Asian Sabbatical - Day #32 - Phuket, Thailand

Sunday, July 31st

I'm currently sitting at a Starbucks at the Bangkok, Thailand international airport on Sunday, July 31st at 6pm local time.  I have a return flight to the states this evening just after midnight.  I have another 6 hours of downtime.  All good - this time has offered me the ability to do plenty of things.

The day started for me around 8:30am in Phuket.  (I slept in preparing for what I'm about to encounter over the next 24 hours).  I packed up and then took a taxi to the airport.  I flew from Phuket to Bangkok.  I will spend the day mostly in the Bangkok airport today awaiting my international flight to the states

I thought I would take this time to hit the high points on this trip.  See below:

The peak of Mt. Fuji

 

Tokyo Dome - Baseball Game

 

Torii Gates in Kyoto

 

Hiroshima

 

Bamboo Forest - Kyoto

 

Korean War Memorial - Seoul, South Korea

 

Olympic Venue - Beijing, China

 

Great Wall of China

 

Terra Cotta Warriors - Xi'an, China

 

Shanghai, China - night river cruise

 

Hong Kong - sky view

 

Taipei 101 - Taipei, Taiwan

 

Manila, Philippines - American Cemetery on Day Tour

 

Summer Palace - Bangkok, Thailand

 

Angor Wat - Siem Reap, Cambodia

 

Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand

 

James Bond Beach - Phuket, Thailand

 

I feel very blessed to have the ability to travel and see new sites.  It's amazing to me to see the world and understand the sheer depth of everything that is out there.  Look at the list below - the US is only a fraction of the world's population. 





 

Largest Continents in Population

1. Asia - 4,055,000,000 (Over 4 billion)
2. Africa - 1,108,500,000 (Over 1 billion)
3. Europe - 729,871,042 (including all of Russia)
4. North America - 522,807,432
5. South America - 379,919,602
6. Australia - 20,434,176
7. Antarctica - No permanent residents but up to 4000 researcher in summer and 1000 in winter.

So I'm prepared to take a 3-flight connection to hopefully get me back to St. Louis, MO on Monday, Aug 1st around 4pm local time.  I'm crossing my fingers that all goes well.  This will be my 15th flight (one-way) experienced on this trip  (Denver-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo, Osaka-Seoul, Seoul-Beijing, Beijing-Xi'an, Xi'an-Shanghai, Shanghai-Hong Kong, Hong Kong-Taipei, Taipei-Manila, Manila-Bangkok, Bangkok-Siem Reap, Siem Reap-Bangkok, Bangkok-Phuket, Phuket-Bangkok, Bangkok-Tokyo, Tokyo-Chicago, Chicago-St. Louis, St. Louis-Denver).  My total will be 18 flight legs before I get back to Denver.  That's 1 key difference between Asia and Europe -- the train system is not nearly as good (or non-existent) for the most part.  Flights are inexpensive however - it just takes a bit longer.

I'm going to sign off for now.  I'll be working on a little video over the next couple weeks I'll post as a highlight summary of the trip.  My sabbatical will continue in the states when my mom visits Denver with me.  I'll be back at work the following Monday - and again looking to bring with me some of that peace/inspiration found on this trip.

Here's to an amazing continent.  A place of vast diversity.  A place that makes up over half the world's population.  Here's to my 2016 Asian Sabbatical!!

Asian Sabbatical - Day #31 - Phuket, Thailand

Saturday, July 30th

Initial arrival at Ao Por Pier

Walking the pier to our boat

Leaving the bay

 

About 10-15 minutes into trip

Boat ride to Panak Island

50 people or so on board

Half way to Panak Island

 

Arriving at Panak Island

First canoe ride

 

We went inside this "Bat Cave"

Hidden cove

Impressive scenery

Overhanging cliff walls

Boat ride to Hong Island

Canoe ride at Hong Island

Pic on the canoe ride

Hong Island - steep cliffs

Hong Island

We went through a number of coves

 

Coves opened back up to our boat

One of the boats bringing folks to James Bond Island

 

James Bond Island - initial views

Here's the sign

This is the pic

Pic on my cliff walk

A cove on one side of James Bond Island

I like this pic

A lot of people

Our boat today

Departing shot

My dinner spot tonight - really good

Interesting site in Phuket

 

 

Final full day on the Asian continent on my Sabbatical.  Great stuff in Phuket!  I chose to really chill out and take a tour to 1 of the 2 main tourists sites via a day trip from Phuket - Phang Nga Bay. (The other being Phi Phi Island)

 

I had an early pickup at 7:30am from my hotel.  We took a 45-minute drive to Ao Por Pier for our departure.  The tour consisted of 4 parts:  (1)  Panak Island  (2)  Hong Island  (3)  James Bond Island  (4)  Swimming.  See below for more details:

 

Panak Island

The first stop of the day yielded incredible scenery.  Huge cliffs soared high above us.  We actually got into canoes here so we could explore some caves.  It was impressive.  The caves opened up into hidden coves.  We did about a 30-minute tour of the caves with a canoe guide

 

Hong Island

Next stop at Hong Island was another 30-minutes by boat.  This area was a little more like Panak Island - just more impressive.  We took canoes through a number of channels between the cliff walls opening up into fantastic lagoons.  We were able to get out and take some pics along the way. 

 

James Bond Island (Tapu Island)

On the way to the next destination, we had lunch on-board.  Nice layout for lunch.  They served us chicken, fish, rice, and some salad.  Our final island stop was James Bond Island.  This was my favorite of the day.  We were allowed 1-hour to tour the island.  Incredible pictures.  This is the island featured in the James Bond movie - "The Man with the Golden Gun".  I'm not sure if I ever saw this movie - if so, it's been long ago.  I definitely need to check it out (a lot of folks were doing special pics of what I can only assume where featured in the file)  There was a trail leading along the cliff bluffs that I walked to get more secluded photos.  Really great visuals.

 

Swimming

This was a bit of a flop on the swimming thing -- but the rest of the trip was great (so all good here).  They anchored the boat in this area a couple hundred yards off shore.  Unfortunately, the currents where pretty fast and they only allowed people in the water if they had a life jacket on.  And - you could only go a few yards from the boat.  I decided to chill on-board and watch the sites.  I'll leave my swimming to another day.

 

We pulled up anchor around 4pm to depart back to the pier.  We arrived for our van departure home around 5pm.  I ended up getting to my hotel at 6pm.  A couple hour nap, I then decided to go out for my last dinner of the trip.  I don't generally go out much on my own to eat at night.  I'm glad I did this.  I had a really nice sea bass with a couple drinks.  I walked a bit around the city after dinner - then back to the room.

 

I'll have a bunch of downtime tomorrow to give some parting thoughts.  It's definitely a reflective time for me right now.  Good night from Asia - for the last time on this trip.



Asian Sabbatical - Day #30 - Phuket, Thailand

Friday, July 29th

Patong Beach, Phuket

A really good feel

A lot of food vendors & people out

Country flags from many nations represented on the beach

Parasailing on the beach

 

Great views

 

I stayed at beach until sunset

 

Parasailing - taking off from beach

Very comfortable weather - peaceful

  

End of the beach

Patong Beach - this symbol etched everywhere

 

Café for lunch

 

Nice sandy beach

 

End of the day pic

    

Had a lot of fun watching the parasailing

Busy beach all day

  

Entrance to main walking street

Famous party street

Hard Rock Phuket

Action-packed Patong Beach

 

 

Coming to you live from Phuket, Thailand.  I arrived at my hotel after midnight last night.  I was escorted to my room.  Once the attendant left, the air-conditioner started spilling water out of the vents.  I called down to the front desk - and we moved everything to a new room.  I was mostly in a daze - got to sleep around 1-1:30am.

 

Today was a good day.  I  slept until about 9am.  I was hoping my bag would be here when I awoke -- I checked - no news yet.  The only clothes I had were long pants and my long shirt from yesterday (I had worn these so I could go into the temples in Angkor).  I decided to walk the streets a bit and see the old-town of Phuket.  Really interesting.  I stopped for a great breakfast - banana/almond pancakes with a banana smoothie.  The day started turning in my favor at this point.

 

I returned to the hotel to find my bag waiting for me.  Excellent!  I changed into some new clothes and then took a bus to the favorite beach area in Phuket - Patong Beach. 

 

I spent the better part of the day walking the beach and just taking in the sites.  This was a very peaceful and relaxing day for me.  I stayed until dark and then spent a couple hours walking the famous party street.  Let me say, if you want to have a good time -- the opportunity certainly presents itself at Patong Beach. 

 

I called it an early evening.  I caught a taxi back to my hotel.  Tomorrow is my last full day on my Asian Sabbatical -- it will be spent on a full day tour to Phang Nga Bay --  swimming, canoeing, hiking (and a visit to James Bond Island - where the movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed)

 

Goodnight from Thailand!