We have arrived in Phuket, not a place we had originally planned to visit but, if the British Foreign office only wants it’s citizens to cross the land border from Malaysia and Thailand in the West, the German one doesn’t want it’s citizens to cross via land at all. This is because of armed civil unrest in the Southern provinces so, we took a flight.
The bonus for us was Roman and Valentina, our Servas hosts! They are a Russian couple who live in Phuket.
Servas was originally formed after world war 2. The students that formed it felt if everyone could meet it would break down stereotypes and foster understanding and then it would promote peace in the world.
I mention this now because there are a lot of Russians here in Thailand and in this time of war with Ukraine it might seem incongruous to many Westerners.
We stayed at their spacious home and when asked what it was like living here Valentina said “Sweaty” and it so is! It also is noticeably cleaner than Sumatra. Roman made us coffee. He’s a coffee enthusiast and talked about it in the way a wine buff would talk about wine and he is becoming quite and expert. His enthusiasm is infectious and Tatjana and I felt he would really get along with Kaiser in Kuala Lumpur so we put them in touch.
Roman has been in Thailand for 4 years and told us a bit about what it was like during COVID and how empty of people the beaches were. It sounds like it was quite a lonely time. Valentina joined him some time later. They also gave us a different perspective on the war in Ukraine and what it is like where their families are in Russia. Both countries suffer at the hands of a dictator!
They took us to places they like to visit either very early in the morning or later in the afternoon. We also went out for a delicious meal and I had a taste of morning glory greens, (related to our bindweed) Pad Thai, and smoked salmon pizza which was remarkably good!
We visited Wat Chalong Temple, a Buddhist Temple. Thai’s follow Theravada Buddhism (which combined with Hindu and Chinese folklore influences) giving a different feel to what I saw in Nepal. Extraordinary opulent interiors. Even the stupas (mounds containing relics) are a different shape and some have gold on them. (In Nepal and Sikkim they were white and more rounded) Ninety percent of the Thai population is Buddhist.
We walked around a dam early one morning, both Valentina and Roman are keen birdwatchers and interested in the natural world.
We went swimming at Karon beach on another morning, with squeaky sand (as you walk on it) and strange flashes of blue (fluorescence?) in the water, which was as warm as a bath. I’ve never seen this in daylight before if that is what it was. The fish seemed to like to hang around our feet, I guess we were kicking up food for them. Occasionally there would be mild stinging sensation on your skin from the plankton. What a weird swim!
The sand I found out later squeaked because it has a high quartz content and that rubbing together the particles causes the noise.
One evening we watched the sun go down on Nai Han beach! It was interesting to watch people, a lovely lady boy, with an older chap having Champagne picnic then he was taking her photo as the sun went down. Another couple, the guy in his early forties in good shape showing off to a young Thai woman, I heard him mention his wife twice! Then the fit looking men playing beach volleyball were Russian like the majority of tourists in Phuket, I think!
The sunset was lovely!
On the last day with our hosts they took us to this strange and rather sweet coffee shop in a rubber plantation. Tatjana felt the place had a Japanese vibe. Roman and Tatjana tried two very different coffees, the smell of one was like raisins. I had macha tea, it looked like a glass of blanket weed, thankfully it didn’t taste like it!
In the plantation we saw a flying lizard and white throat kingfisher.
I hope to meet Roman and Valentina on their travels in the future.
So on our own again Tatjana and I set off for Khao Sok by Grab as there is no reliable public transport for this National Park and later we discovered private transport is also an issue….
The Travelling Bee 