#2299 December reflections: most memorable meal in 2019

I am hopeful this post will be better than the coffee post.

Today's prompt in the Instagram challenge is Most Memorable Meal in 2019. I like food and I have eaten some great meals this year. I mean, just last weekend I was at Ruth's Chris and their food is amazing. We had good meals in Thailand this year, too.

There is one meal that MT and I had in Thailand that both of us talk about whenever people ask us what our favorite meal was in Thailand. It even surprises us that this would be the one. It had to be a combination of the location, the service, the kindness we witnessed, the fact that it was toward the end of our vacation, so we were super-relaxed and feeling really good..

This pizza from Macarona's in Nai Thon Beach was the most memorable meal I had this year. Let me tell you why.

We went there for lunch after a morning spent sitting across the road at the beach. The restaurant is open-air, so we got a beautiful breeze from the sea and we could see the water. The beer was very cold, which is important to me, especially on a hot day. The server, a lady, was lovely and polite and friendly.

She was also very kind. Two women came in with a little girl. The women sat down and started talking and basically ignored the child. The girl got fidgety and looked unhappy. Our server (also that table's server) started paying extra attention to the child, bringing her something to drink and a little snack that she didn't offer anyone else. The little girl was happy to get the attention from the pretty Thai lady and came out from her seat to talk to the woman. They didn't speak the same language, but they got along well. The server took photos of the little girl and encouraged her to make funny faces and have fun. They took selfies and made duck lips and crossed eyes and big smiles. It was charming to watch. The women who came with the girl glanced over at them every now and then, but didn't say anything except to each other. I enjoyed watching the interaction of our server, a young lady, with this little girl. It wasn't the first time I saw Thai people being very kind and generous with their time to little kids.

I was already feeling warm and fuzzy about the place and the people when this gorgeous pizza was set in front of me. I had the quattro formaggi pizza. There isn't a lot of cheese used in Thai cooking, so cheese was a treat I hadn't had for awhile. The crust was wonderful: thin on the bottom with just enough bread around the edge. The sauce was flavorful and the ratio of crust to sauce to cheese was perfect. It was also just the right size. MT had his own pizza, and I obviously had my own pizza and not a scrap of anything was left from either of us.

There have been many, many pizzas consumed by this woman, and few have left me with such an impression that ten months later I imagine myself sitting at that table, watching people and enjoying a meal.

I had a great time in Thailand. MT and I have already talked about going back someday. If we found ourselves on the island of Phuket, I am pretty sure we would try to get back to Nai Thon Beach. The town was cute and the food was great.

#2284 travel Tuesday: the best day of 2019

I am shamelessly copying my sister's idea of cross-posting an idea from Instagram over here on the blog. My sister is brilliant and has the best ideas and I want to be like her, so here we are.

On Instagram I am participating in a challenge of sorts to post a photo that fits the theme of the day. The challenge is presented by Susannah Conway, a lady that I'm certain I would be friends with if we lived anywhere near each other. However, she lives in London and I live in Salt Lake City, so we'll probably never meet, but I do follow her on IG and participate in stuff she puts out there.

Today's prompt is "best day of 2019". This one was sooooo easy for me to choose. It was February 16. MT and I were in Thailand, in the Krabi area, and we decided to rent a private longtail boat for the day. We arranged it through the resort where we were staying. It was a four island tour with an English-speaking guide and a driver who took care of us all day.

I have written about the day at length here and here, so I won't go into details or post more photos, except for this one which I put on IG today:

What makes this day so memorable is the unbelievable factor. I wouldn't have ever thought that I would be on a longboat in Thailand (!) happily sitting at the bow (!) looking at this incredible scenery and having conversations with our guide about all kinds of things, from politics to how he learned to speak English so well to what our families eat for dinner to why I have two big scars on my knees.

I also remember that MT got a terrible sunburn because he was so busy snorkeling that he forgot to reapply sunscreen. He said it was one of his favorite snorkeling days. He just got to swim and swim. Our guide, Leng, didn't hurry him or worry about where he was because he saw that MT is a strong swimmer.

Another great thing about this day was how relaxed and worry-free we were (until I saw that monkey where we had lunch). Overall and for the most part, I was super-relaxed and so happy to be there. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. If that doesn't make for the best day, I don't know what does.

#2189 food Friday - SE Asia

MT and I had some really delicious food while we were on vacation in Cambodia and Thailand, as you would expect. I didn't take photos of all the food because for whatever reason my food pics never really look very appetizing and it's kind of demoralizing and sad. Tonight, though, I'm going to share nine photos of food that we had on vacation, along with a few words about each one.

The first night we were in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we went to Pub Street to find a place to eat. It wasn't a difficult task; there are dozens and dozens of restaurants in that area, including lots of street food carts. We picked a place that had a live music - a man and woman singing and playing an acoustic guitar - and 50 cent beer. MT had this fresh banana leaf salad with shrimp as an appetizer,  immediately breaking all the rules we were told by the health department which included eating only food that was cooked and staying away from raw vegetables. I didn't have any, but MT said it was delicious and he was fine afterward.

~~~

Our tour of Angkor Wat included a stop for lunch. We were taken to Triple K Restaurant, a fairly good-sized place with air conditioning and a large menu. I think MT had something with pork. I had pineapple chicken rice. It was one of the best things I ate while on vacation. I have even made it here at home and though it wasn't exactly the same, it was dang good. Even T liked it!

~~~

Later that afternoon when our sightseeing was finished, we went to the bar at the hotel for a cold beer and we ended up having some tapas. Who would have thought we would have Spanish style appetizers in Cambodia? We did, though, and they were super tasty.

MT ordered the albondigas - meatballs in a garlicky, spicy tomato sauce.

I ordered the patatas bravas which are potatoes with a garlicky, spicy tomato sauce. I know I have described the sauces with the same words, but they taste completely different. The sauce on the patatas bravas is more like a spicy ketchup, but that description doesn't do it justice. As you can see, the tapas were served with bread. That bottle of Angkor you see in the upper left corner is Cambodian beer. Very refreshing.

~~~

The first night we were in Thailand, we had to have pad Thai, of course. It was served with a variety of spices on the side, but it was plenty spicy on it's own. I put a teeny tiny smidgen of crushed red chili flakes on mine along with some crushed peanuts and a generous squeeze of fresh lime. It was so damn spicy that my eyes were watering and my nose was running. It was amazing and tasted really good. MT stayed away from the chili flakes and just used the vinegar that was flavored with chilis on his pad Thai. He was happy with his choice as he watched me sniffle and shove big forkfuls of rice noodles into my face.

~~~

Inspired by how enthusiastic I was about the pineapple chicken rice I'd had at Angkor, MT decided to order the same dish when we were in Ao Nang after climbing to the top of the Tiger Cave Temple. The presentation of his dish was a little more whimsical than mine:

The inside of the pineapple was carved out and filled with rice. The food was tasty and the presentation was delightful. I mean, come on! How cute is that?!

~~~

After walking down the Monkey Trail into Ao Nang, we decided to have lunch at a restaurant that had been recommended by our Four Island Tour guide, Leng. The restaurant is called The Last Fisherman and it is right on the beach. The place has lots of tables and it was busy. I probably had chicken and rice; that was my go to meal most of the time. MT is more adventurous and since we were right by the water, he had the catch of the day.

He ordered it without a lot of spice, so I thought it was kind of bland. I don't know what kind of fish that is. It was a very simply prepared white fish. I think the novelty of having a whole fish that had probably been swimming around mere hours before was the draw here.

~~~

Over in Phuket we ate more pad Thai and a few other typical Thai dishes. We ate at Wiwan Restaurant a couple of times. It was a nice large place and the food was good. We had been advised by another guide that we had to have coconut ice cream. I'm not a huge ice cream fan, but I had to try it and since I was going for it, I might as well have two scoops, right? The white scoop is coconut and the green scoop is lime. MT had the coconut ice cream every day and we were sad we didn't have any in the Krabi area. MT misses the coconut ice cream even now. He comments about it almost every time he has ice cream, which is frequent. He loves ice cream!

What was so good about it? The texture was smooth and creamy and just rich enough. The flavor was delicate but you knew exactly what it tasted like. I mean neither the coconut nor the lime flavor was overwhelming, but it was distinct. Really, really delicious.

~~~

After playing in the water and laying on the beach in Ao Nang, we decided to get lunch at Macarona Restaurant. It had been highly recommended by a gregarious Swedish man we met in the pool at the hotel. He said the pizza was delicious and I thought beer and pizza sounded awesome after a morning in the sun on the beach.

And it WAS awesome! I don't know if I was just super hungry or what, but my pizza, the quattro formaggio (four cheese), was divine! MT had the Naithon special. I couldn't tell you what was on his, but I do know that we both ate every last crumb and cheese particle on those pizzas. The crust to sauce to topping ratios were perfect. The flavor was outstanding. Pizza in Thailand is definitely a thing. There are many places that serve pizza to be found there. I wish we would have eaten at Macarona again. I recommended it to some people we met and I even wrote a review about it on Trip Advisor.

The beer we drank in Thailand was Singha. There is another beer there that is very good too called Chang. There's really nothing like cold beer on a hot day and it was always hot there. I drank quite a few beers during those two weeks. It's safer than cocktails - no ice!

I have enjoyed writing about my food memories of Cambodia and Thailand. Lots of carbs. No wondered I gained a few pounds!

Have a great weekend!

#2184 travel Tuesday: at the top of the Tiger Cave climb

Welcome back! I'm in my regular rotation of topics again. Tuesday is for travel, even though I spent all of last month writing about travel. One more can't hurt, right?

There was a question (from Lizzie) in the comments about the Tiger Cave post. She wondered what it was like at the top and if there was reverence for the Buddha statues. The quick answer is yes. People were mellow up at the top. Whether the mellowness came from being exhausted by that climb or for reverence for the Buddha statues themselves, I'm not sure.

An interesting thing about visiting a Buddhist temple is that modesty is requested. All the guidebooks tell you to cover your shoulders and knees. At both Angkor Wat and the Tiger Cave, most people were dressed respectfully. Women could purchase sarongs to cover themselves. I did see some people who wore tank tops and shorts, but they were outnumbered by others in t-shirts and capris. Up at the top of the Tiger Cave climb, there were shelves and there was a sign requesting people to remove their shoes. I think everyone did that. While I was at the top, I think there were maybe twenty people or so, but the area is large and was not crowded. When I had seen all I wanted and was ready to go back down, I was surprised by the number of people in the lower, shaded section of the Buddha area. I guess they were all catching their breaths and resting before going up the final few steps to actually see the Buddha statue. What was kind of surprising to me was that at the top of Tiger Cave there was no authority figure, no monks or anything keeping people kind of in line, so to speak. Same thing at Angkor Wat. There were lots of guides and there were monks around, but mostly they were just doing their own thing. People were generally well-mannered.

One thing MT and I really liked about both Cambodia and Thailand was the politeness and courtesy we encountered. It is a custom there to put your hands together about chest high and slightly bow when you greet someone. It is called the "wai". What we found so lovely about it was that you actually had to pause for a moment to put your hands together and look at the person you are greeting. It seems here we often just casually wave or say "hey" and go on. The wai just seemed friendlier and more mindful, I guess.

That's all I've got for tonight! Have a good one!

#2183 Phi Phi Islands

Here we are at the last day of March already. This will also be my last regular post about our trip to Thailand and Cambodia. I may post other little stories or photos if I can't come up with other things to write about in the days and months to come, but I think I've pretty much covered all the main parts and some little side things too. This post is about our excursion to the Phi Phi Islands (the "h" is silent, remember) which was the last thing we did before we left. It made for a long ass day, but man, was it ever spectacular!

A driver picked us up at the hotel and took us back to the Royal Phuket Marina where we waited for quite awhile. We were super early. There were gobs of people going on this excursion. I think this tour company sent out three boats with at least 30 people/boat. And that was just one tour company. Many tour companies operate out of the marina.

Our guide was called Jun. He was friendly and kind, spoke English very well and was extremely helpful and nice to me personally late in the day. More on that later.

This excursion was all about being in the water, unlike the Phang Nga Bay excursion which was more sight-seeing. We had three stops today: Bamboo Island for swimming and snorkeling; Phi Phi Don, the largest of the Phi Phi islands for lunch and looking at monkeys; and Phi Phi Leh for snorkeling and swimming.

It took about an hour to get out to Bamboo Island from the marina. We were on a speedboat and it was hauling ass through the water. It was a little breezy on the way out and though the waves were not big, it was a pretty bumpy ride. There were a lot of time the boat hit a wave pretty hard and it was jarring. Lots of "woo" noises were made as we cut through the water.

When we got to Bamboo Island, though, it was all worth it because this little island is gorgeous! White, white sand. Tall pine trees. Crystal clear, bright blue, bathtub warm water. I would have stayed there all day. MT took both of these photos.

The top photo is a panoramic shot of the little bay we hung out in. MT went out snorkeling a bit. I stayed close to the shore but I was in the water quite a lot. I could see little fishes swimming about and I tried my best to stay away from them, of course, but I didn't let them scare me out of the water.

This next photo is just a couple of longtail boats. I think they are pretty and I love how clear the water is.

We stayed on Bamboo Island for about an hour but it felt like no time at all. Like I said, I would have stayed there all day. There was a snack shop. I would have been fine. However, since I was with this tour, I had to get back on the boat which took us over to Phi Phi Don. It is the only one of the Phi Phi islands that has hotels and people living on it. It is a good sized island. I don't think I would like to stay out there because it is far away from Phuket island, so it's pretty isolated. The small part I saw wasn't that appealing anyway. Of course, we were just there to have lunch, which was served at a huge restaurant, like on Panyee Island, but a lot less scenic. I didn't even bother taking a photo. The food was meh.

The most interesting thing about lunch at Phi Phi Don was the amount of boats that were pulled up to the beach and how extremely close together they all were.

The boats were literally rubbing up against each other. Kinda crazy.

After lunch we sailed over to a place called Monkey Bay. During low tide there is a beach and they call that Monkey Beach, but we were there during high tide, so we just looked at some monkeys on a rock.

Do you see the three monkeys? Jun said sometimes they jump on the boats. Gah! Our boat was far enough away that these three didn't even try. They just looked at us. I'm not a fan of the monkeys.

The next stop was at Phi Phi Leh, a small island. We didn't go on a beach at all. We just dropped anchor and people jumped off the boat to snorkel. I didn't jump off or snorkel and I can assure you it got hot as hell on the boat. I was sweating so hard I did consider putting on a life jacket and getting wet. What stopped me was that the water was quite deep and there were fish everywhere.

I took the photo above from on board the boat. I do not want to be by the fishes. Also there were jellyfish, but I guess they weren't the scary kind because Jun jumped in and got the jellyfish and proceeded to bring it right on the boat for anyone to touch.

I didn't touch it. I don't know what he did with it after show and tell. He said they were delicious and that Thai people liked to eat them on Sunday. Why Sunday? I don't know. This was on a Friday, so I don't know if they keep well over a couple of days. It looked kind of pink in the water, but it looks clear and jelly-like there in his hand, doesn't it?

MT loved the snorkeling there. He was the last guy back on the boat.

From the snorkel spot sailed over to a lovely lagoon. This was the approach. It's low tide, so you can see all the rocks on the bottom. The water of course was deep enough for our boat, but it looks shallow.

 We sailed through the passage and the lagoon opened up a little.

 Can you believe that water?! We eventually got over to where those boats were and dropped anchor. It looked like this:

Yeah, I know. Totally, amazingly gorgeous. The best part: shallow enough for me to get out of the boat and stand there. Yeah, I put on a life jacket because I'm a big chicken and yes, it freaked me out a bit lot, but Jun and MT were very nice and calming and helped me, even when I nearly fell out of the boat while I was getting in the water. It was absolutely my fault; I don't have a lot of experience getting out of boats and I was trying to come down forward-facing instead of backwards and I slipped, landing on my ass and bending my right knee to an angle it has not achieved in years. The knee, my right, was swollen and painful for a day or so, but it's fine now. I mostly just felt really stupid.

When I got over my embarrassment, I did enjoy being in the water. The bottom was a little rocky, but I managed to pick my feet up and float a little since I had the life jacket on. I was really glad to get wet because I was hot!

Jun and the crew brought out fresh fruit - watermelon, pineapple and mango - and we all enjoyed the delicious treat while we hung out in the lagoon. It was pretty wonderful.

We got back on the boat after about 30 minutes or so. The next stop was just a photo opportunity to see the beach at Maya Bay. It's claim to fame is that it is the location featured in the Leonardo Di Caprio movie The Beach.

After the movie came out, so many people flocked to this gorgeous spot that the coral was getting ruined and the overall pristine-ness of the beach was getting loved to death. The Thai government has blocked access to the beach and the reef as it is rehabilitating itself.

After everyone took their photos, it was time to head back to Phuket. The sea was much more calm on the way back and almost everyone took a little snooze. Me, I just stared out the back of the boat at the magic of the Phi Phi Islands. I really felt like we saved the best for last. It was all awesome.

Click here for just a little more info about the Phi Phi Islands.

So that's it!  I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as I have enjoyed writing about them and sharing our photos. Please feel free to leave a comment if you'd like, or if you have questions, I will be glad to answer them in a subsequent post.

I hope you all had a wonderful March and have something to look forward to in April (I know I do!) Since April is an even month, I will be writing on even numbered days, so I'll talk to you again on Tuesday 4/2!

#2182 we stay at nice places

I'm almost done with telling you about the vacation. It's too bad I missed Wednesday because I did have a topic but I was out of town for work and didn't have all the photos for what I wanted to write about. It's okay though, because I'm back tonight with a quick look at some pics from and of the hotels.

We stayed at three different hotels during the SE Asia trip. They were all very nice, luxurious places with excellent service. The two hotels in Thailand were on a beach, so they had that going for them right off the bat. The hotel in Cambodia was on a nice quiet street and actually might have been the nicest of all. I'm not much of one to take photos of a hotel room, (except for the two pics I texted to Mom and Lizzie of the place I stayed on Wednesday. The room was huge, but not overly fancy) so I don't have anything like that. Instead, these pics show the views or something I thought was unusual and cool.

In Siem Reap, Cambodia we stayed at the Shinta Mani Angkor. I actually don't think the photos on the website do it justice. It was so beautiful and so calm and peaceful. There was such a lovely scent in the air, sort of minty and lightly floral. I wish I knew what it was or if there was a candle of that smell because I would have bought many candles. There were water features all around. There were interesting statues. There were lotus blossoms everywhere.

The room itself was very large. The bathroom was nice - the shower was awesome with a big rain showerhead. If you click on the link for the hotel, we had the Deluxe Garden Room. In fact, that photo might be of our room. That art was exactly what we had. I really like this photo of MT standing out on the balcony of our room. We could see the pool and there was also a lot of greenery. Mosquitoes were an issue in the evening, so we couldn't hang out there very much. Plus it was hot.

We had lunch and breakfast on the terrace. The seating was sort of a hanging/swinging bed type thing and it was like have breakfast or lunch in bed. There were trays for the table. It was kind of strange and totally cool and different. The breeze out there was magnificent. The downside was that there were some mosquitoes. MT got the worst of those critters.

If you ever find yourself going to Siem Reap, I highly recommend the Shinta Mani Angkor. I'd go back there again in a heartbeat.

The next place we stayed was the Centara Grand Beach Resort in Krabi, Thailand. We fell in love with this place when we saw it's website (click on the link to fall in love yourself). The location is exquisite, set against the towering limestone cliffs and fronted by the emerald green Andaman Sea. It is only accessible by boat, which the hotel runs from the Nopparatthara pier every half hour or so. When we arrived, we had just missed the boat so we would have had to wait but we made arrangements to take a longtail boat with another family that had just missed the speedboat also. This photo is our first look at the resort from the boat.

Because the resort is only accessible by boat (or by the Monkey Trail, post #2175) the beach is very private and not overcrowded at all. The water is calm because it is in a bay. The water is warm and not very deep. There are two swimming pools. One is right behind all those white umbrellas you can see. It was large and great for families because there was a small waterslide and it's not too deep. The other pool was adults only and the time we went over there, we were by ourselves for a long time, so long, in fact, that I wondered if we were allowed to be there. Very calm and nice, but no bar service.

Here are a couple of photos of the beach itself. The top photo is the first morning we were there, just strolling along the beach.

This next photo I took just around sunset. As you can imagine, the sunsets were spectacular.

The resort where we stayed in Phuket was the Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach. If the Shinta Mani was the nicest on the inside, and the Centara was the nicest from the outside, the Pullman had the nicest views. It didn't seem like much as we drove in. It is up on a hill and the driveway winds through tall bamboo stands and past water features. When you arrive at the lobby, you walk up some stairs and at the top, the whole room is open to an outstanding view of the Andaman Sea, very blue at this location. You look past the infinity pools to the very pretty Naithon Beach below which is hemmed in by tall pine trees and the sea.

The infinity pool in this photo is not the swimming pool. This is just a lounge area. But WOW. When we got our first look at this, we had to laugh at our good fortune and our travel agent's good taste.

As I mentioned, the resort is on a hill and the resort is big. You can call for a little car to take you from your room to the lobby and restaurants and back but we walked all the time because that's how we are. You gotta take a look at the little car though.

It doesn't have any doors! Kind of hilarious. I don't think this photo really shows how steep some of the walkways are. Check this out:

 My calves were rock-hard after this vacation from so many stairs and so many hills.

This is the view from the pool near my room down to Naithon Beach. Isn't it so pretty?! The thing I loved the most about Naithon Beach is that it wasn't crowded at all which I guess is rare in Phuket. The town is small and super mellow. I totally loved it and so did MT.

Of course I have to finish with a sunset photo. I took this shot from our room. It was an imperative that we would go out on our balcony every night to watch the sunset. Can you blame us? Five nights of views like this...amazing.

#2181 Tiger Cave Temple

Let's head back to Krabi tonight so I can tell you about seeing a giant gold Buddha statue at the Tiger Cave Temple.

When MT and I were researching the trip and figuring out things to do, we both agreed that we would like to see a Buddhist temple. MT found out about the Tiger Cave Temple where you had to climb over 1,000 steps to see the Buddha at the top of the mountain.

Our guide and driver picked up up at the pier. We took a little detour through Krabi town to check out the morning market and to see the river, then it was off to the temple.

There is a big temple onsite and it looked like it was either being built or refurbished or something. Seeing the temple itself wasn't the draw for us so much as climbing up the mountain to see the big Buddha at the top.

Turns out you have to climb 1,237 steps to get up there.

They do NOT all look like this:

Mostly they look like this:

You can see that it is steep and the steps are tall. Really, though, the steps varied in height and width. Mostly they were extremely narrow. I couldn't put my whole foot on a step.

Did I mention it was steep?

The first 300 steps or so weren't too bad; we got up those fairly quickly. We both had bottles of water that our kind guide had purchased for us. Helpfully, on those big blue posts you see there were numbers painted on so you could tell where you were and how far you had to go

At around 500 steps I very much considered turning around and going back down. It was hot and I was sweating and my legs were burning. I didn't think I had another 700 steps in me. MT told me later that he was sort of feeling the same way. MT was a lot faster than I was. I got to a point where I would go up about 10 steps, take a quick breather then go up 10 more steps. I may have silently shed a tear or two around step 618. At 933, I knew I was going to make it.

photo by MT

Here I am, sweating my way up, pausing on the tenth step. The shade was good but it was hot out there.

After about 70 minutes of climbing, we finally reached the top. The breeze up there felt so great and the views were spectacular.

In this first one, you can see the Krabi River feeding into the Andaman Sea:

This is a view to the right of the photo above. Look at the mountains!

MT took this panoramic shot. It is just to the right of the photo above this one. That's me standing in front of the little shrine on top of the stairs (not counted in the 1,237 I'll have you know!)

pano shot by MT

Then there is this shot of the countryside, that unfolds to the right of the photo above. I'm trying to give you a 360 degree view from the top of the mountain. 

Remember I mentioned the big temple that was being refurbished? Here is a photo of it when we were up around 200 steps.

And here is a view from the top of the mountain, looking down on it:

Then of course there was the main attraction:

We stayed up at the top for 30 minutes or so before we psyched ourselves up to head down the steps. In some ways, going down was harder walking. It was more jarring on the knee joints for sure.

A side note here that my surgically repaired knees both felt just fine. There's no way I would have been able to do this adventure before the surgeries. If anything, the newer knee felt a little tender at the end of the day. The older knee was solid.

Here we are on the way down. You can tell we are descending because I'm smiling.

photo by MT

 Here's MT, almost at the bottom!

Our guide, whose name I do not know, greeted us at the bottom with ice cold Gatorade and cold towelettes. (Cold towels are a thing in Thailand that I absolutely loved!) My legs were quivering but I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want MT to think I was a big baby. Imagine my relief when he said that his legs were shaking like leaves. When we got back in the van the legs were sort of spasming. It was weird and kind of awful but not painful at all. I was only a little bit sore the next day.

I had my Apple watch on that day to give me some data. That day I burned 1,761 calories; my norm is around 650 and into the 900s on an exercise day. It counted the exercise time at 222 minutes. A note on that though is that I have a protective cover on my watch and it got all sweaty under there and I was unable to stop the exercise time, so it's exaggerated a bit. My watch also says I walked 14,185 steps that day for a distance of over six miles. It was a big day.

Overall I'm really glad I made it to the top and lived to tell the tale. I don't know that I would ever want to do it again, but never say never!

You can read more about Wat Tham Sua here.

#2180 Phang Nga Bay

We'll switch gears today and head out to Phuket to explore Phang Nga Bay. We took a fun excursion on a speed boat to a few different areas of the bay. This was mainly a sight-seeing trip, although we did have a brief chance to get in a bit of a swim.

We got picked up at our hotel and shared a ride with a nice couple from Boston to the Royal Phuket Marina where we were greeted by our guide for the day, Bond. His name was certainly appropriate and easy to remember since one of our stops was James Bond Island.

The Marina was pretty impressive and so was the boat that we were on that day.

The Marina - photo by MT

The boat we were on - photo by MT

The boat was a large speedboat that held probably around 30 people. The crew consisted of the driver, two crew members and the guide, Bond. We sat under the canopy because I wanted to be in the shade. The people sitting up front there got a bit too much sun!

Our first stop was Koh Khai, a small little island with a nice enough beach and a spot for snorkeling.

The water was nice and warm, but not very clear. I took this photo before a bunch of boats pulled up right there and unloaded a hundred other tourists. We weren't here for very long, though. Just long enough to get wet and cool off before we headed to our next stop, James Bond Island.

Do you remember the James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun? Part of it was filmed on this little island. There is a rock out in the middle of the bay that is called James Bond Rock.

That big karst over on the right is James Bond Rock.

Bond, our guide, helped us recreate the iconic movie image.

whatculture.com

photo by Bond

I'm not sure what I found to be so hilarious here. I might be that I was in the water and it was kinda muddy and my flip-flops were sliding around all over. It could also be that Bond was looking for just the right shot and took 22 photos. It was silly and fun. And crowded. There were sooooo many people there and the island is tiny and the steps from where all the boats were parked to this side of the island were crawling with people. Still, it was a fun stop. There were a bunch of kiosks selling souvenirs. We didn't buy anything. You can read more about James Bond Island here.

The speedboats were parked over to the right out of the photo. I liked these longtail boats. Very Thai.

We got back in the boat and headed over to Panyee Island for lunch. Panyee is a floating village, populated by Muslim people dating back over 200 years. I have not ever seen anything like it.

MT took this photo from the boat

photo by MT

We walked through the village to get a a restaurant where we enjoyed a buffet lunch. There was soup, fried rice, chicken, fish and some other things I don't remember. The food was fine, but I was being tentative because I had been very sick the day before and didn't want to upset my stomach while I was on a boat ride. Here are a couple more photos of the village.

Panyee used to be a fishing village, but now most of the residents either sell souvenirs out in front of their houses or they work at the restaurant or the men might row you around Hong Island. What you're looking at in the photo above is basically the inside of someone's house.

This photo is just outside the restaurant as we are waiting to get back on board our boat.

This is a photo of the restaurant called New Fern where we ate. It's huge.There aren't many other places to eat out there on the bay.

You can read more about Koh Panyee here.

The final stop on the tour that day was Hong Island for a canoe trip through some caves. This was unexpected for me; I didn't realize the tour would include getting into a canoe and going into caves. Everyone has heard the story of the Thai kid's soccer team that got trapped in a cave for a couple of weeks, right? I wasn't thrilled with going into a cave. At. All. Then there's the whole canoe thing. By the time we did this excursion I had already stretched myself and been in a kayak (I haven't told that story here, but it was well-liked when I put it on Facebook), so MT told me that I was an old hand at getting in little tiny boats and floating on the sea. The tide was low and a local guy was going to paddle us around. So I took a deep breath, put on a life jacket, and got my bum into the canoe.

Here we are in the canoe with about 50 other canoes. The water was shallow, but I was still a bit nervous.

You can see that the water was calm and mellow.

Mostly we were just floating along through these arches and checking out the scenery. It wasn't exactly peaceful because there were so many other canoes and people out there, but it was pretty fun and certainly something I had never seen myself doing ever.

Our rowing guy didn't speak much/any English, but he did ask if we had been to James Bond Island. We said yes and after that, he kept shouting "Hollybush!" which I think was his way of saying "Hollywood" but I'm not sure. It was kinda funny the first ten times that he shouted it, and after that it was kind of annoying. He was a nice guy, though, and insisted on taking us to a calm little spot where he jumped out of the boat and took over 50 photos of us in the canoe. Here's just one of those 52 photos:

photo by our boat guy who I will call Hollybush

At this spot the water wouldn't be up to my knees and I am holding that oar simply for the photo. I didn't row at all.

You can read about Koh Hong here.

After that, it was back to the marina. Most people took a little snooze. The sea was calm and the ride took about 40 minutes or so. It's really beautiful out there. 

photo by MT

The day was an unexpected pleasure. I'm really glad I went!

For a bit more info about Phang Nga Bay, click here.