Everything has been going great with our little R&R trip. Nobody seems to be having too much trouble unwinding after such a stressful week as evidenced by the enthusiasm with which we hiked up this steep trail with the temperature near 95 or 98 degrees and the humidity hovering around 100%. The locals followed us with their horses, convinced that we would never be able to make it to the top without taking a break and riding one of their trusty animals. We managed to do it though and collected a lot of great pictures in the process, which we can hopefully share soon!
When we get back to Manila tomorrow night we are planning on catching you all up with pictures and stories from the trip so far. So check in here in the next 24 hours or so and hopefully we'll be bringing a bunch more updates your way!
As always, thanks for the comments and words of encourgement. Although we don't always have the time to respond to everyone, we always love to read them and hear from all of you who are keeping track of our adventure.
- Mike
Dear Mike,
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your return to Manila (with pictures)! Always good to hear from you.
It's been hot here, too, but I haven't climbed any mountains!
Thanks for the message! Take care of yourselves.
Hi all!!
ReplyDeleteI tried uploading photos tonight but had difficulty as error messages in tagalog kept coming up. I am hopefully going to try again tomorrow morning so check back in the next 15 hours or so. Sorry!!!
-Missy
Great photo! Everyone looks terrific and relaxed. Look forward to more photos and newsy updates.
ReplyDeleteLove to the entire group and extra hugs to Adam!
Joanna O'Toole and family
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteNot sure how to post this without just posting a comment - so here goes.
I did a little searching on the three islands you are planning on visiting in order to determine whether the civil unrest in Thailand is also occurring there.
The US State Dept. is recommending that the entire country be avoided. Nothing new, but I thought I should mention it.
I've found that the best way to learn about a place is via message boards / forums about the specific location. If you can find an active one, you can learn just about anything you want to know about a place and it usually comes from unbiased sources.
There were many active forums on all the islands. Based on the nature of the questions, it sure seemed that it is business as usual. there. By that I mean people were asking about normal things - what is the best bar, best beach, where can I find this or that, what are the best dive operators,etc. Very normal.
Surprisingly little discussion about the civil unrest. There was some questions about it, but all the responses indicated there was none. There are very few government offices there and, thus no place to protest. One person did indicate that they would stay at a 3 star hotel / resort or higher. But that is good advise for any foreign country you aren't familiar with.
It is low season in the islands now and with the issues in Bangkok, tourism is down. That is not to say things will be dead. There is like 100 resorts on Koh Tao alone and people mentioned that the beaches were busy.
Let me know if you want me to dig for any additional information.
Joe's Dad
Should have mentioned that it sounds like you had a great hike up to the volcano. Really looking foreward to seeing some pix.
ReplyDeleteAny sore legs the next morning?
Joe's Dad