Laurie's World

Well…we have spent 5 nights here in Khao Lak. It has been great! The place we are at is kinda remote from the town, so our time here has been much quieter and relaxed than in previous places on this trip. We went to “town” one day and other than wandering around and walking to a waterfall-Ton Pling (that is about a kilometer from our hotel), we have pretty much just hung out. What a treat!! We are getting so LAZY!!

It started raining yesterday afternoon and it poured BIG TIME last night with a lot of thunder. We woke up to rain and it has been showering all day–so other than putzing down to the travel place to book our transfer to Phuket for tomorrow–we have been hanging out in the room and on our balcony, playing cards and eating caramel covered yam chips. This is a little treat that we discovered in Ko Samui. I personally like yams in real life, so thought how could anything made out of a yam be bad?? Well sure enough, they are quite tasty. They come in a bag like potato chips and are just tasty–no other way to put it. I do not think Troy or BK are huge fans, but Ruby, Jay and I are buyers : )

There is a mini mart just outside out hotel with a nice assortment of really cheap snacks–so we go down there for 5 baht fudgsicles (15 cents) and oreos–that is where we got the yam chips–I think they were 10 baht though…we also got german sausage flavored potato chips (but we have not tried those yet!) I will keep you posted on that…the mascot on the sign for the minimart is a turtle, so we call it the Turtle Mart…

With the rain–the temperature drops a little, so that is nice–the day after we got here–we all got a little too much sun, so it takes a few days to recover from that. BUT the humidity goes up–so you never really lose that sticky feeling…

We ate at Jo’s Seafood again (3rd time) last night…probably the only reason we did this is bcz it was raining and the place we were at the night before, we noticed when we were there, that there were a lot of holes in the roof, and we commented at the time that it would certainly be suboptimal if it was raining..but what a shame as I had by far the best Phad Thai I have had since I arrived in Thailand at that place. We call it the Smile place…bcz that is the only word we can read on her sign. Maybe the rain will let up and we can go back tonight. The lady was very sweet when we got there, she sat us at a table with a plate of Thai fruit on it (mangosteens, rambutan, lychee nuts) and we disturbed it and a whole tonne of ants came out and started crawling everywhere–so we moved tables and took the fruit plate (very carefully) off the new table and put it on the other one—she came rushing over and asked us if we wanted the fruit plate back–she got a resounding “NO” from us all…we have had our fill of ants with the debacle in the kids room a few days prior. Not sure why they were invading them, but there have been no problems since they moved rooms…

Anyway–that is the news as I see it…See how relaxed I am about the little critters…it is the new me.

Hi everyone!

We are still at the Briza in KhaoLak–just woke up from our third night here and I think we are going to stay 3 more. We did “venture” into town yesterday to go to the tsunami museum and to the “market” . The museum was not like we were expecting…kinda small and nothing there we have not already seen on the internet–other than the 100ft long Police boat that was guarding the king’s nephew that washed one and a half kilometers inshore with the wave. They just left it where it landed–very weird to see. Troy took pictures, I am sure he will put in his blog…

The market was different than I was expecting also. Rachael too–she is sitting with me as I type this  : )  It was more like a market for the local people than a tourist attraction. There were some stalls with souvenir trinkets, but more that were just everyday clothing as in underwear and pajamas, blue jeans etc. There was one that had only 20 baht stuff and it was like what we would call the dollar store kind of stuff.

Then there was the food. There were a couple stands where we got cooked food–these little deep fried donut hole things (which everyone, especially Rachael, liked) and waffles, but most of it was like where restaurants and food cart owners would go to get their supplies for the day–huge piles of whole fish and chickens with their feet and pig skin with ears still attached…those are just the things I saw—I looked away then as I was worried I would never eat meat again if I continued to look.

After we got back from the adventures in town, I spent some time researching accomodations on the net and then we all headed down to the pool. The pool here is awesome–very warm water. Which is different than the Chada where the water was very cold–despite the warm air.

We ate at Jo’s Seafood again last night–very yummy…I see why they get such good reviews and are open during the low season…they are at the end of a deserted lane on the beach but at the end that gets no foot traffic–but still manage to have several tables occupied. I think the resorts that are open are sending folks there…I am glad we heard the word  : )

So I have a rough sketch of the rest of our journey–we are going to stay here for 3 more nights, then go back to Phuket (It was so awesome there!) But this time we are going to stay at Kata Beach. We will stay there for 5 nights, and then catch a flight back to Bangkok late on the 29th getting in at 12:30 am on the 30th. Our flight to Chiang Mai leaves at 6:45 am onthe 30th, so we will hang out in the airport in Bangkok for a few hours and then head up north to the mountaneous region of Thailand. We will be in Chiang Mai until the afternoon of August 8th when we fly back to Bangkok. We stay in Bangkok for a couple of days and then we catch our flight home from Bangkok at 10:10pm on August 10th–getting home to Seattle at 9:30am on Tuesday Aug 11th.

Wow—we made it to our next pit stop! We are staying at the Briza Beach resort in Khao Lak. It is the area of Thailand that was most decimated by the Tsunami in Dec 2004. I think there is a museum that we will go see…I am sure it will be very sad, but is something we should do.

Anyway–on a happier note–we love our new hotel. It is, of course,  rebuilt since the tsunami. It has complimentary internet (WAHOO!)  and a gorgeous view–nice rooms etc…

www.brizakhaolak.com

The trip here was uneventful–we did get to ride in an AC minivan the whole way with only one transfer–so in the grand scope of our travels here—a pretty easy one!

We ventured out of the hotel in search of food for supper and found this little restaurant on the highway–not too sure at first–but it ended up being very good and as always, the staff is so friendly. The lady in charge gave us a bag of mangosteen and rambutan to take “home” with us. She has a garden of her own and has too many to eat, so she shared with us…How sweet is that??

We are going to be very happy here at this hotel…The beach is gorgeous…private so no touts buggin’ us. The lounge chairs are free (finally) and we can just hang out. There is a great market we have heard about but it is not there every day. We are probably going to go on Monday  (which is its next open day).

There is an elephant that we have named Tiny that lives across from the resort we are at.  Apparently there are 6 elephants in all, but the rest are not back from “work” yet. They have a much better life than the ones we saw in Ayuttayah and even the ones in Ko Samui…so that is nice to see! There is a big grassy field with lots of food and trees for shade..no concrete. They take people on one hour elephant treks to a waterfall…so we might do that one day…we will see.

We have been in Krabi for a few days now and would like to go to Railey Beach. The only way to get to Railey is by Longtail Boat. From what we can glean from looking at the ocean over the last few days—it would be unwise to do do this as the waves are big and there are no longtails out there. In fact the stand that sells the tickets has been closed. BUT today we open the curtains and it looks not too bad…so we decide to walk down and check it out (that and the power is out in the whole town today–so there is not much else to do). We find the ticket booth open and consider this a good sign–so we buy our tickets and hop in a tuk tuk (yes all 5 of us–and I think this maxed out the capabilitues of the little motorcyle). We get down to the pier and our longtail pulls up and we get in–so far so good!

We take off and it is not long before we see that the sea is very rough–I am remaining optimistic and feeling very adventurous despite the rocking and rolling, splashing and general scary nature of what was happening. About half way along, I made the executive decision to have everyone put on their life jackets (WOW eh? not sure in hind sight why I did not think of this the moment we got in the boat–but I am getting very relaxed here about safety–pretty much all safety standards here are very different than what happens in North America! More about that later). I continued to remain optimistic given that the longtail “driver” was working the boat very well and had a big smile on his face. I think he was enjoying the challenge–and was just as interested in getting to Railey as we were–that and he did not at any point put on a life jacket himself. Anyway–we got there fine–but in the back of my mind I am thinking “we still have to get back!” That and “What would Russill have thought of this??”

While on Railey–we saw several cool things–we saw the place where all the rock climbers like to come to climb, we went into a big deep cave (with bats and all), we saw a couple very nice beaches, there was this one beach where a big tractor had to take people out and bring people in from the long tails as the water was so shallow for such a long way out, the highlight was when we climbed 100 meters (pretty much straight up) the side of a cliff to go see a viewpoint. It was pretty awesome and we all 5 did it–even Rachael in her flip flops–if we had known, we would have known she would have had different footwear. Needless to say, I found some new muscles that will be very sore the next day  : )

So after all this, including one quick monsoon rain storm–we decided to get back on that longtail and head back to AoNang Beach. SO our fellow and his boat are still there where we left him and heis all smiles so we decide it will be just fine getting back despite the large swells we still see…This time, we put our lifejackets on immediately!! The ride back is very VERY wet–the jury is still out as to which direction was more crazy–Troys thinks getting there–I am thinking both ways were nuts! We took so much saltwater to the face our eyes were burning–BK spent the whole way with her head IN her lifejacket and Rachael and Jackie were just trying to hide in the middle of the boat–but there was no escaping the sea water really.

Our driver seemed very VERY grateful when we got back as well as we were too!! Even with the conditions out there that day—we were lucky to have gone when we did as it was windier and much rougher waters today–I suspect we would not have been able to go if we had waited.

We discovered a small friendly restaurant at the bottom of the hill also where we had an amazing meal for the 5 of us for less than $23 USD–including appetizers, drinks, meal and dessert. One thing that I have noticed that small businesses here have this way of doing many things–You can usually, get your laundry done, have a meal, book a tour and maybe get a ride somewhere or check your e-mail if you like and all at the same place–Haha!!

Sadly today is the day I have to take Russill to the airport. He and I bravely set off on the 4:20pm Airport Shuttle–my belief being that we will eventually get where we need to be–it may take longer or go by a route I was not expecting–but we WILL get there. Indeed all went well and we arrived in plenty of time especially since our flight was delayed by an hour or so. The airport in Krabi is pleaantly small and we slide through all checkpoints quickly. Our flight is uneventful and voila–we are back in Bangkok. Now the tough part–we have an overnight layover in the airport as we arrived just shy of 10pm and Russ’s flight does not leave until 8am the next morning.

So we have a light meal and then scope out any semi comfortable benches for the night. Hmmm…it appears that this is the airport that never sleeps. That and there are a LOT of other people that are doing the same thing as us…so what we are able to score is a bench that is really about the right size for one small person. So Russ gets out his inflateable pillow (for him) and an airplane blanket (for me) and he cleverly puts his luggage cart at the end of the bench for his legs to extend onto and after a rowdy game of “I Spy” and some card games, we do a few puzzles in our books and decide it is “bed time”. We may have gotten a couple hours sleep when we rise at around 4am due to hordes of people invading “our” space. Oh well—my back was not going to tolerate any more time on the bench anyway…

After some breakfast for Russ and some horrendous coffee for me (that I really thought they were trying to kill me with–I have got to find some decent coffee in this country!!), we went down to check Russ into his flight…he is on schedule…and has to go through passport control 90 minutes before his flight. So I say my tearfull goodbyes (these are always hard for me–sorry Russ!) and go to check on my flight–Yes–lucky me, my flight has been delayed until 11:35am…so I have 5 more hours by myself now…

Anyway—After I do my time and get on my flight–I fall asleep the moment I sit down and wake up just as we start our descent…Best 80 minutes of sleep of the day–I get off the plane with no solid idea of how I will get back to AoNang…but lucky me—the shuttle is still running and I only have to wait 15 minutes for it to leave. NOW–the best part of this whole journey is that since I am getting to be a bit of a professional on cheap Thai travel I am now a valuable resource for two other couples who are lost in the system…Can you believe it?? I helped someone else who had that scared “WHAT THE ???” look on their face when the bus stops on the side of the road and the driver yells out in broken english “Going Phi Phi–get off!” I reassure them that this is OK—that they will not be abandoned–another bus will come and get them–it may not be fast or pretty–but it WILL get them where they want to go.

I arrive safe and sound to my family at the hotel and am feeling very VERY much like Mrs Columbus : )

Without me getting too Crabby (get it??)

So much to my dismay–I should have KNOWN better!! Our best laid plans for a short, comfortable and peaceful trip back to mainland Thailand were not really meant to be. On Friday night after we were out all day touring Ko Samui…our pal James found Troy in the pool and told him our driver that we had scheduled cancelled. Something dodgy about the ferry not allowing him to book his car onto the ferry or something–we suspect it had to do more with getting a better offer for another driving job that day–oh well!!

So off to town Troy and I go to try to hook something else up…it ends up being a similar kind of arrangement as to what we took to get to Ko Samui 6 days earlier…We could have booked private arrangements–but that would have costs 7000 baht. Troy wanted to go for it (I could tell)–but he said nothing when I said–no way–too much money—we will take the shared accomodation shuttle for 3000 baht ($85 USD). So the plan was set for an 8am pick up, with a ride to the ferry in a nice AC van, they would move our stuff to a larger bus when we got to pier and we would catch the 10am ferry with our stuff travelling on the bus, then we would get on that same bus to go to Surat Thani where we would probably have to change buses due to low numbers of people travelling to Krabi that day…but that bus would go to Krabi then and we would be there by 4:50pm. Krabi town mind you—then we would have to get a taxi from Krabi Town to AoNang where we had a hotel booked. So that sounds OK right??? Here is what really happened…

We did get picked up shortly before 8am by a very nice driver in a very nice large AC van–once again we were the first pick up (which I have decided is very preferable to being the last pick up). We drove around picking up 6 other people who progressively got less desiraeble seats in the van and their baggage progressively more squished (ours WAS on the btotm of the pile though–so maybe tha is not so good) by 9:15 we were dropped off at the pier that has the “fast” ferries, so we got a little excited thining that our journey would be a little shorter. Hmmm—not so!!  We moved our stuff onto a big squeaky bus and then at 9:30 they started up the bus and drove us to the other pier where the regular ferries leave from. Oh well—it was fun to think about a fast ferry. So we have to get off and walk onto this ferry that is scheduled to leave at 10am. Our bags remain on the bus so at least we do not have to carry all our stuff up the pier…so far we are not too unhappy–it is not nearly as hot as it was when we came and we are keeping an open mind. So we get on the ferry and of course not that we are seasoned ferry travellers–so we scoot as fast as we can to the VIP room which we know is air conditioned…we make it there to get seats and we are all OK and happy—so far so good!

The ferry trip is 2 hours–and uneventful–thankfully. So we have to walk off the ferry and get on the bus with our stuff in the parking lot–still OK and happy!!

The bus takes us into Surat Thani–this unpleasant nasty town–but we have to plans to hang around…the bus stops in the middle of the street and we are told to get off…but I see no transfer station like we had before—oh that is OK—we just have to walk a couple blocks (with all our stuff now) to the waiting place. It is however much nicer than the one we had to wait in before–so we are still “OK”. We wait around a while and when we do not order food, a tuk tuk driver comes and gets us and says, “oh you have not ordered anything, I will take you now then” So we get in the back of his songtaw (pick up truck) with all our stuff and we are not sure if this is how we will be riding for the 3 hour trip to Krabi?? Rachael is hopeful–none of the rest of us are…

Nope—he drives us to where our bus is waiting–it was about 5 or so minutes away. I will just NEVER understand this Thai system of transportation. So we are told to get on another bus–it is very nice and new–we are all pleased with this. When it left 70 minutes (no that is NOT a typo!) later—we were still trying to stay optimistic…it was not that far into the trip when we realized we were on a public bus and it was going to stop at least 100 times on this trip to let people on and off…most of the trip had a fully packed bus with an aisle full of people leaning into our laps and staring at us (especially when we got out our Ritz crackers). So we got to Krabi town at 6:30pm. All that being said, I was glad we were not in that Songtaw (sorry Rachael) because it rained most of the way.

When we got to Krabi town bus depot…this was clearly the last bus of the day and we have one choice to get to Aonang…another songtaw at 80 baht each…and the skies are black and gloomy. This particular Songtaw has no rolled down plastic sides–so if the skies open up, we will be out there and LOVIN’ IT. I am told it is a 30 minute ride to our hotel–so we are working against the clock. So after the dude stops and puts 100 baht of gas in his truck (that would be 4 litres/1 gallon). (He must have a very small tank–Haha!), we carry on–and then the rain starts. So there we were–full on monsoon…but all part of the fun right?? At least this truck had a tin roof…the last time Troy was here–he rode to his hotle in an open pick up with no roof.

Not too happy with the hotel (Beach Terrace Resort)—It is OK–but a little dated and musty smeling in our room even though the kids rooms are OK. Maybe we have just been spoiled the last two places. I only booked three nights–so we will be moving on the 14th. I am scoping that out–stay posted.

Russ, Rachael, Jackie and I ventured out earlier today in the rain to get the lay of the land. I can tell I like it here—the location is great, lots of shops and restaurants close at hand and we are right on the beach–so if the wather would improve, then we got it made.  We managed to find a few places to spend our money–I did some stellar haggling on a shirt for me…Rachael picked up a few things (as always).

Our new pal James here at the Nova Samui (he is from the Philippines and his English is very good) gave us a tip yesterday…Go down to the Big C and the internet s free, it is air conditioned and there is free coffee. The free internet at the Big C WAS very nice as I spent just over 2 hours getting some stuff done on the computer…Troy was able to get some work done and the kids got to hang out in a small mall like place for a bit. Rachael found some stuff to buy–as she does everywhere…As I have discovered, the air conditioning is a mixed blessing! Of course, it is very nice when you are in it–but you always HAVE to come out at some point and then it is a major shock to the system! Yesterday was particularly hot here–or so it seemed. It rained in the middle of the night last night, so cooled things down a bit for the morning–but i already feel it creeping up into the high 80s again and it is only 8:47am.

Tomorrow, Saturday (I think), we are moving to a place called the Beach Terrace Resort for our first three days in Krabi. It will be a similar travel as getting here to Ko Samui, but hopefully not nearly as painful. James has connected us with a (hopefully) better mode of transport off the island…but we will see! We have a private car that will take us the whole way to Krabi–hotel to hotel and even take us on the ferry–so no side trips, no walking with all our bags down the streets, no changing vehicles, and best of all no sharing our sweaty air. NOW this all being said—I will believe it when I see it–stay posted for the reality check…we will have complimentary internet again for the time we are there…so will be back in touch more often…WAHOO! On the 14th Russill and I will fly to Bangkok as he flies home to Calgary on July 15th 8am. I will then hop on a plane back to Krabi. We are flying AirAsia. The flights are about $26 each way and yes you have to pay to check a bag, but is costs the shicking sum of 50 baht ($1.50 USD). Not sure how they manage this, but they are sure busy and the service is very good. A far cry from the $25 USD it costs to check a bag on Unites Airlines now eh?? It is a 80 minute flight, so similar to flying between Calgary and Vancouver.

We took the hotel shuttle to main beach area yesterday night for ice cream (Swensons)–so that was nice–you sure do have to eat fast as IT melts even faster…did some wandering around. The touts are not nearly as aggressive here as they were in Phuket (Patong in particular). But I also notice the prices are not as low. But they are still low by our American standards. The stall owners must not be as desperate to sell things as they do not lower their prices like we saw in Phuket…Maybe tourism is hanging on a bit better here…not sure…Will be intersted to see what happens in Krabi with the prices. I bet they are closer to Karon prices. When I say not as good, I mean a T-shirt costs 150 baht instead of 125 (so this is about a 75 cent difference)–so not even really noticeable…

No real plans for today yet–debating an island tour–but may just veg out by the pool before our journey tomorrow!

Good morning from Ko Samui

We have had a great few days here. Not too much in the way or tourist things accomplished for us here. But lots of great relaxing. Our first day here we chose to stay close to home and no one even left the hotel but Brooklyn and Russ who ventured out mid afternoon for something to eat. They found some 50 baht pad thai–so were happy with that. The full moon celebration that night at the hotel with live entertainment and a buffet supper was great!! We filled out bellies and then wandered back to our rooms for a good nights sleep.

The next day we were hoping to meet up with our friends the Sungs. We caught the shuttle down to the main street in town and then walked up the beach to their hotel, the Amari Palm Reef Resort. OK…now this is a very nice place! The Sungs were hanging out on the beach, so after catching up and having some treats from home that Clover brought the girls (fruit roll ups and sour candy–she has been here before and know what you can not get here) We decided to go get lunch and go “shopping”. We went to a place called Will Wait restaurant. Now how funny of a name is that?? Would you go to a restaurant at home called that? Not sure. We all had a great lunch and then I see they have mango sticky rice–WAHOO! The Sungs have not had this before–so we introduce them—we end up getting three dishes of it–it is so GOOD!!

Then we venture off for our trip down the street. So Rachael and Jean are clearly the best hagglers of  the group. Or maybe they just enjoy it the most…So between the little elephants that they want to get for their friends and the wallets they set their hearts on–they pretty much went to every market and booth on the strip and haggled with every shop owner there. It was fun to watch–but by 6:30pm we were all done (probably not Jean and Rachael). So we part ways with the plans for tomorrow to be a day together, hanging out at the pool at the Amari.

The day we spent yesterday at the pool was GREAT! Another day in paradise!! Most of us rented kayaks from a guy on the beach and went kayaking. Jackie and I together, Rachael, Jean and Ruth together in a 3 seater, and BK and Russ in another. We left our trusty family photographer on the beach to capture all he could from there.  I was sure that Clover had told me the day before that Ruth and Jean had kayaked around an island/reef that we could see from the beach–so iI convinced Jackie that her and I should also do this. Hmmm….let’s just say it wa sa sight further than it looked like from the beach. Once we went around the reef the water was a little wavier, but still perfectly safe and the view of the coral through the water was gorgeous…very much worth the rowing out there. When we came back and I told Clover where we went, she laughed and said the girls had not rowed AROUND the island, just TO the island…Hahaha–oh well—Jackie and I ARE the great adventurers now  : )

At the Amari–the girls from the spa there came out and were giving free little 10 or 15 minute massages to try to get folks to come into the spa there. So Clover, Kelvin, Troy, BK and Russ all partook. I could not bring myself to get out of the water—even for a massage. I guess it was all SO good that Kelvin, Troy, BK and Russ all went down to the beach to get massages…not at the 500+ baht hotel spa–but on the beach for 200 baht ($6USD) smart folks eh?? So now BK and Russ are believers and already talkinjg about their next massage.

We ate on the beach last night—this is very cool except for the chairs sink in the sand when we sit on them…so some adjustment is necessary…There was a marriage celebration down there also, not at our place, but at the next place over—so that was fun to see…

L

Hi from Koh Samui

Firstly…hello to our new followers–the Travis family from Kirkland. Nice to know you are checkin’ in on us.

So, I often think throughout the day when something is happening–“I have to remember to blog about that!!” and then when I sit down to write I forget so much…

As I said previously, we are sort of “off the radar” for a few days due to the internet no longer being free at the place we are currently staying. We did buy a small chunk of “net time” but are using it sparingly for Troy to get some work done and to upload blog entries or check e-mail.

So this new place we are at is very cool–VERY different than the Sugar Palm. The website said is was a lush tropical garden setting. Boy were they right. It is set up a hillside with full on coconut trees (I know this due to the coconuts–NOT because I know my tropical trees yet!). There are all kinds of shrubs, flowers and ferns too. We were “upgraded” to a villa, which to them is kind of a little house of our own. It has three bedrooms and is unlike a hotel in any way other than the ladies still come in the morning and make our beds etc. The rooms are all wood inside and the shower is not really a shower–it just comes out of the wall and we stand in the floor in the bathroom and shower–maybe this is more traditional showering style here–not sure yet. The rooms all have individual controlled AC with a remote control, so you can adjust from your bed should you find it too cold or not cold enough…so this is nice for those us too lazy to get out of bed to tend to our comfort! (That would be me! I am almost getting to lazy to get out of bed to turn off the lights at night too–Hahaha!) The beds are softer than the Sugar Palm (which had undeniably the most uncomfortable beds I have ever been on), but the pillows are small and hard–so every place has its issues eh? The pool is big and has a waterfall to play under at one end–there is sometimes music–I think the volume depends on whether the guy working the bar likes the song or not  : )

We ate at the hotel restaurant last night due to be exhausted from a VERY long day-more about that to come! It was a pleasant surprise to see that the meals ranged from 70 to 100 baht ($2.50-$3 USD)–this is very cheap for a hotel restaurant. As you can imagine!! The food was really good also–and we did not have to get back in a vehicle. Let me tell you why this was important. We had just had the longest day of our life!! I should start by telling what were expecting our day to look like. The very nice lady at the booth outside our hotel told us that a nice big AC van would come to our hotel and pick us up at 7:40am and take us to the ferry terminal where we would have prepaid tickets on the ferry–all we had to do when we got off on the other side at 4pm was get a taxi to our room. So here is how it really went….We were up, packed, fed and in our shuttle by 7:40 am. It was a van that held 12 people–and yes there were twelve people in it–AC was so-so to say the least. We traveled like this (sardines) on our way to Donsak ferry terminal (or so we thought) for 4+ hours (with one “bathroom” stop at one of the scariest rest stops I have ever seen (and I have seen some dodgy stuff since I got here)). The driver actually went to Surat Thani (busy commercial town) and stopped basically in the street and told us to get out and he unloaded our bags in the street. So lesson number one–you never know where they are going to take you. So we are at some kind of transfer station, as in they are going to put us on another bus to take us to Donsak. So this “is what it is” at this point…I am wondering how long?? So I ask the gal sitting behind a desk at her laptop playing solitaire. She says 1 hour. NOW I am getting cranky–until now I was just mildly irritated. So we sit down in the sweltering, smelly, muggy heat (it had to be 95 degrees) and there were probably 40 people standing in this little tiny hole in the wall waiting for another bus. Am I painting a good picture??

I am starting to notice something–people are being taken one by one up to another desk with red stools and as I watch, I see everyone getting out their wallets and coming away with stickers on their shirts. I struck up a conversation with a french girl sitting next to me–as it turns out, she is an adventurous backpacker and she predicted exactly what was going on. They were “pre-selling” taxi rides on the other side. Now this sounds like a great idea doesn’t it?? Take some of the worry out of the trip you say?? Yes, we thought so too—so Troy did a wonderful job of working the guy down from 900 to 700 baht for the taxi to our hotel. It would be a private vehicle, AC, they would be standing there with our name on a card–so we would know who our driver was etc etc etc. What a great deal they say–because the drivers will charge you 200 baht per person if you do not prepay your taxi. Anyway—we come away with our precious “SAMUI” and “Taxi” stickers now–yes, one for all of us. There is one other group to visit the red stools after us…and then –miracles upon miracles, the bus pulls up. Just as my french friend said it would–Haha–nobody goes until everyone has vistied the red stool. So we find our bags in the pile of EVERYONE’s bags and haul them down the street to what appears from the outside to be one of those 2 story touring buses. BK gets all excited—she states emphatically—I have ALWAYS wanted to ride one of these!!. So right after we sit down, I realize we do not have air conditioning and there are ants crawling all over the seat in front of me—but if there is one thing I have learned to get over on this trip, it is my feelings about bugs. I started off trying to squish them as I thought I could take care of it—but then I gave up–live and let live?? OK—so we thump and bump down the road for another 45 minutes (me sweating like PIG–I did not know there was more in me) and we screech up to the terminal (I think we are cutting it close as I saw the helper on the bus run full steam both ways into the booth to get our tickets (YAHOO I think to myself–at least the part about getting the ferry tickets included was right). So the bus stops and we all pile out in the parking lot and once again, they toss our bags out on the pavement. But we are rolling with it now…We trudge across the parking lot in our collective pools of sweat—maybe we floated–I do not know…we get on the ferry…Jackie is asking me–do you think they have chicken fingers and fries like the ferry to Granny’s? I say–I doubt it honey! What they do have is no AC (was not necessarily expecting it-but it WOULD have been nice), all the Thai people sitting under the fans (because they know what they are doing obviously) and chips and Thai style cup of noodles–so given that it is 2pm now and we have not eaten since 7am the chips are looking pretty good–the kids all scarfed down a bag each and then we got some Thai style snack/cookies things that were actually pretty good.

So this is where it gets dodgy again!! The ferry docks and we pack up ALL our bags again (CAN YOU SAY SHERPA??)…we walk all the way down the terminal to the main land and start our search for the guy with our name on a card. We are not alone in this search—all the other people who were in that shack with us are all looking for their private cars to take them to their hotel. There are a couple of drivers there who are looking for fares–the mysterious thing is they kind of seem to know what we are talking about but when we ask where to go–they play dumb. So they wait until all the people are off the ferry that they have offered the 200 baht ride to and then another miracle occurs–now they will take our slips and give us a ride. Hmmmmm…

So they jam 10 of us into a decrepid old van (riding in all these vehicles here is really starting to make my 12 year old minivan at home look like a cadilac!) So no private ride for us…at least our bags made it into the back of the vehicle and at our feet. The other 4 people had theirs nicely set on top of the van—the roads here are horrendous–so with every bump and thump, they got more and more nervous because their bags were not strapped down. I was starting to get pretty nervous (and I could tell BK was too) when we saw some of the areas we drove through on the way to the hotel. Then haleluijah–we pulled up to our hotel and it looked more like my kind of place….The ladies left in the van asked me to check on their bags when I got out–WOW–they were there! I was not really expecting them to be…

So lesson number 2–not sure how to put this—but I know it has something to do with the taxi. I think the scam here is that they pre-sell the taxi rides on the other side to make some money for their tourist agency but it does not guarantee anything as the drivers on this side wait to see if they can get a “full fare” first and then when the ferry is empty and they see that they can not–they will take us pre-booked folks. So if that had been their lucky day—it would have been very unlucky for us to say the least.  Fortunately for us, we had a young Irish fellow in our van that teaches English in Phuket that helped the driver understand he HAD to take us to our hotel VS dropping us off on the main drag and us having to make our way via walking or another taxi to our actual hotel.

There will be a full moon here tonight—and this is apparently a big deal to celebrate in an all night party fashion. We of course will not be doing this–but our hotel is having a special buffet supper with some special music and prizes (or so they say) from 7-10pm. So we are going to hang out here and partake–if I can stay up that long……There is going to be mango and sticky rice for a dessert option–so we are all looking forward to that…

More to follow…

Hi all! We are mostly going “off the radar” for the next 4 days or so–so do not anyone be alarmed if you do not see the regular amount of blogging or piginin’. The internet is not complimentray at the next place we are going–50 baht for 30 minutes (so that ends up being about $3 per hour–YIKES! Can’t pay that!! We are checking out of the Sugar Palm tomorrow morning and going to be staying at the Nova Samui in Ko Samui for four nights. Got another great bargain–pay for three nights, stay for four–so including breakfast for all–we only pay $19 per night per room–so we will get three rooms again as having that little bit of extra room to spread out has been nice. Now this place is a total unknown for us–so we will see how it holds up to the experience we have had at the Sugar Palm. Worse case, we are “unhappy” for 4 nights eh??

We did take a nice tour of South Phuket Island yesterday and a trip to the Phi Phi Islands today–so have been busy.  The snorkeling today was out of this world…Russill was wondering how many fish there would be–I think all the fish in the sea were here for us today–He was pleased with the experience. To say the least! I do not know how they knew to do this, but there were a bunch of Japanese tourists on our trip that had loaves of bread–so they were feeding the fish and drawing them in for everyone to enjoy! Even those of us who did not don the snorkel and mask–we could see everything.

When I go the albums where the pictures are, I feel like they do not come close to capturing the beauty of this place–and even though I am in many of the pictures and were certainly AT all the places they were taken–I am still not sure I am really here. If that makes sense?? It is still a bit unreal…

We are all safe and happy–Russill told me today that last night he dreamt he had gone home and it was so real when he woke up and was here, he was confused, but then he was very happy to still be here…that means a lot to me!! Jackie had a little bout of fever and other symptoms that might indicate that she had eaten something funny (or Troy’s diagnosis was sun exhaustion). Either way–she had a fever for 24 hours or so of around 102 degrees and a lot of tummy pain. But we started her on the Cipro and she is improving–wahoo! I had a similar feeling and a slight fever–Jackie and i share a lot of our meals and drinks–but I think that her tiny body takes a lot less abuse than my “bigger” one does–so I toughed it out where as she needed a little medical intervention…

Oh yeah–and Becca–you are welcome!