Knitting at the beach on Phuket Island

First another picture from the floating market (Lloyd's camera)...

It seemed to be mainly women paddling boats to sell food.

Now for Phuket town, and the interesting Sino-Portuguese architecture...

Soi Rommanee, a former red-light district, now a prosperous residential street with shops.  I had a delicious cappucino in this establishment.

A beautiful museum, well-laid out, called Thai Hua Museum.  It used to be a Chinese language school.  It celebrates the history of the Chinese residents in Phuket, many of whom have become very rich in mining and coconut industries.

Lloyd buying a pommelo at the market--we are really enjoying the fresh fruit!

Pineapples waiting to be unloaded.

Unloading sacks of veggies from the back of a truck--reminded us of the flying fish at the Seattle Pike Place market.

This morning we took the songthaew to Nai Harn beach and found it to be cheek-by-jowl of chaise longues.  So we decided to walk up the headland, about 500 metres straight up, to the view point from where I took this picture.  This is also the marked "evacuation route" in case of another tsunami.  

And this is looking in the opposite direction at a much smaller beach, Ya Nui, so we decided to walk there for a dip.

And after a very welcome beer and lunch at a beach restaurant, we donned our bathing suits.  Lloyd kindly held my sarong for me--it's two metres of fabric sewn into a tube which was just large enough for me in which to undress.  Lloyd used the toilet--don't think he could have managed in the sarong!  We rented these two chairs, umbrella and table for 200 BHT (about $6), and then off to the ocean.  The water was wonderfully refreshing, probably about 30 degrees, and very salty.  The sand is fine and there's lots of coral.

And then as promised, I pulled out my knitting and happily knit away in the shade while Lloyd strolled the beach--he now looks like a lobster as a result while I'm still quite pale!

Showing off the butterfly lace motif that I've knit into one of the segments.

It was interesting to sit and listen to all the different languages being spoken around me...Russian, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, and more.  Hardly any English or Thai.  Every woman was in a bikini and there were some topless bathers as well.  Everyone looks too well fed however! Definitely a lot of flesh, and not very attractive. And the smoking!  We had a second dip just before leaving the beach and then happily walked along a hot road (but in the shade) to Rawai Beach to catch the Songthaew back to Phuket.  And here's Lloyd hanging off the back of the bus!

That open shirt is another reason for his lobster colour tonight

A Day in Greater Bangkok

We spent Wednesday with Mr. Boonya (the same fellow who picked us up at the airport) who took us outside of Bangkok to the southwest.  Our first stop was at the market at Maeklong Station in Samut Songkhram, where the vendors display their goods right up against the tracks, and thus move everything forward and back because of the trains 4 times a day. 

 We arrived just as a train was leaving and so missed the transition.  That's Mr. Boonya in the background buying vegetables.

Morning glory vines--yum!

The array of eggplant available--the smallest are the size of large peas.

Some merchants have their goods on tables which can be pulled back and forth quickly on rails.

Next stop was the floating market at Damnoen Saduck, a community that still lives in a network of canals.  The commerce is strictly aimed at tourists however--lots of women paddling boats and selling fruit and cooking food on board (it was only 10:30 so we didn't feel like eating), and many canal-side stalls all selling the same cheap and cheerful souvenirs.  We think our boat driver was sad that we didn't buy a thing...

Drinking coconut juice straight from the fruit at the roadside.

The tallest stupa in Thailand--at Nakhon Pathom

We finished that day as we do everyday with laundry!  We've become adept at washing even our pants and shorts in the sink. This is the kitchen window of the condo.  I was able to take this picture by leaning out the window of the elevator hallway.  

We spent Thursday rambling around the big sights in central Bangkok (the Grand Palace, etc.) with the hoards of other foreigners, most of whom we think are amazingly inappropriately dressed for both modesty and sun protection!

And then at 7:30 PM we climbed aboard a VIP coach for the overnight trip to Phuket.  The seats reclined to about 175 degrees, just enough to get comfortable and then stiffen up because of the inability to shift around too much!  For a side-sleeper it's not the best.  But oh well, we arrived 12 hours later...  There was a stop at 1:30 for a complementary meal at a huge very commercial rest stop.  It was a welcome meal of congee and accompaniments.

Our hotel is in the outskirts of Phuket, about 3 km from the town centre.  We were able to check in early, had a shower and snooze to revitalize, and then hailed a cab to explore the town for the afternoon.  I'll download those pictures later--there's some very interesting architecture here called "Sino-Portuguese" which is a hybrid of Asian and European styles.

We're now off to find some breakfast and catch a local bus to the beach.  Might even go to one of smaller islands too.  It's now 8:15 AM Saturday and already hot and steamy--close to 30 degrees.  My Pi shawl is coming along nicely, and I'll take that to the beach with me.

More from Kanchananburi

Yesterday I posted images from Lloyd's camera.  I've now downloaded my pictures, and what follows is a random selection.

Our room at Apple's Retreat--a king sized bed on a platform--very comfortable.

Coconut palms

Waiting for the train at Nam Tok Station.  

Sugar cane being harvested.  We've seen lots of big trucks on the road loaded w

Knitting and surfing in the garden.  My pi shawl is coming along beautifully.  I now have 576 stitches on the needles so lots of good knitting still to come!

And here's the peace vessel again so you can see the attribution.  I was very moved by this bowl--that a man who worked with his hands to build a railroad under extreme duress found his calling in working with clay, and then has his work displayed in a very meaningful way.  That it's filled with fresh flowers every day is also special.

Kanchanaburi, Day 2

We hired a car and driver from our guesthouse for the day, and he drove us north about 60 Km to "Hell Fire Pass".  This was part of the "death railway" constructed in WWII by POW (mostly Aussie) and conscripted Asian labour.  They had only simple tools such as picks and shovels and hand drills plus dynamite to cut a pass through rock about 25 meters deep and 500 metres long.  And they did this in 6 weeks because they were forced to work around the clock on very limited rations of rice and vegetables, using torches for light (hence the name Hell Fire).  There is a very good museum at the top of the pass built by the Australian gov't about 20 years ago.  There aren't many artifacts because the POWs didn't have much stuff with them, but some very good photographs, models of the railway, diary and sketchbook excerpts, and maps.  I found one part of the museum particularly poignant:  there is a cantilevered deck out the back of the building overlooking the pass, and at the end is a beautiful blue pottery bowl created by an Australian potter who had been one of the POW laborers.  He survived the war, and later studied ceramics in Australia.  There is a bamboo frame floating in the bowl to support fresh flowers.  

Overlooking the Hell Fire Pass.  The Burmese border is on the edge of the distant peaks.

We then walked down the trail to the pass itself, and walked for about 40 minutes on the original rail bed. The rails were lifted about 50 years ago, and the rail bed was restored again with Australian financial support in the last 30 years or so.

Hell Fire Pass

And then for a complete change of pace, we were driven to Sai Yok Noi waterfall where many white tourists were cavorting in the water in their bikinis (and some definitely should have been wearing more clothes...)

And then to Lawa Cave with some spectacular chambers:

Lawa Cave:  Hot and humid, not cold!

We were a bit surprised at how warm it was in the cave--not at all like European caves which are cold.  And there was not a lot of oxygen--there was a sign at the entrance warning us to "take note of your body condition.  Oxygen levels are low."

We finished off the day by being dropped by our driver at the Nam Tok railway station to return to Kanchanaburi by train, a journey that took over 3 hours but very scenic.

A Third Class train meaning hard seats and no air conditioning--windows wide open...

And we've wrapped up the day with another wonderful meal here at our guesthouse (Apple's Retreat).  And I enjoyed 2 glasses of Thai white wine--a little weak but wine none-the-less!

We've Arrived in Kanchanaburi

We caught the bus to Kanchanaburi from the Southern Bus Terminal in Bangkok at 9:45 AM and arrived in this bustling city on the River Kwai around noon.  We took a mini bus or "songthaews" (a small pick up truck like our old Toyota with bench seats in the box) for 20 baht (66 cents) each to what we thought was our guest house, only to find that we had booked the sister facility across the river...  

Lloyd in the back of the songthaews

Janet up near the front

Relaxing on the patio at Apple's Retreat and Guesthouse, overlooking the River Kwai

We think we'll be happy here!  We can hear birds and smell beautiful scents from the tree blossoms.  We're waiting for lunch--I've ordered "morning glory vines" which I've had elsewhere, and I've decided this is my favourite vegetable for the moment.  Imagine eating morning glory!  From what I can tell, it's a totally different plant compared to the weed we pull out of the garden at home.

A Visit to a Silk Village in NE Thailand

The Mulberry Plantation

A sheet of silk worm eggs--they'll take about 9 days to hatch into worms.

Silk worms feeding on mulberry leaves for 3 - 4 weeks

When the worms are ready to start spinning their cocoons, they're removed from the leaves.

The fat wriggling caterpillars are sprinkled into rattan trays and then covered with netting.

Starting to spin their cocoons

These cocoons are just about ready for the bath...

A full tray of cocoons--this took from 2 - 7 days.

The cocoons are dropped into simmering water, and the seracin (the gummy yellow substance) softens.

The fibres from several cocoons are "reeled" into a single thread.

The moths inside the cocoons were cooked by the boiling water--the women snacked on these.  We were offered them as a treat but we declined!  I wished I had been brave enough...

This was the only man working in the process--he was creating skeins of "raw silk" from the dry fibre created above.

Skeins of raw silk--still full of seracin...very stiff and coarse.

Our guide in the village--the leader of the silk workers--at work on her loom.

The warp is pink and the weft has been dyed both pink and grey.  She adjusts the weft to get the  undulating pattern

I bought this scarf--very similar to what she was weaving above. 

Our driver's wife was also a weaver in the "Mudmee" tradition which is  where the weft threads are tied and dyed.

Her dye studio

At our driver's home--a traditional Thai house on stilts which is nice and breezy.  I was using his broadband internet connection.