Saturday, October 18

Laem Chabang, Thailand. Hot and humid. Very. I had an afternoon tour to Nong Nooch Cultural Center that was a lot of fun. The first stop was at an orchid garden. As usual, I didn’t get very far into it. However, there was a lot of entertainment near the entrance. For 50 baht (about $1.25) you could have your photo taken with your own camera cozying up to one of a number of exotic animals. I wanted a photo of me with a python (for my “collection” of snake photos), but it was evidently the snake’s day off, so I chose a chimpanzee instead as you can see. It was a very solid, heavy and muscular creature, trained to do assorted poses with the tourists...and probably bored out of its skull with the whole business.

The second portion of the tour was an extremely colorful theatrical presentation of various native dances, drumming performances, a kick boxing exhibition and a finale including warriors riding elephants. I had an absolute front row seat for this, right down at elephant level. With my walker, I was taken around the side of the theater and in through the actors’ entrance to park in front of the front row of seats. I got some great photos of all this.

Next we adjourned to an area behind the theater where I again got a front row seat for the elephant show. And a major show it was! They had elephants trained to do all sorts of things from playing darts to bowling to soccer to basketball to riding tricycles. After each “act” the elephants would come over to the edges of the ring to collect banana treats from audience members who had, of course, purchased hands of little bananas from young vendors. I didn’t buy any bananas, but one elephant insisted that I must have some, and carefully checked out my empty hands with her trunk.

The drive to and from Nong Nooch was interesting. Instead of “yard art” (or as Billie McNamara calls it, “lawn ornamenture”) there are many spirit houses in this land of 64 million people 95% of whom are Buddhist. Some spirit houses are small and unassuming while others are large and lavishly ornamented with bright colors and glittery things. We also passed a number of businesses which offered every size and color of spirit houses for sale.

The other very interesting thing was the traffic lights on the main highway. Each one had, in addition to the usual red /green lights, a display that counted down, in red or green, the number of seconds left until the light changed to the other color. All of us on the bus thought that was a great idea. I do believe that Charlottesville could use some of these on Route 29! If they can talk about installing cameras to catch people who run red lights, why not also put in these simple counters?

By the time I got back to the ship, I had about four or five layers of my own sweat sandwiched with one layer of chimpanzee sweat, and one layer of elephant dust to wash off! But first things first...meaning “fluid replacement.” So I headed straight to Ocean Bar for my traditional Myers Rum and Coke in honor of all my cruising friends, especially Mark and Jeff.

Sunday, October 19

Off to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo this morning. As you can see, I did get my photo holding/feeding a baby tiger. It was really neat, even though it was only for a minute or two. The rest of the tour was another exercise in hiking and sweating in the heat and humidity. It would have been a really nice, although smallish, zoo to visit except for two things. First, we were on tour, so I couldn’t just wander around at my own speed. Second, it was Sunday which is the day that the majority of Thais head out with their families to some attraction, so the place was chock-a-block with people.

There was a crocodile show that I passed on...too many people and not enough seats or even standing room. Josie and Stan who were on the same bus with me both gave it a miss also. Next was a tiger show which was pretty good...even had a few trained pigs in the ring (but not at the same time as the tigers). We were in the front row for that one, and fortunately, the front row was far enough back to avoid the shower when several of the tigers peed through the cage. Lastly was an elephant show which I also passed on since I’d seen an excellent one yesterday.

All in all, another successful day. Jill got back from her trip to Angkor Wat last night and is mostly recovered today. She had a great time despite the heat and exertion of the rough terrain. I can’t wait to see some of her photos.

Monday, October 20

Today we are anchored off Na Than, Ko Samui, Thailand. At 13 by 15 miles Ko Samui is the third largest Thai island. As late as 1970 there were no roads on the island and to cross it took a whole day’s trek through jungle. While much of Ko Samui is still quite wild, there is now a thriving tourist business based on its lovely beaches. Access today is by ship’s tender. At present, I’m not planning to go ashore as I am not eager to attempt the standing high jump that will be needed to get back on the ship. Also, a 30 minute tender ride each way just to look at a beautiful beach seems somewhat excessive. I’ll be seeing plenty of sand during the rest of the trip.