accommodation

Baan Krating Jungle Resort, Nai Han Beach Near Phuket, Thailand

After spending a day of researching hotels/bungalows in the Phuket Province and finding prices on the internet more than we wanted to pay, the guidebook led us to Baan Krating Jungle Resort. It only mentioned how to get there, and said nothing more than it is set in an idyllic spot on a beach that had some tsunami damage but the shops on the beach were rebuilding. Okay, well, we'll see if there's a reason it's cheaper than the guidebook price quotes.

It ends up that we lucked out. The resort is on a beautiful hillside, lots of cicadas chirping, but the buildings, beach and privacy are just what we want.

The bungalows are private and beautiful inside with teak wood traditional thai bathrooms with all the modern amenities and wood floors. There are only 30 or so bungalows, so it's a very laid back environment. Oh, and there's no evidence of any effects of the tsunami.

The Thai taxi driver we hired looked around and said, "Wow - I bring my girlfriend here!"

The view follows a little path to a deck by the private beach with decent reefs to snorkel over.

There's also a nice pool and restaurant where we've met several good folks over the last few days. We are loving this place.

The Picnic Table Wars

The Picnic Table Wars, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

In many campgrounds, there are picnic tables, but they are not provided in a 1:1 ratio. We have to be nice campers and share, or take as it were.

Being a scarce resource, the tables have value over and above their wood and nails. Campers sit ready to pounce as soon as one comes available, creating a passive aggressive competition among campers. Who will finally own the table?

When we arrived at our campsite here in Kaikoura, we found a single picnic table between two sites, positioned a bit closerto the other site. So, we nudged it back over to our side, clearly laying our claim. We left for the day and came back to find new neighbors and a picnic table conspicuously moved to their side, so close we would intrude if trying to use it. They had very clearly snatched ownership of the table from our grasp. We let it go. When they left, the table moved into the center once more. We let it be, even though we had a chance to claim it again.

The next morning we left the campground and returned to find new neighbors that had staked there claim in an unprecedented way. The table was situated in the far back corner of their site, unreachable by any mere mortals. The message was clear and we stood down. They were tent campers and we have a campervan, they need it more, we'll let them have it. We prided ourselves in our attitude but it still bugged me that they would be so brash.

This morning we awoke to a cold, hard rain and our table-claiming neighbors packing up to leave at 7AM. All I could say to Sachi was "It's such a shame that picnic table can't keep them warm and dry, isn't it?"

Home in a Campervan

It’s another rainy evening in the South Island. We really haven’t had many, but they seem to come at opportune times for us – usually after a big activity, and all we want to do is nap or relax our muscles. We’re warm and dry in the campervan while the tent campers outside are huddling and trying to figure out how to keep the mini rivers of rainwater from flowing into their tents. Some are hiding in their cars. Up in Abel Tasman Park, our next door tent camping neighbors said they had a couple of inches of rain in their tent overnight. Yuck.

This vehicle has become home. So what does that mean? In the evenings when we return to Squeak, we head to our normal positions. Lee moves pictures from the camera to the laptop and begins the process of creating panoramas from the set he captured that day. I clean up and start dinner.  Lee then finds some kind of entertainment for me – a couple of nights ago it was music – Motown oldies, tonight he read me a few chapters of a Genghis Khan biography while I tended to our butter chicken and risotto rice dinner and tomorrow’s lunch. I wash the dishes and he stands under the vent (it’s the only place he doesn’t need to duck) and happily dries and then takes the garbage bag out. It’s all very much like home – except for the head room.

Some nights before bedtime, we watch an episode of the Sopranos. Last night Adrianna got whacked, and tonight, I think, is season 5’s finale.  Is it the one where the Feds show up at NY Johnny’s house and send Tony walking home? We’ll see. Without other television entertainment, I find myself wondering the next day about subtleties in the last episode, or trying to picture the armies that Genghis might have had.

Even in a traveling lifestyle that is almost by definition, non-routine, we are finding a little bit of comfort in the daily minor routines.

Apollo Campervan Rental - Our own Squeak (New Zealand)

We have mentioned Squeak a few times, and Mark reminded me that we haven’t included any interior pictures for those who have not chosen to live in a van down by the river.  So here goes...

Squeak is an Apollo brand campervan 2-berth (sleeps 2 adults) that is about 3 meters (9 ft) high and 5.5 meters (17ft) long. No Mickey D’s drive through’s! It fits almost exactly end to end in a normal parking space.

This is the back of the van with a bench-like set up including a swivel table. The tabletop is placed between the benches and with two other similar boards, a solid platform is created for a bed. It’s pretty wide and Lee – at 6’3” – doesn’t hang off the end…Though he is too tall for the ceiling, unless he stands under the top vent.

Further up is a gas stove, sink, mini fridge, and mini oven on the left and a closet and toilet/shower on the right. The microwave and air conditioner are also tucked high in the corners. There are cabinets everywhere and they hold the linens and kitchen pots and utensils that come with the van.

What we didn’t expect was the cabinets to squeak at every turn and with every swaying movement of the vehicle. Think squeaking plastic rubbing together.

The other noise is an inevitable closet door spilling open or bananas falling on the floor at the first turn of every drive. We try to remember to close all the knobs to lock the drawers in place and be sure to close the windows and the overhead vent, and then be sure everything on the sink or table has been put away…but we have almost always forgotten something. Then we start the engine and boom – this morning it was Lee’s clothes cabinet door that spilled the stack. Two days ago the entire utensil drawer littered the floor (Lee opened that one).  Is there a trend here?