Sanctuary of Truth started in 1981 and is still continuing. They are using teak & other woods from Thailand. It is not a temple but is private but is like a temple. It was started by one man but is now owned by Mercedes Benz foundation. Everyone has to wear a helmet cuz they are still working on it so to protect your head. Also on has to cover your legs and shoulders. It was an OMG moment upon seeing it …. Unbelievable!!! So intricate…. Details!!

Drove by beach in Pattaya and walking street… so many people. As during COVID in Canada and elsewhere, there was no one on the beaches. At that time but now it is coming back.

We have Thai New Year coming on 13-15th… Songran where everyone gets soaked. You have to make sure that cell phones are protected from getting wet. YOU WILL GET WET!.

We are spend a half day in Bangkok. June to October is the rainy season. Sawaddee Ca… good morning, afternoon or evening. Expensive is Pentpent, Hongnam for Toilet. Next week is the hottest time. It is Songran ….water festival… Thai new year.

Fish (tilapia) and shrimp farms… on land surrounded by mango trees. They also have netting under and over these farms to protect them from the lizards that will eat them.

First we went to the Golden BuddhaTemple. It has the biggest Buddha in the world at 5.5 ton of solid gold. It was found by quite by accident. They thought it was just cement. They wanted to move it but when they tried, it was dropped from the crane, revealing that it was sold gold. They had encased it to hide it from the Burmese peoples that were always attacking. It was built in 13th century. Shoes & hats have to be taken off. . To take picture of monk you must ask permission. No selfie-stick are allowed inside. Rabbit is the sign of king on statues

The highways and main road…. So different than in Bali, are as many as 8 lanes wide, not so many motorcycles and people drive within the lines.

10M population in Bangkok (huge!!!) in with 74 M in country with most being Buddhist. Good transportation in city… incl. sky train. Office workers have a 8-5 workday. No time to cook so they all buy street food. 30 Baht about .88 USD. 1.20 CAD exchange rate. Lumpini Park ….with a lake, is used for exercise like tai chi. Hot bus has no AC, cool bus is with AC and costs about $1.

Chinatown Market biggest …4 generations most speak Thai but recently the younger generation are learning to speak Chinese. Coconut pancakes, soy icecream…. Yum, double yum. There are so many different products for sale plus a live market. How would you choose??? Tasted rose apples and guava. There are 136 goldsmiths in Pattaya. Cannabis drink like red bull and THC coffee …. all legal here.

Tamarind fruit tree on Thailand’s Champs d’Ellysse

Then we visited the Marble Temple… marble from Italy and stained glass from France, built in1889. In 1910, the king at the time when he died, his ashes were buried there. The present king has palaces in Germany besides here. His daughter apparently, is a wonderful person. She had a heart attack 4 months ago at 44 years old and is still in ICU in a coma. The previous king also was wonderful man that the Thai people absolutely worshipped. There are 31,000 temples in the country.

No petroleum produced so have to import (33 baht/l for gas), natural gas is brought in from Myanmar. Papaya, pineapple, tapioca (where you get MSG….I thought MSG was a chemical) is grown in the area. Tapioca takes 8-10 month to reach maturity and reaches a height of 5.5-6 feet. Beauty contest for Miss Water Buffalo called Kuai. 3000 elephants in wild 2000 in protected area for a total of 5000.

Chan Buri is the province where Pattaya is. Some of the things to see and do in Pattaya are Sanctuary of Truth, elephant sanctuary, tiger, Alcazar cabaret show. It is a place that Thais go for vacation.

After arriving at this beautiful hotel Cholchan in Pattaya. Our room on the 21st floor is facing the Bay of Thailand. After settled in we went to the pool for a bit. Oh my, it is so unbelievably hot.

In the evening we caught a taxi…. actually a pickup truck with benches along the sides called ”sont teaw” to go downtown. Only problem with the hotel is that it is so far from the downtown area of Pattaya.

Lots of transgender ….there is a hospital just for those surgeries in Bangkok. They say……Pattaya… “good man go to heaven and bad man go to Pattaya”.

After dinner we took in the Alcazar Cabaret Show made up of transgenders. Unbelievable! They look way better than most women.

Observations …. Bali is a mishmash of mostly housing with family temples. …..some rice fields thrown in… no order, every square inch occupied except in area around Candidasa. Someone explained that the traffic was so extremely busy because there is only the main roads and the ones that fan out from them do not connect up with any others. They are all dead ends…..no shortcuts. But……the roads are in surprisingly good condition (no pot holes like we have but then they don’t have the freezing and thawing). There are no “big highways” elevated or otherwise, almost all are only 2 lanes wide. The other thing I noticed was that the electrical wires are not like huge piles of spaghetti like they are in a lot of other countries I’ve been. The people are absolutely lovely. I would come back if I came to a beach location & there was a time of the year when the humidity/heat was less…..OMG!

We arrived in Bangkok with no issues at the airports in either Bali or Bangkok….yeah. That is half the battle.

I noticed flying in, that Bangkok on the other hand, is all laid out in grids (unlike Bali). The agricultural areas like the residential are all rectangular, probably 10 times longer than wide….in strips.

Our guide from UTO met us at the airport….another yeah……and took us to our hotel, the Bangkok Palace. The lobby is quite lovely and the rooms are okay but the strangely, the entrance is under the elevated highway.

“Sawaddee Ca”is good morning, afternoon or evening in Thai language. Geesh, I have a tough time remembering how to say anything in written another language. This one going to be another. And ….well the written language is just impossible…..so foreign to us.

Tomorrow we see some different things here and then head to Pattaya.

This is more my style. It has natural beauty of the mountains and hills with the largest volcano on Bali close by as well as the ocean.

I went snorkelling in the morning along with Hannah and Martin. I think we had the best excursion where most people went to see more temples….with more walking/hiking up hills (in their overbearing heat/humidity). They also had to pay more once they got to each temple. My excursion for 2 hours of being in the water plus the half hour noat ride in either direction for 250,000 IDR…about $25 CAD. Surprisingly, where Wayan took us was close to the freighter terminal. It had the best coral I have ever seen with lots and lots of fish including “Nemo”. I have a ton of pictures that I took just with my phone so are not as good quality as say National Geographic. I have to go through them yet.

Then I got another massage trying to get this problem/pain under control and then hung out at the pool. We all got together to say goodbye to Kristel and Kristen as they were catching a flight that evening to Singapore. Later was a goodbye dinner with Gede and the rest of the group and got to watch a Balinese dancer followed by a band. Gede was ending this tour with us 18 people while another group he was guiding to Lombok that was only 6….all women. He is a great guide! We leave in the morning for our flight back to Bangkok and the start of a tour of southern Thailand.

I woke to terrible pains in my left leg and hip….not my usual problem area. I am thinking sciatica??? Was it because I had that reflexology massage yesterday??? Anyway, after some painkillers, pressing my ball & walking to get a fridge magnet it is definitely better although not gone.

We checked out at noon leaving Ubud, heading to Candidasa. I see that if I was a shopper and could handle the heat, this would be a great place to go. Oh, but the traffic is incredible and would be a lot worse if the people on bikes were in cars. But, the bikes are impatient and all about “me first”. Don’t give them an inch or they will take a mile. But….I never did see an accident or road rage, just a different culture, I guess.

Celuk… where we stop at a gold and silver museum and factory of people doing all different kinds handwork…..amazing! There were scads of beautiful jewellery for sale. There are lots of gold and silversmith shops in this town as well, there is a huge amount of wood caving done, the skill passed down from one generation to the next.

Teeduck means no thank you.

We went for lunch at the Crispy Duck Restaurant for lunch…beautiful setting and had crispy duck.

White and yellow sarong on statues is to almighty god, black and white checkered is to the spirits. Later we ran into another ceremony on the road. They are displaying the Hindu colours with one added….Red to Brahma, a special god, along with the usual white, black & yellow. All statues on the streets have like a sarong draped around them. They are replaced every 6 months when they have their new ceremony.

Gas is 13300 IDR / litre so about $1.20 CAD. That is considerably cheaper than at home but then if you only make $400/ month, it’s no wonder they drive motorcycles.

We stop at Court of Justice that was used from 1910-45 . On the ceiling there are pictures to show what your punishment is. One is a smack or B eating for misbehaving children to their mothers. Another …. Boiling crooked politicians, punishment for adulterers, etc……. The next structure is called a floating palace… private for family guests only. The next building we went in was a museum. One display was of daggers returned by Dutch 2 years ago. The Dutch had them since the war.

Saw a sign…”Fuckboy Barbershop”

I have so many more pictures that I would love to share but unfortunately this site is being uncooperative.

I mistakenly deleted what I had written on the site so am going to have to try and remember. It might be a little short.

The hotel where we’re staying was really the best so far…… inside and out. The entrance at the street left a lot to be desired but inside …. Perfect!

The night we arrived the saw monkeys on the roof….. an introduction to monkeys at Monkey Forest just down from us.

Before heading out for the day, Kiera videoed in excess of 100 monkeys running across the roofs and grounds including the pools ….sceaming as they went. I will try to post it. Nope…..sorry it won’t download!

In morning we went to Monkey Forest. It is really beautiful forest with lots of stone sculptures but also cemetery and place of worship. In Bali if someone dies the cost for private cremation ceremony is 10,000 CAD. If you cannot afford it then they bury the bodies in the cemetery. After 5 years, they dug up the bones, cremate them and in public ceremony. That will cost only $500 CAD. Quite a difference.

After that I went for a reflexology massage partly because my feet are so swollen and burning. So cheap! Mine was 3/4 hour for 110,000 IDR or $11 CAD. Helen had a full body massage, scrub and food reflexology massage that was 3 hours for $310,000 IDR…. $31 CAD.

The rest of the day we just hung out at the pool/hotel cuz it was just too damned hot. The Weather Network said it was 30 but felt like 39.

Later we went to a restaurant about a 20 minute hike up the hill from the hotel called Bumi Bali…. Yum! While there the skies opened up…. OMG! We were even getting wet inside the restaurant. It certainly helped to cool things off.

Sorry but this site is not allowing me to download photos and videos….frustrating!

Got up for the sunrise but clouds preventing it from being spectacular but the day looks pretty nice. The view is gorgeous.

We went to the Volcanology museum.

Full moon ceremonies all around Bali today. At one place traffic came to a complete standstill because the ceremonies were happening right there before our eyes.

Coffee plantation… coffee and tea plus traditional house compound.

4 elements in daily offerings. Offering for food before eating. Balinese never cry when someone dies cuz they are brought up from a child that we are all going to better place. They explained the procedure but besides cremation I am not going to get into but it involves the 4 elements…earth, water, wind and fire

Here we try cat poop coffee (Luwak). They produce all kinds of spices here….aromic ginger, ginger, poo coffee… (the cats eat the ripe Arabica beans), Robusta coffee, arabica coffee, cocoa, galanga, lemon grass, cinnamon. This family plantation is 6 hectare in size. Of the teas we tried, my preferences were turmeric as well as mangosteen and of the different coffees….Avocado coffee.

From there we went to lunch at the GAdventures supported Planeterra. It supports mostly physically handicapped people where they learn to waiter and cook …. all things about running a restaurant as well as they are taught to sew and music programs and computers and typing. It is also supported by many locals with food stuffs. We had a wonderful lunch and so support these poor individuals that are rejected by their society as well as their own families in a lot of cases.

Gedesuka our guide, supports a free english school for 60 village students. He gets no help from the government.

After breakfast we head off to hot springs. It was quite lovely but because the water is heated by the volcano, there was a slight smell of sulphur.

Our CEO when I asked if there was a drug problem here, he told me “some …. Not much…but then they have death penalty for selling”. Maybe they should try that at home!!!

Apparently the average monthly income is only 400CAD so a lot of people leave to make money….. not surprising!!! Our CEOs own son has just recently started working on Seven Seas Splendour cruise ship

Lovina is known for dolphin sightings and snorkeling off black sand beaches. Singaraja in northern part (used to be capital) lots of schools cuz it’s cheaper for accommodation than Denpasar (the capital since 1967). Like so many parts of the world restaurants and businesses are still at only 30% of pre-COVID.

Stopped at largest market….Gede suka bought different fruits and sweet for us to try. Salak-snake skinned fruit & Doldol made with black rice, brown sugar, coconut milk…yum!

Temperature is 30 but feels like 36…..OMG the perspiration is running into my eyes.

Indonesia including Bali was colonized by the Dutch

We drove a few more minutes after having lunch at a sort of group of food kiosks. I had bakso like what President Obama apparently always liked. They are meat balls, noodles and pork rinds in a broth that you can add tomato, sweet and chilie sauces to…. all for about 2.50CAD ….. cheap!

From there we went a temple (Beji Temple) built in 1500’s that we had to put on sarongs to enter. We were allowed to enter as far as the centre

Batur Temple is 2nd largest temple in Bali …celebration tomorrow ….bamboo decorations on the street symbolize the dragon

Batur volcano…1717 meters high. We saw it off in the distance but now we are socked in again. We arrive at our hotel right on the rim of the caldera overlooking the 13 sq mile lake and the volcano right in the middle. It last erupted in 2000. Later it cleared so we could see it.

As we are driving our CEO (Gedesuka) provides information on customs and other information that I really like…..that what I take tour for….to find out about the place I am visiting.

There are more Hindus and Buddhists than Muslims so things are not closed for Ramadan. Oomsuntisiu (I may have spelled that incorrectly)….is the greeting with hands together. …..on forehead is to God almighty, on upper chest ….to the person you are facing and tip of fingers pointing down is to bad spirit (along with offering so as to be looked on favourably)

White colour sarong to wear to temple, dark for sad occasion, colourful to wedding. Jatiluwih waterfall translate to “truly beautiful”. Unfortunately,it was raining so hard it would have been dangerous to walk down to it so we didn’t go.

150,000 IDR is usual cost for lunch and/or dinner…about 15 CAD. Tipis usually 10% and tax of 6% is included in price. We give 200,000 IDR to Gedesuka to be given to bus driver, busboys, etc as the total tip for the week. I like doing it this way.

“Ice cubes” are made from mineral water so safe to have otherwise do not have ice

The floating Temple on the lake was from the 16th century. Braton Lake, Twin Lake then to waterfall. Denpasar is capital now. The country is no more a kingdom but governors are head now.

Working week is Monday to Saturday.

Kindergarten to university plus medical has to be paid. It is not free. Only wealthy families send their children to university. Each family house has family temple , family live together including grandparents. But instead of rooms for everyone they have separate buildings for parents boys and girls… owner must be balinese people.

CEO has homestay (wife looks after customers)for yolo G plus sells to market herbal drinks and pork sausage on line too besides tourism.

20 x3 /day @ 2000 idr each for offerings

Mount Batu karum terraced rice fields. Most rice takes 6 months to grow. Springs on mountains are used for irrigation. Sort of co-op organization. The land is considered heritage and so cannot be sold to outsiders only to Subuk organization members…..in keeping like our agricultural land reserve…..it must stay agricultural. Each owner has temple on their land Getting back up was 16 flights from the rice fields ….omg

Macaque monkeys… not many animals here