18 December 2014 - Walking in our local area of Cape Panwa

And you guessed it!!!! Pancakes for breakfast.  As I reflect on how quickly the extraordinary becomes the ordinary and we have only been here for 5 days, there are many things now that we take for granted and will remember as part of “ordinary” daily activities for our time in Phuket and yet they were EXTRAORDINARY only a few days ago.  All the local vendors wave to us as we walk past. Seeing men on mopeds holding birds in cages and little kids sitting in side carts and people sleeping where ever there are throughout the day:  these we notice but they are ordinary for us now.  And this is what our “lived experience” is meant to be – a cultural experience where we live like the locals do to a certain extent.

Tim trying out the local public gym equipment

Helen trying out the local public gym equipment!

Tim and I tried out the gym equipment in the little park opposite this complex.  What a hoot!  It seems that only men exercise in public and it is only men who cycle as well.  Perhaps it is because it is a predominately Muslim area, I am not sure. And then we tried out the gym equipment in our complex for fun.  The pancakes were still warm enough when we got back and enjoyed eating them on our balcony which looks out over Phuket Port.

 

Breakfast on the balcony, again!

Today was a “rest” day so to speak.  We turned right out of our complex and walked up the hill road.  The jungle like vegetation and beautiful flowering plants are lovely and home to many different butterflies.  We came across a rubber plantation with little black pots tied onto the trees. Luke and I worked out we had seen butterflies nearly all of the colours of the rainbow. Red, orange, blue, not green, indigo and violet –all in a morning’s walk! We planned to walk further but were accosted by a pack of local dogs, which may or may not have been rabid, so we turned back! We decided to pursue the fabulous thick rice noodles at Cape Panwa again and figured they were worth the 2 kms walk in the heat.  Imagine our disappointment when our noodle cart lady was apparently having a day off!  We chose some sensational chicken cooked in boiling oil for a few minutes and that plus an ice cream sustained us.  So much for our previously low sugar diet!!

 

Beautiful blooms

These looks like giant roses, but have different leaves and no thorns

Similar to Bird of Paradise

The rubber plantation on our exploring walk. It doesn’t appear to be rubber season.  Apparently, the jungle is full of snakes and other creepies but walking on the road was safe enough until we came upon a pack of dogs and turned back! 

The trees had little pots attached to them to catch the sap.

We finally discovered our local mosque from which we hear the calls to prayer throughout the day.

Cape Panwa seems to have a large Muslim population

Interesting road signs with helmet safety promotion.  They may have had some effect but many if not most of the moped riders do not wear helmets, not even little kids.

 

Helmet demonstration from Annika!

Back at beautiful Kantary Bay again!  It really is breathtaking and a well-kept secret away from the tourist throngs! Luke loved collecting dead coral from the small beach here for his museum back home.  As the tide went out there were loads of crabs jumping, yes jumping for rock to rock.  Until today, I didn’t realise that crabs can jump! We were kept amused at their antics when we threw them bits of leftover lunch.

Luke and his coral collection looking out to Kantary Bay.

Another lovely swim at the end of the day was most welcomed.  We still don’t really feel like we’ve caught up with all the admin work required.  There just aren’t enough hours in the day.  We encourage the kids to do a sheet of maths and a bit of currency conversion.  Luke is kept happy by a bit of Lego and some time on his iPod.

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