Travel Blog

My good friend, P'Lek, whom I know from studying in China while he worked on his PhD. We met in Bangkok and ate a LOT of Japanese food, including my first time eating sashimi. Eating lunch is the tradition when meeting P'Lek.  After lunch we took a water taxi tour on the Chao Phraya River, which flows south,  through the city of Bangkok and has many important sites, including the royal palace and many temples (time was short to visit much today, though I have seen a few sites in the past). Pictures don't do justice to the the scenery.  Dinner of hot pot, mixed meats amd veges, in the driveway. It's easy to cook and eat outside when it's 80°F. "Fit to fly". Final Covid test is negative; test is required to return to the USA and must be taken the day before travel (departure is Dec 31st, 1am from Bangkok, approx. 10 hours from now).

Beautiful evening to watch the sunset after snorkeling. Final evening on the island. I did not expect to see a scorpion in the middle of the road in the jungle. Pishcha was not surprised and said they're common in Thailand. This thing a big, probably 5" in length.  Patiently waiting for the crab and fried rice.  Some perspective on a mangrove forest boardwalk on Koh Chang.  Kayaking through a mangrove forest in Koh Chang,, sort of a saltwater tree that creates a unique biome and interesting scenery in costal areas.   I never did see anyone at the reception... (the beach is way nicer, with or without a bar). I've really missed the wide variety of tropical fruits  We brought these to Koh Chang expecting island prices to be very high. Here we have guava, rose apple, mandarins, and a really giant apple. I'm ready for malaria but was not expecting ticks. This sucker hurt! Sorting some green rice while drinking some fresh coconut milk, picked from a tree around ...

Heading out.  Boat route down south of Koh Chang (Chang Island) to five destinations.  The white monkey curious about some coral he found on the beach.  Coral, and a critter scuttling across the beach to... somewhere.  Our boat; quite large and carries perhaps 75 people. We have been in the boat for approx five hours going to five drop points. The crew provided lunch, water, snacks, toilet, and coffee. Thailand has a long strip of land along the Gulf of Thailand that borders Cambodia; the mountains that form the Thai-Cambodia border can be seen in the distance.      Overall quite a pleasant day, though Pishcha got bit by a sea urchin at the first stop. We later flipped a kayak and lost a pair of flippers (though, thankfully, a nearby crewman saw us, helped right out kayak, and found the flippers which had drifted twenty or thirty feet to the bottom).     Many fish were beautifully colored, like rainbows, and many fish stayed in schools with t...

 Forgot to say Merry Christmas! 🎄 

Going backward in time for a moment, it was pretty interesting going through the Narita and Bangkok airports, as all the shops were closed in each location due to Covid, and they seemed abandoned; in Narita my first thought that I must be in the wrong area because there were just so few people in the whole terminal, and no action going on. Bangkok airport was busier but still controlled with Covid. On my flights from MPS and Dallas, both, operated by American Airlines, we were repeatedly reminded of mask mandates; flight attendants gave frequent reminders to reapply masks, even more than for seatbelts. Between Narita and Bangkok, we were reminded of seatbelts more, perhaps because masks were assumed. A quick search for Covid information on Google gives the following data for the three countries for December 22nd: USA 7-day avg. 171.5k new cases, 1,352 deaths; 73% 1-dose vaccinated (population 330 million people); Thailand 7-day avg. 2,969 new cases, 30 deaths, 72.3% 1-dose vacc...

  Not our vehicle, but they hit our tent later. UPDATE: the monkeys seem to have nabbed a few of our belongings that we left in the tent during the day, including the extra tent stakes, the small rain-fly (which we weren't using as there was no rain), and several bags(the tent bag, a bag for one sleeping bag, and both bags for our sleeping pads), and possibly a pair of Dickies pants which I haven't been able to find for a few days not. We made the right choice to keep most of our things in the car rather than the tent.      Quite a lot of animals in this area including deer, birds and some naughty monkeys. This campground at Khao Yai has been filled with monkeys and really messing around, getting into all kinds of things, and way too comfortable with people. At one point Pishcha opened up the car side-door, went to the trunk for just a few moments, then went back to the side door to find a monkey rooting around inside. When the monkey saw her he got spooked, grabbed ...

 Covid test this morning at 3am was negative, so I'm free! Free until December 26th when I'll have to take another test and report the results via QR code. Pishcha picked me up from the hotel ~1pm and we got some groceries and returned to her house, washed some clothes, finalized hotels for the next few days, and ate dinner. Tomorrow morning (Monday, December 20th) we'll depart by car for Khao Yai National Park, around three hours to the northeast of Bangkok (actually, Pishcha's house is in a Bangkok suburb, Samut Prakan). Thailand has a growing wine growing industry and the park has one vinyard nearby which we'll stop, tour, eat lunch, and stay two nights camping at the park where we hope to do some hiking, too. Over night, due to jetlag, birds chirping, dogs barking, and chickens cock-a-doodle-doing, I slept just three hours, so I'm a little tired now.

  I’ve landed! I was getting pretty worried about my first Covid test results as I needed the result to depart. The results were emailed to me at 2:06am, just 4.5 hours before my first flight from MSP! I probably could have gotten away without having them before leaving Tokyo for Bangkok, but I’m glad they got in before leaving MPS. The journey was pretty interesting. Started in Minnesota with below freezing temps and frost on my windshield, then down to Texas for temps in the 70s (I got just a bit of fresh air on deboarding), then flying back north over the Dakotas, Canada, and Alaska with snow on the ground and frozen lakes! As we flew more and more northerly, shadows on the ground became longer and longer, until, near Barrow, Alaska (almost exactly the midpoint between Dallas and Tokyo), there was no sun since we were several degrees north of the Arctic Circle. The weather in Bangkok is pleasant, perhaps in the 70s, but quite humid and I was still wearing my long-johns! I...

  Sedated , The Ramones

Saturday, December 11th, 2021      As of writing, it is five and a half days (132 hours) before my departure. My final destination is Bangkok, Thailand to visit a special lady whom I haven't seen for... too long. This will be my second trip to Thailand. Three flights between four cities will get me there: Minneapolis, Dallas (Texas), Tokyo (Japan), Bangkok (Thailand). Total flight time is expected to be 24 hours 2 minutes long; this does not include seven hours of airport time between flights, nor getting to the MPS airport 2 hours early. This might sound like a slog but I'm really excited for flying! I love flying, love looking at the geography from above, love being in airports, and love meet and chatting with different people, hearing their destinations and travel plans.     What I'm nervous about is the series of four Covid tests required for this trip; test 1) 72 hours before departure (required to enter Thailand); test 2) upon arrival to Bangkok (at 1am in...