Laurie's World

Now this was an great day with some firsts….Well actually one big first….but first things first….

The day started off slow with a 1.5 hour stint in the breakfast room with some leisurely coffee drinking and skyping my Parents and BK! Not at the same time mind you…thus the leisurely coffee.

Then the research began for hotel rooms in Koh Tao, our next destination (Sunday). We finally got ourselves organized and out the door by 12:30!

The plan today was to walk to Chawaeng beach. Figured this would be about a one hour walk. One thing Troy and I like to do wen we are here is walk….lots and lots of walking and I think we haven’t really been doing much of that….so today was the day. Sunscreen check, good shoes check, we were off.

We stayed near Chawaeng beach last time we were here in 2009, so the area is a little more familiar to us than Bo Phut where we are now. We walked past the Nova Samui kids!! It is still there : ))

It took an hour or less I would say….pretty hefty walk in the stinkin’ heat! Erica had some chicken on a stick for 10 baht! right good deal i must say!

Saw the electric company put doing some work on the power lines along the way too. Not sure that anything about this would pas OCEA criteria in North America, but what do I know…bamboo ladders have been working around here for a long time….no comment on the actual power lines…those are a constant source of absolute amazement for us here!

Let’s just get a slightly closer look at this…

But the beach when we got there was awesome!! Absolutely gorgeous…and much much busier than where we are staying. I played in the water a bit while Erica had lunch and Troy had a beer.

Then we made the decision to have beach massage. Now this is where my “first” comes in. I have never had a massage on the beach….so I guess that was also a first. Very nice, very relaxing, zen etc etc. I decided to have a neck, shoulder and back massage (not my first). Troy had already gotten going on what he thought would be a Thai massage (pretty sure it’s not what he had) and Erica was right behind me requesting a back massage also but having some “discussion” about the use of oil? Anyway, I hop up after they wash my feet and my gal is gesturing and trying to make a point about something. So Troy’s gal says to me. “Take your shirt off”. I’m like–is she talking to me?? So Troy perks up and says….”hey she said take your shirt off!” I’m like…uh….I am on a public beach!! But with the cheerleading support of my loving hubby, I just went right ahead. And my one comment was….”good thing I have a cute bra on!” Which Erica thought was very funny. Anyway the bra didn’t last long either….enough said! So that is the reward for anyone who read this whole blog entry so far….you get to hear that I was topless for a massage in Thailand! A definite first…..

We wandered about on the beach for a bit, I had my literal favourite veggie here, roasted corn, and then Erica caught a motorcycle taxi home and Troy and I walked, picking up a piece of fried chicken to gnaw on as we meandered. Home to the hotel by 7:30pm, I write this blog entry to you from the pool! Troy and I are wiped and therefore not going anywhere….young Erica may just go out : ) she can tell us all about it tomorrow.

Some days just need to be quieter than others! Today was one of those days!!

Took a quick picture of the breakfast at the Beach House Samui where we are staying….it never ceases to amaze me how they can dress up a hot dog here!

After a breakfast visit, we got ourselves together and went for a walk, for a couple reasons. We needed to gather data about how to make our trip to Ang Thong Marine Park work, and also get info on how to take ferry to Koh Tao (our next stop). Check, check.

On our list of things to see and do was a walk down to the Big Bhudda temple.

We were here with the kids in 2009 and we had blessings from the monk here and were given the most colourful and durable of bracelets! It is the only original bracelet we still have from that trip, in fact, I have never taken mine off, it is just made differently than any other we have been given. So we were hopeful we could have another one. At first we didn’t see the monk, but after wondering around bit and taking some gorgeous scenic photos, we came back around and he was right there. So we were blessed again!

Not hard to see this year’s additions.

We also found another monk who was selling charms based on what day of the week you were born. So all these trips here and I have never heard of this. But it keeps coming up on this trip….the guide who was with us when we went to Ayuttaya mentioned it several times, and from this I now know why all the yellow and blue flags (in addition to the Thai flag) fly everywhere, on houses and businesses and boats. Queen Sirikit was born on a Friday (blue) and King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born on a Monday (yellow). When we were in Ayuttaya, there we places where you could put coins in bowls based on your birthday, or under the buddha that represents your day of birth to ask for blessing. But there was always a bowl or a spot for “those who don’t know”. So that is where I put it. But now, I am at this temple and I want a charm for my day. So I say to Troy “we have to go back to hotel, get on the internet, and look up what day of the week April 24th was back in 1970, then we will have to walk back down here and get the charm.” Now this is why I love my husband….well one of the reasons….he is so smart!! He says to me “Grattai, why don’t you ask him if he has a book where he can look it up”! Why of course this is brilliant, the man will sell many many more charms if he has a resource handy to tell people what day they were born on! Well, wouldn’t you know it, but he had the book sitting RIGHT ON THE COUNTER! My lucky day!!! Although the side journey would have got me more walking….

Indian food for supper (for Erica)….and we were safely home and tucked in by 9:45pm

We were up at the crack of dawn, (ok maybe it wasn’t that bad compared to the day we went to Ayuttaya) to meet MR Sawang so he could take us to the floating market and Kanchanaburi. He remembered us even though I think it has been 2 years since we called him. He still has the same SUV, so we rode in air conditioned comfort the whole way. The first thing he put on the radio was Gangnum Style. Not sure about the spelling, but I am pretty sure he was trying to be hip for Erica : ))

I always find the children here so beautiful…here is the family that runs/works at the place where we caught the long tail boat that would take us to the floating market.

Me taking a picture of them taking a picture of us so they can put it on a tacky little plate and sell it back to us….such is the way here!

Some views from the ride and the market. I must say it was not nearly as crazy busy as 2009 when we were here last. Not sure why that is, or if it was because we were 1 hour later? But it was still great!

Always in the market for Mano and sticky rice, it was super hi on my list of acquisitions for this market! And the planets aligned so that I could get my fix!

Nom nom nom! My favourite! And look, I even shared!

Thinking that my friend Oy will be very impressed when I tell her I was able to get out enough coherent Thai to ask our boat driver to find us some Tom Yum soup. Miss Erica had a craving for some Tom Yum and the market seemed like a great place to get some good spicy (ya that girl likes her food SPICY!!!) Tom Yum soup. And since everyone indulged my need for mango sticky rice….I thought the least I could do was try to explain that much to the driver. He must have understood me, bcz he turned around and went back to the market and got us (Troy and Erica) some soup! And then Troy was complimented on HIS Thai by the soup guy…so all in all, this was very good reflection on our Thai teacher, Oy.

So the next big thing was to get back in the SUV with Mr Sawang, and head to Kanchanaburi. I really love Kanchanaburi!! This will be our third time out there….I think on a future trip, we will stay here again…anyway, one of the things we live to do is take the train out to Nam Tok and see the waterfalls. The train ride itself is a very nice thing to do. I noticed this sign in our area of the train, wondering if I am in fact TOO special for this cabin(et) as we paid 250 baht for our tickets. Just shows that even all these years later, we still get hoodwinked every so often. i hope the kick back went to Mr Sawang though as we know and like him!

The train is old and rickety, but relaxing none the less and what we have come to appreciate as the high lite of the ride is the donut vendor! I was starting to get nervous that I has spent 3,500 baht to get myself on this train to get a donut that may not appear. Erica managed to get this anxiety filled photo of me once we spotted our guy and while I was waiting for him to come down the aisle of the train. I guess if I had to say what my biggest concern was, it may have been that he was going to sell out of these little 10 baht joys before he got to us!

But look at this….can you blame me for being a tiny bit excited!! I refuse to be mocked for clutching my little money purse and keeping an eye out!

And then we have this one…..hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

The train trip ended up with us getting to the Sai Yok Noi waterfalls! Just as beautiful as we remembered…so happy to be able to share this little spot with Erica!

Now Miss Erica takes after her Mom and has a tremendous soft spot for animals….there is some significant chance she may try to smuggle one (or 20) in her bags home…so we will be on hi alert for that! Anyway….most of the cats and dogs wandering around here don’t really phase me particularly, but this little one caught my attention….and Erica’s heart strings!!! It was only about 4 inches long…just a very new kitten!

Fun day ended with a flight to Ko Samui! Already can tell I will likely be happy here….pool open until 11pm (for Erica), balcony and coffee/tea supplies in room for me! Working Internet for everyone!!!

The animals haven’t decided if they like the bed….

…or the bedside table!

Will tell you all about Kanchanaburi tomorrow after a good night’s sleep!

Much slower paced day today! We slept til 6:30! Woot!!!! Then putzed around until 9 or so, then wandered down the street for breakfast. Had eggs and toast, one piece of bacon and one piece of ham and one cup of coffee for 100 baht ($3). It was pretty good. I still think I prefer breakfast in the hotel….but that was not offered here. We discussed the next phase of the plan and settled on hiring Mr. Sawang to drive us to the floating market and Kanchanaburi for a day trip on Wednesday.

Then we went back to the hotel and lounged at the pool until close to 3pm!! Perfect day for that. Erica and I then decided to go sopping….no surprise that Troy was not interested in that : )

There are many many streets of vendors that pop up here late afternoon selling food and trinkets, but mostly clothes….so we had a good time with that! Enough said!

Back to hotel at 6 and then we we at supper by 7. We went to a place we had been eyeing.

It was very good Thai food : ))

The view from our room one last time ….and now we are off….

To carry on from where I left off this morning…the shuttle driver arrived promptly at 6:25am (just like they always do) and our adventure began. Ater stopping to pick up people from 2 other hotels, we arrived at the tour location and they put us on a big comfy air conditioned coach to start the trek to the king’s summer palace. Bang Pa-In Palace.

The obligatory coach picture!

There was a tour guide with pretty much non stop chatter the entire 90 minute drive (As they are inclined to do). We (Erica and I) had to cover up our shoulders and legs again, but we were smarter this time and wore capris and brought our own shirts with sleeves. The palace was gorgeous….found some rabbits grazing in the grass…

Awwwwww!!!

Oops…fell asleep, so continuing this now with a clear head!

Can’t see me wanting to ride this….but I can’t account for every other tourist!

I sure wish I had a summer place like this!

We fed the fish and the turtles…15 baht for a loaf of buns to tear up and throw in….the turtles were very cool!

Erica climbing up the circular stairs in a building…can’t recall exactly what it was but it was like a lighthouse.

It was called Ho (tower) Withun Thasana . it is an observatory built by King Chulalongkorn in 1881 as a lookout tower for viewing the surrounding countryside. Yes, I dug out the brochure…..

PHOTOBOMB Hahahhahahahahahahahahha

Anyway, then we were back in the coach and off to see some Wats (temples–more like ancient ruins) in Ayuttaya (the capital of Thailand back in 1300’s and 1400’s?)

We saw three ruins and then back in the coach to drive us to the boat that we were going to ride down the Chao Praya River back to Bangkok and our hotel.

I Was so excited by the buffet lunch and the fabulous boat ride that I neglected to get out my camera. Troy had his going though, so the will be some pictures there when he gets them up ; )

When we got back to hotel, we were up on the rooftop pool and caught this cool cloud formation and storm clouds rolled in (the obligatory 10 minute monsoon during the supper hour)

Tomorrow will be a more relaxing day, no specific plans….going to book our rooms for Ko Samui and get a massage, maybe wander around a bit….

TTFN

So woke up at 2:30 am, then was in and out until I gave up at 4:30 am and just decided to get up and blog. I know i will regret this tonight when I can’t keep my eyes open past 7pm….but not sure what to do about it at this point. So here I am!

We got a taxi from airport to out hotel in Bangkok yesterday. Went smoothly. I may not have mentioned I stretched myself a little this year when I booked the room in Bangkok. Not stretched like a booked a room at the Meridian….I went the other direction and booked a room at a place on Khao San road AKA “backpacker road”. It was $21 a night and that is not much for Bangkok….when we we here we were in 2009, our rooms were in the $50 plus a night range and they were no great shakes. So there was potential for this place to not meet my needs, but it had good reviews on Agoda….so I decided to give it a whirl. And….drum roll please…..it is just fine. Super basic, no fridge or TV, but it has great A/C and a room safe and it is clean. So for $21, I’ll take it! And I love the street it is on…..makes me feel young….I could get a tattoo, a massage, a hooka (don’t know what that is, but it was pointed out to me), shopping a plenty and more food than we could possibly want. Plus music and those little fish that eat the dead skin off the bottom your feet!!!

So we literally dumped our stuff, hit the bank machine and the 7-11 for water…..had some street Pad Thai, then started walking. We walked to the grand palace (did not go in as it was getting too close to closing time), but then went to Wat Pho where we had the opportunity to borrow some very fashionable lime green robes to cover up…

And Wat Arun (also some nice covering up) had to give a selfie a try : ))

There were some VERY steep stairs that we had to go up (and then down) to get tot the top of this temple, wonderful view, just hoping there are too many up skirts shots of me out there now…..whose idea was the dress?

Troy just informed me our route was 16 km yesterday, some of that was on the boat….so we walked about 5 miles…pretty decent first day in my opinion. We had Indian food for supper! Wow!!!!!! Very good, as we were starving!! It would have been good even if we had not done all that walking.

Stopped for a foot massage….Erica’s first….won’t be the last!!!! Slept through a good chunk of that massage : ((

Well, off to get breakfast shortly….we booked a trip to Ayuttaya today and they pick us up at 6:30 am!! More on that later…..

Here are the animals enjoying the Rambuttri Hotel girls!!

We made it to Bangkok! We hit the ground running! And while it is only 9:33 pm here….we have only had a few hours sleep in 2 days, plus the few minutes I got during my massage tonight ; )

I will be blogging tomorrow!

Reasonably uneventful first leg. We did get seats but they weren’t together. Troy lucked out with an aisle, me not quite so lucky….wedged in the middle of a family that clearly wanted aisle seats themselves! I shan’t complain as it did give me some space from a certain passenger who was hard core snoring a couple rows behind me (not naming names).

We are waiting in the Taiwan international airport for our short hop (3.5hr) over to Bangkok. It is 5am sunday morning here….and you gotta love a place with a temperature of 86 at 4:30 in the morning….

We have heard from Erica and she made it to Bangkok last night so that is a relief, we will see her at noon when we land!

This is me chillaxin in a VERY comfy airport chair! How often do you get to say that???

….no one will be seeing this until the morning, as it is 12:30am. We are waiting for our flight (2:10am). Apparently the flight is oversold! Our tickets say standby….but the ticketing agent told us not to be concerned….we checked in at 11:20pm….that seems like plenty of time for a 2:10am flight???

Not at all interested in getting bumped off this flight as we have connection in Taipei! And we are meeting Erica in Bangkok on Sunday at noon!

Wlll check in when I can : )