We have new batteries! Our old ones were beyond help so the search was on for replacements. The footprint of any battery is absolutely critical due to the limited space available but we finally managed to find suitable replacements so we're now back in business. Yeah, I'm allowed to charge things again!
A few days after arriving in Phuket, we were met by old friends from South Africa who had immigrated to Australia back in the 80's, Neville and Tish Dredge.
Over the intervening years, we saw Neville when he returned to SA for the 1995 Rugby World Cup and then again when we visited Mooloolaba in Australia in 2013 but hadn't seen Tish in over 30 years!
They now live in Phuket. Great to meet up again and jabber about old times. We're hoping we can get together again before we push off.
When we were here two years ago, the island was overrun with Russians who didn't seem too popular with the locals. Now there are very few. The demise of the Ruble caused a significant decline in the number of Russians travelling here but Neville tells us that the ruling military have done their part in getting rid of them as well by issuing only 14 day visas to Russians extendable only if they leave the country for over 72 hours. It appears that the Russian mafia was getting into everything and were controlling the beaches, the clubs and most tourist attractions. Once the military took over, they were given a short period of time to move off before bulldozers came in to plow their beach huts, stands, lounge chairs, umbrellas and all else that they had monopolised. We're told the beaches are back to being clean and beautiful once more. The island is now inundated with Chinese but they don't seem to like the beaches that much.
Speaking of the military, they seized power in a coup d'etat in May 2014, just after we left last time. Years of dissent with the ruling parties caused mass demonstrations and unrest leaving the country in political crisis. After an earlier coup in 2006, a new government was elected but unrest developed shortly thereafter. Two years after this latest coup, the country is still in the hands of the military despite promises to allow democratic elections. Through all this, the King is still very much revered, having ruled Thailand for 70 years.
We have a very long-time friend, John Blackman, living in Bangkok who we wanted to visit as well as wanting to check on Paul's visa for Cocos Keeling so off to Bangkok we went.
John showed us around some of the sights and introduced us to a myriad of food courts that serve an array of delicious dishes for incredibly inexpensive prices. We seemed to have spent a great proportion of our time eating - I love Thai cooking!
We traipsed off to visit the famous Grand Palace but it was ever so crowded and also very expensive so we decided against it. We'd had the privilege of visiting it on previous occasions so weren't too disappointed. Instead we took a couple of river trips, firstly down the main river Chao Phraya, the huge river meandering through the city and a major thoroughfare of traffic, and then through one of the smaller canals or 'Klongs', which were very enjoyable. We stopped to see several temples as well as the very elaborate Royal barges.
One of our stops was Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn which dominates the river skyline. It's decorated with thousands of tiny seashells and Chinese porcelain. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by scaffolding due to renovations but quite impressive all the same.
Bangkok is very much as we remembered from previous visits; full of tourists, night clubs, karaoke bars, lady boys, massage parlours and more eating establishments and shopping centres than imaginable.
We had a super visit with John and his lovely friend Chin who we'd previously met briefly in Singapore. Chin cooked us several delicious meals and seemed to love doing it. I'd love to take her with us on board, think of the wonderful foods we'd receive!
However, after a week, we had to say goodbye to head back to Calypso at anchor in Ao Chalong in Phuket so we took a VIP bus back - 15 hours overnight, hmmmmm, not in a rush to do that again.
PHOTO ALBUM:
A few days after arriving in Phuket, we were met by old friends from South Africa who had immigrated to Australia back in the 80's, Neville and Tish Dredge. 
We have a very long-time friend, John Blackman, living in Bangkok who we wanted to visit as well as wanting to check on Paul's visa for Cocos Keeling so off to Bangkok we went. 
We traipsed off to visit the famous Grand Palace but it was ever so crowded and also very expensive so we decided against it. We'd had the privilege of visiting it on previous occasions so weren't too disappointed. Instead we took a couple of river trips, firstly down the main river Chao Phraya, the huge river meandering through the city and a major thoroughfare of traffic, and then through one of the smaller canals or 'Klongs', which were very enjoyable. We stopped to see several temples as well as the very elaborate Royal barges.
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