Merry Christmas!

Today is the 25th of December and we are in Bangkok, Thailand.  We just arrived yesterday and we are all happy and thankful on Christmas Day.  In the morning, I did some math, but a lot of the day was spent with just my parents and I going into malls and wishing each other Merry Christmas.  At first, I was confused because we never go to malls at home.  Then, my parents started looking in camera shops and telling me to wait outside the store.  They said it was a Christmas surprise.  They did not have any luck so I think they gave up the search.  Oh well!  



In many ways Christmas is different in Thailand than in the US.  In the US, every store is closed and Santas and Christmas trees are everywhere.  In Thailand, all shops are open and temples and small shrines are adorned with fresh offerings of food and flowers.  The town is lit up with lights and everybody is happy and kind.  There are very few strictly Christmas decorations though.  We went to several malls and only saw one or two Santas and a few fake Christmas trees.  I think the fact that I am not getting presents or experiencing any other Christmas traditions made me appreciate the holiday more.  I felt happy that I was alive and healthy and with my family.  

I enjoyed having a mellow Christmas but I still missed Christmas back home.  I felt that today I had more time and space to enjoy and take in the wonderful Christmas vibe found all around the world, without the distraction of presents.  Still, I longed for the feeling of getting up early in the morning and opening my stocking and surprising myself.  I missed the delicious pecan rolls my mom makes every Christmas for breakfast.  I had a nice, relaxing Christmas and I hope you have one as good as mine!  Merry Christmas!

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

Traveling Through the Night

We have left the bungalow on the lake and are now making head way to Bangkok.  We have been traveling all day and I am writing from a mini van and using our cell/internet stick.  The driver drives way too fast and does not speak English so we can not ask him to slow down.  The trip has been six hours so far, we still have an hour to go, and it is nearly midnight.  I have been unable until now to publish my posts from the lake bungalow because of no internet or cell service.  Check out the last two blogs to learn more of my recent adventures from the lake.


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The Intrepid Island Explores!

After a a delicious pineapple and banana pancake and a lesson of math in the morning, our family spent some time jumping in the warm and fresh water of the lake.  My dad attempted a back flip off of the wooden walkway.   It ended up being just a back flop and a head popping up on the surface saying some colorful words.  I dove a coupled of times, but was smart enough not to try the flip and kill my back.  We all swam out far into the cove and enjoyed the fresh water seeping into our pours.  After jumping in several times, Dad and I decided to go survey our kingdom of islands and maybe extend the path on the island we have named Taren which we explored yesterday.

We spent the afternoon exploring Taren and many other islands under our control.  We first kayaked to the tiny muddy beach on Taren and found the small attempt at a trail we had completed yesterday.  After much work and extending the trail a good ten meters up the slope of the island, we were forced by the extremely dense forest, the bitting and stinging bugs, and the thorns from unknown jungle plants to give up the trail work.  We than returned to our kayak to continue the exploration.  Just off the shores of Taren, we followed a small arm of water leading between two other islands and down to a dead end.  That’s when I made a foolish decision. 

I got out of the boat to go explore a long muddy trail leading up to the unknown land.  I slipped a couple of times and got a little dirty but, later, I would discover the true malevolence of the sinister mud trail.  Unable to go far up this mud trail, I returned and jumped back in the boat.  After surveying some other islands we headed back to our bungalow to find two leaches sucking the blood from both my feet!  My dad pulled the slimy things out and we both laughed about the muddy trail.  I jumped in the lake to wash myself, and my bloody feet. off when I discovered the third leach.  I had to sit outside of my bungalow for thirty minutes and wait for the continually oozing blood to clot.  Nasty!

It is getting dark and several rowdy groups of Thai tourists have started a party and are laughing, screaming, and playing on the lake.  It also looks as if a band is coming out to play.  My confusion vanished when I saw the calendar on the computer while I was writing my blog!  It is Friday night and a party is a brewing! 

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

        

Boats and Bungalows

This morning, we packed up, prepared to leave our park entrance community and move to a small group of bungalows floating on a lake somewhere in the Khao Sok National Park.  We had one small hitch, though.  All the people we have met have told us that it is easier to go with a group tour instead of making our own way to the lake without a guide.  It was ten o’clock in the morning and we still did not know who would drive us to the lake and what exactly the bungalows would be like.  During breakfast, one of the resort staff offered to set up a ride to the lake where would catch a long boat to our floating resort.  After a long drive, we showed up at a small dock looking over a vast lake with no bungalows in sight.  That’s when we knew it would be a long boat ride.


To get to our floating bungalows, we took a long tail boat for about an hour through the immense beauty of the lake and the threatening rain.  The boat was long and wooden and our driver sat in the back controlling an old and rusty motor.  For a long portion of the ride, we saw only some very large islands, but mostly just open lake.  Soon though, the land scape changed.  All around us were huge pillars and islands, ranging in size, made out of karst formations.  Karst is a type of limestone formed by certain minerals in the water.  On top of the amazing rocks, we saw dense jungle vegetation; vines, huge trees, bushes, ferns, palms, moss, and other tropical plants.  We also saw some islands not made up of karst formation with a lot more of the same vegetation.  Suddenly our view was interrupted by a line of floating, small buildings growing bigger on the horizon. 

What we were seeing were bungalows, but each one was floating on the lake!  A line of bamboo bungalows connected two islands.  The bungalow resort is spectacular!  A rustic wooden walkway runs in front of the bungalows and the slightly bigger floating reception area.  Behind the reception are several other bungalows not connected to the long walkway.  We assume that this is where the staff sleeps.  We checked into our bungalow with smiles of amazement.  In the room there were two large mattresses on the floor and a window looking out over the lake.  The rooms are super cozy and I see staying a lot more days here than we expect. 

After settling in, Dad and I took a kayak out to some unexplored islands near the resort.  We ventured out to a medium sized island with no karst formation and extremely dense vegetation.   We were able to slip out onto a nasty, muddy, tiny beach and make a plan of what to do next.  I thought it would be cool to build a fort on the island and come back tomorrow to the same place.  However, the island had a steep slope going upwards blocked by plants coming up to my chest.  I thought if we could make a path going up to the top of the island, we could build the fort there.  I grabbed my paddle and padded down, pushed away, and broke, all sorts of plants to form a path going only two meters into the island.  We decided that we should come back to the path project later, and now explore another island.  This one had no trees and mostly had flowers and grass.  It was also a lot smaller than the first island. 

Soon we had to come back to the bungalow to do some work and finish the day.  Tomorrow, I would like to go back to the first island to do some more work on the path.  For tonight, we will have a yummy dinner and a good night’s rest.

Thank you for reading Rohan geographic!       



Pulling Away From the Beach

Today, we finally left the beach resort and took a ten o’ clock bus to the Khao Sok National Park, two hundred kilometers from our resort.  We woke up early and checked out of our room.  The hotel drove us to a bench by the side of the road where our bus was said to stop.  After India, we were nervous and I was scared about transportation. Our fears were assuaged when a long blue bus pulled up and picked us up.  We jumped on an air conditioned bus with good shocks, no rusted metal showing, and clean and available seats!  The bus driver drove at a normal speed.  I enjoyed the long, lost feeling of safe comfortable travel and was sad to arrive only two hours later.

We were dropped off at a town near the park, and settled into our bungalow with mixed feelings for our new home base.  We are staying in a large complex of bungalows which are about five meters off the ground, elevated and supported by concrete pillars.  Connecting and leading to the front doors of all the bungalows is a long concrete walkway.  Outside our complex, the town consists of only restaurants, bungalows, and tour agencies offering elephant trekking, caving, and other fun things to do around the national park.  It appears that the town was built around, and thrives upon, tourists.  I have ambiguous feelings about the community.  I am definitely wishing I was back at the beach resort.  Still, I am starting to enjoy being in real Asia once more.



After settling in, we wandered through the national park, a short walk’s distance away.  Inside the park, we found several streams and small ponds and a whole lot of bamboo.   The wide dirt path leading through the park was long and rocky.  Occasional small paths turned off of the main trail and lead to swimming holes on the river.  The water was beautiful, but the shores were infested with leaches.  My mom had a leach try to catch a ride between her toes.  She pulled it off to find a pool of seeping blood where the leach used to be.  I, thankfully, did not pick up any tiny hitchhikers and my skin has no black squirming things anywhere in sight.



We soon got tired, walked back to the tourist town and, after a small dinner, back to our cozy bungalow.  Tomorrow we will take a boat to a floating bungalow on a lake where we plan to stay the next few days.

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!   

The Day of Slugs

Beep Beep Beep Beep. The eight o’clock alarm sounded.  That’s when our doubts began.  Did we really want to leave?  Did it really make sense?  We pulled ourselves out of bed and packed up our stuff.  Leave stay, leave or stay?  We just could not decide.  The decision was finally made during the first bite of the amazing breakfast.  We were staying!  Will we ever make it out?  I do not know and (personally) I  do not care!

After completing a lesson of math, it was pool time!  My parents read their books while I splashed and played in the pool.  There was less dunking today, but I still had great fun!   After a milkshake, a hamburger, and some more splashing about,  I came home to write my blog.  Will we ever leave?  Very unlikely.

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

Motoring Around!

Mom "Diggin' the Rig!"

In the morning with no work on my hands, I relaxed and played in the pool.  My dad dunked me and threw me in the water like yesterday, except that today we documented the dunking with my parent’s underwater camera.  We used a self timer and got some amazing shots.  The three of us then played on the beach for a while, but soon it was lunch time.  In search of food, and tsunami memorials, we headed out with newly rented scooters to the town.



After lunch at a local restaurant, we continued our scooter ride to see a police boat that was carried overland during the 2004 tsunami, and a tsunami museum.  It felt good riding on the back of my dad’s scooter with the wind in my face.  Mom drove a separate scooter.  Soon we arrived at a small field with an amazing sight.  There, in the middle of the field was a police boat.  It was long and gray with a small rope hanging from its bow.  My dad and I climbed up and explored.  We looked in the windows and down a portal leading to the berths and heart of the ship.  Dad and I decided that it would be foolish to go down there so we stayed up on the deck.  Apparently, the tsunami in 2004 carried the police boat all the way to the field two kilometers inland from one mile out at sea.  I cannot imagine a wave big enough to carry a boat that far.  Wow!  Think of the all the other things the tsunami effected.  Think of all the families who died in the fray of the wave.  It makes me appreciate my mom’s phrase, “Live every day to the fullest!” 

A Local Lunch....

To learn more about the tsunami we then visited the tsunami museum down the road.  The museum was definitely not much.  On the first floor there were some posters describing the tsunami and the toll it took upon several Southern Asian countries.  On the second floor there were some videos about tsunamis in general.  There was also one low quality, hard to see, video of some images of the tsunami’s destruction.  We did not see much at the museum and I was a little disappointed. 

We soon decided to head back to our resort to read our books and play in the pool.
Tonight we will eat at a real Italian restaurant.  Watch out pizza here I come!

Thank you for reading Rohan geographic!