Day 227 Mar 19 2015 Paris France

Day 227  Mar 19  2015  Paris France

We woke up 9 am which was not too bad considering that we are experiencing a 7 hour time change.  We spent the day at the Louvre admiring the great works of art.  David and Isabel were bored for the most part.  Everybody except Evy was expecting a museum along the line of the Smithsonian in Washington which in my opinion is a much more interesting museum.  Once the museum closed we walked 3.7 km through Tuileries Garden then down Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.

Day 226 Mar 18 2015 Paris France

First stop in Paris

On the glass floor of the Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame

Eating street food  in Paris

Sacre Coeur Basilica

Day 226  Mar 18  2015  Paris France

We landed in Paris at 6:30 am.  David got in a line at immigration by himself and I was expecting that he would have some troubles not being with his parents or guardians.  I was surprised when he was not asked any questions other that if he was on vacation and how long he was going to stay in the country. We took the metro to our apartment where we dropped off the luggage.  We then went to the Eiffel tower and Notre Dame by metro.  We walked from Notre Dame to the Bastille expecting to see some ruins but there was nothing remaining other than a few rocks.  We did see the July Column which is a monument to the “three glorious days of July 27, 28 and 29 which saw the fall of King Charles X and the start of the “July Monarchy” of Louis-Philippe.  We then took the metro to Sacre Coeur basilica which is built on the highest hill in Paris.  It was a nice view and you could see a large part of Pairs through the smog.   We paid the admission to the crypt and were not impressed, it was just a bunch of altars inside the basement of the church.  Definitely not as interesting as some of the churches we saw in South America. The more churches that I visit the more I am disillusioned with the opulence and greed of the Catholic Church.  It seems there is/was a race to see which order can build the most ornate structure.   It does not follow the teaching of sell your possessions and give to the poor.  Would the money spent on these structures not have been better put to use in education, agriculture and other things.   

Day 225 Mar 17 2015 Plane from Kuala Lumpur to Paris

KLIA airport 

this is a great airport to fly through

inside the airport

same shot as above but different people

Day 225  Mar 17  2015  Plane from Kuala Lumpur to Paris

We slept in till 11 am.  We took the hotel shuttle to the Kuala Lumpur airport at 2:30 pm.  We wandered around the airport for 5 hours then caught our plane to Paris at 8:50 pm. We were flying Vietnam Airlines so we had to change planes in Ho Chi Minh City.

Day 224 Mar 16 2015 Kuala Lumpur

winning shell in Thailand

waiting to catch the plane in Krabi Thailand

Day 224  Mar 16  2015  Kuala Lumpur

The day was not very exciting, we just hung around the apartment watching TV and surfing the net.  We packed, took taxi to Krabi airport at 2:30 got to the Kuala Lumpur hotel at 9 pm.  We stayed up late so we could start adjusting to the 7 hour time difference we will experience in France.

Day 223 Mar 15 2015 Nong Thale Thailand

trying to catch a lizard

enjoying a last drink in Nong Thale

rock paper scissors 

one last swim before we head to the cold of Europe

Day 223  Mar 15  2015  Nong Thale Thailand

This was our last full day in Thailand as we are beginning our journey towards Europe tomorrow.  Evy and I have mixed feelings about leaving hot Asia to go to a cold place.  We will have to put the shorts and sandals away and get out the pants and shoes.   We have been enjoying 30 deg temperatures for the past several months and now we are heading to Paris that has a forecast of 3 deg as a low and an average high of 15 deg.  We are planning on heading south from Paris after a few days so we will hopefully find some warmer temperatures.   We walked to the beach and spent a couple of hours there.  We then returned to the hotel and spent another hour in the pool.  David has started algebra and was having a bit of a hard time understanding the concept of a variable and how to solve for it.  By the end of the session he was starting to understand it.   

Day 222 Mar 14 2015 Nong Thale Thailand

Day 222  Mar 14  2015  Nong Thale Thailand

We spent the day at Khao Phanom Bencha National Park where we walked some nature trails and swam in pools at the base of the various waterfalls.  The Huai To Waterfall has 11 tiers to it with the largest drop being 70 meters.  The trail was dangerous as it went along the edge of a very  steep slope, it also required climbing up and down the slope.  There were also lot of dry leaves on the trail making it very easy to slip.  At the one waterfall we saw a snake with a dark brown back and a light belly that was 2 meters long.  When we got to the park we soon discovered that the battery in the camera was dead so the only pictures we got for the day were taken with a tablet when we were leaving the park.  It was a disappointment that we did not have a camera with us on our walk as we missed some beautiful photos.

Day 221 Mar 13 2015 Nong Thale Thailand

the climb

made it 

after getting back down

Tiger Cave Temple

fossil shell beach

Day 221  Mar 13  2015  Nong Thale Thailand

The highlight of the day was a trip to the Tiger Cave Temple where I climbed the 1237 steps to the top.  David made it 830 steps and sat down on the stairs and waited for me to get back down.  Evy and Isabel made it 260 steps when Evy had a problem with acrophobia and had to turn back.  The view from the top was nice and I got to brag that I was the only one of the family that made it.  The climb to the top made me realize how much my physical condition has improved since we started our trip in August.  When we climbed the 476 steps at Daredevil trail in Newfoundland I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest.  I did not have much trouble climbing the steps at the Tiger Cave even though the temperature was in the high 30’s.  Coming back down the steps caused me more grief then the climb. By the time I got back down my legs were shaking from what I can only assume was muscle fatigue.   You really had to watch the monkeys as they would grab just about anything and run.  One tried to grab our camera but did not succeed.  Isabel and Evy saw a monkey grab a wallet out of a woman’s purse as she was walking and bottles of water seemed to be a favorite target.  The next stop of the day was at the Fossil Shell Beach which is slabs of fossilized shells.  No one was at the entrance booth to take our money so we just walked in.  When we got to the site we were very happy that we did not pay the $20 it should have cost to get in.  The “beach” is very unimpressive as the majority of reviews on trip advisor stated.  We spent no more than a few minutes there taking pictures then left.  We went to Ao Nang for supper and a drink then stopped at a hair salon where David and I got haircuts and Evy  had her hair colored.