ThailandChangwat Surat ThaniBan Bang PruKhao Sok8°55’54” N 98°31’33” E
January 24, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
We have traveled through Thailand for over a month now and are on our way home. We thought we'd tell you about the aliens we found in this country, quietly lurking among us... and not just once! But four times!
The first alien we spotted was at Jim Thompson Farm in the eastern (Isaan ethnicity) part of Thailand. We wanted to learn about the legendary man who is credited for making Thai silk so famous so we visited his farm.
Jim Thompson was an American working for the government. The legend says he was really a spy. He opened a Thai silk company, made a fortune, and then disappeared! Some say he got in trouble and killed by enemy spies, and others say he got hurt in the jungle and died. Regardless of what happened to him, his farm was very interesting. We frolicked through flower fields (see pic), pumpkin patches, and even learned about the full life cycle of the silk worm! Or that's what they wanted us to believe.... Those worms didn't fool us. Judge for yourself in the second pic. They were totally extraterrestrial!!
The second specimen comes from the island where we did our turtle project, Koh Pra Thong. There we met Barry, an independent marine biologist from Canada who helps out with the turtle project duties. (Fans of Big Bang Theory will say there are lots of similarities between him and Sheldon Cooper. He could totally pass for Sheldon's father!!) He studies a fascinating creature called a sea cucumber for it's economic potential in the Thai food market. Locals eat these bizarre creatures and trade them for profit. We thought they were spiky little blobs with necks. But not from this planet.
The third specimen comes from a national park called Khao Sok. There, we spent a night in the lake in a raft house. (The last pic shows our front yard, the lake. Our lodge was floating in the land by buoys and we could just jump in for a swim anytime we wanted.) We got to canoe from the mainland an hour into the lake and took a tour of the wildlife on the spectacular limestone walls and jungles that make up tons of little islands in the lake. We saw hornbills and langur monkeys. We took a special flat bamboo raft to a cave (see pic)! We saw bats, "bacon" style stalactites, and even an alien hiding within the formations. The picture below is very convincing that we found ET.
We even ate aliens in Bali. The locals call it fiddlehead fern. We can it a green little three-finger alien that looks like a leaf and tastes delicious with grated coconut!Read more
ThailandChangwat PhangngaBan Hin KongKo Pho Ta9°7’43” N 98°15’45” E January 25, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ 🌧 7 °C
(This is a translation of the turtle post. See last post for pics.)
On a débarqué sur Koh Phra Thong un peu comme les alliés en 44, sans armes mais avec bagages. Le "longtail boat", dont l'hélice est au bout d'une perche reliée à un moteur de voiture reconverti qui fait un bruit de tous les diables, nous a débarqués dans la mangrove à cause de la marée basse. On a dû patauger jusqu'à l'île où on a fini par rencontrer Lesley, de notre projet Naucrates (www.naucrates.org), qui nous a amenés au village de Pak Chok.
Pak Chok est l'un des trois villages de Koh Phra Thong ("l'île du Bouddha d'or"), pourtant l'une des plus grandes îles de Thaïlande (15 x 10 km). Il a été rasé lors du tsunami du 26 décembre 2004. L'aide de l'ambassade de Suisse et du Lions Club à permis de reconstruire une école et des dizaines de maisons identiques à l'européenne, alignées au cordeau à l'abri des vagues, et de rebaptiser Pak Chok, modestement, en "Lions Village". Tout ça sans vraiment demander leur avis aux habitants, qui ont pour la plupart préféré ne pas revenir et chercher du travail sur la côte. Aujourd'hui 10% des maisons sont habitées par 40 personnes, l'école ne sert plus, et Lions Village est dans l'ensemble un village fantôme.
On y a passé 2 nuits pour rénover la déco du petit musée aménagé dans deux des maisons, destiné à promouvoir les activités de conservation des tortues marines et du reste de l'environnement de l'île. Le musée avait besoin d'un coup de jeune pour attirer les quelques touristes un peu aventuriers (Koh Phra Thong n'est pas reliée à électricité ou l'eau courante). On a dormi chez Pa Nee, 72 ans, qui tient le resto (une table). Sachant que c'était notre voyage de noces, elle a décoré notre chambre (un lit avec une branche en guise de penderie) avec du tulle et des roses en plastique, c'était adorable !
Chaque matin à l'aube, on a patrouillé les 15 km de plages désertes qui bordent l'ouest de l'île pour voir si une tortue était venue pondre pendant la nuit. C'est facile d'identifier leurs traces, comme si un tracteur était sorti de l'eau, mais à notre arrivée il n'y avait pas encore eu de nid de tout l'hiver. Il y a 40 ans, elles venaient pondre presque toutes les nuits, mais aujourd'hui la surpêche et les bouteilles en plastique les tuent en masse ou les empêchent de trouver un coin cozy sur le sable.
Pour atteindre les plages depuis Pak Chok, c'était très pratique de prendre une petite mobylette avec "side car", un caddie rajouté qui permet, avec les deux sièges de la mob', de transporter jusqu'à 6 personnes sur les chemins sablonneux. Le premier matin il faisait encore nuit noire et on a conduit à la lampe de poche, le phare de la mob' ne marchant pas, ce qui nous a évité de voir les trous dans le pont. Du coup on était très zen pour contempler le lever de soleil entre les cocotiers.
On a aussi fait des observations systématiques d'une petite zone de la mer où les tortues ont l'habitude de manger, installés sur les falaises d'une colline qui a sauvé la vie de dizaines de personnes lors du tsunami, où les survivants sont restés piégés plusieurs jours. Ces observations font partie d'une étude à long terme sur le comportement des tortues, et comme les patrouilles matinales, ont lieu tous les jours de novembre à avril depuis 20 ans.
Après deux jours, on a déménagé chez Nok, qui gère des bungalows construits par ses soins au centre de l'île, d'où on peut accéder aux plages à pied. Comme l'île est très plate et sablonneuse, la végétation au centre n'est pas très luxuriante et on se croirait dans la savane. Depuis la plateforme où on s'est délectés de la cuisine thaï de Lamion, la femme de Nok, en contemplant un paysage africain et en écoutant la musique reggae de Job 2 Do (lien dans le post de Svet), il y avait une ambiance hétéroclite et beaucoup plus sympa qu'à Pak Chok.
Le reste du temps, on a profité des massages sur la plage, des fonds marins à couper le souffle, et des smoothies au lait de coco avec notre petit groupe de volontaires. Le paradis, si on est prêt à se faire cogner au dîner par des gros scarabées "noix de coco" presque aveugles (les pauvres), se doucher avec les grenouilles, et traverser un bras de mer à gué matin et soir pour rentrer (gare aux grandes marées !).
Notre semaine s'est terminée en beauté, avec la découverte du premier nid de la saison près du village de Thung Dap, à la pointe sud. On a pu s'assurer que les oeufs étaient bien là et regarder les gens jouer à une sorte de poker local en attendant que le reste des volontaires arrive pour mesurer les dimensions du nid et sa position. Dans deux mois à l'éclosion, d'autres volontaires se relaieront toute la nuit pour s'assurer que chacun des 100 bébés tortues descendent jusqu'à la mer sains et saufs. A force, peut être que les tortues reviendront pondre plus souvent.Read more
United StatesVirginiaLoudoun CountyWillard (historical)Dulles Airport Pond38°57’22” N 77°26’46” W
January 26, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C
We're back from our epic trip! Now we're thinking about all the highlights and memorable moments. And moments of terror. We thought we'd share some of them now that we're safe and sound. We compiled a top 10 list of our scariest adventures:
10. Moped taxis make us mopy
We experienced ten serious minutes of terror without handlebars on two wheels! In Bangkok, some friends convinced us to take a moped taxi to our tree house hotel. They said it was fast and more direct than cars and metros. Marc and I each got on a different moped and off we went! Over speed bumps and zigzag streets with sharp turns. Without handlebars. Or a seat belt. Or a helmet. Or anything to grip except the driver. And those no passing lines on the road were only for decoration.
9. Hot stone massage
In Chiang Mai, we tried a variety of massages. But those hot stones?! No one said they were warm! And we wanted relaxation?! It wasn't some wimpy Western massage…
8. Marc wished he checked his water shoes before showering
At the Elephant Nature Park, our accommodations were basically “glamping” style (glamorous camping). We were one with nature. We had no choice because bugs were everywhere in the rooms. One day, Marc showered with his water shoes on and felt a rock inside his water shoe. Then that fist-sized(!!) rock started moving... and bit his toe! I heard him scream down the hall. Yes, spiders have eight eyes. Eight creepy eyes. Below is the spider picture with a wall sign for scale. I mean it when I say fist size.
7. Lawnmower on the highway
In Sukhothai our daily massage took longer than expected and we had a plane to catch to celebrate the new year in Bangkok. How bad did we want to catch that plane? Bad enough that we jumped on our only option: a tuk-tuk on the road to the next town. Marc literally jumped on it when the driver took off as we were still throwing our bags in the moped tricycle, before blasting at full lawnmower speed on the highway full of cars. And to say we used to be scared about seatbelts not working in the four-wheel taxi when we first arrived in Thailand...
6. Tree vine attacks
At Khao Yai national park, in the jungle, we saw a lot of wildlife. None of what we saw scared us: not the poisonous spiders (pic 2), giant termite nests (pic 3), giant ants, leeches, poisonous bright red, fuzzy caterpillars, centipedes, or wild elephants crossing the road and pushing cars out of the way. But those tree vines can jump out at you when you least expect it! They can knock you over if your hat is on too low and you aren't watching for them!
5. Tree branch whack attack at high speed: duck!!!
We thought those vines were dangerous until we got to Koh Pra Thong island for the turtle project. Then we saw some killer trees. We took several rides in the back of a pick-up truck to get between the village, pier, and beaches. I mean in the back of the truck, not safe in the passenger seat protected by windows. Down the dirt roads through the rugged savannah. Savannahs aren't exactly landscaped. Those low lying branches took many good whacks at our heads and necks! Duck!
4. Blind, giant coconut beetles
It's a lawnmower! It's a bird! It's a cockroach! No!!! It's a coconut beetle. They look like silver cockroaches with wings. If you're lucky, they'll fly into a wall, crash, buzz like crazy, fall over upside down, and flap their wings until they turn over, get right up, and fly into the same wall. Over and over. If you're unlucky, they'll cling on your shirt and just hang there to bug you. Pun intended. Because they are blind. And have no purpose in life.
3. Hornbill Hill
On Koh Pra Thong, we had to climb this very steep, slippery hill to observe and monitor turtles feeding in the water. We had to pull ourselves up ropes to get there. We didn't see any hornbills or turtles, but plenty of deadly dropoffs into the rocky water below. Better not fall asleep during the two-hour afternoon observations...
2. Beach tractor scares
Sometimes at the turn-back point of our morning beach walk, we met with the Thai guy from the nearby village in charge of patrolling the other half of the beach on his tractor. Usually he motioned us to turn around and go back as there was nothing to see, but this time he screamed “turtle! Turtle!” and signaled us to climb in his tractor. That is, the wooden plank hanging behind his seat. Marc almost got his foot caught in the engine belt during the ride, but if that didn't get you, either the smoke or the hot gasoline spilling out will.
1. Morning joy ride
For our first morning beach patrol for turtle nests, we had to take a motorcycle before dawn as we were leaving from the village. We quickly discovered that the only thing working on the dashboard was the fuel gauge. In particular, the headlight wasn't. So we had to use a flashlight instead. Good thing we couldn't see much around, we would later discover in the daylight that the bridge we crossed was full of holes and had partially collapsed. See the horror in my face while riding one down a sketchy dirt road in pic 4 (no holes visible though!)
Against all odds, we made it home safe and sound! Many, many thanks for your wedding gifts that made this trip possible. We got scared, amazed, educated, inspired, and we hope we made a difference volunteering and supporting the local economy whenever possible.Read more
