. . . but Invest 9 has popped up and started calling itself  Tropical Storm Namtheun.   This means a lot of rain; I returned from  lunch with my head wet from water coming through overwhelmed seams in my umbrella.  My pants were soaked from splashback and horizontal rain, and I hung my socks to dry at my desk.  Cynthia’s planned shopping trip today was also foiled.  Wunderground says it’s going to hang out for a while.

We also had an decent earthquake this afternoon to complete that Old Testament feel.  Don’t worry, Cynthia jumped up and saved the TV from falling over.

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Photo’s from the last couple months are up with captions by Cynthia.  Michigan at the beginning, some Idaho, and our bike ride yesterday in Taipei.

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The view from the bike trail.

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I had lunch at the sushi train down the street today

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Pics are up from Paul and Rachael’s visit when we took them to the Green Island, better late then never.

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Also included a few from the Dragon Boat Festival (a day off) this week.

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It’s been a frantic month with tons of work and travel for us.  This weekend is the first time I’ve had a chance to catch y’all up.  Here’s a short synopsis, because there are lots of Cynthia-captioned pics.

• Hong Kong (Apr 3 weekend) – we forgot the camera, so no pictures for you.   Hong Kong was definitely the most expat friendly of any city we’ve visited.  Cynthia, not normally known for shopping, was quite fond of H&M in particular.  We ate Dim Sum, but actually stuck mostly to non-Chinese food (Gyros, Indian, Steak, Mexican!) because we no longer feel guilty about it on a trip.
• Beijing (Apr 10 weekend) – Cold, a bit strange.  We were staying at  a government hotel at the Olympic Green because it was connected to the convention center – the whole area was brand new but virtually deserted.  We climbed the Great Wall, crashed the Forbidden City, tried not to arouse suspicion at  Tiananmen Square (along with pervasive uniformed and plain clothes security) and saw a genuinely amazing acrobat show.
• Shanghai (Apr 15-16) – Just one night for a meeting – stayed at the Renaissance this time which superior to the Hilton
• Penghu Islands (Apr 17 weekend)- Bev and James came to visit is and we caught a flight from the local airport across the street to some of Taiwan’s southern  islands, which we explored via scooter.  Cynthia crashed once ( low speed) and was luckily unhurt.  Bev and James also make an appearance in a lot of our other pics this month.
• Hualien (Apr 24th weekend) – went with a group to explore Taroko’s “Golden Canyon” which involved rappelling UP a small, frigid waterfall and having rocks thrown at us by monkeys.  The next day we did some light whitewater rafting on the Hsiukuluan River.  Richard posted some pics on Flickr, and there are more here in the monthly pics.
• On Wednesday I felt 3 separate earthquakes.  Next up: Typhoon season.

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People have been asking for pictures of food.  I provide.

Bejing Duck Pizza at Costco.  Duck+ Green onions + oyster sauce.  Tasty.

$2.50 pork/rice/soup lunch across the street from the office

Teppanyaki in the neighborhood, about $7.  Mine is Rice, Cabbage, Bean Spouts, Garlic Beef, Kimchi, Cynthia’s the same but Garlic Pork instead.

This was my best lunch of the week – this is a grilled baby skipjack  tuna plus a rice/egg/cucumber bowl.  The skin was crispy and salty.  This comes from a Chinese-only place near the office, but I know how to order this now.  The proprietors said I was the first foreigner who wasn’t scared to eat a whole fish there.

Thai milk tea.

Bonus picture.  The building across from ours is almost done, but I still I had to walk under this giant crane right outside our door to get outside.  I’m not sure how they even got it down the street.

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Sitting on the porch of my Koh Mook Rubber Tree Hotel  bungalow on the waning moments of the trip as the cicadas buzz away- in a couple hours I’ll start a 48 hour journey to the other side of the world for a work meeting. 4 days have passed – two in the Bungalow at Koh Mook and 2 in a tent at Koh Rok.   Sleep has been fitful as it’s just too hot – even when the power’s on the fan here provides little relief, though naps on the beach and lazy days also have something to do with it.

Update: now waiting to get on the sleeper train back to Bangkok.  The islands were extremely sparse – Koh Mook has just a few resorts and restaurants, and a small beach.

It was a two hour longtail boat ride to Koh Rok, the engine grating on my ears.  The sand at Koh Rok was like flour – when it’s wet it stratified on the water and you’d call it muck if it wasn’t so pretty.  There’s no resort or massages, only tents.    More tourists come from 10-2 each day but then leave; there are about 20 of us with a whole island to ourselves.  I’ve never had this much beach to myself.  I go exploring and find a dead lobster being picked over by crabs and a wrecked longtail boat.   This must be what it feels like to be on Survivor.

The bathroom had plumbing for the showers and toilets were bucket flush  – both in the same room (why not connect the toilet too?).  Huge crocodile sized lizards hung out nearby in the evenings, and the leaves rustled with hermit crabs on the prowl.    I slept in a beach hammock one night, my first night in a hammock- the lights of the calamari boats in the distance, male campers walking by every few hours to take a leak in the sea (presumably to avoid the inland lizards or spiders or cockroaches or rats).  It was cooler in than the hot tent, but sleep was still fitful.  I awoke startled a couple times as unknown creatures tickled my toes, but the breeze and my DEET were strong enough to keep the mosquitoes away.

We could swim 30 feet off the beach to the most amazing snorkeling; my back got the best tan.  My favorites were the clownfish pairs  darting in and our of their anemones and the giant clams with their florescent mantles embedded deep in the rock.  I still had mask fitting problems with the new equipment, and the reefs were so shallow I ended up scraping the tops of my feet up while treading water a few times.  We went deep sea fishing one afternoon with the staff – I caught a small tuna and some other fish which the staff cooked for us that night.  The fish with red curry (which I had to request special since they don’t serve the tourists spicy food by default) was the best dish of the trip.

Now, the sleeper train has started it’s roll out of the tiny station in Traang (“Traang Station”).  The rickety fans are blowing the air conditioning around.  It’s 2:30am in the US, I should try to grab some slep if I know what’s good for me.

(new pics start here)

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We’ve spent the last couple days at Ao Nang, a touristy beach town near Krabi.

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We arrived in the late afternoon.  It was even hotter than Bangkok.  Checked in, had a drink at the beachside bar at sunset , shopped around the fake goods street and had Tex-Mex for dinner.   The rest of our group of 5 has been in Thailand for weeks and is sick of the food.    They also don’t eat seafood  I’d be sick of 2 weeks of Pad Thai too.   Yesterday was much more pleasant weather wise, swe took a speedboat trip island hopping with stops at 4 small island beaches and a snorkeling spot.  All the beaches had much finer sand than Ao Nang, and the snorkeling was pretty good – not much reef but many fish.  My mask and snorkel were a bit uncomfortable but I made due.

The guide suggested a dinner spot and all six of us loaded up in a tuk tuk to get there.  It was a seafood places so people were scared to each conch (delicious, just don’t eat the bony foot) and terrified of a whole grilled fish.  Since Cyn and I are now Asia veterans, we filleted it with aplbomb and dug right in.   This isn’t much of a partying group, so we retreated to our rooms at 7:30 or so . . . they have wireless internet so we watched the Winter Olympics on Slingbox.  Cynthia and I did stop at the dive shop to invest in some better snorkeling gear (mask and tube <$30 for the set) . . . I’m excited to try out the new mask that actually fits and a snorkel with a splash resistant top and a valve for clearing water.

Right now, we’re riding in the van to heading on a two hour ride to Trang Province where we’ll say goodbye to air conditioning for a few days and meet our beach bungalow.  Thailand really reminds me of Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic – same constructions techniques and similar farming and vegetation, just different writing on the signs and everybody drives on the left side of the road.  It still “feels”" the same.

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(click to see pics)

I think Taipei has muted Bangkok for us a bit, because when you come down to it, it’s to us just another city in Asia, just not quite as dense, a bit dirtier, with murals of the king everywhere and Buddhist  temples in a different style.  We set off at about 8:30 on our walking tour and it was already hot and humid (90 degrees and 80% humidity).  We figured out how to catch the water taxi – they only stop at each pier for about 15 seconds in a flurry of exhaust as the deckhands jump off and tie the boat.  Our first stop was the Golden Palace – Cynthia was unhappy it cost more than $10 each to get in.  We went first to the temple area (Wot Phra Kaew) which was quite gilded, saw the emerald Buddha (actually jade), we then walked around the place grounds and stopped in a small  air conditioned museum to see  the kings crown and coin collection.

We left the palace and went to Wat Suthat, were we started to realize we’ve really gotten the feel for Buddist temples.  Next up was Sir Gurusingh Sabha in the little India.  We had to take our shoes off and wear head coverings, but there wasn’t really much to see there except a bunch of guys in Turbans and a climb to the sixth story where you had a pretty good view of the city.
Since we know we’ll be having Thai food all week, we intentionally stopped at an Indain restraunt, Royal India, for lunch.  The food was good but the air conditioning was even better.  Next, we walked through densely packed open air markets in Little India Chinatown, which was similar to the Taipei night markets but with more stores selling fabrics and beads.  Cynthia found an embroidered table cloth that she liked, so we picked it up as a souvenier (rare for us).

The rest of the day called for more Wots, but the heat was really starting to wear on us (and thus we were wearing on each other), so we headed back to the hotel.  We’d been drinking a lot of water all day but I was quite dizzy after we got back to the room, I’m not sure if it was dehydration, overhydration, the heat, the food or some combination of all of it.  I ended up laying low for about 3 hours, Cynthia hung out by the pool, and  by the time we met our small tour group at 6 for an orientation I was feeling much better.  Dinner was Chinese style duck  noodle soup, and we walked back through Chinatown, all lit up with lanterns for the New Year holiday.  After the group finished beers from 7-eleven, we called it a night.

Today we’re off on a domestic flight to Krabi and thus the beach odyssey we’re here for.

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