The good news was that we received our Cambodia visas. The day before we left I got an eMail saying that the Cambodian govt. had revised their Visa requirements with immediate effect! This involved answering numerous questions on line, providing (thankfully, electronically) a passport photo and a copy of the passport. We had the hotel print them out last night as they were required to be in paper form.
The bad news that I got in an eMail was that there had been severe flooding up north where we are heading tomorrow and the elephant sanctuary may be closed, however our tour director assured us, that if that was the case, they would rearrange our last few days in Phuket (pronounce it as you see fit!) to ensure we got to visit one. Next, while on our way this morning we were advised that the new hotel was open, but was surrounded by water. The hotel was “ferrying” guests to dry pick up points for their tours in “large trucks”, were we OK with that? On the way home we learnt that the hotel gave up on that idea and was now closed! We had to choose a new one! On the good news side, so far the elephant sanctuary appears to be unaffected.
Today’s trip was an even earlier start, 0700. We headed out of town for our next adventure. On the way we also encountered some flooding!!
Our destination was the Train Market. Many of you may have seen this on you tube. There is a market with stalls along both sides of the railway track, so close that their awnings cover the track! When the train comes, the awnings have to be pulled in and people moved back behind the safety line. The safety line gives about 15cms (6 inches) clearance from the train! Immediately after the train passes, every thing is opened up, and life returns to normal
Our guide was very good, and she got us a ring/track side seat in a restaurant, complete with Mango and Coconut smoothies!
Health and Safety anyone.
Having survived the train, we left the market and headed for Thailand’s equivalent of a Maple Sugar Shack, a Coconut Sugar Shack. This particular one still used the old method of production. The sap is gathered from the tree by cutting into the green branches and letting it drip out.
It is then reduced in a series of heatings over a wood fire, the wood being old coconut husks.
Some of the product is drawn off as coconut syrup.
Some of the syrup is is further processed to make Coconut sugar
In addition to the syrup and sugar, there are many other products such as coconut toffee and coconut chips.
Next it was back into the van and to the floating market. The area was full of small canals, and in one area there was …….. a market, some of the stalls being boats! We took a boat tour around, the boat was similar to yesterdays long tail, but was human powered!
There were some powered boats around, this guy was obviously proud of his engine
Once off the boat, there was also a “normal” market to navigate! Lyn managed to find some things to buy as souvenirs. We also had lunch there.
After lunch it was time to head back to the hotel. The weather is still hot and humid so we headed to the pool, unfortunately any hopes of cooling down in the pool were dashed as soon as we got in as the pool was quite warm.
Tomorrow we’re up early and flying about 1.5 hours north, hopefully the flooding situation up there has improved.