Category Archives: Beaches

Travel and Traditions…The Land of Smiles.

Retired No One Told Me! (6)

When you travel to Thailand be ready to be truly amazed the minute you step off the plane.

One of the first places we visited on our travel and explorations around Phuket was Big Buddha one of the most famous landmarks on the island of Phuket.

Big Buddha

Big Buddha, I have lost count of how many times we have travelled up the mountain to Big Buddha and it is always a place we take our visitors… While work is still ongoing there is always something different and new to see… My favourite sight though will always be that huge Big Buddha sat atop the Nakkerd hills sparkling in the sunlight, made of white jade he just shimmers as the sunlight catches that beautiful white jade… An awesome sight… Remember to keep covered up no bare arms and legs. Then on the way down you can stop at one of the restaurants and enjoy some lovely Thai food and of course the spectacular views around the bay.

If you travel to Phuket then you must go and visit Big Buddha.

There are many beautiful beaches in Thailand, my favourites are the ones which are not so crowded…The lesser visited beaches which are so beautiful… How to pick a favourite? Click this link and you will see why I can’t make that choice they all have their own charm. All you need is a beach towel and a camera and don’t forget the sunscreen.

beach and chairs nice pic

You have of course got the very touristy beaches like Patong, in Phuket but if you visit some of the others you can see or do some silk printing, have your portrait painted or just relax at a reggae bar and watch the waves or if you are feeling particularly sporty there is paddle boarding for which you need a fair amount of balance and it is not as easy as it looks… But you can’t travel to Thailand and not do at least one of these.

Sea gipsy villages are so very beautiful…They have a life of their own..self contained and self-sufficient, some have a school and one even has its own floating football pitch. Very fresh seafood, some amazing Thai food can be tasted it is all authentic flavours no holds barred when it comes to chillies … Just browse the little stalls set up in front of homes selling anything from dried fish, honeyed nuts, local goods made of silk or bags made by the hill tribes from the North and of course the normal bits and bobs to take home as mementoes of your travels.

houses on stilts Koh Panyee

I just love Krabi...Taking a long-boat to visit all the little islands is a marvellous day out just be ready to get wet and having to wade out to sea a little to get onto the boat but so much better than the speedboats for me anyway…You see far more and the boatmen know the schedules of the big boats so you can see the islands and miss the crowds.

A Thai massage on the beach or some lovely wraps and wall hangings which the beach vendors will be trying to sell to you…Lovely handmade wooden goods … purses and key rings …all sorts for sale and remember Thais love to barter…

If you are hungry the food is fresh from the boats and cooked to order…

You can get the most wonderful Thai massage on the beach while laying and looking out to sea and letting your thoughts just wander and take you where they may …

I will tell you a funny story when we went to one of the small islands massages were not permitted on some of the beaches but you could see the police boat coming as obviously boat was the only form of  access so if the boat appeared everyone upped sticks and we sat and sipped our drinks  as if nothing was going on and when they went on their merry way massage continued it was quite funny really and made me wonder whether the police really knew anyway…

My masseur happened to be male as all the ladies were busy … My lucky day…apparently, I had that look on my face( according) to hubby…I think it is called a blissful look …That masseuse had the best hands…The rest I will leave to your very fertile imaginations..ladies…” smirk”

Temples or wats there are SO many here they range from the very old to the very new. From highly ornate to ones which need some TLC and to the quirky temples like this one which is made entirely out of Heineken and Chang bottles.Recycling at its best 🙂

Called Wat Pa Maha Kaew or the Temple of a Million Bottles it is a Buddhist temple in the Khun Han district of Sisaket province, Thailand. Made from over 1.5 million bottles it took two years to build the main temple.

Can you just imagine a temple built completely from bottles and beer bottles?

Wat Bang Riang

This one is Wat Bang Riang a little drive from Phuket but well worth the trip …

I can’t go without mentioning briefly the food of which there is so much to love…Those Thai flavours are so amazing…

My Favourite Khao Soi a yellow curry with crispy noodles which packs a fiery punch as well.

You can’t visit Thailand and not visit a market…They are many and varied from the huge markets which sell everything to the little local market with 10-15 stalls which sell the essentials and the fresh fruit and vegetables are so very fresh..just picked that morning… Not forgetting, of course, the floating markets.

 

That’s all for this post  I do hope you have enjoyed it. I am looking forward to your comments and if you also hit the share buttons I would love that ….Thanks, Carol xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will on  mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3 

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a creative week ahead xx

 

Waste Not! Want Not! Week 11…

Good Morning and my how the weeks fly…Week 11 and every week I come across new exciting projects and it is lovely it is restoring my faith in human nature so many people really do care about the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren.

Here in Asia, much plastic is used it is a hot topic with many initiatives springing up all over the place…A long, long way to go but the signs are good.

Many people holiday abroad and seek out the beaches… BUT and this is where you can help…Are you mindful of how you dispose of your rubbish?… I have witnessed many tourists just leaving the beach and their rubbish with no thought of the environment or who clears up behind them.

What would you rather see this?

 

Or this?

Please if you are on the beach or on a boat dispose of your rubbish correctly.

Would people do it at home? Many do but many don’t!

The tiny little cigarette butt...

cigarette butt

 

A tad larger than life here… I don’t smoke …my hubby does… Trust me he knows my feelings…haha…He used to when he was outside in the garden smoking stub them out in my plant pots! He no longer does that…Just in case you can’t tell this was typed through gritted teeth …The man learnt!

Cigarette butts…

The Ocean Conservancy has sponsored a beach cleanup every year since 1986. For 32 consecutive years, cigarette butts have been the single most collected item on the world’s beaches, with a total of more than 60 million collected over that time. That amounts to about one-third of all collected items and more than plastic wrappers, containers, bottle caps, eating utensils and bottles, combined.

People sometimes dump that trash directly on to beaches but, more often, it washes into the oceans from countless storm drains, streams and rivers around the world. The waste often disintegrates into microplastics easily consumed by wildlife. Researchers have found the detritus ( waste or debris) in some 70 % of seabirds and 30 % of sea turtles.

Those discarded filters usually contain synthetic fibres and hundreds of chemicals used to treat tobacco.

Please if you must smoke dispose of your butts responsibly…Not in the sand or flicked into the sea, not flicked as you walk along the street or out of your car window…Use an ashtray!

ash tray with smoking cigarette

Find a bin…Take it home stick in your cigarette packet…Just don’t flick it and forget…Just remember it has also only taken a cigarette butt carelessly flicked to start a fire…

If you thought they were biodegradable think again…

It may look like cotton, but 98 % of cigarette filters are made of plastic fibres (cellulose acetate) that are tightly packed together, which leads to an estimated 1.69 billion pounds of cigarette butts winding up as toxic trash each year.

Are they biodegradable…No! The plastic fibres in cigarettes are non-biodegradable which means they DO NOT break down organically.

They can gradually decompose depending on the environmental conditions like sun and rain but after 2 years research shows only 38% has decomposed…

 

I give you Better butts… 

There is nothing better that I love apart from writing is the comments from you… Last week I touched on recycling and Adele sent this link …I love it! So innovative …

Adele shared this great video on how to make tee-shirt yarn it is soooo cool and I will definitely be having a go with my granddaughter. Thank you so much Adele xxx

 

That’s all for this week I hope you have found something interesting and please carry on commenting and letting us all know what you do or any great incentives you have come across… I love to hear from you and if we share our good practices then the world benefits xxx

 

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great Valentines Day and a brilliant weekend xx

 

 

Travel Thailand; The Land of Smiles.

Retired No One Told Me! (6)

When you travel to Thailand be ready to be truly amazed the minute you step off the plane.

One of the first places we visited on our travel and explorations around Phuket was Big Buddha one of the most famous landmarks on the island of Phuket.

Big Buddha

Big Buddha, I have lost count of how many times we have travelled up the mountain to Big Buddha and it is always a place we take our visitors… While work is still ongoing there is always something different and new to see… My favourite sight though will always be that huge Big Buddha sat atop the Nakkerd hills sparkling in the sunlight, made of white jade he just shimmers as the sunlight catches that beautiful white jade… An awesome sight… Remember to keep covered up no bare arms and legs. Then on the way down you can stop at one of the restaurants and enjoy some lovely Thai food and of course the spectacular views around the bay.

If you travel to Phuket then you must go and visit Big Buddha.

There are many beautiful beaches in Thailand, my favourites are the ones which are not so crowded…The lesser visited beaches which are so beautiful… How to pick a favourite? Click this link and you will see why I can’t make that choice they all have their own charm. All you need is a beach towel and a camera and don’t forget the sunscreen.

beach and chairs nice pic

You have of course got the very touristy beaches like Patong, in Phuket but if you visit some of the others you can see or do some silk printing, have your portrait painted or just relax at a reggae bar and watch the waves or if you are feeling particularly sporty there is paddle boarding for which you need a fair amount of balance and it is not as easy as it looks… But you can’t travel to Thailand and not do at least one of these.

 

Sea gypsy villages are so very beautiful…They have a life of their own..self contained and self-sufficient, some have a school and one even has its own floating football pitch. Very fresh seafood, some amazing Thai food can be tasted it is all authentic flavours no holds barred when it comes to chillies … Just browse the little stalls set up in front of homes selling anything from dried fish, honeyed nuts, local goods made of silk or bags made by the hill tribes from the North and of course the normal bits and bobs to take home as mementoes of your travels.

houses on stilts Koh Panyee

I just love Krabi...Taking a long-boat to visit all the little islands is a marvellous day out just be ready to get wet and having to wade out to sea a little to get onto the boat but so much better than the speedboats for me anyway…You see far more and the boatmen know the schedules of the big boats so you can see the islands and miss the crowds.

A Thai massage on the beach or some lovely wraps and wall hangings which the beach vendors will be trying to sell to you…Lovely handmade wooden goods … purses and key rings …all sorts for sale and remember Thais love to barter…

If you are hungry the food is fresh from the boats and cooked to order…

You can get the most wonderful Thai massage on the beach while laying and looking out to sea and letting your thoughts just wander and take you where they may …

I will tell you a funny story when we went to one of the small islands massage was not permitted on some of the beaches but you could see the police boat coming as obviously boat was the only form of  access so if the boat appeared everyone upped sticks and we sat and sipped our drinks  as if nothing was going on and when they went on their merry way massage continued it was quite funny really and made me wonder whether the police really knew anyway…

My masseur happened to be male as all the ladies were busy … My lucky day…apparently, I had that look on my face( according) to hubby…I think it is called a blissful look …That massuer had the best hands…The rest I will leave to your very fertile imaginations..ladies…”smirk”

Temples or wats there are SO many here they range from the very old to the very new. From highly ornate to ones which need some TLC and to the quirky temples like this one which is made entirely out of Heineken and Chang bottles.

Called Wat Pa Maha Kaew or the Temple of a Million Bottles it is a Buddhist temple in the Khun Han district of Sisaket province, Thailand. Made from over 1.5 million bottles it took two years to build the main temple.

Can you just imagine a temple built completely from bottles and beer bottles?

Wat Bang Riang

This one is Wat Bang Riang a little drive from Phuket but well worth the trip …

I can’t go without mentioning briefly the food of which there is so much to love…Those Thai flavours are so amazing…

My Favourite Khao Soi a yellow curry with crispy noodles which packs a fiery punch as well.

You can’t visit Thailand and not visit a market…They are many and varied from the huge markets which sell everything to the little local market with 10-15 stalls which sell the essentials and the fresh fruit and vegetables are so very fresh..just picked that morning… Not forgetting, of course, the floating markets.

 

That’s all for this post  I do hope you have enjoyed it. I am looking forward to your comments and if you also hit the share buttons I would love that ….Thanks, Carol xxx

Connect to Carol( Moi)

Blog:https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/

Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Enjoy the rest of your weekend I hope you have a lovely Sunday and the weather is kind to you xxx

 

Aloha!

Today I thought I would show you some of the lovely beaches that are around me….I am so lucky to live on one of the most beautiful places in the world and I have to pinch myself at times so please enjoy these pictures.Much love to you all Caz xxxx

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And last but not least my favorite place to have a Bloody Mary.

My very own version of a Bloody Mary Mix will be in my next post along side a very easy recipe for Baileys…..chat soon..love you all xx

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