What a place!

It is an hour and a half by taxi from KL international airport to Melaka, ( also know as Mallacca to us Brits), and another half hour to find the place when the taxi driver goes round in circles. Eventually we found a guy at a security post in the middle of nowhere- it turned out to be the hotel, the Philea Resort, some 7k outside the centre of Melaka, and just 150 mtrs from where we came off the motorway! (See location below)

What a place- reception is in an outdoor complex which includes a lounge, two restaurants, a conference room and bars, (as well as two karaoke rooms!) quite different from usual hotels.Oh- and a ballroom too! (Unfortunately I have lost the photos of that area!!)

As we were taken up to our rooms we passed the swimming pool - well, we haven't seen anything quite like this. Two waterfalls drop into a river alongside the pool, which is a good forty metres long, and 20 wide. A cafe is across the river, as well as a games room, and some of the more expensive log cabins too. Beds line one side of the pool, but behind are a number of open sun cabins where one can get into the shade if we wish.

This place really takes your breath away, for £80 a night it is unbelievable, all the resort is made from logs, and I understand there are no nails anywhere!

Just up the path is a sauna, a large gym and treatment rooms all in seperate litlle cabins.Our own cabin is in a block of four, a sizeable bedroom and a large bathroom with a bath as well as a large shower. But we don't expect to spend a lot of time in there- there is too much else to see and do!

There is also a forest walk, and a team building course which we didn't have time to see, as when we were not seeing Melaka we spent all our time by the pool, completely reserved for just us!
It turns out that the hotel is almost empty, apart from a conference that arrives after breakfast as we are leaving for the airport on the third day we only see one family and another couple, and that is in a resort that will take 500 people in 180 cabins. We are told that they expect to be full the next week which is a local holiday.
Full or empty, we would reccommend this place to anyone for a peacefull few days, quite apart from the city itself, which I shall write about in my next blog entry. In the meantime here are a few more pictures.......

After two very hectic weeks

of Rotary we had arranged to spend a few days relaxing in Penang, an island off the north coast of Malaysia, in a superb resort facing the Mallacca Straits. (See Map below)
Roger and Kate had left us to go home from Bangkok, so it was just the Workington crowd and us, spending our days round the pool.
Anne spent much of her time in the beauty parlour- not that she needed it, I think she just wanted to get away from me for a while!
As usual I couldn't keep still, and went to try out the parascending, another new experience, it was fun while it lasted, and I didn't even get wet!

Taking off from the beach, and skillfully steering myself back to the beach, I even walked on the water!( that was down to the boat driver who deliberately slowed down to dunk me!) Anyway it was a bit of fun, I will do it again given the opportunity.











The food was great- we ate out at various places during the three days we were there, and even managed to gatecrash a private party in the Hard Rock Cafe! Mazda were holding a launch party for their new vehicle with a rock band, and we were invited in by the guy in charge, a Geordie no less! We had taken a rickshaw the mile and a half to get there, and it was a great finish to our time there.

So- Tomorrow the rest go back via KL to the UK, but we are going on to Melaka, some two hours south of KL, for our last couple of days over here.

On our last day in Chiang Mai

Anne and I elected not to take the trip to Laos and Burma (Myanmar), it was a 15 hour round trip and we thought we may do it over a few days sometime in the future. So we met up with Roger and Kate Brunt to see Chiang Mai itself, and visit a couple of outstanding temples there.

Chiang Mai is an ancient walled city, the wall itself is built of very small bricks and some of it still survives. Built originally to keep out invading Burmese in the 8th century, it failed when the invaders laid siege for many weeks.

There were five gates, of which only two were opened at any time, and a moat encircled the whole city, which still mainly survives, with decorative fountains playing to keep it oxygenated and free from weed.

The first temple we visited was on the banks of the river, the same river we rafted on the previous day, and the same one that flows through Bangkok. Buddhist of course, as most are in Thailand, very decorative both inside and out.

The four of us then took a boat trip down river, which was disappointing to say the least. There was little to see, except the dredgers which were deepening the river and raising the banks to avoid a repetition of the flooding which took place a few years ago, and most of the buildings along the banks either belonged to the rich, or were hotels. 

We eventually arrived at a little cafe which we entered for a drink, I have to say that the pineapple was quite delicious, the highlight of the trip!

Afterwards we made our way to another temple, completely made from Teak, quite beautiful both inside and out. 

Wat Long Molee is an old and significent site, whose name first appeared in historical texts of 1367. 10 monks from Burma were invited to bring their Buddhism, but it was not until 1527 that the chedi was built, followed by the main hall in 1545.

Tomorrow- on to Penang- an island in the north of Malaysia, where we will relax for a few days in a resort before we all make our way back to our respective homes- except for Anne & I of course, we will return to continue our adventure in Oz

Rotary Fellowship in Bangkok

The following is the report I have written for Norwest about the convention.

 

A very modern Conference centre in the suburbs of Bangkok was the venue for the 103^rd R.I. Convention where some 35,000 Rotarians and their partners from all over the world enjoyed fellowship and inspiration, among them a number from our District. Five Workington Club members, President John Mather, AG Alan Hoggarth, PP John Head, Secretary Rod Earlston and PP Ken K irkwood, were joined by Accrington PP Roger Brunt and PDG Ron Bailey from Carlisle South, each with their partners.

The party travelled via the Greentown club in Ipoh, Malaysia, to continue the friendship which started with the visit of the 2009 GSE team to our district. The visit to Ipoh was marked by the planting of a tree in a local park by the two club presidents, and great fellowship was enjoyed by the party during the four days they were there.

The party moved on to Bangkok together with a number from the Greentown club, staying in the centre of the city, some ten miles from the Convention Centre, which necessitated long bus journeys through the Bangkok traffic morning and evening.

The opening session , on  Sunday, took place in two seatings as the vast hall was not able to accommodate all the attendees, when a speech of welcome was given by one of the daughters of the Thai King, whose family is revered  here. She was followed by a Thai cultural Dance programme, and speeches of welcome by the chairman and the R.I. President Kalyan Banerjee. But the undoubted highlight of the session was the Flag Ceremony, where each of the national flags of all the countries of the world who host Rotary clubs were brought into the arena, some 203, finishing with the three new countries who have joined the Rotary family in the past year.

The event finished with a performance by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.

One of the better parts of Conventions is the House of Friendship, which gives attendees the opportunity to meet delegates from all over the world, to visit the multitude of project stands showing there, and to hear and indeed take part in the entertainment that is on offer in the huge hall. Local Thai entertainers were alternated with entertainment from all over the world, Jazz bands, drummers, Thai boxers, Romanion dancers and Rock bands were just some of the entertainment offered all day and every day in the vast room, together with opportunities to see the Thai culture and dress.  Many R.I. accredited vendors were also present, allowing us to purchase Rotary branded goods such as scarves, ties, shirts, pins and many other items.

Each plenary session was preceded by entertainment, Indian Dance Troupes, Piano Trios, Thai Yoga Boys, Bulgarian Tenors to name but a few, and all the sessions included inspirational addresses from people such as Angelique Kido, from Unicef, Dr Mohammed Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Rotary Peace Fellows, and Dr Bruce Aylward, Asst Director General for Polio, WHO. In addition many break-out sessions took place over three days with titles such as Literacy, Education and the Future Of Humanity, Revitalising Rotary’s Impact, and Peace and Prosperity through Microcredit. It was impossible to attend all the sessions, so each of us chose those which interested us.

On the downside, the main plenary sessions were held in a hall so vast that it was impossible to see the speakers directly , having to rely on the huge TV screens that were dotted about the room. The sound system was excellent, so there was no problem in that way. The transport system, with so many people to move at the close of sessions, was under a great deal of pressure, but improved as the days went on.

On the other hand the registration was painless, and providing one wore one’s badge there was no problem moving from venue to venue. The House Of Friendship was well organised, and the availability of food of all kinds was excellent.

After the close of  business on the Wednesday the 1190 party took off up country to Chiang Mai for a holiday, followed by a few days in Penang, Malaysia,

before travelling home.

 

Elephants, oxen and bamboo rafts.

To the north of Chiang Mai is the elephant camp, and that's today's destination. As we arrived we could see the tourists mounting the elephants, and taking off through the river, which incidentally is the same one that runs through Chang Mai and down to Bangkok, some 500 miles away.

We climbed onto our ride, and made off down to the river,  for about half an hour.

It was a bumpy ride, particularly when we were going downhill when we tended to slip forward off our seats.

Every so often we would approach a small tower at our height where a lady would be holding our a bundle of sugar cane or a bunch of bananas for the elephants, at 20 Baht each. After a couple of these we got fed up and said no, but our elephant was determined not to pass it by! Eventually we arrived at the dismount point, where we were to return to our starting area by Ox cart. Not easy to control these oxen- particularly when the driver gets down to take a photo of us!

It was yet another experience to cross off our list.

Arriving back at the village we stopped for lunch, a Thai buffet, an excellent selection which gave me the opportunity to choose.

Following lunch we were treated to a show by the elephants, they are traned to play football, to bow on demand, and gave us a show of moving large logs, both towing them and rolling them with their trunks and feet. One in particular could  kick a football very acurately into a net, and even back heel it after throwing it into the air with his trunk. But for me the highlight of he show was to see three of the elephants painting pictures- i would not have beleived it had I not seen it with my own eyes. Two even signed them with their own name. Later we spoke to the owner of the camp- a British lady, and questioned her closely as to how they were able to train such an animal to do this. She told us that it could only be done by kindness, it was impossible to beat such a large animal into submission, and as the Mahouts relied totally on the camp for accomodation, schooling for their children and even food they had a great incentive to treat the animals carefully. 

Then came the highlight of the day for me- the bamboo rafting. Big John and Julie shared our raft, and as we made off down the river I was amazed to find how stable they were. Two locals punted us along, steering us down the centre of the river, past small local villages as well as virgin jungle, and in one case, a rope

bridge crossed the river. We were also treated to the sight of some of the locals sliding down a slip rope, which looked very exciting.

All of us took a turn at punting, the pole was surprisingly heavy, and the river was running quite fast, so it was not so easy as we had imagined. Arriving at our debark point, our guide Peter was waiting for us with our bus, and we continued our day with a visit to an orchid farm. I have to say that although there were a few nice flowers there, there was little else to entertain us, and most of the orchids were flowerless.

Never mind- we had had a brilliant morning, and although there was a monkey and a snake show on offer we elected to return to the hotel to relax by the pool, and in my case- to write up this blog. Job done!

On to Chiang Mai

Last evening we had a farewell dinner for two of our party- John Head and Margaret have to get home to organise "Paint The Town Red", Workington's successful project to publicise their town. However before that we had to have our official 1190 Convention "Gloup Phloto",  or "one more", as is always said when we have one (and more!) done.
A fairly early start this morning to the airport for the 10-30 flight, pretty painless 70 minutes up to Chiang Mai, and 15 minutes to the hotel. Good!

A quick check-in, and off for lunch in the city. Thai of course, but they managed to find some chicken noodles for me that I could eat so I was happy.

Fron there a couple of hours at a temple (Wat Phra Tat Doi) to the west of the city, on the top of a hill. Chiang Mai is 300 mtrs up, (1000 ft), and the temple is at 1000 mtrs,(3500 ft), so the trip up was on a very steep and winding road. Unfortunately the view of the city was obscured a little by low cloud, so I was unable to photograph what could have been an excellent view.

I think I have previously said that most Thais are Buddhist, in fact 95% of them, with just 3% Moslem and 2% Christian. So there are a lot of Buddhist temples here, and this one is one of the more important ones.

Once again there are a great number of steps to climb, (although we could have taken the lift!).

Anne & I joined a couple of others to climb the 300 steps to the top, after lunch it was not easy! Anyway it was certainly worth doing, the temple was quite beautiful, with a golden Stupa.

We were blessed with Holy Water by a monk, who we had to approach on our knees. It is very rude to point one's toes at either Buddha or the priest, and one's head should always be lower.

I took the lift down as there was no rail on the steps, and I did not feel safe.

 

Afterwards the schedule called for a two hour visit to a massage parlour, however Anne & I just wanted to go back to the hotel to unpack and have a swim, so we relaxed while the others had what they told us was a great experience with the local massage experts.

In the evening we all went out to a Thai dinner and dancing show, it was very good, but unfortunately I had forgotten the camera. There will be a next time!

River Kwai and the floating market.

Having almost been brought up on the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" it would have been silly to have missed the opportunity of visiting the area where the events of the second world war took place.

On the way we took in a visit to the floating market, a village of canals where many of the houses are built on stilts and where everyone goes about in boats. We disembarked our minibus at one of these canals and boarded a narrow boat with a very large outboard motor at the rear, connected to a long shaft containing the propeller. I think the water must be very shallow, as the propeller barely enters the water.

After a ride of a couple of kilometres, sometimes at quite high speed, we arrived at the market, where boats were drawn up allongside a jetty selling all kinds of wares, although I have to admit that most of them were aimed at the tourist. However there was fruit, and food which was actually being preapared in the boats, but really it was not quite what we expected as most of the wares were on display on dry land.

After another hour's travel we came to the War cemetary containing the gravstones of some of those who died building the Siam Burma railway in the second world war. Immaculately maintained by the UK War Graves Commission, the graves made very poignant reading as we walked through then.  About 100,000 prisoners died working on the railway, and almost 7000 are buried here, half of which were British. I came across one of a member of the Border Regiment from my own county, as well as a Bailey, and a Meggs, I have no idea if they are related but it brought home to me the losses that families had to bear because of the attrocities of the Japanese that took place close by.

A few kilometres on we came to the area where the bridge was built. The debarking area was in a large market, again selling mainly tourist tatt, and I felt it was rather the like the temple in Jerusalem where Jesus upset the stalls.

The current bridge is not the original, which was bombed by the Americans not long after it was built, and replaced by an Iron bridge brought up from a river further down the country. We were able to walk over that and get some idea of the task that the Allies had to perform at the time, the river is quite fast flowing and quite deep, about 100 metres wide at that point.

Nearby was the museum, a somewhat mixed up and badly translated couple of rooms containing many artifacts of the time. However, below the building, on the riverbank, were some of the  pilings of the original bridge, and gave some idea of how it was built. It was worth going just to see that, but there was also a diorama which attempted to show how the prisoners worked, and an original Japanese railway engine which served on the Death Railway.

It was a very long day, made worse by the atrocious driving of our two drivers, who had to overtake every other vehicle on the road  sitting within touching distance of the vehicle in front, and indeed seemed to be racing at times.

Anyway, tommorrow is the final Convention day, and we will be spending the day there, having lunch at the Past Officer's Dinner.

On Thursday we will be flying to Chang Mai, some 500 miles to the north of Bangkok, and hopefully a little more relaxed!.