thericechronicles: 2014

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Sweet Phi Phi Island

My Dear Most Excellent Ones,

I am currently on Phi Phi Island, Thailand with two of my favourite, most excellent ones, Eli and Elsie. We arrived last Monday and have spent the past week catching up on sleep, catching some sunshine, catching up on some reading, snorkelling, shopping (at least Eli and Elsie are), exploring the islands, but for the most part we are just being rather lazy. Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) Island is actually made up of a few islands. They are geographically, quite fantastic, for they are made up mainly of small limestone mountains. There are several amazing fiords and lovely lagoons teeming with exotic, but so far, very friendly fish, throughout these "mountains." For the most part snorkelling in Phi Phi is like swimming in an aquarium. The water is warm and clear and the variety of sea life is astounding. God is a creative genius, and for the most part I am in awe at what He has done, but when you see some weird fish, you can't help but wonder, "ah what were you thinking there Lord?"

Phi Phi is also a bit of a party place. While I am in a nice quiet spot with the two E's in a nice cabin in a nicely landscaped park like setting, there is a teeming restaurant, diving, tattoo parlour, hostel, massage, bar, business that has attracted young 20 year old somethings from all over the world. Russian, Chinese, all variations of the Romance and Germanic languages, plus all dialects of English can be heard here. Yet despite all this diversity there is great peace and people seem very relaxed and happy. Maybe there would be more peace in the world if our leaders would meet in places like Phi Phi and just "chill" as the young say, have some Thai food, a beer, go snorkelling, gaze at the sunsets and realize everyone enjoys basically the same things in life so lets enjoy them together. Yeah, I think peace summits should be on places like Phi Phi where uptight politicians would be made to relax and do some fun activities together. Like snorkelling.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas. God bless you and as always:

Love Adios and Ping ON!

Dirk

With two most excellent ones, Eli and Elsie. This was taken at Ma ya beach, famous for the movie: The Beach.

This boat is called a long boat, and is a main source of transportation. The garland hanging on front of it is something to do with their buddhist religion. The following pictures were taken during low tide.

The landscape is quite spectacular.

Christmas Day on Phi Phi.

Our cabin is the one with all the wet clothes drying. Typical.

The long boats have long motors to get them through shallow water. They are much too loud.

This cave is a source for birdnests, which are then sent to China to be turned into the famous Birdnest Soup.

Lovely fiords and lagoons are everywhere.

The clear Lake Louise Blue waters are teeming with fish.

A screw pine. The roots screw into the ground.

Amazing sunsets.

Have a great week everyone.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Needle Hill

My Dear Great Ones,

Last week I climbed up to Needle Hill with my lovely fiancee Celia. Needle Hill is within walking distance of where I live and I highly recommend the hike for fitness and awesome scenery.

At first Celia was not that impressed with the daunting task of climbing and climbing and climbing "milllions" of steps.

Steps were pretty steep.

Later the steps gave way to some magnificent views. Shing Mun Reservoir. Behind it is the urban landscape of Tsuen Wan.

Look in the middle of this picture and you can see two bridges that are connected by lengthy tunnels on either side. Hong Kong has several of these tunnel passageways connecting Kowloon to Shatin.