Laurie's World

Hi all….well July 15th has arrived. Shocking how fast three weeks goes!! We have checked out of our hotel and are hanging around the pool for a bit. We are going to go get our very last massages soon. Then grab something to eat….and say a prayer that the taxi we hired (from our Phuket Town adventure yesterday) shows up like we agreed. I would be surprised if he does not….we have never been stood up yet. But when it involves an airport connection, I get a little more nervous…

Anyways…see you all soon! We will land in Seattle mid afternoon on Friday…

On our last full day in Thailand, we decided to take the public bus (we call it the chicken bus) to Phuket town. If for nothing else but the adventure. So it cost us 60B for the two of us to ride the chicken bus (vs 500b for a taxi). And we were off. It took probably about 45 minutes to get there as the driver went about 10 miles per hour until he was through Kata and Karon beaches. It was nice though as it is all open and there was a nice breeze being generated.

So we get there and there is only one other couple on the bus also tourists. We turn around and there are 2, what turn out to be very persistent taxi drivers. Seriously, there is no escaping this guy…he is determined to take us around. He says only 20 baht. So we know right away…he wants to take us to factories etc where he gets gas stamps…sigh. I make him promise only one stop and then we go where WE want. Yes…he promised!

Uh huh! After that one stop he starts asking for more stops…please….he begs us. He gets 2 liters for each stop…sigh. I just feel bad for the guy. And we are in a very nice SUV after all. So I agree to 2 more stops. And bonus…he said today was free for us. I did not have to pay him the 20B. OK…so that is about 70 cents. I am not really in this for the savings now am I?

I did ask him how much to take us to airport from Kata Beach? He said 600 baht. Now that is 200 baht less than what we could find from the taxi mafia in Kata. So at least that will make it all worth it.

Anyways…blah blah blah…we did a bunch of shopping and I got the last few things ticked off my list. He drops us back where we have been assured a bus will come and get us to go back to Kata Beach. There is another family (also tourists from South Africa) and they are waiting for the same bus we are. We all waited and chatted for well over half an hour, and no bus stopped to pick us up. We just gave up hope and flagged down a tuk tuk. The other guy negotiated us 400 baht for all of us to go back to Kata. We get in and lo and behold does the bus come. Oh well….we had a nice view of it as it followed us all the way back to Kata.

All part of the adventure….

Hi all. I know I said I would update on our big adventure on Monday! But I did not. Bad bad…

We did go on a tour of a bunch of different islands on Monday. We went to a place called James Bond Island. One of the James Bond movies was filmed there…kinda famous around these parts. We also went snorkeling/swimming at another island. We went kayaking in a very cool lagoon. We did not actually do the paddling. We pulled up to the lagoon in our speedboat and there were all these guys just bobbing around in the ocean waiting for us in their bright pink inflatable kayaks. They said only one time a day does a boat come with tourists this time of year. So it really felt like they were waiting JUST for us.

We had lunch at the unbelievable place that is totally built on floating piers. There were thousands of people ther and all we were brought there to do was eat. It actually poured rain while we were at lunch…so that was weird. But then by the time it was time for us to go, it had stopped. Anyway, it was a fun day. We both got sunburns (I so thought we were past that) but there is no protection out there on a boat in the middle of the ocean.

I must admit…I have been a bit remiss in updating. BUT what you must know is that I have done absolutely nothing to report….now while this must seem like an outrage to some of you…the rest of you will understand what total treat that is for me. To just do nothing. It was hard at first…I must admit! But I am slowly becoming accustomed to this feeling and will therefore find the real world back home a bit of a shock I know!

We get up around 9am…only because we need to haul our sorry behinds to breakfast by 10 am. Then we come back to room and hope to find that a small person wants to talk to us…so maybe we do that for a while. Then we may or may not go to the pool….or walk down the street to shop. Then if we have left the premises…we surely come by by 1 or 2pm and for sure then find ourselves in the pool with out books in hand. We stay there until we can prune up no more, then we clean up and find a place to eat supper. After supper…come back…maybe find an early riser from back home to talk to on the chat…and then maybe read some more and doze off….rinse lather repeat. See what I mean? I am in for a BIG shock aren’t I?

We are however going on a real tour tomorrow. So I will have something to say tomorrow night or the day after….stay tuned!

Due to my laptop dying a horrible death…i am trying an experiment. Blogging on the iPad. We will see how it goes. It might take me a sight longer and i can not put photos in…but i guess it is better than nothing. At least I can let folks know I am alive. : )

We made our way back to Kata yesterday…there sure is something to be said for an air conditioned car ride! We are staying at the Kata Palm Resort, which is where we stayed when we were inKata last year with the kids. So I was a little veclempted due to all the memories that came back. I sure do miss my kiddos!! You know who you are!! We did some wandering around and such…had some pool time. But other than…pretty low key. Same today actually. Hmmm…seeing a pattern!

We did walk up to the Red Chair tonight…fantastic inexpensive place. A bit of a hike…but totally worth it. On the way back we stopped at a fruit stand and bought a pomelo. The yummy citrus fruit thing that Riam introduced us to. So we have that for a snack tomorrow.

We are planning to walk to Karon tomorrow (if Bonnie and Terry can do it, so can we!) and deliver the card for Tony from Granny and Grandpa. We are loyal snail mail carriers : )

We went to the Riverside (Thanks for the tip Terry!)  for supper tonight, first night open in a month of being closed! Our good fortune!!

But alas found ourselves back at Nok and Jo’s for a banana split  : )

And me with my precious Alberta flag. So sad–no British Columbia flag for Troy–but we will have to fix that!

Got my game back today–we went out walking. Went down to Surin beach and while it was a very hot and sweaty walk–It was sure nice!! You just can not beat the beaches here…

For the last couple nights  we have gone to Nok and Jo’s. It s a restaurant/bar across from the hotel that is owned and ran by a Thai/Canadian married couple. Nok is the lady and she is Thai. Jo is Canadian and he is from BC/Alberta. So the place is full of Canadian flags and car plates and all kinds of stuff. It is built out of logs, like something from Jasper…makes me think of home  : )

So here we are–I look a little flush–that was a fever day i suppose…

As promised to Jackie–here are the pictures of Riam and her son we took Saturday morning before leaving Chiang Mai…His English name is Art.

Then also–here we are on our last morning at Na Thapae in Chiang Mai

More to follow…we are moving to Kata tomorrow…

For a couple of reasons, the blog has been unattended for a few days. One–the internet here is a little lacking. Second I have been a little under the weather. Discovered I had a fever on Saturday when we got here to BangTao beach. Fell into bed upon checking into hotel and have not gotten up much since. Fever is down but extreme exhaustion and headache persist. No worries–I am travelling with a wonderful caretaker  : )

I do not have any fun travel news to report. I do have some pictures from Saturday morning before we left Chiang Mai, but I think I will have to wait until tomorrow to post

TTFN

We packed up this morning and are catching a flight to Phuket at noon. Somehow i am having trouble getting all our stuff into the bags I brought. I thinking this must somehow be Troy’s fault! haha–I doubt it–but sounds better than saying it is something I have done…

We are staying 3 nights at The Kris in Bangtao Beach

http://www.thekrisresort.com

Just in case anyone needs to find us  : )

Here are a couple pix i took yesterday for you BK–same same BUT different!  hahaha

So not too much to report today–has a leisurely morning, then went for a walk down to the river and then back up through where they had already started setting up for the night market.

River pix:

r

Setting up for night market:

We stopped in at Burger king for 9 baht soft serve icecream (cuz how could you not??)

Here is the McDonalds across the street…

When we were on our way back from the river, we went down a lane that is the only place i have ever seen graffiti here…really it was more like art…

Then lucky me–a trip to Sopa. Had some work done on the hair  : ) and a massage. Here is a picture of Sopa, me and Durran (I am guessing on the spelling). Yes, I really am that much taller than them (I was NOT standing on a box)

This Troy waiting for his foot massage  : )