My Birthday In Singapore

October has proven to be a busy month. It has been made extra busy by the fact that I celebrated my birthday this month. I can safely say that this year I have celebrated my birthday more than I have in previous years.
It seems that people love to have a reason to celebrate, and a birthday is always a good reason to celebrate. For me that meant putting up with lots of cuddles, and a number of happy birthday wishes.

On the Friday night we went off to a local hotel to hear a friend of Carolyn from Work, play the guitar and sing. This was very enjoyable, she sang Happy Birthday to me and then asked the patrons to guess my age. 72 years old took the cake. The gentleman who thought I was 72 came over as he was leaving and asked me, “How old are you really?” When I said, “49.” He laughed and said, “and I am 35.”

On Saturday we had a holiday, it was Hari Raya the end of fasting for local Muslims. All of the Singapore Museums are open to the public free of charge on the day. Ruth and I spent a fun few hours visiting the Singapore National Museum. From there we met friends at Lau Pa Sat for dinner. This is one of my fun places to eat Satay out on the street and with a group of friends it is lots of fun.

We did have to work all day on Sunday, but Monday was our day off with and on Monday night we had the end of year dinner. This was the big occasion of the year for the company. There were a number of prizes given away as spot prizes. Ruth won a night for two in the Executive deluxe suite at the Elizabeth hotel. Wow! Then I won a digital camera! A very nice prize won by both of us.



Four days of socializing and fun made this year’s birthday one I will remember and enjoy for a very long time.

Phuket Weekend

Recently we had a visit from Sue and Bruce Baker. Ruth and I really looked forward to this visit from our daughters' parents. When they said that they had booked to go on from Singapore and spend a few days in Phuket we promptly invited ourselves along. Ruth and I had not been to Phuket, it is one of the easy destinations for us to fly to for a weekend. Cheap and with flights that suit a quick getaway on Sunday night, and late return on Tuesday. So we could make the most of our two days off.

We had a great time, the weather was not the best. It was the middle of the rainy season, so we had to expect rain. It rained most of the time we were there and the sea was rough. Our main objective was to catch up with the Bakers so it didn't bother us too much. We stayed Karon Beach and we explored Patang and Khuta. We enjoyed jumping into the Tuk tuks, visiting the markets, and the many good food and drinks outlets. For Ruth and I it was good to sit at a beach and watch real surf, and to feel the salt in the wind.

We marvelled at the thought of the terror of the Boxing Day Tsunami. Many of the streets we walked along were hit hard with this. Amazing to think that there is very little sing of this today. There is still a lot of contstruction going on. But business seemed to be brisk and there were still plenty of tourists considering it was the monsoon season. We were pleased to notice evacuation route signs. Although I wondered if you would think of them in a real disaster.

We were interested in the signs warning motorists of drunk people crossing. Though we didn't see any crossing at this point. Coming from New Zealand, where going to the beach usually offers the opportunity to get away from shops and shopping, I find it challenging when you become a target for hawkers the second you think about the beach. We also found it hard to relax and have a quiet drink when there was a steady flow of Hawkers coming in to entice you into buying their goods. It is all a part of life in this part of the world and they are people making a living. Some of them are very clever business people. I keep thinking, when we visit these beaches ,that New Zealand is a very special place, with the best beaches where you can relax and enjoy nature the way it is meant to be enjoyed. I think that I always appreciated this, but now, I know this is a way of life that must be cherished and protected. My message for people at home in New Zealand, particularly those on the Coromandel; Value what you have got, make the most of it and get out there and enjoy it.

Thanks Bruce and Sue, we enjoyed catching up!

Cheers!

Northern Thailand Adventure

Ruth and I had a wonderful 8 days in Northern Thailand. We flew out of Singapore and direct to Chiangmai, which is the capital of Northern Thailand. It is a city of about 170,000 people, similar to Hamilton in size. That is where the similarity ends though. We had two nights booked in a hotel there as part of our package, the hotel was very nice and very close to everything.
Chiangmai is a very old city and it has a number of temples, they call them Wats in Thailand. the centre of town has a moat around it and the remains of a wall that at one time surrounded the city.


The first day we went on a halfday Handicraft tour. We did see some interesting things and spent like good tourists. This tour was a part of our package and the aim of our guide was to keep us out beyond the time that the tour desk shut at the hotel so he could book us for the next day. He did succeed. Day 2 Ruth and I went with our guide out of town to visit an elephant park. We got to ride on elephants through the jungle to a Hill country tribal village. From the village we traveled back to the park on a bullock cart for lunch. After lunch we got onto bamboo rafts and floated a few kms down a muddy river. It was a neat experience. After the Elephant ride we decided we know why they invented cars!!!!. Our guide picked us up and took us up a valley to a place where they have a number of hill tribes set up in little villages displaying their handcrafts. We wandered through some rice paddy fields past a number of huts where people, mostly woman and children, dressed in traditional clothes went about their daily tasks. The men were out at work for the day. It was interesting but very much for the tourist, and you felt like you were looking at a human zoo. Here we wanted to meet the long neck tribe. We were lucky because it was the rainy season and as we stopped to watch a longneck lady weaving down came the rain. When it rains, it rains, so we had to sit in her shelter for about an hour and make conversation with her. She had very little English. Ruth and I, two young children and their mother spent time playing and communicating as best we could. We found out these people come from Myanmar (Burma) on special work permit. They stay for 6 years then they must go back. They can go back to visit home but they don’t have the freedom to travel where they like in Thailand. They must stay in the province where they work. Their work here is in these tourist villages. They can make good money from tourists. Which they try to save. The weaving they do is by hand and is very clever. Once the rain stopped we wandered back and found our guide and it was back to the hotel. We went via a snake farm where they teased and poked at a number of different snakes to upset them and show the tourists how brave they were.


When we got back to the hotel we had had a pleasant day but we had to explain to the guide that we did not need his services for the next day because we were off to Chiangrai. He wanted to arrange our ride, but we had already done this through the hotel early that morning. We did go out to the night market which is simply amazing. The sights and sounds, entertainment and music here were most interesting. I could write pages about it all really. The lasting impression is there was lots of activity, including places to drink but you don’t see drunk out of control people. You don’t feel intimidated and everyone is smiling and friendly.


Chiangrai is a smaller rural city at the edge of the Golden Triangle. The place where the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. It is a short trip from Changrai up to the Golden Triangle, Ruth and I did this as part of our journey to Changrai. We did it on a 1 day trip that started and ended at Chiangmai but we arranged to be dropped in Chiangrai. This was a wise choice because we spent all day touring and were dropped off at 6:00 pm while the rest of the group had another 3 hours of road trip to return to base.


We really enjoyed Chiangrai. We did quite a lot of walking and exploring of the town and once again numerous temples. There seemed to be lots of Buddhist Monks in this city. Early in the morning each day the monks wander the streets and collect food donations from people. It is an interesting ritual to observe. The Markets were really interesting. On one early morning walkabout I wandered into a large food market area and was amazed to see, grubs, live eels and catfish, crickets by the bucketful and frogs all for sale. Apparently these are a very popular part of the diet in this area. We did some great boat trips up and down the Kok river in long-tail boats. These enabled us to visit an area of hill tribe villages and elephant camps that are less touristy. So we could really spend as much time as we liked walking and talking with the locals. They were very friendly and always had a willing smile. We did this part on our own without guides so it was all quite an adventure. If we go back we will go with a guide and do a trek that will involve a homestay. The people don’t have a lot, but they are very happy and enjoy a laugh. It was funny to watch the Mahoots taking their elephants home at the end of a busy day trekking around to various villages in the Jungle. The elephants live at the homes of their handlers and take the place of a car or a tractor.
We had an interesting experience with the locals one afternoon when we were returning to our hotel. Ruth spotted a man playing with a huge beetle on a stick. He was carefully placing it in his carry tray on the front of his bicycle. A few metres down the road we saw a group of schoolboys crowding around a stall. They were all holding sticks of sugar cane with beetles tied to the stick. A man was selling them to the boys. They buy them then use them for boxing fights with each other. The old man was taking his off to gamble with his mates. Later that evening we found the same salesman selling them in the night market. It provided a fascinating new meaning to boys and their toys! These kids don’t have a lot in terms of worldly goods but they really know how to have fun.



We really enjoyed our week in this part of Thailand and found it a fascinating and friendly place. We will most likely return at some stage and do some more exploring. We were very lucky with the weather, it was the rainy season and we only had a few showers. The week after we got home it rained and much of the area we were in flooded. This happens frequently, more than once a year!