S.E. Asian Expedition 2008...Cambodia/Vietnam...

I was sitting there....perhaps a little complacent......contemplating the future when the phone rang.....It was an old associate of mine who was telling me to come visit because I might be interested in something he had.....

He was in Cambodia.......and I was a little distant from there...

Well.......life on the beach was getting a little awkward recently.....

Although I thoroughly enjoy my life in a remote location with my dogs and cats some things do cause me to want to get going once again to seek out some perhaps new cannabis genetics in seed form...After all I have been compelled to try and discover many different varieties of the plant during my travels for many years now......Sometimes I succeed.....

There comes a time in most years when certain elements come together and drive me to leave home and seek out what could be grown out to please many growers......what could be grown out by many breeders also who are mostly chained to their gardens, tending their plants and don't have the time nor possibly the inclination to look for something special......something new...


Whats so hard to leave are these guys......my extended family of 3 dogs and 2 cats.....who seem to enjoy life a bit more when I''m around......Yeah it's a dogs paradise out there on the beach and in the sea most of the time......I feed them well...(better than what most of the locals eat say my friends....lol!).....and they get plenty of exercise with a vast area to run about in.....

The dogs keep me fit......throwing sticks.....swimming with them and running about like a kid on the beach.......plus they do a good job of keeping my little place on this planet safe.....


Besides......I could'nt swim without a wetsuit on due to the seasonal arrival of a huge population of jellyfish that during the rainey season congregate en-masse......even the dogs were having problems with then....getting stung on their noses when swimming out for a stick....They littered the beach with their carcasses every high tide.......it was like trying to avoid a jellified asteroid storm in outer space out there in the sea, very close to the beach.....

Jellyfish to me are definately like some alien lifeform.....a very dangerous one at that....some of them can sting you, wrapping their long tentacles around you creating massive pain and a scar that can last for months......

I had just got the coco-nut harvest in.....so another was not due for 3 months or so......the price of copra increased by around 30% from the last harvest so from the ton and a half I harvested I managed to pay the staff and the electricity bill......and still had a bit left to stock up on diesel for the emergency generator.....

Plus D.G arrived and was keen to sally-forth on some new adventure with me.....She's become a regular companion on many of my travelling ventures these past years.......It was time to go.....

pulling up.....chair.....v...here...DD

Whilst I was organizing things to leave.....making sure all the bills were all paid up and that the dogs and cats had plenty to eat and instructing those that were to look after them whilst I was absent to make sure they would be O.K......DG took a few pics of the garden and it's guardians.......who I must say looked a little dejected......as if they sensed that something was up.
.....maybe they knew that I would be leaving them for a while?

Hey Gypsy, great to hear you're doing fine..

Whats so hard to leave are these guys......my extended family of 3 dogs and 2 cats.....who seem to enjoy life a bit more when I''m around......

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and

DG took a few pics of the garden and it's guardians.......who I must say looked a little dejected......as if they sensed that something was up......maybe they knew that I would be leaving them for a while?

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I totally get you on this point, it's hard when it comes to, as you say, leaving the extended family..

As i read your lines I have to deal with a similar issue myself. I have a cat who lives with me for about 13 years now. Maybe I will have to leave my place to move to europe, and I'm not sure if I will find / can afford a place where my little buddy can enjoy the rest of his life like he does where I stay now.

So wish me luck on this one, please..


Great pics you and DG took, as usual. The jellyfish look quite out of space, indeed.

Hope to hear more of you soon! And I'm more than excited what you will bring back with you..


Enjoy and stay safe - Foxy Trees -

Much thought and planning went into laying out the garden...selecting plants that would grow into their allocated spaces over time, so becoming an ever aesthetic and aroma filled piece of paradise.

The most fragrant flower in the garden is the very sweet smelling white frangipani, and one whose aroma evokes a sense of calmness....this is my most favorite flower, not because it is the prettiest, but because of it's profound aroma. There's also some pink ones in the garden, appropriately placed in different venues, but the white frangipani with it's pretty yellow center has much more of an obvious aroma that fills the tropical breeze ensuring that there's always a nice whiff about.

So while Gypsy was busily organizing things for our trip I took a few pics around the garden, which is usually always blooming with several varieties of gorgeous colorful flowers.....

White Frangipani:





Although no aroma to the Heliconia....it's exotic structure and color is most captivating....don't you think???

Beautiful Dutchgrown, once again..

I like your Frangipani, especially the fact that they turn from yellow(inner part of the blossom) to a bright white at the blossoms outside.
And the Heliconia, does it grow upside down or are these the blossoms hanging down from an upper part of the plant?

Nice colours, indeed, I wished i could get an idea of the aroma, too.

Maybe there will be things like an "aroma photo" in future.

How absolutely exciting.

One night in Bangkok.....

One night in Bangkok.....

Yeah Foxy Trees.....absolutely...

Leaving home.....even for a couple of weeks takes quite a bit of planning...to say the least..

Since I had some building work going on I had to make sure the workers...(carpenters, labourers and fence builders) had plenty of supplies to keep them going during my absence.....So I had to get 75 bags of cement....50 steel rods of re-bar.....8 cubic meters of fine sand (from the river, not the beach)....8 cubic of gravel......8 cubic of boulders.....tie wire....nails.....plenty of good lumber......kilos of grout.....a few thousand lengths of smaller bamboo......300 lengths of large bamboo.....10 rolls of barbed wire........and 300 concrete posts......all hauled in on the truck before I could get going...

My dogs needed to be fenced in since they are getting on for a year and a half old now and have been stalking some of the locals water buffalo.......and I was thinking that it might not be long before they might attack one.......perhaps wound or kill it.......which could lead to some disharmony between myself and them....

Finally after a couple of days I reckon I had all the loose ends tied up........and myself and D.G. rolled off towards Bangkok for the night before boarding the plane to Phnom Penh.....Cambodia.....

It was nice and cool in Bangkok compared to many other times I had been there......temps around 29 celcius in the day and a bit lower at night...

The Chaophraya river looked as busy as usual.......D.G.and myself had a fine meal of Thai Green curry and a Chicken Tom Kha Gai soup (coconut milk and lemongrass with chilis, and sour peas)......followed by a delicious desert of Mango and Sticky rice......slept like the deceased.......and were ready to board the plane to Phnom Penh the following morning......

AMAZING THREAD! I'm reading and lurking... THANKS FOR SHARING!!!
I'd love to grow the seeds you cam back with! When will they be available???

-gp

Simply AMAZING! Sounds like you need a crew for your expedition!!! Count me in!

One Night in Bankok...

Keep those stories & pictures coming!

Mosca

great thread
cant wait to c how things turn out

have a safe trip gypsy

Pulls up a chair

Cool,I'd love to see what new strains you find,looks like paradise.

I've seen the talking heads on the tube say that the best antidote for jelly sting is to pour warm water on the sting site,if no warm water is available then urine can be substituted.

Ever wonder what your dogs would look like if they were crossed to a Basset Hound?They'd look exactly like this:






JLP

heya Gypsy,DG...hope u all have fun in cambodia....can't wait for your return w/seed.......and pics....those jelly look serious..seriously.......Mm

Hey DG and Gypsy, Hope you guys have both a exciting and rewarding trip! DG,watch what you eat,you know what can happen! Looking foward to the tales of your trip. Be safe and have fun!...mitsu

Foxy Trees said:

And the Heliconia, does it grow upside down or are these the blossoms hanging down from an upper part of the plant?

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Hey Foxy Trees.....the heliconia dangles....is probably due to it's weight. These I believe are the lobster claw variety, which is the most prevalent in tropical locations.



What garden would be complete without a few orchids? There are over 22,000 varieties of orchids, and being a novice at growing these, I am excited that they do so well...they seem to not require much maintenance, since the humidity is generally quite high. These are grown on large pieces of driftwood in a medium of coco coir that their roots are affixed to and through. Any orchid experts out there are welcome to enlighten me to exactly which varieties these may be.









Red Ginger...........one might think this is the flower, but it's actually the bloom. The flower is small and white and comes from the top when ready.




Anthurium....this is probably the most difficult and tempremental flower in the garden. Too much sun and it burns, too little sun and it withers....hopefully in time the surrounding plants will grow to shield it in a fashion desireable for proliferate growth.



Bird of Paradise....eventually these plants will grow to over 6 feet in height, but now it is still young and about half that size. I was excited to see it had finally matured to blooming!

Leaving Thailand.....with a little trepidation...

Leaving Thailand.....with a little trepidation...

25 years ago I first came to Thailand.....Back then I was a young man and Thailand was considered a 3rd world country full of wonder an ancient history and much mystique....

Since that time Thailand has come a long way economically but still retains many of the things that had me in awe back then.....even though I am much more familiar with this land, it's people and culture these days......

This nation really has so much to offer and discover for most everyone...

I'm a fruit/freak just like D.G. is.....we both love tropical fruit particularly and I have had the pleasure of introducing D.G. to many in this part of the world...

She first visited here in January 2007 after I had asked her for years before to come out and experience S.E.Asia....D.G. had many pre-concieved notions about what she thought about this part of the world......Most of them relatively negative.......suffice as to say that I have managed to help her dispell these notions.....and now she is as much in love with the place as I have always been...

The food is particularly exquisite......so flavourfull and healthy......loading the average western palate with a multitude of deliciously exotic tastes that probably would never have been discovered if not in this part of the planet....

What most people eat in the western world pales in comparison to what you can find here on most every street corner and in nearly all restaurants.....

Here are a few pics of some of our favourite fruits.....

Lets start with Dragon Fruit......and what a feast for the eyes it is!.....The colour on the outside does not give away what it looks like at all on the inside...although the taste is very subtle, I find that it's texture when eating it is something else........soft and just a little crunchy (because of the tiny seeds)....






Mangosteen has a thick woody shell of purplish black...(sounds exotic....or erotic?.....lol!) and encloses several segments of the most exquisite juicy white flesh.....It's a little sweet and slightly acidic.....






....and now the piece-de-la-resistance......The best desert I have ever had....could eat it for breakfast, dinner and teatime.....Mango and Sticky Rice....topped with coconut cream and sesame seeds......most certainly the ULTIMATE DESERT!!

OMFG DG those pics are amazing...gotta call my buddy to figure those orchids out but the 1st picture of the orchids is beautifull......Gypsy those fruits look delicious..now I want fruit.......good luck be safe..........Mm

MMMmm holy crap that looks delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow beautiful shots gn, dg! hopei one day make it out that way one day

DG- looks likes some Cymbidium or Dendrobium varietals you got there. Quite smashing! Now those I would love to meristem clone.