So if a rafting trip wasn’t enough, the next day we took a day trip to a botanical garden on the Sleeping Giant mountain and then head over to a popular mud bath. SV Me Too was getting splashed and the boys stayed at the boats to finish up some work but we were joined by SV All Day, Vlad and Nicole on this epic outing.
Sleeping Giant mountain from our boat.
I rented a car for the day. It was the same price to take a cab but gave us a bit more freedom. Come to find out, the car rental place gave me an “illegal” car. You remember our trusty taxi guy Veer? Well he informed me that rental car companies have a special license plate to identify them as a rental car, so do taxis, they have a special license plate, yellow I believe…but our car license plate was white, which indicates it a personal car. He told us if I would of gotten into an accident, it would of been very bad for me…thank goodness that didn’t happen….but don’t think we were in the clear….but we’ll get to that later in the post!
The Gardens- Strolling among the beautiful foliage was relaxing.
Hammock shelfieNot sure why these “ladies” were hugging the trees…but….we decided to join them : )This tree had so many layers of vines on it you could barely see the barkyumm..pineapple…did you know that America is really the only country to call a pineapple a pineapple? Most countries call it “ananas”….maybe with exception of mexico calls it “pinas”.
So many orchids in so many colors…it was stimulus overload!
Mud Baths – I really didn’t have any expectations nor did I do any research beforehand about this place but it was so cool! it was just a few minutes away from the gardens.
The entrancethe grounds…it was a big place….we heard there are 2 mud baths right next to each other, both owned by the same family. The sister owns this one and the brother owns the one next door.Natural hot springs that can get up to 80 degrees CELSIUS!!!!! This is where they pipe the hot water from to the different pools they have you soak inSo you will see me bent over applying my dose of mud from the yellow tub on the ground. Vlad and Nicole are working on thier mudSince Vlad was the only male in our group we thought we would take some fun photos of him getting all the attention!There were booths from the nearby village selling crafts etc. We were encouraged to “browse” while the mud dried.Vlad owning this manhoodThe “mud pool” is where you rinse off the mud….then they scoop the mud from the bottom of the pool for the next day’s visitors to use…hummm….Ok in the mud pool, washing off the mud…the bottom was super squishy and grassy all the way up to your knees….I am not a fan of all textures so I mostly stayed on the stepsYou definetaly needed help to get all the mud offThe second pool had different temperatures depending on where you stood…..I am in the cooler part..to the left of the photo is where the pipe is coming from the natural hot springsFloatingThe third pool was much cooler and really refreshing after the hot one. Jill and I got a deal on a massage so we both got one for about $15 usd.Cute couple!
Driving while Asian while on the way to Korean BBQ, how fitting! – So we are headed back to the marina after a wonderful and relaxing day….. then we saw this on the way home and had to stop to get a photo and video. This is a little train that carries the sugar cane all over the island…I had heard and seen it other times but never got a chance to get the camera out. Dad…I thought of you …wondering if you would tell me the history of this train (my dad loves trains)!
We picked up the Clay and Trevor back at the marina and headed out again to eat at a Korean BBQ place we saw while we had taken a trip to run errands. Except for Kimi was driving and hit a curb and blew out the side of a tire. The crazy thing was that I didn’t freak out, just pulled to the side of the road…the next crazy thing was that 3 vehicles stopped to help us all full of men ready to change to our spare tire. They called and talked to the rental car company as we couldn’t find the lug wrench to get the tire off….the men said they would go to the store and pick one up for us, OMG super nice of them…but we found it….in the bag with the jack (of course). That’s what I get when driving while asian…Clay drove us the rest of the way!
It’s dark, we have literally inches from the edge of the road, no flashlights except for our cell phones….these guys totally helped us and we were so thankful…there was no way to show our appreciation as the drove away….My company was a bit annoyed with me but we all laughed about it later since nobody got hurt!Clay taking the tire off
Finally dinner and REAL Korean food!
When we drove by this place I took a photo becuase I haven’t seen a Korean food place in a while…we later drove by this place after our movie a few days before and the place was packed…a good sign…so that’s why we decided to eat here tonight.We ordered so much food!!! But it was soooo good. Grilled meats, just like I had it in Korea and the states, soups, kimchee, lots of rice, and they even had the metal chopsticks, not the wood ones. No Korean beer (Hite) but I opted for wine anyways : ) The owners were Korean too but I have learned my lesson….I knew they would have spoken to me in Korean and I would have no idea what to say and they might of thought it disrespectful so I declined to engage…just this once.
All in a day…this happened…it was fun, relaxing, stressful, and filling…wouldn’t change it for the world! Thanks to SV Me Too and their guest Kania and SV All Day for putting up with me!
Next up…technical boat work…ok not so technical : )
