western neighbour, Myanmar. It also has one of the largest bird lists for any national park in Thailand, with a reasonably accessible road providing opportunities to visit a broad range of forests at various altitudes. Our base for our visit to the park was a nearby nature lodge called Baan Maka. It’s now owned by a Brit, who is a keen all-around naturalist and birder, and the grounds of the lodge offered some great birding and opportunities for exploring.

We woke early on our first day and hired a 4×4 truck and driver to take us into the park. Not long after passing the park gate, the road quickly became quite rough and steep and we were glad to have someone else doing the driving, though we spent the drive sitting on metal benches in the bed of the truck, bouncing and bopping on the rough road. Our first stop was the summit, where we birded in the cool morning air for several hours. We added some really great birds, including: Ratchet-tailed Treepie, Blyth’s Shrike Babbler, Great Hornbill, Great Barbet, and Red-headed Trogon.

(Clockwise from top left: Great Barbet, Black-crested Bulbul, Moustached Barbet)

Orange-breasted Trogon (front)

Orange-breasted Trogon (back)

We drove back down to the lower elevations for a late lunch and some lackluster birding around the park headquarters in the afternoon. While it’s possible to see Asian elephants in the park, we weren’t so lucky, but we did end up seeing 2 species of monkeys: Dusky Leaf monkey and White-handed Gibbon, which was singing overhead.

We were running a bit low on cash, so we asked our driver if he could find us an ATM machine before returning to our hotel. While there was an enormous language barrier, he seemed to understand and nodded approvingly. However, after driving for about 20 minutes, he proceeded to drive up to the gate of what turned out to be the training facility for the Thai Special Forces Military Tactical Unit. He spoke in Thai and must have mentioned that we were after an ATM, and they waved us through! So, we drove back and forth across the base without managing to find and ATM, but eventually we found one at the 7-11 in a nearby town.

For our second day, we decided to sleep in, take our time, and just spend the day walking around the extensive grounds at the lodge. We added several new bird species here, including: Forest Wagtail, Violet Cuckoo, Banded Bay Cuckoo, Hainan Blue Flycatcher,  Blue Whistling-Thrush, Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush, White-rumped Shama, and Oriental Pied Hornbill.

Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush

Oriental Pied Hornbill

White-rumped Shama

The lodge is also adjacent to a large lake, with several kayaks available to loan. We added Yellow Bittern, Eurasian Moorhen, Bronze-winged Jacana, and White-throated Kingfisher on the lake. We even found 2 different Olive-backed sunbird nests, hanging over the lake with the female hunkered down incubating the eggs.

Female Olive-backed Sunbird in her nest

There were also butterflies emerging from their cocoons, the second largest species of gecko in the world (the Tokay Gecko), a baby reticulated python, some large orb-weaver spiders, a massive foot-long centipede, and fireflies. After a few hours of birding the grounds on our third and final morning, we jumped in a pick-up truck and headed an hour southeast towards the coast. We were ready for a week or R’n’R in the islands (yes, we were in need of a holiday from our holiday).

(Clockwise from top left: Red-base Jezebels, unknown frog, Oriental garden lizard, Tokay’s Gecko)

Kevin

 

Bangkok!

We were so excited to be back in Asia – the people, the birds, the temples! It was a readjustment, for sure…the climate was hot and humid again, we had to filter tap water before drinking it, and we were back to the joy of squat toilets. But smiles from strangers abound, and the food…drool. (More on this later).

We landed in Bangkok, for four fun-filled days, with family joining us from home. But we were jet-lagged and overwhelmed a bit after our quiet camping in the woods in New Zealand, so had to temper our expectations and moderate our agenda.

Nathan and Noelle, all the way from NYC!

This was our first time in Thailand, but we had heard amazing things over the years. A whole month to explore this country seems like a lot at first, but when you realize how much there is to see, well, you have to start being selective. We only had a few days in the capital, which isn’t even close to enough time to do it justice. Plus, arriving on a Monday and leaving on a Thursday means you miss out on the big weekend markets – not well thought out!

A day out and about the city began with a train ride on the excellent commuter service, followed by a longtail ferry ride on the Chao Phraya river, to Wat Pho. Here resides the famous Reclining Buddha, which awed us with its scale, and we loved walking around the temples with their incredibly colourful and detailed tile work. The Grand Royal Palace had stiff dress-code requirements, and while us girls were good to go, Kevin was showing his knees in shorts (gasp!) so half of us stayed behind while the others went to see the wonders behind the gate.

On the train!

On the ferry!

 

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Walking the city all day meant we needed a quiet evening, where we took the time for a sunset swim in the rooftop pool. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the simple things in life.

What a view!

Our Airbnb was located in Si Lom, which had a great daily market, filled with street food and shopping. It meant easy access to quick meals, plus some good deals on kitchen supplies and clothing, if you were interested.

The daily Si Lom market

View from the balcony of our Airbnb, in Si Lom

Lumpini Park offered us a respite from the noisy streets, and we saw some new birds (Chinese Pond Heron, Great Myna, and Black Collared Starling) and some giant water monitor lizards. We also had fascinating interactions with the locals: a group of elderly men invited us to watch their game of Chinese chess; a trainer for Muay Thai boxers did some impromptu massage on Kevin, causing nerve tingling that lasted for days; and a friendly but confused Thai man tried to chat with us in French, with hilarious results.

Lumpini Park, a haven from the hustle and bustle of the city

Some really REALLY big water monitor lizards

The next day we took an Uber to the Taling Chan floating market and found out when we arrived that it’s only open on the weekend (it was a Wednesday). Bummer – Google totally let us down. There’s a surprising lack of English in the country, so it’s very challenging to get any information, leading to frequent wild goose chases and disappointments. We salvaged the day by visiting Jim Thompson’s house, an American businessman with ties to the CIA, whose house is now a museum. Beautiful teak buildings, lovely artwork, and a tranquil garden filled with orchids. He established the silk industry in Bangkok, and there was a demonstration of silk being harvested, which was so cool! They cook the cocoons, use a stick to stir them in the steaming vat, and twist the strands into thread. Fascinating.

So what did we miss? Well, actually, quite a few of the “must-sees”:

• We were warned that Khao San Road was a bit like Times Square, with more of a tourist rather than local vibe, so we opted to avoid.
• As I mentioned, not being in Bangkok over the weekend means we couldn’t visit the famed Chatuchak market, or some of the more popular floating markets.
• Our jet lag meant we crashed hard before seeing Wat Arun at sunset.  It’s on our list for ‘next time’, and we’re hoping some of the temples in Northern Thailand will make up for missing out on this one.
• A rooftop bar at night…but that’s because we’re old. Those young ones travelling with us went out and enjoyed themselves though!

 

Bangkok had an amazing assortment of  food offerings, and it was a joy and delight to partake, especially after the food desert that was camping in Australia and New Zealand for 3 months. Here’s a taste (haha) of what we ate:

After saying our goodbyes to Nathan and Noelle, we caught the train from Hualomphong station, and headed south. The birds were a-calling, so a few days in Phetchaburi province were up next.

The Bangkok Train Station

Theresa

First stop: Darwin

It was a massive culture shock coming from 3 months in Asia, and landing (after a red-eye flight) in Darwin. The roads were so quiet! The signs were in English! There were birds everywhere! (notably different from Indonesia, where their wild bird populations are being decimated by the caged songbird trade), and everything was so expensive! – but only relative to where we had just been, not compared to home.

We spent 4 days in Darwin, which wasn’t really enough. Just to be on this great big island in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere was mind-boggling.

We checked out the fabulous + free museum of the Northern Territory, which has an incredible collection of Aboriginal artwork, a marine collection – really interesting boats with different designs from around the world, a cyclone experience, a black and white historical photo exhibit of life in outback, and a big stuffed crocodile.

We visited the highly recommended and colourful Mindil Market, full of delicious food stalls and products for sale, where we joined a couple thousand others watching an incredible sunset from the beach; such a great community bonding event, every Thursday evening.

Australia also means we reintroduced our bodies to western food, including burgers, fish and chips, pizza, and giros, YUM!

Seriously, the best burger I’ve ever had.

And of course, we birded! Any green space meant we were being overwhelmed by new birds – entirely new families of birds, in crazy colours, who weren’t afraid of people (unlike Indonesia – see above). In the first day days, we saw Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Magpie-Larks, Masked Lapwings, Rainbow Bee-eater, Spangled Drongo, Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Rainbow Lorakeets, Gray Goshawk, Black Kite, Double-barred Finch, and Blue-faced Honeyeater, among others.

We headed to East Point to explore the Monsoon Forest Trail, hoping to see a sweet bird – but we got there a bit late in the morning, and the birds had quietened down already due to the heat. So we came headed back the next day, and within 2 minutes, saw Rainbow Pittas at our feet. WOW.

We also saw our first wallabies! They are wild to see, hopping everywhere, with their young poking their heads out of momma’s pouch.

Our car home for the next couple months was to be a rental car from Travellers Autobarn (a Ford Falcon), which came complete with the basic camping necessities. Sleeping bags, thermarests and pillows were bought separately, along with other bits of gear we felt necessary – a lighter, a cheese grater – and after a grocery shop we had loaded up the cooler and a couple boxes with food.

Now it was time to give up the luxuries of our budget hotel, and hit the open road. Kakadu National Park was our next destination, and we were excited to have our first taste of the outback.

Theresa

Penang!

Oh man. We’ve found where we want to retire to.

Well, maybe not, but we’ve found a place we love, where we’d go back in a heartbeat, for an extended stay, and never be bored.

What can I say about Penang? I honestly believe it has it all: an incredible history, unique architecture, a blend of ethnic and religious groups, a huge variety of delicious and cheap food, a range of museums, a maze of streets and alleyways to explore, and an ocean and beaches nearby. The religious temples were everywhere, each unique, and stunningly beautiful in their decor and artistry. The Greco-Roman Anglican church with it’s history of bombings and rebuilding; the Hindu temple with it’s colourful sculptures of various deities, the mosques on every corner, with their half moon minarets doting the view; the Buddhist temples, full of wafting incense and flower offerings. There are hill temples, cave temples, and temples with a reclining Buddha. And yet, amidst this confluence of spiritual worship, I felt no animosity or tension – everyone here appears to coexist in a choreographed dance of daily life – scooters ignoring the rules of the road, calls to prayer peppering the day, shops shutting down midday until the cooler evening; hawker stalls setting up for the evening street food gathering; stands enticing you to grab a takeaway fresh fruit drink in a baggie…it’s a wonderful atmosphere, one that’s fully alive.

There are more than a fair share of backpackers and ex-pats here, but they don’t seem to dictate the offerings. Yes, there are western coffee shops and vegan bistros, but there are also old used bookstore and antique shops, barbers and tailors, key cutters and mechanics too. So you feel less like a tourist, and more like a local, which is what we aspire to when we visit a place.

The history of the area made for some great opportunities for homeschooling, as we learned about the Japanese occupation during WW2, different types of architecture, and traditional Chinese painting styles. Of course, currency conversions are our go-to math exercise daily.

Here’s a taste of what it’s like to wander and explore this UNESCO World Heritage Site:

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Our visit to Georgetown included free wine and ice-cream every evening at our hotel (sweet!), and fortuitously, it overlapped with the Penang Street Food Festival. Some of the best food we’ve ever had in the world, bar none, freshly made and rock bottom prices. SO GOOD.

Happy hour on the rooftop patio at our hotel

Wantan mee

Fresh mango juice – in a baggie!

Penang Street Food Festival

We challenged ourselves to a hike up Penang Hill, to save both time – the lineup was over an hour – and money. But the steep climb up the bajillion steps was a bit more than we bargained for, plus the deluge of rain didn’t help much either. We made it almost to the top, stopping at the Viaduct. We did see a few birds, which always brightens the day: Asian Koel, Lesser Coucal, Black-throated Babbler, Golden-bellied Gerygone and Crow-billed Drongo. We also saw the cutest monkeys yet, eating bamboo leaves, with their grey faces and white eye rings: Dusky Leaf Monkeys.

Dusky Leaf Monkey

Going up…

Coming down…

View from the first stop up the hill

A visit to a couple Buddhist temples,  (and some coconut ice-cream), ended with a bit of birding along the shoreline at low tide, with Common Redshanks, Common Sandpiper and Whimbrel.

A quick 30-minute drive along the coast (yay for Uber!) and we were at our Airbnb in Batu Ferringhi. Just across from the beach, and 10 mins drive from the National Park, and a 20 min walk to the night market and Long Beach Food Court, this was a great spot to slow down, eat some more, build sandcastles, and watch the sunset for a few days.

There was also a small waterfall we walked to down a trail just behind our apartment, which a lovely local family helped us find. We watched Grey Wagtails foraging in the stream, and caught fish in the pools. Along the way we saw Chestnut-headed Bee-eater and White-headed Munias.

We hiked from the National Park to Monkey Beach, which was a couple hours of hot trekking, with a pleasant but busy beach at the end. Not too many critters to see besides some water monitors, a giant squirrel and some long-tailed macaques, but enjoyable to get out anyway, with a boat ride waiting to take us back to the starting point.

Found a couple of monkeys on Monkey Beach!

We truly loved our week in Penang, and it wasn’t nearly enough time. But onwards we go – to meet up with my sister, and head to Indonesia for a month – can’t wait!

Cheers,

Theresa

 

Yum

We have discovered Teh Tarik, and it’s just soooo good. It’s simply a mix of strong black tea and condensed milk:

But it’s the way it’s ‘pulled’ that makes it truly special. It’s poured between 2 cups, an arm’s length apart (up high and down low), back and forth a few times to mix it and make it frothy. Delish!

A diversion

We are knee-deep in the planning and prep, which can be more than a little overwhelming and stressful. Sometimes it’s good to step back and remember WHY we’re undertaking this crazy-ass trip. It’s about the wildlife, the culture, the experience, the history, the family bonding, the adventure, and of course…the food.

So I’ll just leave this link right here.

https://www.eatbah.com/15-must-eat-food-kota-kinabalu-first-time-visitors/

ALL THE NOODLES ALL THE TIME.

You’re welcome.

Theresa