Phi Phi has no real house reefs like you find them at other places, so it is on a diving boat for mostly two dives: 30-60 minutes to the dive suite, first dive (no 1 hour limit here!) then have a break with hot drinks, fruit (pineapple) and preordered meals, before it comes to the second dive, at a different place. That’s how it works in general, probably across all tour operators.
We decided for Phi Phi Scuba, one of the larger operators here under English management, and with german diveguides, basically because they were already on the short list from our previous research on www.taucher.net, John the owner was the quickest to answer our email, and because they were the first we came across, so Georg, one of the Germans here, could successfully “hook us” J Otherwise it might have been Island Divers as well, having even more charming people approaching potential divers (sorry Georg, but Christina and Dania were even more charming (of course, that’s a very personal judgement and bears no claim to be true in general )
Anyway in terms of diving we were guided by “JoJo” Jochen, who seems to be a real luminary when it comes to know which fish is where.

First day though was still a bit dodgy. After days of tropical rain- and thunderstorms the visibility still was comparable to “Neufelder See” on an average day, clouds still hanging over the divesuite and a bit of drizzling rain coming and going. Under water: we could clearly see the effect of the coral bleaching, that took place a few years ago. The sea had temperatures around 34°, as JoJo told us. No chance for corals, many of them were dead. At least some nice fish. We dived in a group of 4 (two French guys, apparently having gills and coming with more air out of the water than they entered it), Lupo and me, guided by Jojo.
Second day was already much better. We had a chance to get to Bida Nok and to Phi Phi Leh Westside (Turtle guarantee!). Visibility was already better, though still not comparable to Red Sea or something similar. However the fish and corals were more, and this time it was really discovering one thing after the other. JoJo gave Lupo and me much more freedom after having seen us diving on the first day and concentrated on the german couple that was in our group this time. This time we had a Leopard Shark (my first one! Yippieh! A really nice, beautiful animal!), Ghostpipe, giant trigger, turtles, scorpionfish, lionfish, lot’s of snails (“Nudibranches” for the aficionados among you) and the other usual suspects. Hey, what shall I say: after this day, I was completely reconciled with Koh Phi Phi after my deep, deep, weather related frustration two days earlier. It was just cool, though JoJo would have loved to show us “his” divespots with a much better visibility. Well, maybe in two years

The rest of the days here consisted mostly of hanging out in some restaurants for breakfast/lunch/dinner, enjoying massage, taking some pictures, having a walk, and enjoy live in general.
Apropos food: A league for its own is “Pum”, setting a totally new standard. Well the other restaurants serve decent food as well, though they clearly cater for the international party community and the local food on the menu appearing to be not much more than a concession to the country. But Pum was outstanding in terms of taste, colour, the way of decorating the food, service, (open) kitchen standards, well, everything! In my opinion: Best Restaurant on the Island. Folks, the Prat Nam Prik Pow here is just paradise for the tongue: medium spicy, rich in flavours, strong colour and just the right amount to leave some space for “Mango Sticky Rice” as dessert: And that is Yummie!!!!

Anyway, these days had also to come to an end and it came much too early in a way. Though I am already looking forward to see my friends in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore next week, I would have loved to stay a bit longer and to feel the warm sun shining, while sitting in one of the many cafes next to the waterfront path. Now I am sitting at the airport in Phuket in the aircondition’s cold air stream and enjoy a last Singha beer and the free WiFi to update my blog. In a few hours I will be in KL.

What do you mean by I talk all the time about “watertight”? Oh, yes, you are right, indeed. Watertight. Everything needs to be watertight these days. Because water is everywhere. It’s coming down from the sky: Liters, gallons, tons. It comes pouring from the roofs, from the hills, from the trees. And water is on the pathways. It is on the small streets here in Phi Phi Don. It is even in the air, so densely as if it was fog. And it all runs into the sea.

The sea. The place where I should be now. Or at least have been for the last few hours. Be in there for scuba diving and see the famous Phi Phi underwater world. That’s why we came to Koh Phi Phi. 7.15 AM was the meeting time in the diving centre. Extra early to be earlier at the dive spots than all the other diving centres here, to have a chance to be the first ones and as such for at least some time enjoy the subsea world without hundreds of other divers. The signs looked good: 5 or 6 other divers inscribed for today, Lupo and me. Fairly few for a place with so many dive centres, though the more favourable for those who are here.

But no diving today. We already feared that news when we stepped out of our rooms at 7 this morning: Heavy rain and strong winds, forming quite some waves in southern bay here. And at the diving centre they unfortunately had to cancel today’s diving. Strong southern winds made safe diving impossible. Usually they have either western or eastern winds so that at least one side of Phi Phi Leh (the smaller island here) is diveable. But not today. Not this month. Folks from the diving centre tell us they can’t remember any March with so much rain than this one. And the forecast does look the same same: Rain and winds for 2-3 more days. Exact the time which we have to dive before we need to catch our flights, Lupo & Flora back to Bangkok and I to Kuala Lumpur.

So what else is there to do than sitting in the room, writing blog articles and listening to Mr. Bojangles?

P.S. Don’t worry, I brought along some more music. Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain” for example…

The temples

After a rather quick journey in the taxi (less than 1 hour – that’s good for Bangkok, believe me!) from the Sukhumvit area to the Grand Palace (and around 120.- Thai Bhat, so don’t be fooled by taxi drivers who ask for the double as a fixed amount) we see the area from the outside in all its grandesse. Just to see the temple roofs stretching out towards the sky, fenced by white fortress walls is impressive – especially if you see it first time.

And Wat Phra Kaeow is as impressive as it was five years ago also inside. I am again astonished by the sheer colours and artisanry of the temple, the Buddha figures, the demons watching over the temple. It’s just amazing and I could spend hours here. Just the many pictures on the outer wall, depicting the story of … is amazing. Then the main temple building with its emerald Buddha. A small and very revered statue nobody knows where it originally comes from – the story has it that it was once discovered inside a stupa or chedi after a lightning struck that and cracked it open. But there’s more to see and the audioguides we rented are available only for two hours.

The Grand Palace in comparison is much less fancy – at least in those parts where we have access to. And currently the royal family is busy meeting other people, so for the moment we have to go with that.
But Wat Pho again is astonishing: the giant Buddha, 30+ m long and on the outside made of pure gold, the feet’s soles made of pure mother of pearl works, showing high artistic knowledge of their creators. Unfortunately after this the first rain hits us and we take refuge in a cafe just outside the entrance before it is time again to take a taxi to Siam Paragon and meet Carrie.

The Sports Club

Another real discovery is about only to begin now: Carrie takes us to the next possibility to meet the Royals. We are about to have late lunch at the R.B.S.C. – the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. The guard at the door makes a short attempt to approach us in our touristy outfit and to friendly ask us for our desire. Carrie gives him a short wink with her membership card from afar. A friendly greeting and a shiny smiling, not further approaching us are his answer. Access only for members. And for us (today).

The location looks very much like my imagination of those old English gentlemen clubs is: nice high rooms, a lot of dark wood and brass, tables behind glass, who won what in which year. And they have even a table of the official club and committee representatives, showing even who’s in and who’s out. Not to talk about the horse race track (obviously the “sport” is partly exercised by others), a golf court, and probably somewhere also a pool, tennis courts etc. We just have a look at the horse tracks and the golf court in the centre of the race tracks. And the view from the second floor terrace is spectacular: a huge green spot in the middle of Bangkok, and just behind the Skyline of the BTS Skytrain and dozens of skyscrapers. I will post a panorama foto to this as soon as it is finished (most likely only after my return to Austria).

Restaurant at first floor, excellent food (we have again various Thai dishes, enjoying the rich tastes of sweet, sour, spicy, herbs, …). Interestingly the prices are not higher than in any other reasonable restaurant. Carrie explains it that way, that the club (especially the betting office) are subsidizing the restaurant. I realize how interesting it feels in the beginning to sit here with our T-Shirts and cargo pants and being treated with the same select friendliness as every other person here. I somewhat would have expected at least “those looks” – nothing. And I am also surprised how quickly I get used to that. The club is so distinguished that they don’t even take payment in cash or credit card for the lunch. It is all automatically booked to Carrie’s membership account. Anyway, we passed a few hours here and not it is time to continue again. Carrie needs to take her younger son back home and relieve her baby sitter from her duties and we have another appointment with Kenny and Daniel.

If it swims we have it

7:30 p.m. We are to meet Daniel in his shop. It’s nice to be here again after five years, where our friendship started. It still looks pretty much the same: the interior, the street kitchens in front, the pub next to the shop. And there is even their companion, who serviced my five years ago when I was here first time! He immediately recognizes me again and greets me with my name.
The only thing that has changed are the garments – at least some of them. While we check if there is something we “need to have”, Daniel arrives and we soon leave for the dinner with him and Kenny. They take us to the seafood restaurant they were talking about so often. It originated 35 years ago from a small travelling seafood dealer who grew his business in the meantime to what is said to be Bangkok’s biggest seafood restaurant now. Kenny arrives at the same time as we do and the wedding preparations seem to make him years younger: I haven’t seen him so enthusiastic, so young and so slim for quite a time! He must be very proud of marrying his eldest son now  
Back to the restaurant: imagine you enter through the doors into a huge sealike decorated hall and walk along the centre aisle towards what looks like a supermarket cashier. You get your “own” waitress, who is pushing your shopping trolley. That’s right, a shopping trolley. The menu is huge: I would estimate it to be some 30 to 40 meters long. Fresh fish in tanks, fish and crustaceae on ice, mussels and the like, fresh vegetables and finally all kinds of exotic fruits. Whatever you desire, you take it. Ah, that’s not true. Whatever you desire you point at and the waitress is taking it for you.
Then you pay everything at the cashier desk and back at your table you tell the waitress how you would like which seafood prepared in the open air kitchen: grilled, fried, deep fried, in green/red/yellow curry, … I am glad that Kenny takes care of that, I wouldn’t know what suits which selection best.
And then you start eating: placed around a round table that seats 12 or so people, one dish after the other comes served at the table and you start course after course. All in all you better bring enough time For us it’s another day that ends late in the night. A day full of refreshed memories and new impressions. And a day to sink even deeper into Asian lifestyle.

More to come. Stay tuned 

Finally we park the car on the rooftop of what seems to be a huge storage building, except that there are the first furniture shops in the first (i.e. ground) level. Heading over a passage way above the main road we come to a first estimate of the size of the market area: HUGE! Daniel explains that many shops are open all week long, but only on weekends the market is completely open. And there are different dedicated districts: the part, where you get furniture, the part with textiles, the market for x and that for y … You get everything. And the saying of “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it” must have been coined here and nowhere else.

First way leads us to food court (very important concept – what a pity we don’t have that in Austria yet!). We have a first brunch/lunch after a rather small breakfast in the hotel. You have to buy a prepaid voucher card for whatever sum you want, then you walk from food stall to food stall, check what you would fancy today, order it and take it away within minutes. Main course from this kitchen, dessert from over there, drinks from a third one… all paid from the prepaid card, all enjoyed in the central (s)eating area – and everybody in the group gets what he/she prefers most.

On our way back we pass through a small part of the pet market. And you really get EVERYTHING: not only the usual fish for your aquarium, you can have small langustes, crabs, all sorts of fish, plants. But the show continues: Aras and other kinds of parrots, other birds, mice, spiders, snakes, … even baby squirrels. All that in the in the meantime stinging heat created by the sun and the street kitchens you find even here. The creatures are pitying me…

We shop for a few things, gifts for those at home. Prices are much lower than at the markets in town. Daniel estimates the prices in the usual town markets to be 6-10 times higher than here. Still, mostly we take photos ‘cause that’s the reason we are here for.
Time passes quicker than we thought with so many impressions. Around 5 PM we start heading back to the car to make our way back to the hotel. Time to experience another aspect of Bangkok: The main road in our direction is still blocked (it was already when we left lunch four hours earlier), so we take a major “drive around” which is longer, but right now still faster than the direct way.

Nightview from Privacy Suites Rooftop

Back to Bangkok it is. Bangkok, or Krung Thep Mahanakhon as it’s native name is. The City of Angels. That translation of the native name appeals to me much more than the translation of “Bangkok”: “Village in the plum woods”.
Man, I haven’t been here for “only” five years and it seems to have changed quite a bit in the meantime.

• First contact now: New airport – larger, more comfortable, more modern than the old one. Much more.
• Second impression: air quality. Wow, five years ago I wouldn’t have bet one sarang that this city will get to grips with the air pollution within only a short amount of time. Well, I should have bet and get rich. Damned rich…
• Third, many more high rising buildings than I saw last time and many more are under construction or still to come. Bangkok has been bustling with national and particularly international business people in the last years, as Daniel, the groom, explained. And so the city grows: outwards and upwards. Sukhumvit, the area Daniel is about to take us, is now in the center of the city. 80 or so years ago it was jungle. And we know that because Daniel’s Grandpa has experienced it himself.

Ah, yes, Daniel. One of the people we are here for. That’s because Daniel and Karampreet are getting married. From Wednesday to Saturday. Right, the International Wedding Collector (IWC is not only a wristwatch brand) is on the road again. On Bangkok’s roads this time.  And the wedding’s gonna be huge! When we met last time, Kenny (Daniel’s father) and Daniel were expecting a medium sized wedding, sporting some 500 or so guests. Yesterday we learnt that 500 is more or less “just the family” with all the brothers and sisters, cousins and cousines, grandparents and their families… But there are also the close friends and their families, so it will more probably be somewhere between 700 and 900. Possibly 1,000, though none of the two believes so.
And it’s gonna be a Indian Sikh wedding. That means several festivity acts in the next days to come. Stay tuned if you want to read more about that…

For now I am just awed that Daniel, besides running a business and preparing for the wedding, takes time to personally pick us up from the airport, wait extra time during the unusually long immigration checks and to take us to the hotel. By the way, the Privacy Suites hotel is just great: Very friendly staff, relatively small, quite new, wonderful rooms, designer interior (at least it looks like), a rooftop pool , centrally located, yet in a quiet side road of Soi 20 (side road 20) to Sukhumvit road (the main business road here, and said to be the longest in Asia), , … . And it’s probably not too bad to know that the owner is Daniel’s cousin and Kenny’s nephew

After taking us here Daniel makes sure we have everything we need and leaves us for the rest of the day. Time to rest, adapt to the time zone and recover from the 10 hrs direct flight. We start it with discouvering the neighbourhood and grab some food: Thai Curry! The yummie stuff! A few hours later we have an approximate plan of what to do here when, juggling appointments with the groom’s family, Lupo’s friend and Flora’s new Thai family members.

What happened? Not much. And then again, a lot
Read on for more

It struck me just after cinema tonight. I saw “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, the 3rd part of the Narnia films, based on C.S. Lewis’ books. When I left the cinema, I was just standing on the street, seeing the snow falling from the sky in tiny little flakes, feeling it on my face and my shoulders. I watched left and right and cross the street and with all the lights in the shopping windows, the street lighting and the christmas decoration, a few people peacefully walking on the sidewalks and hardly any cars it seemed just like magic!

I slowly started strolling home, decided not to take the underground but to enjoy the magic atmosphere there was And it was great fun walking on the white streets, feeling and hearing the snow crunching beneath my shoes. Gosh, I dreamed for years now of enjoying once more a wonderful evening out in the Advent time, with a snow white scenery, seeing the glow and shine of nicely decorated shopping windows, listening to the (silent) sounds of the city center, feeling inner peace and having time for a walk. No need to rush anywhere, to speak anything or to think about anything else than what is happening just at that moment. It was just wow and I realised that moment that again one of my dreams just has come true

It may sound like nothing and maybe it’s not much, but tonight it meant a lot to me. Together with all the other wonderful things which have happened today, it was just a great day and evening. Thanks to all of you who made that possible today

I came down from Palmer, not too far away from Anchorage. We visited the Musk Ox farm there and you know what? “Musk Ox” is quite misleading, there’s nothing about an ox in them. In fact, they are probably the biggest goats you find on earth. Goats! And to some extent they look like little relatives of bisons!
I took a photo of one of the “bulls”, Goliath was his name. I assume he wasn’t in too good a mood that day, since he immediately charged me when I bent down to take the picture at eye’s height. The guide told me, I was the first person that day that made him charge, despite his bad temper (it was the last tour, so I guess it was about time anyway). Funny animals, they make grunting noises like lions. Hm, lions, let me see – maybe I should then add my “musk ox encounter” to my “wildlife series collection” that I started in Bangkok two years ago?

What to write about Anchorage? In terms of citizens it is about the size of Graz, the second largest town in Austria. The geographic spread up here in the north is probably bigger since the houses are not that tall, mostly the very usual American way of building. By the way, there are some nice areas in Anchorage that might also fit Beverly Hills and other sunny sides of the world. Wouldn’t mind living there (at least in the summer). Also in other respects it resembles very much many other US cities. Few taller buildings in the center (mostly banks, hotels, administrative buildings, in that order), then very flat at the “outskirts”. Some nicer streets for tourists (4th and 5th Ave).

Three things however are really remarkable about this town: First of all, the Native Heritage Center and the Rasmuson Museum of Arts and History are really great. The first, because you got a good impression on native cultures (there are much more than only Inuit) and you could talk the natives all along the open air museum and listen to their stories. Awesome!
And the Museum of Arts and History has also great exhibitions: photos, paintings, exhibition about the lifestyle, many things to touch and try out, really amazing! Could you imagine that people paddling their canoes could hear seals under water by using their paddles? I didn’t know that!

And there’s one more thing: Anchorage is THE capital of small airplanes and floatplanes. I have never ever seen so many of them scattered throughout the town as here! At other places, people have a second car, here they have a (float)plane! Amazing! Lake Hood alone is said to have more than 800 starts and landings – per day! Maybe it’s well worth spending one summer here, doing a pilot licence and take that back to Europe?

Right now I am waiting for an other flight, the one that is to take me home again. Unfortunately the plane is late, it has arrived late and departure is postponed by at least 2 hours. Together with the three hours or so I had 5+ hrs to check out the not-so-big international terminal of Anchorage. Chances I get my connection in Frankfurt are quite little, but maybe they manage. Well, at least they have free WiFi here, so I can write and post this update.

Thanks if you read my few brief lines and joining me on this cruise – I appreciate you bearing with me
Take care, my friends and have great days until this feature is continued with my next journey

Teklanika camp ground

Our campground is a nice one, just 100 metres away from Teklanika river, now a not so broad stream (or more, an array of smaller and broader streams) in a wide gravel river bed. Still we can’t see it from our site, huge green bushes and trees stand around us and the other campers. Fire pits for the evening steaks are solid – and I mean solid. Solid are also the bear proof trash bins and for campers that use tents only there’s a little container with the inscription “food locker”. You better use that locker, not because it’s a USD 150,- ticket if you leave anything unattended around your site (you can bet park rangers have an eye on that) but because it still is the animals’ country.
RJ, our tourguide and bus driver the next day tells us that two campgrounds recently had to be temporarily closes. One because young bears became to curious about what’s going on there and the other one with wolves deciding that their new path should lead right through that campground. In both cases they had to kick out the tourists and the let in the rangers and biologists only. Believe me, you don’t want to be the person that makes a (hungry) bear curious – and bears are always hungry, since they have to feed up approx. 30-40% of their summer weight in fat before it’s hibernation time again. Just today I read a newspaper article about a guy fighting off a bear in the middle of the night, just northeast of Anchorage, only a few miles outside of the city. But back to Denali.

We are lucky, today is the first (partly) sunny day again, so we use the day for a short hike along the river. It somewhat feels adventurous, making your way through small forests and bushland to and alongside the river, sometimes stepping out on the gravel and sand banks, crossing smaller arms whenever well-positioned boulders in the creeks allow it. Lots and lots of rabbits, but nothing else. Again and again we check the environment with our binoculars, but nothing comes in sight. My camera us just busy taking landscape photographs, nothing else. Pa’s finally deciding to wait back at the RV, while Ma and I venture further into the “wilderness”. We make it through the underwood on small paths, sometimes hardly to recognize, sometimes to be “established” anew by us until we arrive on top of a little cliff, overlooking the river to two sides. It already feels majestic! How must it feel, if you hike one of the surrounding domes or even climb one of the larger mountains! However thus must wait until another time, with better equipment and better, ah, physical preparation. Still the views of “our” small cliff are worth the short stroll into the wildlands.
Later on it’s time for a steak, properly grilled outside of our motorhome. Myriads of flies enjoy our presence and the smell of the slowly simmering sirloin. Soon they are as they should: medium cooked (or grilled), juicy and tender, thus giving the perfect diner for a perfect day.

Tour bus day

The next day greets us with some more clouds again. From time to time rain falls, then stops again. At the horizon: a brighter white, thinner clouds, the vague promise of clearing up. We got up already at 6 AM this morning, just to make sure we get our Visitor bus at 7:25. The bus will take us to Wonderlake and back on the only road that leads into (and out of) the park. Roundtrip duration: approx. 11 hours. They use those old, sturdy school buses to transport visitors and hikers along the road from and to designated stops. Although sceptical in the beginning about the “comfort” of these buses I have to admit that they are better on the streets than our camper – sorry CruiseAmerica, that’s just how it is. The further we get into the park, the worse becomes the weather. No clearing up, more a closing of clouds to become a full white and grey blanket. We finally stay on the bus, though one could hop off anywhere along the road and go for a hike and take another bus back later and we were considering this earlier on.

The sights along the road: grizzlies! Masses of grizzlies! Old ones, young ones, mother sows with their cubs, usually two of them! They seem not even to take notice of us, maybe thanks to the orders we were given by the driver: if we see animals, he will stop, we can take our pictures, but talk with a low voice only, keep hands and photo cameras inside the bus, opening and closing windows silently. And we are lucky with our driver: RJ Oliva does his best to keep our moods up, commenting on the wildlife, on passages along the road where we can find certain animals, telling us stories about what he had already experienced in the park and making the bus ride really fun ride without it becoming ridiculous. If there was a Pulitzer prize for bus drivers, I’d vote for RJ!

Back to wildlife and nature: The valleys and passes we pass by keep constantly changing. Lush forest lands, to wide bushy plains, to broad gravel river beds to steep mountain cliffs to grassy patches to … words just can’t describe it. We see gold eagles, a small group of caribou, bears again, eagles, then it’s bears and did I already mention the bears?

Alas, we decide to hop of the bus one stop earlier and hike back to our camp, first along the street, and then along the stream. Wow, it’s still wetter than I had thought. We arrive at the motorhome, wet trousers and muddy shoes. Man, how we fancy dinner today! A huge pot of spaghetti with tomatoes and lots of bacon and sausage – whatever we could find in the fridge. Yummie!

Then it’s next morning again, time for having a sleep in. It’s rain again, and we cannot find the motivation to give hiking another try under these circumstances. So we decide to leave one day early and pack everything up.
Key in the lock, turn to start the engine and – nothing! Our battery is empty. Well, reinforce it with the camper battery of our motorhome, try again – nothing. It’s raining and both our batteries are empty. Thanks god there is a very helpful institution here: the “camp ground hosts”. A middle-aged couple, they look like park rangers (I am not sure if they really are). It seems they have seen already more than one case like ours. They immediately have a quick starter battery available that we can use. And it does work out, so soon after we head for the park exit, stamping a few post cards with the Park authority’s stamp at the exit and posting them to good old Europe.

Talkeetna

About 250 km further we arrive in Talkeetna, capital of those folks who want to climb Denali (or Mount McKinley, as the US calls the mountain officially). And it’s one of the cutest little towns I have seen here, though completely different than Dawson or Whitehorse. It’s sun again here and there’s lots of people on the road and in the cafes along the streets. In one shop they have fantastic poster size photographs of the mountain that has refused to show up under his cover of clouds and other motives. They might look great in my little Viennese flat, giving a touch of “openness”. But then again USD 500.- is not exactly an occasion, even with the current exchange ratio. So we decide to spend the afternoon in a café and walking around town, before chosing a camp site at Talkeetna Camper Park, where I write this update. It’s 11 PM and the sun is just about setting behind the horizon. It will be another well lit night here, at a nice little Alaskan spot.