Istanbul, Turkey

The "Blue Mosque"

"There's a mosque." "Hey, there's another one.". " And there's another one right across from it!"

Mosques are the Starbuck's of Istanbul.  These incredibly beautiful buildings dot the skyline here  and each one is an architectural feat.  We are struggling to understand the religion behind the buildings where women are segregated and covered as if their hair is somehow offensive.

I may be extra grumpy about such things as I, along with the rest of my party, are just recovering from a nasty stomach flu.  Our 5 day stopover in Turkey has been dramatically shortened as we all slowly recovered in our pension.  But today we ventured out and saw some amazing mosques, the hippodrome, had some Turkish  delight, ducked the aggressive salesmen of the Grand Bazaar, and of course looked at some area rugs with "no obligation".

Haghia Sophia Mosque from our Hotel

Inside Haghia Sophia

The Grand Bazaar

Baklava!

Little Nutty Nests

Where are you from?  Please let me show you my rugs.  Would you like some tea-- it's traditional....

Bang Saen Beach, Thailand

Our last days in Thailand were spent shopping in Bangkok--not just me, John and Rob can't resist the prices either.  We had 4 more days before flying to Istanbul and decided to head to a nearby beach on the mainland to kick back.  A bus and a small truck taxi brought us to Bang Saen Beach where there are very few international tourists, mostly people from Bangkok here for a day's outing, which means there is little English spoken making it a bit of an 
adventure.

Fun Fact about Bang Saen Beach ( and maybe all Thai beaches for all we know):  Parking consists of a row of angle parked vehicles (with an unusual amount of king cabs for Asia) and  2 rows of parallel parked vehicles behind.  Need to leave before the outside guy?  No problem because everyone leaves their vehicle in neutral so that  the heftiest guys in your party can maneuver the the blocking vehicles to  let you out and back to the city.

The umbrella covered restaurants stretch right to the water's edge...

...the umbrellas make a covered beach forest.  It's a very popular place with the Bangkok crowd. 

The Train to Bangkok

  It was time to leave Chaing Mai and northern Thailand and head for Bangkok.  We decided to take a train as the reviews were good.  The Reunification Line in Vietnam was a bit of an "adventure", not exactly what we expected, but we thought we'd try a Thai train just to compare and see some of the northern country.  The train was great.  We had a compartment to ourselves, even were upgraded to first class with a door.  The food was also very good and the ambiance in the restaurant car was--authentic.  The ride was as smooth as a highway, unlike the bumpy chugga chugga of the Vietnamese train.  The 14 hours passed pleasantly. The only downside was the way too much air con in the first class compartments.  Talk about a First World Problem.

Elephants

I know, I know--we turned down the doped up tigers, but went ahead and sent the kids on a tour to see elephants doing decidedly unelephantlike activities. We're not consistent.

Biking...

Painting..

An ox cart ride

A little bamboo rafting

More Chaing Mai

We opted for the Chaing Mai Zoo as a  day's diversion--it was a much better choice than the tiger sanctuary where we could pet, cuddle or lie with a really big cat.  Once we arrived there, we realized that it really was true, these cats are drugged, possibly on a daily basis, so that hundreds of people can take turns getting a selfie.  No thanks.

Bella's review of the zoo:  This is the BEST DAY EVER!

Chaing Mai, Thailand

We've never been to northern Thailand and are quite enjoying the small city of Chaing Mai.  There are not many buildings over 4 or 5 storeys and no buses, only truck taxis and tuk tuks for getting around.  But it has been discovered by the travelers and they are catered to with  abundant markets for shopping and activities to  keep us busy--elephant riding, tiger cuddling, trekking to villages, zip lining, and  rafting all available within a reasonable distance.

Everyone here reveres their king--he is almost a deity.  His photo, from
various ages is everywhere.  Big ones.  And, as John says, they seem to make a bit of a Ken doll of him, with photos of  him in  a cowboy hat, as a photographer, and we saw one print of him with Elvis.  At  a market we attended one night everyone suddenly stopped, mid- haggle, to stand at attention while someone with  a traveling speaker played, what we guess is, the national anthem.  He must be quite a guy.

Our favourite part of the culture has got to be the food.  Every day we look forward to yummy noodles, various types, and rice done up in some amazing way--3 times a day. It must be almost
lunch time now.....

Malaysia

Thirty, or so, hours in Kuala Lumpur enroute to Thailand gave us a glimpse into the very multicultural nature of this huge city.  We brake for caves so had to go see the Batu Caves, a system of caves with Hindu temples inside.  The setting is very impressive, but as many reviewers said, the whole place was covered in garbage.  Piles of it.  And then there were the monkeys who were just a bit too aggressive for my taste.  We used to like to get up close and try to befriend them until reading about their infamy as rabies carriers.  So we now keep our distance.   We're glad we went to see the caves but  it's very hard to understand why no one is taking care of them.

It's all about the shopping here.  We're spoiled by Bangkok's prices.

Good Bye To Philippines....

And its interesting commutes,

All forms,

Its shopping

Its yummy street food,

Its honey rice cooked in woven pockets,

Its woven walls

Its gorgeous reef

And its warm, welcoming people!

Whale Shark Watching

"Honey, DON'T put your feet down".  That's what I heard just before putting my face in the water and watching a bus-sized whale shark swim about a foot beneath the feet I had just pulled up.  

That's not me in the photo, as I was cowering behind the canoe that brought us out to see these amazing giants.  But I get why all of the people there were vying for a chance to have their photo with a big fish.  It's unbelievable how enormous  they are and  hard to swallow (yeah , that's intentional) that they really aren't interested in gobbling us up.  Wikipedia says so.  They apparently only want plankton and maybe some small fish, but looking at the size of the mouth on these guys, it seems questionable that they wouldn't try to scarf down the taker of one too many selfies.

Anyway, after being warned not to go within 4 meters of the fish (it was impossible to stay that far away in the small circle of canoes that had been set up) we were paddled out to the spot where the official whale shark  people of Oslob, Philippines  feed the sharks daily, many times a day in fact, for the enjoyment of eager divers and snorkelers. Three or four fish sustain probably a hundred employees and their families.  The  half hour spent with these amazing gentle sharks is not something to be forgotten.

That's our whale shark photo--tail, maybe?

An old fashioned selfie

Oslob's Vital Statistics