Krombit Top Park - Day Trip Out

Wonderful day out of Gladstone. Seems we have spent the last few weekends just sitting around and not making an effort to get out and see stuff. So this Sunday we got off our backsides and went up to Krumbit Tops National Park for the day.
We left Gladstone about 08.00am for a 150 kilometre journey. Sun was shining and off we went. First stop was a bakery for some cakes, biscuits and sausage rolls. Then up the mountain. The park is famous for the discover of an old bomber wreck that was found some time back. It is an old B52 from the war days which had ‘got lost’ in flight and no one knew where it was. And Australia is a big place in which to lose a small plane. Anyway now we know where it is and indeed it’s a long way from anywhere. Even when you get up to the park which is enormous the bomber is down a small track which had to be marked or you would never find it. Not much of it left thought as whomever found it must have taken all the good bits, with just a bit of fuselage and broken props laying around. But you know at least it was something to se, you know what I mean you go all that way it is good to have a reason rather than just look at trees. The trees were nice, some rain forest and stuff also a lot of wild cows and we spotted on Dingo dog.
So all that was good, pleasant drive and we clocked up about 250 kilometres. However down side was at the main look out area. Both of us need a Loo. No problem chemical toilets are provided on site. However we were not told of the ‘leaches’ which suddenly appeared and started climbing up our legs. Horrible. Wanna was moving faster than Husain Bolt ..... Joy to watch. Me I was very surprised and it seems every time I got rid of one another one appeared on my other leg. Obviously no pictures!!! Too busy pulling them off. Ugh!!!!

Camping Outside Gladstone

Another week and ... well been camping last weekend. Couple of 'phone' photos which show poor light for cooking using torches etc. Added a new dimemsion to evening 'Alfresco'! But it was good fun. Believe me. Some of the adjacent campers were well above our budget but that did not detract from our night out.

I went with some friends as Wanna is away in Thailand. They brough along their kids and of course, this upset a lot of the older campers trying to get an early nights sleep. I'm talking 8.00pm. These kids were running around shining lights into all the tents, highlighting people walking to the communical toilets etc etc. You get the picture. Beautiful spot. Will go again and next time be better oganised.

Weekend Fishing And Relaxing

It was Charlies Birthday on Friday and we decided to spend the time at our farm in Khon Kaen. Friday afternoon saw saw us driving up with stop on the way at Kabin Buri for a cup of coffee. Good trip up. The evening saw us enjoying ourseles with plenty of food and drink. With only one bedroom at the place Wanna and I camped out on the lawn. All very good fun. Plenty of snoring!!!! But the sunrise on the Saturday was exceptional.

Saturday was an event packed day with fishing and motorbike riding. We got Owen riding on a 'song thow' which is a locally adapted three wheeler bike. He gave us a trip round the village. This followed by a crash course in Thai cooking for Charlie at a local restaurant. Managed to have a quick look at a local golf club and also a beautful Thai house/restaurant complex. All topped off with a few beers and then back to the farm for some fishing.

Sunday saw us back to Pattaya ready for work Monday morning... Enough said.

Pattaya Floating Market.

Had a very pleasent and interesting trip round the floating market at Pattaya. Also know as the four regions market.  That's because it is set up to provide a sample of all the different cultures and foods etc the four main Thai regions; and it manages to achieve just that. Not tacky and not too touristy.

Its located just south of Pattaya and was built in 2008. So its a relatively new place to visit.  It really is a great place to spend an afternoon even if you are not a shopper type. There are eateries of every description selling every type of Thai food and local coffees and teas. Various shops selling crafts and of course being a floating market there are numerous boats drifting around selling various food stuffs. It really is quite something. I'm finding it difficult to convey the place in writing and can only suggest you visit!!!!

We took my Mother who is out visitng with us and we all enjoyed it very very much. She wants to go back again.

I took a few shots but really could not do it any justice. It is the sort of place you could go back to, again and again to take photos and still need to return for that one last photo. So I am afraid this time, whatever I write in my Blog entry it does not do it justice. However as I keep repeating we enjoyed it, which is the main purpose of the trip.

It does have an official site  pattaya floating market

Wats And All

Busy weekend. Seems it started in a slow easy fashion and before I know it I was back at work Monday morning.
What happened? Well Saturday was intended to be a bit of a relax. You know what than means. a euphemism for doing nothing.
Didn’t work out as planned. Spend a few hours cleaning up a few things and checked out a few bits of stuff we had left in storage boxes. Even found my old rechargeable drill and grinder plus a few hand tools. They all needed some cleaning and the drill batteries recharging. So that took time in between coffees. Morning gone already. It did include a quick visit to us by Tee. He was all excited and he was trying plan a trip for Sunday up to Nakon Yayot. About 200 kilometers away in the national parks. Seems we could go to visit a famous Wat (aren’t they all ?) and see a large concrete dam and lake. All set in or close to one of the national parks. And if the water levers in the river are OK we are going for a river rafting trip. No sooner had we said “yes we would love to come along” then he said “Good. I’ll pick you up around 5 tomorrow morning.”. Before I could respond he was gone!!! So that is Sunday organized. Now back to Saturday.
Also found some time for baking and making yet another quiche. Why so many you ask? Well obvious really, they keep getting eaten. So by popular demand I keep making them. However I have given up following the same old recipe each time and added in a few of my own ideas. The usual bacon and cheese remains but I add a few different additions to each one, maybe a little curry powder and different spices seems to give them real added tastes. Last one included cocktail sausages and olives. Adventurous or what?... Hardly earth shattering or of the Jamie Oliver standard of ideas but I enjoyed it. Other big deal for the day… Making spaghetti. Yes I know, I seem to be going cooking crazy. Not really, its just that I am enjoying myself. And well, yes, Wanna had managed to locate some semolina flour. No mean feat in Thailand I might add. So I had to show my appreciation.
Finish the day off with a swim and relax in from of the TV. Rugby should be on but for seem reason I could not get it on my receiver. Bummer. Even earlier night than planned.
Ugh!!!! 4.30am and we’re up. Have some coffee and toast then get ready for the trip.
Made up some sandwiches and pack some water, drinks etc. And of course a quiche…. Don’t ask….
Checked camera, video etc and added in some spare towels and shorts(post rafting) ready to go and pick up the others. Six of us having a day out. Great.
And last but not least car keys and money. We’re off.
Tee drove most of the way and when we to there he was right. Beautiful spot and being early to the Wat (7.00am) we really were the early birds. However it did not take long for the place to start filling up and in no time it began to feel crowded. I was actually glad we had come earlier.
I should tell that by now the sandwiches had been eaten along with the quiche. That was before we arrived. Just a small snack during the journey. And we were all beginning to get hungry again….The place was quite calm if that is a good word to describe it. sort of lull before the storm. We wandered around and took a few pictures.

Wanna and the others wandered off to pray and we both ended up getting blessed by a Monk.

All made for a good start to the day. What next. A trip to the very large Concrete dam. Its apparently 2.3 kilometers along the top. That's a lot of concrete.

We stopped there for a while, again some photos and watched the fish swimming around. Yes big fellers they were to. I guess in the range of 6 kilos. Again everyone getting hungry. After our trip to the Wat it was time to move on to the Dam site. Followed by a trip to the water falls and a river rafting experience.

We even managed to fit in a good meal as well. All in all a great day out.

Gardening

Having this week managed to make an eatable bread loaf and survive several days of constant rain and heavy down pour it was with relief that the weekend turned out to be sunny and dry. It was a good chance to relax and do nothing. By nothing I mean relax and just sit around the pool reading a book and drinking coffee. Yes coffee. I'm into espresso these days. Got the machine so might as well enjoy. So that was Saturday with nothing to show for it. I've got to stop always trying to find reasons and the need to measure production even if all it comprises is making and drinking coffee. Somehow just relax in the true sense of the word. So Sunday was in comparison a big event. Spent a few hours at the local garden market. There are hundreds of these markets scattered around the locality. But one in particular I had been planning on visiting for sometime. Its situated in north Pattaya on the main Surkumvit road.

It sells a wide range of trees, yes fully grown trees, ranging from Orange to bread fruit to numerous palms. You can having bought a new property come here and buy all you need to make an established garden. No need to plant young plants and wait till they grow. Here you have instant 5 - 10 year old trees read for planting. The sellers will generally replace there for free it they die with in the first 3 months. Not a bad deal.

The colourful array of orchids in stunning. As are the numerous fish tanks with brightly coloured fish if every size and type. Need less to say it is the sort of place you go and with out doubt spend some money. We did. Bought some plastic pots and compost soil. I should mention that Owen had posted us some vegetable seeds which arrived Saturday morning. So we decided to try them out. No doubt the local varieties are more suited to Thailand than the ones from UK but so what. Its all a bit of fun. So having spend several hours walking around I decided it was time to go home and back to practicing the art of relaxing.

The top photo is one I played around with. Not to produce anything particularly special but to let you see the contrast of colours. Amazing.

Forgotten Elephants

I have no wish to reduce my Blog to just regurgitating other Blogs and news articles. However there are some things which I read and think are worth passing on through this space.
However before I do just that some background.....
I have for some time been following on a daily basis an Expat web/forum site for Thailand. Thai Expat Forum Its interesting but to be honest, I do find to often that most of the comments posted are negative from what appears to be a bunch of moaners. They appear to live here as a clear preference to their own homelands but seem to spend their time knocking and finding everything wrong or not as good as home!!! But that’s only my opinion. Read for yourself.
On the plus side, and a very big plus side it is too, the site clearly has great qualities in my opinion which clearly outweigh the effects of the 'moaners'. It is an excellent source for good information on what, where, who and how much etc etc…. to find almost any of your requirements while being in Thailand. That's anything from camping to obscure books to rocket science. So really it can turn out to be a very useful site, not one to be quickly discarded. Definitely if you are interested in Thailand, for a holiday or coming to live, and/or indeed if you want an insight into Expat “physic”. Worth a read.
Which brings me to my original point of not wishing 'to just regurgitate other Blogs'.
One posting put up today in the Expat Forum very much caught my attention. "Forgotten Elephants". All about the decline in the role of the Elephant in Thailand both in terms of work and culture. Sad to see another decline in world wild life. I see them every day and take their presence for granted, and so for it to be so close and symbolic makes it hit home a lot harder. Forgotten Elephants
I followed some of the links and got to the New York Times photographer James Estrin. Stunning photos and a sad story. The links are worth following. I could go on and on, but why bother, when you can read it all for yourselves in his column and follow his links. Just click on Bangkok Elephants
Enjoy and have a good weekend. And a big thank you James Estrin, you to have a good weekend.

Pornudom herbs

Had a quick visit to a small ‘farm’ come ‘Nursery' located about 25 kilometers south of Pattaya. Pornudom herbs http://www.pornudomherbs.com/ (All Thai Web site). In fact I pass it every day to work but only today did I finally make a visit. My colleague Tawatcahi and I took some time out to pay a short visit and have a look round. Tawatchai had been before. It’s a small set up comprising 10 Rai, about 3 acres of land where he grows orchids and also rice in flower pots. The rice is growing well but I cannot imagine it being anywhere near commercial. There much be some benifit to the orchades and rice growing together. Even if it is just to attract visitors like myself! He showed us round which took about 10 minutes, that was leaving out the walk round the forest area where he keeps wild chickens. I think I was most impressed with the tranquility and sense of peace which seemed to prevail. He explained that 2 years ago he had bought 500 Baht worth of Orchids. Since then he has produced about 5,000 additional plants. Quite a good result! All in a nice peaceful environment. MAybe thats what helps the plants grow?
He also showed us his hand driven rice milling machine. Clever thing used a lot about 20 years ago by Thai farmers.
Also of particular interest to me was the papaya grafting which seemed successful. Never though about doing it before but it clearly is possible and effective.
This trip out was followed by us having to return to work. Not before having a quick lunch in a local road side restaurant. Really delicious food. Stir fried mixtures using lots of ginger and herbs mixed with a choice of Ostrich, pork or Deer meat!!!! Delicious.