Last week our favorite Perth beach was invaded and temporarily taken over by a 2000 kg sub-adult Elephant Seal. These behemoths are typically found in Antarctic waters but occasionally they will venture north to Australia. Even so, it's very unusual for Elephant Seals to loiter on urban beaches in Western Australia. He created quite a stir in the city to the point where the local wildlife enforcement people had to put up a fence around him. He even got his own Twitter account at https://twitter.com/sorrentoseal.
Steven was with us for about a week, although, he had the occasional break from the beach, the crowds and the hot temperatures when he disappeared back into the Indian Ocean. Since Sorrento Beach is only a few minutes away, we took some time to visit Steven.
Keva and Nadia standing behind the fence along with dozens of others watching Steven's every non-move. Elephant Seals are really lazy. This one was a teenager so double the laziness factor. There was a lot of scratching, sleeping and belching involved. Did I mention he's like a teenager?
A closer look at Steven. Normally Elephant Seals haul up on the beach to rest (like Steven) or to breed or to give birth. Unfortunately for Steven he's only 2000 kg and therefore still about 1 metric tonne shy of being able to compete for prime beach real estate with the big boys. But he had our favorite beach all to himself.
Hopefully Steven comes back. There was an Elephant Seal that went to the Exmouth area (where we're visiting in April) and stayed for 3 months. So, perhaps if we're lucky Steven will decide to make Perth his crash pad until he's old enough to move in somewhere a little more respectful.
In late January the Klamers of Oz took a one week long family vacation to Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is a small island on the south west of Thailand surrounded by the Andaman Sea. One of the advantages of living in Perth is that places like Phuket, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Hong Kong all have direct flights from Perth. Also, the time zone is either the same or 1-2 hours off. So, it makes travelling from Perth to SE Asia very accessible and relatively cheap.
Although there is some political turmoil in Bangkok at the moment, there are very few signs of it in Phuket. It is an area that caters to tourists and the locals do their best to insulate travelers from any political troubles. So life in Phuket right now is basically 'life as usual'. What that means is lots of sun, sand, water, food, Ladyboys and *insert dramatic music* Russians! We saw plenty of Ladyboys (more on this later) and it was basically what we expected. It was entertaining and somewhat fascinating, if nothing else. However, what we did not expect were the Russians. The island was crawling with them. Phuket used to be a vacation destination primarily for Australian and Scandinavian tourists. However, a few years ago some inspired Russian businessmen set up direct flights from Moscow to Phuket. They also rented out several hotels in their entirety for a couple of years at a discount and then resold the rooms as part of a vacation package back in Russia. The result is that, by my estimation, at least 80% of the tourists in Phuket are Russians. The knock-on effect is that many of the shop signs are in Thai, English and Russian and most of the vendors can speak all three languages. Unfortunately, most of the Russians travelling to Phuket are "New Money Russians", which essentially means they came into a lot of money but they didn't come into any sense of appropriate behavior. But they didn't bother us much and I was able to eavesdrop whenever I felt like it. Sadly, none of the overheard conversations were even remotely interesting.
The only complaint we had was that Phuket (and Thailand) is somewhat dirty. In just about every area outside of the beach, water and resorts there is a large amount of litter. Combined with the heat and humidity, the trash stinks up most of the island although some places are worse than others. It also attracts a lot of stray dogs. Even so, this was a minor irritation on what was a very nice trip.
Anyways, the following is a visual representation of our trip to Phuket along with the usual commentary.
The first thing we did upon arriving in Phuket, after marveling at our beautiful hotel, was to hit the beach. There are several 'main' beaches in Phuket and they are all beautiful. There are businesses set up on the beach that charge the equivalent of $1 for the use of 1 lounge chair and associated umbrella for an entire day. Above from left to right: Cyrus (with a coconut), Keva, Nadia, Zaren.
Not only were the beaches beautiful but the water and the scenery were outstanding. The ocean is crystal clear and calm and the beach is surrounded by the iconic little Phuket islands.
Being underwater is great too. The only problem with the water in Phuket is the abundance of Sea Lice. When we were in the water we would be continually bitten by the Sea Lice. It wasn't painful but it was irritating. As soon as you leave the water they die and even in the water they are harmless.
One of the best things about Phuket (and Thailand in general) is the Thai food. There was no shortage of really good, cheap restaurants near the beach, on the main strip or on the mountains that top the island.
The main method of transportation (on land) in Phuket is motorized scooters. They probably outnumber cars about 20 to 1. In Thailand people drive as you probably expect they drive: without much concern for safety. During our trip we saw a couple of people who had clearly been in scooter accidents: they had road rash. The local term for this is a "Thai Tattoo". Even so, we decided to live a little dangerously and we rented three scooters to drive around the island. In the photo above, Nadia is at the head of the gang followed closely by the Zaren/Cyrus scooter, with Keva and I assuming the anchor position. We were quite careful on the road so we didn't have any trouble and we managed to travel around a good portion of the island we otherwise wouldn't have been able to without engaging the local Taxi Mafia.
The towns and beaches in Phuket are nice but the real draw are the islands and coves that dot the coastline around Phuket. We booked two separate ocean tours. On the first we took a speed boat to Pnang Nga which is an area with many lagoons, islands, coves, etc. Above, we are in one of the coves at the front of the boat.
On that same trip we were able to do a little snorkelling. Above, Nadia is feeding some of the locals a little banana.
Also on the tour we were taken to a rainforest which contained one of the biggest trees on the island.
We were taken Sea Kayaking through a series of coves and caves. Above, Zaren and Cyrus are enjoying someone else doing all the work. We were taken to several coves on the tour, one of them being the location of the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio.
The tour also included a fly-by of James Bond Island aka Khao Phing Kan. It was featured in the the movie The Man With the Golden Gun. Since then it has become a full on tourist trap. We didn't land on the island as there were hundreds of people and dozens of boats.
One of the islands we did visit is Koh Panyee. It is a small fishing village complete with a mosque and a floating soccer field. We explored the village and had lunch at a really nice restaurant.
Here's a little video about the story of the village it's famous soccer field:
We also did a little cave trekking. Fortunately, at the time we were there the tide was low. Even so, we had to wade through water up to our knees. At high tide it would have been inaccessible.
This is what was on the other side of the cave.
There are a few islands which now are home to wild Macaque monkeys. They were initially brought to the islands for research but quickly went wild and now have strong populations in the area. They are all still wild animals but are quite used to humans. Above, Keva offers one of them a banana.
On the second tour we did more snorkeling than the first. It included snorkeling in a beautiful lagoon that had a cave and plenty of fish. At this point we were really getting the hang of snorkeling. Unfortunately, at this point I hadn't yet mastered the art of underwater filming, so enjoy my thumb.
There are lots of bustling streets around Phuket. These places offer shopping, eating and plenty of people watching. When walking around in the evening we would encounter a good deal of Ladyboys (men who are dressed and act like women). Some of them are involved in cabaret shows that feature only Ladyboys while some work as servers in restaurants and bars. Those that work in the bars are generally there to try to entice tourists to come and spend their money in that establishment. Zaren and Cyrus were particularly popular among the Ladyboys that we passed at these bars. Frankly, I was a little insulted. Yes, I may be fat, bald and hairy but I want to be objectified too dammit!
We were in Phuket during Keva's 16th birthday. One of the things she wanted to do was to take a tuk-tuk (above). The taxi situation is Phuket is a little dicey. There is, what is referred to as, a "taxi mafia" which tries to take advantage of tourists by overcharging, "getting lost" and making unrequested stops at their cousins jewelry store. We didn't have any of those issues fortunately.
On January 29th we decided to split up for half the day. Zaren and Nadia wanted to take a Thai cooking course...
...while the rest of us went for a tour of an elephant park...
...and a ride on one of the bigger ones.
Phuket was a beautiful area and we were all quite pleased with the trip. Nobody got sick and we really didn't have any trouble throughout our journey. We found that a lot of the locals weren't particularly friendly (and you wouldn't be either if you were surrounded by Russians all day) but it wasn't too bad. The biggest issue we had was that almost all of the street hawkers that were trying to get us to buy stuff thought that we were Australian. So, that was a little insulting but it was a nice change not being mistaken for Americans.
Kathy left us shortly after the New Year. About a week later Cyrus and Zaren's friend from Canada, Dixon, came to stay with us for two weeks. Three days after he left we travelled to Thailand. So, consider this the beginning of a bit of blog house-cleaning. The following took place mid-January.
Situated about an hour or so north of Perth is the town of Lancelin. This is a very small community that is located between the ocean and a patch of desert. It is a very windy place. As a result, every year it is host to one of the biggest wind surfing competitions in Australia, which it is well known for. About the only other thing it is known for is it's enormous sand dunes. There is an area of several square kilometers at the northern border of the town that could easily be confused for the Sahara desert if not for quintessential western Australian coastline on it's edge. So we took a Saturday drive up to Lancelin where we were planning to check out the town, ride some boards down the dunes and rent a Dune Buggy.
After a relatively short but gruelling walk up the 15 meter (45 foot) dune we all paused to catch our breath. By the way, the temperature on this day was in the low 40's.
We rented some sand boards at a local shop. There are two ways to ride the boards: sitting like on a sled as demonstrated by Nadia and Zaren above...
...or surfing down as shown by Cyrus.
Driving to the dunes, we only got stuck in the sand twice (we don't have a 4X4). Fortunately, I had 3 young men and a wife to push the vehicle out of trouble (Keva was working on this particular day). Unfortunately, the company that used to provide the Dune Buggy rides is out of business due to an accident several years earlier which prevented them from being able to afford insurance afterwards. Instead, people bring their dirt bikes, ATV's or 4X4's and ride the dunes themselves. Sadly, we didn't have the option of doing that.
