CAT | pics
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.
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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.
We took a train trip to Hualien and Taroko Gorge this weekend with friends from work and I posted pics here. It was scenic and a lot of fun . . . until we got back Sunday night I realized my apartment key had fallen out of my pocket in the cab or train or something and that we were locked out. We managed not to sleep in the street but didn’t get back into the apartment until Monday morning. It sucked.
More trips are coming, stay tuned.
I emptied a huge backlog on the camera here, including Shanghai and hiking pics
We ate at an awesome place near our house this weekend: “Stone BBQ”. There’s a big hole in the table that they fill with coals, then cover with a marble slab. Then, you char all you can eat meat, seafood and vegetables, and eat it. They also have all you can drink beer. All of this costs less than $20 a person.
All the restaurants and shops play Christmas music in the background, which seems completely out of place but has me “in the spirit”. I can’t wait to get back to the US next week, unwind and see the fam.
So I finally posted a video tour of our apartment. Warning: 25MB. There are more pics up in the Taiwan gallery too.
In other news, we’re getting fully settled in. Work is going well but keeping me extremely busy. I like walking to the office tower every day, even when it’s raining, it makes me feel like a grown-up for a some reason; apparently my brain didn’t think I was a grown up before. I’m really learning to appreciate the location of the apartment, everything we need seems just a short walk or ride away. I got my first Taiwanese haircut and it looks good – at a high end place down the street, only about $13 with a hair wash. Like Costa Rica, I’m starting to get annoyed if I spend more than $3-4 on lunch. My lunchtime tighfistedness had eroded in Folsom, I had worn down to paying $8 without a second thought.
We’ve started Mandarin lessons – 4 hours a week. I’m building a mental map of the city in my brain. Food is still great – I’ve found a lot of good local places near work, and were sticking pretty faithfully to a different style every time we go out (which is about half the time). You can’t count Chinese food as one genre for this to work, however. My running joke that Cynthia finds unamusing is constantly saying “Hey, why don’t we go out for Chinese food?” . Last night was mala hot pot with visiting US work friends – made with a Szechuan spicy broth. Szechuan is shaping up to be my favorite Chinese food variety overall – it has the best sauces and it’s almost always spicy. Taiwan style beef noodle soup is a very close second. We’ve been sneaking American food at Yuma (Tex-Mex) and today friends took us to The Diner. We will return to all of these places, and also break down and have pizza.
I’m not feeling homesick yet, probably because time is flying – its already almost November. Cynthia and I are spending a week in Shanghai in early November and we’ll be back in the US for Xmas and New Years. Let me know in the comments what you guys want to hear about. For now, I’m going to thaw some frozen sauce and have pasta and garlic bread for dinner.
I’ve posted up some crazy pics I took over the weekend . . .
This is a man-eating tree snail crawling on a sidewalk planter, almost as big as Cynthia’s hand
They were doing underground work in front of the apartment this week, and repaved it over the weekend. Instead of moving parked cars with a tow truck, they used a forklift. It was surprisingly efficient, though I don’t think either car nor forklift are intended for this application.
There are more pics from the week in the Taiwan gallery. I’ll continue to post there as new experiences occur.
You want to make bean dip in Taiwan? Need some canned chill? Well, the pride of Eden Prarie has made it’s way to the Wellcome (we’re thinking of you Paul and Rachel).
Oh, also I changed the blog theme. I may bring the old one back, but I can’t figure out how to manipulate the style sheet to make it look better on wide screens.
I just returned from spending a solo week in Michigan to do some fly fishing and figured I’d post a trip journal. Pictures are also up.
Day 1: Sailing
I landed in Detroit late Friday night, then spent Saturday afternoon sailing with my Dad on the boat. It was a nice warm day (by Michigan standards) and the wind was strong, which added up to a really nice time. Back at home we had grilled pork loin with the family. At midnight, the brothers and I made a White Castle run. Mmm . . . sliders.
Day 2: Travel
Packed up, Dave and I visited my Grandparents and Aunt for a few hours and had a traditional pasta dinner with my Grandma’s red sauce. My grandparents are 87 and 92, and so dinner on Sunday is at 3:30pm, but regardless of the hour I always try to sneak in a pasta dinner on any visit home. The pasta sauce I make in Folsom is intended to emulate this recipe, and though I’m quite pleased with results it’s never exactly the same as the real thing. We left around 5 and proceeded “up north” to the Hook and Horn in Baldwin, pulling in about 8:30 just as Aunt Ellene was leaving. The party for the rest of the week was now set: My other grandparents, Dave and I, and our host Uncle Chris. Unlike last year, the H&H has satellite TV, so we watched the Red Wings Game 2
Day 3: The Muskegon River
Dave sleeps on the college schedule, and my west coast orientation had a similar effect, so we were up about 9:30. Grandma, in storybook style, had eggs, sausage and pancakes ready. There are a lot of different fishing options in and around Baldwin, and we settled on the Muskegon river as are first destination because Uncle Chris expected some good hatches and would be able to fish dry flies.
It’s about a 45 minute drive down to the river, and the filies were indeed rising as expected. Dave, Uncle Chris and I stayed in the boat while Grandpa fished from shore. My casting was mediocre but got progressively better throughout the afternoon. The fish were rising to the hatching caddis, and you had to cast to just the right spot and in rhythm with the fish. Both Dave and I each snagged rainbows in the 7-8” range (this by the way, was my very first trout). Uncle Chris mostly provided helpful coaching tips, but would occasionally take up the rod and immediately hook a fish. I have a long way to go and a lot to learn.
We returned back to the lodge and had Cabbage Wraps, for dinner, and Dave and I fished at dusk in the Pere Marquette, right in the front yard, catching nothing.
Day 4: More Muskegon
Basically a carbon copy of yesterday . . . same schedule, same breakfast, same river, same hatches. My casting and technique was noticeably better, and I was rewarded with two fish this time. It rained on us for just a minute or two and these proved to be the only rain of the whole trip.
Day 5: The Pere Marquette.
The Hook and Horn is a really unique place, the front and back of the lot touch the meandering river at different points which sets up a great wading stretch that takes a few hours to fish and is packed with holes and riffles. At breakfast (again pancakes, eggs and sasuage) we decided to stay put and take advantage. Unlike the Muskegon, there were no hatches, so Dave and I set off and fished wet flies (i.e. under the surface of the water) instead. This was a much different style of fishing . . .you’re in the river in waders by yourself instead of in a the boat with others, and the river is much smaller so you get away from the basic textbook casting and have to improvise with sideways and roll casts. I get my line tangled and caught up in the trees a lot and lose a lot of flies to this as well as underwater snags..
On the Muskegon with the flies on the surface drag is your enemy – any unnatural movement of the line pulling on your fly tips the fish off that something is wrong and they won’t strike. With the wet flies on the PM, the same drag emulates a minnow or insect nymph swimming against the current and the fish are attracted. I get two trout: a brown and a rainbow. The rainbow is the smallest fish I’ve ever caught, at a comically small 3 inches long, it’s really more of a minnow,.
We throw all these fish back – this stretch of the PM is flies only and catch and release by regulation. But this isn’t true on the Muskegon, and even then we didn’t keep any. Every night on the phone, Cynthia would be puzzled by this since on the surface all this fishing seems to be a significant waste of time, energy and money. But the fishing for me is not about the harvest, although in the right place and time I don’t have a problem with taking fish. The hours spent on the river are for me really something like a Zen exercise. I’m not thinking about anything except my cast and the river. Getting a fish is a pleasant surprise that interrupts the flow.
Day 6: More of the PM
Today is much like the previous (more pancakes and sausage for breakfast but we’re out of eggs), but I fish a lot more effectively. I catch two fish in the morning, and get six in the afternoon most of them in riffles but some in holes. One of them is 13 inches, the biggest of the trip for me. My eight fish for the day tops everyone, even Uncle Chris, though he spent much less time on the water overall (he got 6 in 40 minutes in the morning). My improved technique helps but a big part is finding a nymph pattern the fish really like and not quickly losing it to a snag. Eventually though, inevitability catches up and it’s gone to either a huge steelhead or a really odd hang up and things slow down.
I finish the normal loop around the river but decide I’m not quite ready to call it done, so I head upstream instead and run into Grandpa. He’s got one fish for the afternoon, and asks me how I’ve down. I tell him I’ve been pretty lucky and as I cast say “I’ve usually been catching them on the swing, right about here” and at that moment I hook the final fish . . . and this on a nymph, like the third one I’d ever tied all by myself at the fishing club tying jam a few months ago. This proved a fitting end.
I’d absorbed a mountain of information from Uncle Chris, Grandpa and Dave over the past 4 days and will able to carry this forward as a real fisherman going forward. I started this having never really known what I was doing on a river but now feel like I at least know enough fundamentals to be somewhat effective. There’s still a long way to go . . . my casting can get a lot more efficient and I can get better at picking fly patterns. Loyal readers will recall that my first H&H trip last year involved sinking the drift boat. All in all, this trip fulfilled the goal I started with last year – learning to fish a river, and defintively proved that I wasn’t cursed as I at first feared.
Day 7: Back to GP
We woke up Friday morning and cleaned the H&H top to bottom, then said our goodbyes and headed back home at about 9:30. We were back in Grosse Pointe by early afternoon. That evening, I went to Louis little league game and treated Dave and Louis (everyone else was gone) to a Jet’s Hawaiian pizza and some buffalo wings. ‘Twas delicious (as befits my favorite pizza.
Day 8: Party
Saturday morning I visited my Aunt and Grandparents again for a pesto lunch (every meal over there these days seems to involve pasta), and then headed over to Tony’s for his Michigan based wedding reception. Cynthia and I had joined Tony and Rachael for their wedding on the Carnival Glory back in March, it was just lucky coincidence that I was in town to celebrate all over again. Tony had the grass planted, with a catered bar, BBQ, bounce house and cotton candy machine, and I got to chat with all his friends and family I met on the cruise. Marissa was there as well, massively pregnant (in fact, Sloan was born a little more than 24 hours later). I said my goodbyes around 8pm and was back in GP in time to catch the last two period of the Red Wings game and get all my stuff repacked.
Day 9: The return
Sean and I woke at 6am (3am Pacific time) and he drove me to the airport. By noon, my feet were back on California soil.
