(Ben)
On est allé voir du Muay Thai 🥊 c’était super cool. On est allé au stade Rajadamnern et il avait des lumières. Il avait un knockout(un knockout c’est quand une personne n’en peut plus).
Au début il avait une petite danse.
Category: Uncategorized
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Koh Phi Phi and Krabi
After a double-decker overnight bus from Bangkok and a somewhat chaotic minibus transfer, we pulled into Ao Nang one fine morning. Ao Nang was bustling, with lots of tourist shops and restaurants, and a stunning backdrop of the sea with karst islands in the distance rising vertically out of the ocean. So we were starting to wonder if we had erred by booking accommodations in nearby Krabi Town instead. This doubt was reinforced further when our transfer dropped us off on the dusty outskirts of said town. Our driver had offered to take us directly to our hotel… for an exorbitant price. So we instead found a taxi driver who seemingly had nothing else to do that day, and haggled down to a reasonable price.
We had a few days in Krabi Town and we ended up loving it. There was lots of local life, including a bustling market where we stocked up on bananas (one dollar for a bunch) and dragon fruit, a great Thai coffee shop, but also a good number of tourists. Our evenings were spent wandering between a few night markets, which allowed everyone to find the exact food that satisfied their cravings.
Our new favourite coffee joint in Krabi. To get out of the town, we took a longboat to Railay Beach, one of the spots that Claire was most looking forward to in Southern Thailand. It did not disappoint! It was very much resort-land, and the vibe was very chill. There are a few beaches here nestled among the dramatic karst mountains. We spent the afternoon chilling on one beach until we decided to walk to another beach, or watch some rock climbers, or grab some food, or watch the monkeys/water monitors, until it was time to catch our longtail boat back into town.
Mackaela picked up some hitchhikers…. The next day we booked an island-hopping tour out to Koh Phi Phi and the surroundings. This was our third such excursion (after Fiji and El Nido) and they’ve all been great. Personally I love jumping straight off the boat into the water without having to ever deal with wet sand… it’s paradise!
We started with a quick stop to jam-packed Maya Bay, which was beautiful, but mostly seemed to serve as a staging area for Instagram photoshoots (kids these days… amirite?) since we weren’t allowed in the water in order to protect shark breeding grounds. Next, there was a stop at a nearby lagoon for swimming, and then we were off to snorkel. Of our three excursions, this was the top spot for snorkelling, and we were the last ones back in The boat. There was coral, clams, sea snakes, and all sorts of tropical fish. My favourite was a large purple one that overdid the makeup a touch that morning with its orange lipstick and green eye-liner.
Maya Bay. Interestingly, our fantastic tour-guide, Kong, was quite safety-focused. He told the whole boat that we HAD to wear a life jacket while snorkelling, which quite surprised us. In the end, we went up to him after to see if we REALLY needed to, since we are strong swimmers. and he quickly told us not to worry about it. We realized that in the south of Thailand, there was tourism from lots of countries, and at least half of the people in our boat (and others) didn’t know how to swim.
The many life jackets of Bamboo Island. We saw this at our last stop as well: Bamboo Island. The island is a national park and there was a ranger with a megaphone patrolling the beach announcing the rule: you need a life jacket while swimming or there is a stiff fine! This seemed a bit much to us… so Claire took a little walk and discovered that off of the main beach there were tons of beautiful spots where people (mostly westerners) were swimming without life jackets. So we joined. And the rangers patrolling nearby did not even care.
Finding some calm off the main beach at Bamboo Island. -
Bangkok
Nous sommes arrivés à Bangkok le 10 février au soir. Notre nièce Mackaela est arrivée quelques heures plus tard après une série de vols interminables du Nouveau Brunswick! On a passé plusieurs belles journées à se promener dans la ville, sous le soleil et l’humidité accablants!
La première journée, on a fait le coin touristique. On restait dans le quartier de Khaosan, alors on a marché vers le Grand Palace et Wat Pho (reclining Buddha). C’est la 4e fois que j’allais à Bangkok, alors les arnaques, je les connais! Mais même Mackaela qui est ici pour la première fois avait entendu parlé de l’arnaque principale “the temple is closed for a ceremony. It only opens at 2 pm today!” sur TikTok. On en riait en marchant vers le Grand Palace, et disions simplement un petit merci aux gens qui nous disaient que le Palais était fermé aujourd’hui. Mais à 1 coin de rue du Palais, on était rendu avec un doute nous même! La quarantième personne qui nous a dit que c’était fermé, un gars qui passait et qui nous a interpellé pendant qu’un autre nous disait la même chose, était particulièrement bon. “He’s right. It’s closed today for a ceremony. I know that’s what everyone says, but I’m just a teacher, I’m not getting anything out of it! But it’a actually true that today it’s closed!” On n’en revenait pas qu’on avait un doute, mais on est allé pareil, et bien entendu c’était ouvert, avec un MILLION de touristes!!
Entre le Grand Palace et le Wat Pho, on a trouvé un petit kiosque de soupe parfait! De la soupe à 35 degrés? Mackaela n’était pas certaine mais c’était délicieux!!
Le deuxième jour, on a prit un Tourist Boat sur le Chao Praya pour aller vers ICONSiam, un gros centre d’achat moderne. Je ne pense pas que ces Tourist Boat existaient la dernière fois que j’étais ici. Nous avons essayé de prendre le bateau normal des Thaï, mais avons rencontré toutes sortes de difficultés. C’était très clair que la politique était de mettre les touristes ensembles! Bon, c’est Ok. Et les bateaux de touristes étaient bondés!! Il faut dire que c’est le nouvel an Chinois.
Selfie par Benoît ICONSiam était magnifique. Beaucoup plus jolie que le Mall of Asia à Manille. Les Thaï ont vraiment un sens de l’esthétique fantastique! Mackaela avait fait des recherches et nous a dit qu’on devait aller à Sook Siam aussi: c’était le sous-sol du centre d’achat, et pour le Nouvel An Chinois c’était monté comme un village festifs, tout en rouge et or, avec des petits allés entre des kiosques de nourritures des différentes régions.
Le soir, on a continué notre exploration sur la rivière Chao Praya pour aller au Asiatique The Riverfront, une petite section de la rivière nouvellement aménagée pour les touristes abondants, où les enfants m’ont finalement convaincue de leur acheter des pantalons éléphants 🙂
Les pantalons éléphants d’Henri La troisième journée, nous avons pris des tuktuk pour aller au quartier chinois, se perdre dans les petites ruelles infinis qui serpentent le quartier. J’ai vraiment aimé découvrir ce quartier! On rentrait dans ce qui semblait être un tout petit magasin, pour ensuite constater qu’il s’étendait vraiment loin en arrière! En retournant vers notre auberge, nous nous sommes arrêté à Old Siam Mall, un petit endroit où il y avait plusieurs kiosques qui préparaient des pâtisseries et autres petites bouchées Thaï délicieuses!
Le Old Siam Mall Le soir, on est allé voir du Muay Thaï, mais je vas laisser à Ben le plaisir de partager ça!
La dernière journée, avant notre bus de nuit vers Krabi, nous avons visité le Chatuchak Market, que j’avais très hâte de revisiter! Nous avions déjà fait notre magasinage de trucs typiques Thaï (pantalons éléphant et t-shirt rose 7-eleven pour Patrick!), mais c’était quand même très amusant de faire le tour des centaines de kiosques qui vendaient toutes sortes de choses différentes, linge, art, décorations, nourriture…Et que dire des Fruit shakes auxquels nous sommes maintenant accros?
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Port Barton
(Elsie)
In Port Barton, our first activity was on our last day there. In Puerto Princesa, Ben was wearing a Habs T-shirt. A man saw the Canadiens T-shirt and it turns out he was from Quebec, so he came over to talk to our family. We told him that we were going to El Nido and Port Barton. Alain said that he had a chalet near Port Barton and that we could go there when he was there.
On our last day In Port Barton, we went to Alain’s chalet. That morning we left at 9:45. We went on the beach to look for a boat to bring us to the little village of Bunuangin. A man asked if we wanted to go to White Beach and we said no, but asked how many pisos it would be to go to Bunuangin. He said that his boss would tell us the price. He said 3000. But we found another boat for only 2000. When we arrived, we visited the village. After we went on the neighbour’s boat to go to the net to catch some fish and some crabs for lunch. We caught 6 crabs, 7 fish, one ray, and one squid (he had so much ink). We came back to the chalet to eat. We learned how to eat the crab and left the fish and ray for the neighbour.
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Sometimes it’s heaven, sometimes it’s hell, and sometimes it’s just El Nido
(to the tune of Waylon Jennings)
El Nido is the main tourist draw on the island of Palawan, and for good reason: the dramatic landscape is full of beautiful karst mountains and islands rising nearly vertically out of the sea. The town is also set up for tourists, so it’s easy to find an island-hopping tour that will take you to some spectacular spots for swimming and snorkeling. It’s definitely a touristy spot, where pasta restaurants abound, and not some hidden gem, but hey… we are tourists after all!
Beautifully dramatic El-Nido. Traveling for eight months is sure to have its ups and downs; sometimes those ups and downs all occur within a few days. Henri just posted about the ups of our wonderful day of island-hopping, but let me also describe the downs that book-ended that day.
The day before island-hopping started wonderfully. We headed down to the beach (Corong Corong) to get a little physical activity: a relaxed soccer game on the sand that was the very portrait of family bliss. What better thing to do after the game than to wade into the water to cool off? Well, in hindsight, it would have been better to do practically anything else!
Claire and the kids headed out first into the water, and then I followed. Just as the water reached my thighs, I took a step and put my foot into what could best be described as an electrical outlet. By reflex, I pulled my leg out and my left leg went into the outlet next. I jumped back, cursed a few times, and yelled to the family that I got stung by a jellyfish and started back to shore. Now, I have a pretty decent pain tolerance (I once broke my tibia playing soccer, and then watched the second half of the game before going to the hospital), but this definitely… hurt. This wasn’t the kind of jellyfish you find at Parlee Beach.
Claire managed to lead the kids back to safety, avoiding a few other stingers that she managed to spot in the water. Once on the beach, I wandered up to the nearest bar to ask them if they had any… vinegar. The nice folks at the bar had a bottle ready just for this, and sprayed my legs (to disactivate the stinging cells) and we removed the tentacles from my burning skin. When I noticed a few locals gathering around to see what was going on, and the barman talking about how it can be dangerous if you get stung near veins I suddenly thought: “wait, are these those tranparent box jellyfish… you know, the kind that sometimes kill people?”
It looks like the answer, after a bit of googling and AI, was “yes!” Fortunately, I was stung (rather than one of the kids) and I didn’t have any worrying symptoms (shortness of breath, heart palpitations, or … death). I just had to deal with my skin burning for the rest of the day, and some sensitivity afterwards.
My hopes of being a leg-model are dashed. Needless to say, this encounter made us a little anxious for our island-hopping the following day. But, we went ahead, with caution: we put our rashies on, brought a bottle of vinegar, kept our eyes open for jellyfish, and let others go into the water first!
And we never saw a jellyfish! It was a great time.
To be fair, there are warnings about jellyfish. But I’m pretty sure it’s the winter… And the day after island-hopping? Well, that’s when I got gastro. And then everyone got gastro. No need for further details there…
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Tour de bateau
À El Nido on a fait un tour de snorkeling un petit peu comme à Fidji. On est partie tôt le matin pour se rendre à la plage. Il y avait beaucoup de bateaux dans la baie donc on devait se tremper pour se rendre dans le bateau. Une fois dans le bateau, on était tout mouillé. On était trente-deux dans le bateau sans compter l’équipage. Notre première destination était à côté d’une plage. On pouvait faire du snorkeling. On a vu beaucoup de coraux et de poissons. Notre deuxième arrêt était à Big Lagoon où on devait faire du kayak. L’eau était vraiment bleue.
On a mangé à notre troisième arrêt. C’était vraiment un festin. Le bateau avait deux étages: celui d’en bas avait tous les sièges et celui d’en haut n’avait rien dessus donc on profitait du toit.
Dans le Secret Lagoon, il fallait mettre des sandales ou des chaussures d’eau parce qu’on devait marcher sur des roches. On devait nager jusqu’à un passage secret où on est passé par un chemin en dessous des roches. À l’intérieur il s’ouvrait et on voyait le ciel. Pendant que je revenais j’ai vu un long poisson jaune. Le dernier arrêt était à une autre plage. On a encore fait du snorkeling et on a vu des poissons-clowns et un long poisson avec du bleu flashy et du mauve.
Sur la plage il y avait une sorte de balançoire. Tu devais t’accrocher avec tes deux mains à un bout de bois et te balancer. À la fin de la journée on était très fatigué.
Henri
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Manille et Puerto Princesa
Notre autobus de Banaue à Manille est arrivé au centre-ville à 3h du matin. Ouf. Que faire dans une mégapole à cette heure? Notre hôtel, qu’on avait pris près de l’aéroport pour éviter le stress du traffic, le lendemain matin, n’avait pas de chambres disponible quand nous sommes arrivés vers 4h. Alors on s’est changé dans la salle de bain de la réception de l’Hotel, on a brossé nos dents, et on a commencé notre journée! Les enfants ont été encore une fois des vrais champions.
On a visité l’ancienne ville de Manille (Intramuro), puis le Chinatown à la demande d’Elsie (that’s my girl!). Henri était en mission pour nous trouver la meilleure place de dumpling. On s’est ensuite rendu au Mall of Asia, où nous avons acheté quelques trucs chez … Décathlon!
Le lendemain, on a prit l’avion vers Puerto Princesa, sur Palawan. Les guides touristiques indiquent de ne pas passer plus qu’une nuit dans cette ville, ce qui est toujours une indication pour Patrick et moi de rester le double! On aime explorer les endroits réels, où les gens vivent leur quotidien. Comme de fait, nous sommes tombés sur un gros marché à travers lequel Henri et Elsie ont adoré nous guider. Benoît serrait ma main comme si sa vie y dépendait.
Nous sommes maintenant en direction des plages de Palawan, où on essaiera de ralentir le rythme un peu!
Combien de personnes peuvent s’entasser dans un tricycle (moto avec banquette)? Une famille complète, plus le conducteur! -
Twenty-Five Cents
Once in a while, you find yourself walking down the street, not even realizing how bad you need it. But then you round the corner and you see that stand selling fried banana on a stick. And then, for a few minutes at least, the universe becomes orderly, and everything in life makes sense. All of that for 25 cents.
Plus airfare of course.
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Banaue and the Hapao Rice Terraces
One of the main reasons we ventured to the north of Luzon was Claire’s desire to see the rice terraces that have been carved into the mountain-side there over the past 2000 years. So, after Sagada we headed to the city of Banaue, which, for tourists like us, serves as a jumping-off point for seeing the surrounding terraces. But how to get there? Well, the easy option would have been to take a coach bus. But Elsie really wanted to ride in a jeepney. We saw tons of these colourful, converted jeeps transporting people around Manila, but were a little too-intimated to try to take one. So we crammed like sardines with a bunch of filipinos into the back of a jeepney in Sagada, headed for Bontoc. Much like a can of sardines, the jeepney had minimal suspension, and the ride along the twisty roads was a little rough on everyone’s stomach. I also hit my head on the roof a few times, to everyone’s amusement. But we made it. From Bontoc, we caught a very comfortable minibus to Banaue, and along the way were wowed by the views as the road twisted and turned. As we approached the city, we caught more and more views of rice terraces.
The family crammed into a jeepney. From Banaue, there were a number of possibilites for an excursion to the nearby rice terraces. We opted for just doing one, because we are on a budget and also because have been exhausting the kids! So we headed out on a private jeepney to the Hapao rice terraces, where we met up with a local guide (mandatory) who took us on a trek through the terraces that surround the village, with a well-deserved stop at the local hot-springs.
The Hapao rice terraces, view from above. The walk was beautiful, and it was impressive to imagine how much work went into altering the landscape to suit agriculture (and to see the effort it took to work the fields). What made this tour even more amazing was our charming guide Joseph, who told us stories about his ancestors (a house adorned with the skulls from tribal warfare!), local customs, and growing up in the village, and answered all of our questions about how to actually grow rice. It was really fantastic!
The Hapao rice terraces. -
Bomod-Ok
(Henri)
À notre troisième jour à Sagada, on et allé voir les chutes de Bomod-Ok. On a pris une sorte d’autobus pour aller au début de la marche. On a eut un guide pour la marche. La marche était deux kilomètres mais il y avait trois milles marches!À travers la marche il y avait un petit village.
C’était un chemin avec beaucoup de belles vue. Après qu’on ait traversé le village on a marché sur des rizières. Une fois arrivée, on s’est mis en maillot de bain. L’eau était très froide! Mais on est quand même allé dans l’eau. On a nagé un peu plus loin. La chutes était très haute. On c’est sécher et on a remonté les marches. En remontant c’était beaucoup plus dur. A la fin de la journée on a relaxé.
5 billets SVP 