Lynn's Trip to Thailand part 3: It's not the heat, it's the humidity!
Once again another entry from Lynn. As before, I will quote the text and comment on it.
Posted: March 5, 2010
Well, actually, it's the heat, too.
At first, the temperature is a welcome change from freezing your fanny in North Bay...but without the invention of air conditioning, I think most northerners would take a long time to adjust. If ever!!
According to http://www.weather.com/, the temperatures in Phuket in March have ranged from 77°F/25°C to 93°F/34°C. Since Lynn’s website lists North Bay as -3°C, I can see why she might have some difficulty here. In Tucson, the highs have been about 72°F/22°C for March so it’s been pretty nice.
The Kata Palms hotel is about 5 blocks from the beach and is a small temple in the midst of a concrete maze of vendors' booths, massage parlors and tailor shops. There are innumerable tailors here, all offering the finest hand made duds at bargain prices and ready in less than 24 hours. I've just come back from a long walk and am now sitting at the one working keyboard in the lobby and enjoying the breeze coming from the fans in the ceiling. It's like a movie set. I'm surrounded by deep red walls. Tall open windows with thin, embroidered curtains strung from tiny brass rods open onto a small palm-lined terrace. There is an abundance of ornate, gold decoration on teak furnishings, around doorways and over the reception desk. A high ceiling with lovely pastoral paintings along the upper edge arches over 4 white canopied sofas which face each other in a most gracious lounge.
Lynn appears to be talking about the Kata Palms Resort and Spa. The website has a number of pictures, which make it look like there is more than one working keyboard (but you know how hotel publicity pictures are) and you can see the exact area Lynn is talking about. It looks really nice. Lynn seems to be settling in now. We get our first mention of “bargain prices”. However, the odd part is that Lynn seems to be doing things by herself with the “I've just come back from a long walk”. Lynn usually likes to do things with other people. I wonder where Katie and Lane are. Their disappearance and lack of being mentioned by Lynn gives credence to the theory that this may be their honeymoon.
The rooms are spacious and the bathroom alone is worth the price. When you sit on the loo, you face a stone bathtub, set like an outdoor basin on a bed of white stones. To the right is the shower and the water comes out of a huge flat spout on the ceiling- like a shower of rain. Above the tub is a large shuttered window which opens into the bedroom. The view from the window is a tropical mural of amazing flowering trees. In the courtyard below the room, a long, winding pool takes you through a jungle of greenery, past rooms which open directly into the pool. These could be dangerous if under the influence of the local beer which is light in flavor but carries a punch!
No travelogue of Lynn Johnston’s would be complete without a description of the bathroom and a mention of the beer. I think Lynn may be talking about Phuket Beer which, according to the website, I can actually get in Arizona.
Most of the visitors here are European. We rarely hear English spoken, but if it is, it's with a British, European or Australian accent. Actually, other that the decor of the hotel, there is little here to suggest that we are in Asia at all..so I am still looking for the feel of the orient- that sense that I am in the mysterious east.
Lynn's assessment of the visitors appears to be mostly correct according to this website:
In 2008, 52.37 % of international tourists were East Asian, with Malaysia and Japan providing the most visitors. Close to two million Malaysians visited Thailand. We assume they take short trips over the Thai-Malaysian border, and we think the number of Malaysian visitors, unduly inflates the total number of international visitors. Europeans provided close to 4 million visitors in 2008, about 27.22 % of the total. The number of visitors from the Americas, South Asia and Africa, is much smaller. However, close to 700,000 Australians visited Thailand, which is actually an enormous number, when taking the total population of Australia into account.
Even though the bulk of the tourists are actually from Malaysia and Japan, it is entirely possible that Lynn may not be able to recognize that these are tourists and not residents. At least she is accurate with respect to the Caucasian tourists.
Lynn is looking for the mysterious east, which I think is once again a reference to her preference for Beijing. She sees it in the hotel decor without realizing that the hotel probably set it up that way to appeal to tourists just like her. However, looking at the history of Phuket, I think she is in the wrong place for the feel of the orient. Until the 1970s, the place was basically a mining town. Lynn needs to be thinking about snorkeling and other beach resort-like activities. However, looking at the tourist industry information, Old Town Phuket has some old buildings. I wonder if Lynn will get around to those. Even so, looking at the pictures, these are Sino-Portuguese and not really the mysterious east in design. I expect she will be disappointed.
I shall send this before it's gone in the ether of the internet and will write again. LJ
I am simply amazed that technophobe Lynn is doing this herself. However, she does still fear the loss of thing in the ether of the internet if she doesn't send it immediately so that much still seems like our Lynn.
Posted: March 5, 2010
Well, actually, it's the heat, too.
At first, the temperature is a welcome change from freezing your fanny in North Bay...but without the invention of air conditioning, I think most northerners would take a long time to adjust. If ever!!
According to http://www.weather.com/, the temperatures in Phuket in March have ranged from 77°F/25°C to 93°F/34°C. Since Lynn’s website lists North Bay as -3°C, I can see why she might have some difficulty here. In Tucson, the highs have been about 72°F/22°C for March so it’s been pretty nice.
The Kata Palms hotel is about 5 blocks from the beach and is a small temple in the midst of a concrete maze of vendors' booths, massage parlors and tailor shops. There are innumerable tailors here, all offering the finest hand made duds at bargain prices and ready in less than 24 hours. I've just come back from a long walk and am now sitting at the one working keyboard in the lobby and enjoying the breeze coming from the fans in the ceiling. It's like a movie set. I'm surrounded by deep red walls. Tall open windows with thin, embroidered curtains strung from tiny brass rods open onto a small palm-lined terrace. There is an abundance of ornate, gold decoration on teak furnishings, around doorways and over the reception desk. A high ceiling with lovely pastoral paintings along the upper edge arches over 4 white canopied sofas which face each other in a most gracious lounge.
Lynn appears to be talking about the Kata Palms Resort and Spa. The website has a number of pictures, which make it look like there is more than one working keyboard (but you know how hotel publicity pictures are) and you can see the exact area Lynn is talking about. It looks really nice. Lynn seems to be settling in now. We get our first mention of “bargain prices”. However, the odd part is that Lynn seems to be doing things by herself with the “I've just come back from a long walk”. Lynn usually likes to do things with other people. I wonder where Katie and Lane are. Their disappearance and lack of being mentioned by Lynn gives credence to the theory that this may be their honeymoon.
The rooms are spacious and the bathroom alone is worth the price. When you sit on the loo, you face a stone bathtub, set like an outdoor basin on a bed of white stones. To the right is the shower and the water comes out of a huge flat spout on the ceiling- like a shower of rain. Above the tub is a large shuttered window which opens into the bedroom. The view from the window is a tropical mural of amazing flowering trees. In the courtyard below the room, a long, winding pool takes you through a jungle of greenery, past rooms which open directly into the pool. These could be dangerous if under the influence of the local beer which is light in flavor but carries a punch!
No travelogue of Lynn Johnston’s would be complete without a description of the bathroom and a mention of the beer. I think Lynn may be talking about Phuket Beer which, according to the website, I can actually get in Arizona.
Most of the visitors here are European. We rarely hear English spoken, but if it is, it's with a British, European or Australian accent. Actually, other that the decor of the hotel, there is little here to suggest that we are in Asia at all..so I am still looking for the feel of the orient- that sense that I am in the mysterious east.
Lynn's assessment of the visitors appears to be mostly correct according to this website:
In 2008, 52.37 % of international tourists were East Asian, with Malaysia and Japan providing the most visitors. Close to two million Malaysians visited Thailand. We assume they take short trips over the Thai-Malaysian border, and we think the number of Malaysian visitors, unduly inflates the total number of international visitors. Europeans provided close to 4 million visitors in 2008, about 27.22 % of the total. The number of visitors from the Americas, South Asia and Africa, is much smaller. However, close to 700,000 Australians visited Thailand, which is actually an enormous number, when taking the total population of Australia into account.
Even though the bulk of the tourists are actually from Malaysia and Japan, it is entirely possible that Lynn may not be able to recognize that these are tourists and not residents. At least she is accurate with respect to the Caucasian tourists.
Lynn is looking for the mysterious east, which I think is once again a reference to her preference for Beijing. She sees it in the hotel decor without realizing that the hotel probably set it up that way to appeal to tourists just like her. However, looking at the history of Phuket, I think she is in the wrong place for the feel of the orient. Until the 1970s, the place was basically a mining town. Lynn needs to be thinking about snorkeling and other beach resort-like activities. However, looking at the tourist industry information, Old Town Phuket has some old buildings. I wonder if Lynn will get around to those. Even so, looking at the pictures, these are Sino-Portuguese and not really the mysterious east in design. I expect she will be disappointed.
I shall send this before it's gone in the ether of the internet and will write again. LJ
I am simply amazed that technophobe Lynn is doing this herself. However, she does still fear the loss of thing in the ether of the internet if she doesn't send it immediately so that much still seems like our Lynn.
posted by howard at 9:17 AM
13 Comments:
Enh. My thoughts when I read this stuff is "The Internet really IS for porn, if this is the sort of thing you get you aren't looking at porn."
If Lynn was a passable travel writer, or more adventurous, or funnier (think P.J. O'Rourke only as a frumpy Canadian housewife) these blog entries would at least be worth a peek. But other than the snarkworthiness here, what's she saying that you couldn't get better from a half-dozen real travel blogs?
These reek of "I'm an Important Person So My Most Useless Maunderings MUST Be Important!" What's kind of sad is that the poor woman probably DOES think she's "important".
FDChief,
If Lynn was a passable travel writer, or more adventurous, or funnier (think P.J. O'Rourke only as a frumpy Canadian housewife) these blog entries would at least be worth a peek.
I agree. Lynn’s vacation stories are not much more than her going on standard tours that everyone else would go on if they were in the same area. The unique aspects about it are her disdain for the locals, her fascination with beer and bargains, and her wish she was actually visiting Beijing instead.
These reek of "I'm an Important Person So My Most Useless Maunderings MUST Be Important!" What's kind of sad is that the poor woman probably DOES think she's "important".
Considering how twitter took off following the mindless meanderings of celebrities, there is some evidence in her favour on this one. And like most celebrities, her writings only show just how mindless those meanderings are.
hhhhhhh
Whoops, sorry about the above comment. Ignore me.
howard: Not sure if what she's doing is "distain". Her attitude towards the people in these furrin places she visits seems more like a combination of "clueless" and "patronizing". She seems to think she's being all Lafcadio Hearn bringing us her insightful observations of the locals, while feeling sorry that they can't wear the duds, eat the grub and swig the suds a wealthy suburban Canuck can.
But I suspect that her fans DO follow her jaunts. Given the sort of person who at this point is putting FOOB on his/her fridge door, they probably know less about these places than she does...
What I find amusing is that she totally failed to realize that most of the people around her are tourists; since she's too dim to realize that the 'Asia' she thinks exists doesn't, she's unwittingly offended a lot of people.
FDChief,
Not sure if what she's doing is "distain". Her attitude towards the people in these furrin places she visits seems more like a combination of "clueless" and "patronizing".
I take your point. The comments she made about the prostitutes in the first Blog entry in particular would meet the “clueless” category. Certainly the comments she is making about how Phuket is not as good as Beijing, falls into the “patronizing” side. However, if she were a little less clueless, I would suspect "disdain" would be her choice.
But I suspect that her fans DO follow her jaunts. Given the sort of person who at this point is putting FOOB on his/her fridge door, they probably know less about these places than she does...
They can try to follow these things. I find them difficult to understand without doing a great deal of research, which I expect the average fan is not willing to do.
DreadedCandiru2,
What I find amusing is that she totally failed to realize that most of the people around her are tourists; since she's too dim to realize that the 'Asia' she thinks exists doesn't, she's unwittingly offended a lot of people.
The idea of people doing across-the-border jaunts seems to be lost on her. You would think someone in Canada would be familiar with the idea, considering how often people in the United States visit Canada.
The Kata website link shows a blank page for me on both Mac and Windows and a variety of browsers. However, a Google search shows me several other links that do work, including katapalmsparesort.com
The Kata website link shows a blank page for me on both Mac and Windows and a variety of browsers.
I had the same problem in Firefox but was able to view the page in IE8.
Interesting. I have tried the link both and at work, and it comes up for me using Internet Explorer.
The website link worked for me, but for some strange reason, it does not feature any photos of the toilets. What is the matter with the resort's marketing team? Don't they know that's a major selling feature with certain guests?
forworse,
Interestingly enough, the place Lynn stayed in Oaxaca did have pictures of its toilets on its website. However, that was a family-owned bed and breakfast where you had to dispose of your own bath water and not an expensive resort hotel and spa.
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