Day 13: On the Way to Koh Lanta

A couple of down days as planned at the very quiet, low season resort outside of Krabi proved to be just that, quiet. With only ever seeing two other units occupied, and none with people whose native tongue was English, we had three pretty non-social days to just sit around and read. Sitting on our balcony deck l heard temple chanting at 6 am. And the surf crashed over the bamboo breakwater at high tide and carried new sand up to the second row of the room units. I want to say the staff was nice, but it is my experience that all Thai's are nice. The Land of the Smile, they say.

A few days ago we visited the Grand Palace in Bangkok. Turns out it was the day before the King died. He was the longest reigning ruler alive, and highly revered by his people. The whole country is in mourning and many scheduled events were cancelled, like the Full Moon Party on Ko Phi Phi that many plan ahead for months to attend. Even driving in one of those open air scooter carts along the third world lowland communities on our way from the resort, we saw these poor hovels adorned with black in honour of their departed king. I can't imagine this kind of sentiment if one of our North America leaders left his or her body.

As a monsoon heads toward the Phillipines, 2300 km away, like Toronto to Saskatoon away, they still expect weather disturbances here. It calls for rain all week but we are going to try snorkelling tomorrow.