This is work ethic !

About 500m from where I am staying there were some brick and mortar structures which were used by vendors for morning and/or evening markets. Last week on Thursday they started demolishing the strcutures and the Thais have worked right through the weekend and the stand is vacant and clear, has been fenced off , compliance posters up in place and the important note is that a new Seven Eleven will open for business on the 1st May 2025. That is two months and three days from today! My british friend said that the progress they have already made would have taken 8 months in the UK and yes, he is of the opinion as somebody that has been here often over the last 18 years, that thier opening date will be achieved , unless , he said, the date of opening is deemed to be an unlucky date taking numerology into account. So we will wait and see and I will report back on this ! But to say I am impressed up to now is an understatement ! Should add that the year is 2568 here in Thailand so the 68 refers to this year !

And then it Rained !!! A Lot !

After a decent amount of travel here and having caught showers in the past , this was different to what I had experienced. Yesterday it rained from 5 am to 9 p.m. so I was stuck indoors the whole day other than lunchtime when there was a fortunate break in the weather - just long enough to get lunch and supper ! So this mornings walk when a few drops fell I opted to turn around and hopefully can go later again ! Err on the side of caution as i didn;t pack any rain clothes in and rain was only forecast for much later. Did get to watch a beautifully crafted film "Perfect Days" on Netflix which is incredibly slow moving and suspect not everybodys cup of tea. After watching the first 45 minutes of a toilet cleaner in Tokyo going around his daily routine, day after day, yet embracing the pockets of beauty he experiences , through a very retro lifestyle of audio cassettes and 35 mm cameras , you come away with a deeper appreciation that happiness is an inside job! On a lazy, rainy day I recommend this movie on your own or with a VERY likeminded individual because this won't be for everybody.

Sunset Klong Muang Beach

Klong Muang Beach Delightful beach and worth the trip out for sunset! Again, my photos don't do it justice however this beach deserves another visit. There were tsunami warning signs off the beach that were a reminder of the tragedy of 2004 ! As Krabi is often a springboard to the different islands there are copious tourists who I try and avoid as much as possible.

Sunrise at Din Daeng Doi

Din Daeng Doi 4.00 am wake up to get there in time although only 20km away, Ended up too peopley for me with so many tourists. Nice cash cow for the property owner at 70 baht access ( R38.25) pp and there were stacks of peeps. It is for "maintenance" but you don't see any lol. Met a South African lady who is on a two week solo travelling trip and it's her 40th birthday tomorrow. From Pretoria nogals! One of the things she has done is swim in biolumisecence at sunset and she says that has been by far the biggest highlight of her trip. So its on my bucket list for April when my partner in crime gets here !! Sometimes Google Maps is the gift that keeps on giving. In 2022 it took me through narrow farm roads between Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle in Northern Thailand which was just stunningly beautiful. Today a similar experience as it too me through the palm oil and rubber tree plantations on a narrow farm road whch was in excellent condition - but just beautiful. Photos don't do it justice.

40 Year view of the Thai Baht vs the South African Rand

Although we have this predisposition to always check the ZAR against the USD when we compare ourselves against an emerging economy , similar size to ourselves , we get a clearer picture of the decline of the Rand. Not a good look and 100% avoidable however with zero political will in SA , it is destined to continue into ruins. As you can see in the time of Thabo Mbeki how well the ZAR was relative to the THB and the rest is history....

The Face of Thailand

This guy deserves a post of his own. It was 36 degrees with high humidity at 11:30 am and he was planting poles in the high sun. I had just come off the peak of Din Daeng Doi ( Doi is mountain in English) and I didn't see him at first and when I was a lot closer, seeing the beads of sweat running off his back , I wanted to take a discrete photo so I walked back up a few stairs to use the zoom and take a tightly cropped photo. It was not to be as he dissappeared from view. I walked down again and he walked back into view and I asked if I could take a photo which I think he appreciated. You have to pinch zoom into the photo to see his hands and his fingers to know that they have grafted many times. Not an ounce of fat on him. His jeans are wet from the sweat and you can see the sweat on his body although my original view was these massive beads of sweat rolling off his back. He epitomises what I see generally with the Thais. Friendliness, peace loving, hardworking. So whats the meaning of this. Well, back in SA I met an Afrikaans guy who couldn't get over telling me that the Thais are lazy, etc etc . Every country has bad actors , feels like SA more so, HOWEVER where I stay which is more Thai than foreigners, I can tell you that there are many that truly graft their butts off. When I go for a morning walk along the canal at 5.00 a.m. the morning street markets are open and selling freshly produced food. That means maybe a 3:00 am wake up to get ready. And you see this all over. And then also while walking you will see the street cleaners, many being women, sweeping the streets at 5:00 am. Quite insane and very little mechanical/automated solution and I suspect this is deliberate as they keep unemployment under the 1%. So to you Sir, I salute you !

The morning that was - in pictures

Jedi Masters on two wheels ( and four)

The similarities to SA drivers is there ...and it isn't. Land of Smiles ...yes and no . I have seen first hand the service the deep pocketed, hard currency tourists experience vs the backpacker / budget tourist experience and they are vastly different. It's not a dig at all at the Thai people (30/40 million tourists for Thailand , a few million for SA) , they seem to genuinely just have, understandably, tourist fatigue. Especially as many arrive with this massive sense of entitlement and disrepsect the Thai culture. So on the surface you might not experience a resentment but it bubbles under the surface. e.g. This morning when riding home from the CBD I was sticking to the motorcycle lane ( narrow lane on the left of the traffic) and coming up to the traffic lights the custom is to then pull out of the motorcycle lane into the middle lane so traffic turning left can pass you without you disrupting traffic. I could see this pickup behind me in the middle lane and I indicated my intention , he didn't slow down to allow me in, I then sped up to move into the middle lane...so did he. So it sounds worse than it was as I just pulled in front of all the cars in the middle , a usual custom for motorcyclists but the fact that he sped up to close the gap to prevent me from moving over was not an accident. These guys all grow up on motorbikes, they know the drill. This was just a subtle, unThai, way of "sticking it to the man". That being said, in general the people are as respectful to you as you are to them. most of the time. Re driving / riding though. You ride left and pass on right . Unless otherwise. if your flicker is on for left , you could turn right, or not. you could be riding left and have a motorbike pull out of a side street on the wrong side of the road riding towards you ( a shortcut to shop 100m down the road and avoiding having to cross over traffic twice). or not. Yield signs are a free for all and after 6 months intermittent travelling here I still haven't discovered who has right of way. You don't yield to the right, you don't yield to the first who got there . It seems like survival of the biggest group. So if a gaggle of bikers come down the road , they have right of way , even if you got their first. Or Not. Just have to ride with caution and rather give right of way to anybody who looks more assertive than you lol Another oddity , at a crossroads if you arrive at the stop sign ( there road has no stop) and a car /bike approaches from the side and they are turning into your street , they cut the corner behind you , so you pull out in front of them when their indicator is on. This does not always apply in all provinces in Thailand. Needless to say where we saffers turn into the road in front of cars that have stopped can cause confusion for them and you. Last comment and this might be Krabi related but I haven't heard and seen so many ambulances racing to accidents as here. Without a doubt within one week I had seen more than my entire previous visits to Thailand. Whether its due to higher tourist activity and /or the rapid transition of many Thais from bike to car ( without the skills) idk. I have seen bike accidents with ambulances and certainly more than the norm. With cars involved. I should add I need a pillion rider with a strong constitution to sit on the back and video some of the stuff for me lol

Valentine's Day, Krabi style!

Guess somebody should tell that all that is red and white is not Valentine Day! 😉. 

Seems to stretch over a few days here as well. And the irony is that culturally Thais don't show affection in public. 

Dendrophiles of the world unite !

A dendrophile is a person who loves trees and forests. The term comes from the Greek word dendron, which means "tree". This a benign photo but I had to take a photo as a reminder of the importance of trees ! I went for a walk at Thara Park, close to midday and it was close to peak heat for the day at approx 37 degrees ! . The moment I walked into the shadow/ shade of the tree on the right , the temperature dropped +- 4 degrees. The importance of trees in our ecosystems cannot be understated. Plant more of them I say !

Fuel Consumption & a chill sunset

Unfortunately the photo at the pumps reflects off their screen but just to vouch for a 79km from 1.1 litres of fuel. Cost thb40 ( R21.68) Not bad going ! Just imagine if every person communting in SA , on their own so basically they could be on two and not four wheels, then the tax revenue to govt of 37% of fuel price would make a massive hole in the fiscus ! I can dream :-)

Bumped into my buddy Paul while at a traffic light and he coerced me to join for his sunset photo shoot at the main pier. I hadn't been there so tagged along, sans camera equipment. Glad I did and will be back sometime for sure. 

Thailand Crystal !

Sure this post will be updated every now and then. Thais Luuuuuuv plastic ! Or maybe they just haven't actively discovered an alternative yet. I rest my case on the first photo re the packaging of single bananas and the second is me having ordered a small salad, and the waste created in the process. No alternatives offered ! Basically, its up to me as the consumer to buy a multi-use container going forward!

Leg Day !

Woke up to the mission to climb out Samnak Wipassana Tham Suea Khao Kaew Ao Luk Thanu which is a monastery about 6 km away . All these outcrops that you see in Thailand is limestone and they have extreme and vertical walls. But monks being what monks do managed to build a structure/s on top of one of these. Takes 1290 steps over 830m hypotenuse to get to the top so some sections are 50 degrees while the average is 38%. The stairs are in some places up to 40cm high ! So your body knows early on to the work ahead. Fortunately managed to have a mantra in my head as I walked (climbed?) it out. Just glad I went earlier that the tourists that followed as the heat , with the gradient , would be a killer ! Was worth the climb and will be done again for sure ! Certainly met my goals for floors climbed lol