Day 65, Year 4: Land Trekking in Thailand
Date: Friday, December 26, 2008
Weather: Mix of Overcast with Periods of Sunshine and Rain (and one monsoon – kjr)
Location: Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand

Judy’s Log with Comments in parentheses by Kevin-kjr

‘Tis the day after Christmas and time for a trek. We visit a Buddhist temple and walk a strenuous 1, 237 steps straight up into the heavens to commune with a mountain top Buddha and see fabulous views of southern Thailand. (Let’s be honest, we were going to stop at step 600 but were shamed into finishing by the octogenarian who passed us on the way up – kjr). We then go for an hour trek through the jungle on the backs of elephants-very special. Onward we go to a national park to climb up to a waterfall and swim in the cool pool at the bottom of the fall before it continued tumbling down the mountain. Lunch was at a lovely spot beside a lake with a limestone karst towering over us. We then visit a fishery and get to see all of the fish that we have been seeing while snorkeling plus huge grouper and black-tipped sharps, just to name a few. (We were very lucky to be there at feeding time – or should I say feeding frenzy time – 100 pound groupers going after their dinner is a thing to behold – kjr). Then it is back to Ao Nang where we are dropped off at Milano to pick up the clothing Kevin and Claire had ordered. Kevin was having a cashmere suit and a couple of shirts made for him, and late on Christmas evening Claire decided to have a classic Chinese dress made of Japanese black silk. Now, if you know Kevin and Claire, cashmere suits and black silk dresses are not their normal attire, but the materials here are so wonderful and the cost of having tailor-made clothing made in 24 hours is so alluring that they went for it. They tried on the finished products (couple of good lookin’ kids – kjr ) and only Claire’s dress needed a bit of adjustment. We needed to wait half-an-hour for the adjustments to be made, so we walked to the waterfront where Kevin and Claire went to a spa for massages and Mark and I went to a lovely ocean-front restaurant to have a beer and spring rolls while we waited. And we did this while watching a beautiful sunset.

We are now back on Windbird and Kevin and Claire are fixing dinner while I write the log and Mark downloads the photos from today. We area all finding Thailand to be truly amazing. Tomorrow we move only a mile and half to another anchorage, but it is an anchorage surrounded by beautiful limestone karsts. These are mountains of limestone that rise straight up out of the sea. They are covered with greenery except on the sheer cliffs, but they definitely make a dramatic backdrop.

Now back to Christmas evening . . . We did make Skype contact with both of our kids which was the best Christmas present we could ever ask for. Our daughter-in-law Jo had a very special Christmas gift for us. She and Justin had written “Ho Ho Ho to Oma and Grandpa” on Jo’s belly to wish us a Merry Christmas from Wee Gerbil (our grandbaby to come). It was also so very special to see her mother and father, brother, sister and her partner. We didn’t get see our grandson Sam, but we did hear him while talking with his mother. At one point in our conversation Sam came to the phone to say, “Ho Ho Ho.” That was after he had taken a bite out of a sand dollar decorating the Christmas tree. Must have looked like a cookie! After our Skype conversations, we had dinner at a restaurant in a beautiful jungle setting. The food was good but we were the only people there which made it feel just a little strange on Christmas evening. But it had been a great Christmas Day and a quiet Christmas dinner was a good thing.

081226 Day 65 Ao Nang, Thailand–Land Trekking

081226 Day 65 Ao Nang, Thailand–Underwater at the Fish Hatchery