"Strange and mysterious Thailand" Part 3 "Excursion"
Excursions have accumulated like a dog of fleas. At home, they bought a tour along with excursions: Sightseeing, the Fantasy show, Phi Phi Don (Phi Phi) and Bambo islands for 1 day with lunch, and another Khao Lak, also one day, bought from our guide Anton. And this must be done in 11 days, between relaxation and the beach.
When will I read the book? when to do massages? I don’t know, but no one forced us, we will go.
The first one was a "survey" one, which turned out to be free. In Thailand, the official religion is Theravada Buddhism (reprimanded). Some consider Buddha a man, others God, and therefore, wherever you go, you will see temples, many temples, statues of Buddha, many statues, the names of which are very difficult to remember and pronounce for a simple tourist. But we remember one - Wat Chalong,
There really is a whole temple complex. I can’t tell you exactly the essence of religious rites, I don’t understand.
Clothes must be decent, trousers-skirts below the knees, and shoulders must be covered. You need to enter each temple barefoot (the floors are rubbed to a mirror shine), a lot of time was spent on shoeing and booting. You can take pictures in the temples.
Everything glitters with gilding, and maybe gold)
Saw the wedding - Advice and love to them! Captured for history.
When visiting temples, Thais bring a lotus flower and an incense stick with them.
Blue, white, pink lotus - symbolizes something. I won't bore you with smart stories about it. We are not Buddhists and therefore everything is simply beautiful and unusual for us. The Thais sincerely believe in the path to nirvana. And we are respectful.
Next on the program is a show with cobras (weak after Pattaya).
After the show, they offered ointments, pills, some other drugs, extracts from cobra venom. "Just take it here, only certified here, because this is the business of the royal family! " My sarcasm was heard, I think. Overpriced. We experienced - you will not fool! , although many believe and buy)
Then a similar story at a latex factory. The guide was interesting and informative. And then - "Just take it here, only certified here, because this is the business of the royal family! " At a very inflated price. And again sarcasm)))
And everything repeats at the crocodile farm. Show with crocodiles (more modest than in Pattaya).
We did not feed crocodiles, a photo with a crocodile is only for money. We looked at sluggish reptiles and that's it. And then a shop with crocodile skin products. Do not repeat what was said next? )))
In conclusion, we were brought to the jewelry center Gems Gallery. Here the level of course, I believe: the business of the royal family! A short fairy tale ride on wagons to the mine with a story-show how they mined (yut) dredge. stones. We were then taken to a jewelry store. Beauty, everything sparkles, is illuminated and supervision - no one will simply allow you to look at the windows, in broken Russian they immediately ask "who, madam, to mess with? " But don't show madam anything, I'd rather buy another excursion than freshwater pearls at the price of sea pearls.
If anyone, for the first time, has not seen these shows, and has not heard fables about the quality of drugs and goods, sarcasm, as I will not have (my opinion). We arrived at the hotel for dinner. And running for a massage and running to the feeder.
The second excursion, or rather a trip, to the "Fantasy" show.
At 4:00 pm, three of us and another family from Kazakhstan, the driver (speaks a little English) put us in a minivan and after 1 hour we were there.
At the ticket office, where we need to exchange our voucher for tickets, there is a line of thousands of people of different nationalities. Labyrinths, like at the airport for check-in. But the service is very well coordinated and therefore everything is done quickly.
The show starts at 18.00, and before that you can take a walk in the park. There are many attractions, restaurants, cafes, shooting galleries, souvenir stalls and many shops.
They ride elephants around the square. It smells of popcorn and elephant dung. Everything is clean though.
And this park will be more interesting for children than for adults.
Then everyone stirred and reached for the entrance to the huge building.
I've already said, there's a line of thousands of people, but there are thousands of thousands of them! a lot, in short.
Everything is coordinated, they help someone to go where, one line where you need to hand over bags, phone, photo and video equipment - it is forbidden to shoot in the hall! the other line - in the hall.
We had gold seats - in the middle of the hall, everything is perfectly visible. The cushions are soft and comfortable. But I didn't have to sleep. The show is interesting, beautiful illumination, acrobatic scenes. Everything is bright, colorful and spectacular. National theatrical dances, skits and performance of elephants. I liked it very much. We were delighted!
The exit from the hall is also coordinated, the same queue of the same thousand people for things, then the queue for minivans, they ask for a hotel, they quickly put them into a minivan and take them to hotels. We returned to the hotel around 11pm.
The third excursion is a one-day boat trip around the islands of Phi Phi Don and Bambo with lunch. We left the hotel by minivan at 7 am, a little more than an hour drive to the pier.
I met the Russian guide Eva, marked all the participants of the tour with colored bracelets. Our group had green ones, they were seated by flowers in speedboats. And let's go! )
With a sore back, pregnant women, and even with small children, it is not recommended!
Speedboat how it accelerated, and how it began to throw us sharply on the waves, our poor soft spots))) there is practically nothing around. I didn't like this part of the tour at all.
But when we came to the first bay, I became kinder.
Maya Bay. The landscapes are very unusual - beautiful, and the color of the sea is turquoise blue. But it was forbidden to land tourists on the shore for an indefinite period - the "reserved zone" Anchored, protective cables on the water
"hey tourists, don't swim there and don't swim here, don't swim anywhere! ")))
and I had to swim like in an aquarium, and no snork at all(((
There's no fish here, or I'm out of luck. . . well, at least freshened up. "Whistle everyone up! " - the guide shouted and everyone began to crowd near the ladder, sailing away looking at the beautiful landscapes around. Acceleration and again our poor soft spots suffer.
The next stop on the course was Phi Phi Don, with a disembarkation and lunch.
There are sooo many tourists, but everything is decent, because Thai Muslims live on this island. Most of the hotels, restaurants, bars and all other infrastructure are located here.
Lunch under a tent in the fresh air, weak, tasty, but very few fruits, tea in bags and instant coffee(Clean and thanks for that.
For about forty minutes it was seen on everything about everything. And let's go. . . let's go. . . for about ten minutes to see and photograph "Viking Cave"
Although I hardly believe that they were here. Nowadays, Thais, sailing from the sea, collect swallow nests there, for a very expensive aphrodisiac soup, but I'd rather die of hunger than eat this))))
And again we drove... drove... and here it is, in my opinion the most beautiful in this excursion, Bambo Island
not the Maldives, of course, but the sand is light, the sea is clean and swim as much as you like. There are many cafes overlooking the sea, some kind of market, smoking areas,
everywhere is clean and most importantly beautiful - beach, beach, beach, sea, sea, sea)))
We returned to the hotel late in the evening, exhausted and hungry. My massage is gone, it's too late, I want to save! )
The second day in a row at 7 am pick up from the hotel, fortunately managed to have a quick breakfast. The tour was called Khao Lak. Guide Andrey, a very nice Russian guy. On a minivan, 2 more couples with 4 children and we rush to the turtle farm.
For a long time we drove to the north (sort of) of the island and how we arrived, and the farm is under renovation! even the toilet is closed! ( As a result, we saw several turtles and their babies in indoor pools, dirty and uninteresting. That's not bad! (
Well, the group is well organized, we all quickly crammed back into the minibus and on our way to the river to go rafting.
After a bit of winding through the jungle, we arrived at our destination. HURRAH! civilization, clean toilet, cold water and Thai hospitality)
The guide ordered us to change into bathing suits, otherwise we would be wet to the waist. . . kapets, out of fright, I even hid my camera in the storage room. And here we are at the river... and these rafts, kapets, bamboo rafts! even the first thought was, but will it withstand the three of us, and even the helmsman from Myanmar, who does not understand either English or Russian. Luckily, I survived, sat down on small benches and away we go. The current quickly dragged us along, but the boy deftly maneuvered that raft and a long bamboo pole. Fuuuuhhh, they sailed, alive, and most importantly, absolutely dry... but there are no photos (
Next, Thai-style lunch, everything is delicious, there is a lot of everything - only tea in bags and instant coffee didn’t please at all ( Coconuts hang everywhere, pineapples grow, I don’t want to take it, but they offer coffee. Juice for me, juice! ! ! ))))
After lunch, a small miracle awaited us - an elephant with its own show.
He performed beautifully, sat down, bowed, played the harmonica, put on a hat and kissed us)))
After eating the bananas we bought, the elephant obediently went to the river for swimming. My first thought was, even if he didn’t splash water from his trunk in my face, I didn’t want such a shower, and my “Kenon” definitely wouldn’t like that.
I was lucky, I watered everyone else heartily. Pleasure received the sea! )
Immediately, on foot, we were offered elephant riding, my husband categorically refused. From his last trip, he did not like this ride, with awkward rollovers on the seat, while walking an elephant. Not a comfortable ride.
And we went down with our sons, and the infection, bad luck again, our driver is definitely stoned!... but he took me back, although he whinnied all the way and demanded 100 baht, for which we did not understand, we did not ask for a photo, the trip was included in the cost of the tour. Hevea trees were seen from the height of an elephant, with cups into which rubber flows during the day, latex in the evening and at night. The process is different from the air temperature.
Let's go further to the Cave Temple. Entrance 20 baht, cool cave with a huge statue of the legendary reclining Buddha.
And a few smaller Buddha statues everywhere in the cave. Coolness and echo, stalactites and stalagmites, peace and quiet.
A small market, a clean free toilet and a bunch of wild monkeys, these are the joys of bulo, even for me! )
We have dogs walking down the street like they have monkeys of different sizes. Again 100 baht a bunch of bananas and let's go feed the animals - fun))) So, the obligations are full, we are satisfied, we drove on.
We were waiting for a level 3 waterfall with lakes and fish that make pilling.
Again, that thought is stupid, fear is catching up, and not piranhas out there in troubled waters? how to do pilling! )))
The nature is very beautiful, the coolness, the sound of water, the singing of birds and the lakes are not at all cloudy. The third level climbed without difficulty. Undress and again the problem, but how to get in, and not fall into that lake? uh, I want peeling! ) On the roots, pebbles and branches, with grief in half - I climbed in, I'm sitting waiting... there is no fish, or I'm not tasty)))) It's good at least freshened up, such a jaunty water.
Although after the seven-level Erawan waterfall, which we saw on the last trip on the mainland, this one is very modest, and there were a lot of fish there, there were enough for all tourists)))
And again the problem is - I got out, but where to change into dry clothes? ) Well, again, this is not a good thing... I'll go wrapped in a towel, but what should I do? )
So let's go. Further, the guide Andrey offered to stop by a store with Thai jars, bottles, pills, all amicably refused. The tour included another point - the Sarasin Bridge, which connects the island of Phuket with the mainland. I really wanted to see it, but everyone, tired, again amicably refused. Not close to hotels. So, to summarize Khao Lak: Guide Andrey is cheerful, the nature is extraordinary, the baby elephant is full, the monkeys too, the fish in the lake were only hungry))) I liked everything.
For me, the excursion part of the vacation is the most interesting, it embellished my opinion about almost Russian Thailand.
Thank you for the Thai smiles and hospitality. We got the maximum of positive emotions!
Then we went to Bangkok, to see everything in 3 days.
