Ko Samui Continued

Well, I hate to say it, but our guided kayaking tour of the marine national park was rather disappointing. For one thing, the guide did not come across as particularly knowledgeable about the marine park and the wildlife that lives there, which was a shame. A lot of the other guided trips we've taken have had a guide who could really tell you all about what was around you and how the area was formed. Downer #2 was that we didn't have nearly as much time in the kayaks as we would have liked - all together, we probably only had about an hour out of the whole day to kayak, a half an hour in the morning and a half an hour in the afternoon. Then, when the first time we got into the kayaks in the morning, we were surrounded by these strange looking "sea bugs" for lack of a better word, which were floating around in the water. they were about an inch to two inches long and oval shapped with with a fringe of legs surrounding their bodies. They would slowly swim through the water and when you scooped one up with the kayak paddle, they would curl up like a rolly polly bug. Too weird! When I asked one of our Thai guides about them, he thought they might be some kind of leech - gross - and our main guide had no idea what they were. Regardless, this quickly deterred us from getting in the water to do any snorkeling! Besides, the water quality wasn't that great anyway. Finally, the food on the boat was the worst we've had the whole trip, and we thought Thai food was pretty hard to mess up! So that's how the cookie crumbles I guess......enough complaining right?

Yesterday, we took the scooter out again and went back to a spa across the street from the cooking school we attended. We had been there the day we had our cooking and carving classees for a wonderful foot massage between classes and when we noticed they offered all kinds of other spa treatments, we decided to go back. Jim got a rejuvenating facial while I had a pedicure, foot massage and scrub. The prices are so cheap here it's amazing - my two hour foot treatment cost the equivalent of about $30!

Well, as Carol Burnett said, I'm so glad we've had this time together.......tomorrow we fly back to Bangkok where we'll overnight at a hotel attached to the airport then bright and early on the morning of the 21st we'll be flying back to Dallas. Thanks to all of you for following along with our travels - this has truly been an amazing and rewarding experience for us. While we have enjoyed almost every minute of our travels, we are also really excited to get back home where we can be around our family and friends again. So best wishes to you all and when more fun travel opportunities come our way, we'll definitely fire up the blog again!

Ko Samui, Thailand

We arrived here on Saturday from Chiang Mai and it's been a pretty relaxing, laid back few days. We are staying at a place called L'Hacienda Hotel, which is located in Baphut, one of the smaller beach communities located on the north side of the island. We chose this area because it's a little smaller and quieter than the other towns on the island, Chaweng and Lamai. Unfortunately, the beaches on this side of the island aren't the best, but it's still quite lovely.

Our hotel is a small with only eight rooms and we're on the second floor with a perfect view of the ocean from our deck and a view of a neighboring island, Koh Phangan in the distance. Oh and the best part is, we have a small pool on the roof! this part of Bophut is called "Fisherman's Village" for the pier that is in the middle of town and it's really walkable, with lots of restaurants and shops lining the narrow main street.

The taxis on the island are really expensive compared to the other places in Thailand we've been in, so we decided to rent a scooter through the hotel for a couple of outings we've had. They're actually pretty fun once you get over sharing the road with all the other scooters on the island as well as the cars and trucks that drive by! There is a place on the island called the Samui Institute for Thai Culinary Arts (SITCA) and yesterday we went there and took a fruit carving class and another Thai cooking class. There was one other student in the carving class and we all were given a watermelon to carve a flower on. After getting some great instruction, we all did a pretty great job! Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera with us so I can't post a picture of our finished project, but the woman who was in the class with us said she would email the pictures she took when she got home.

When the class was over, we had a few hours to kill until the cooking class began at 4 p.m., so we went across the street for a foot massage. As any of you who have ever been to Thailand know, massage places are EVERYWHERE and they are so reasonably priced, you can't pass it up. Plus, it feels so good! We each had a one hour foot massage, which included your calves and then a shoulder massage as well and paid about $5. What a bargain!

The evening cooking class had five other students in the class besides us, four women from Denmark and a guy from The Netherlands. Our teacher was really entertaining and we cooked four dishes, all of which turned our really beautifully. Man, if this keeps up, we'll really be able to cook some good Thai food when we get home! Also, we were given dvds and a cookbook from all of our classes, which should help a lot.

Today we did a little island exploring on the scooter - oh by the way, Jim is operating it perfectly and I'm trying not to be too fidgety of a passenger - and headed over to Big Buddha Beach. It's a little point of land on the northeast part of the island. True to it's name, there's a HUGE golden buddha at the point with a temple nearby. It was quite a site and well worth the trip -plus, there were some great shops around the area as well.

Tomorrow, we head out on a guided kayaking trip to the offshore island chain that form a national marine park. We've really been looking forward to this so hopefully we'll have some great pictures to post........

A Nice New Zealand Video

As we've gone along with our travels, I've actually found that the pictures and videos that I can take with my phone are just as good (if not better) than the camera. So, I went through my phone and found some videos you might be interesting in seeing. This one below was taken on the Otago Penninsula on the south island of New Zealand while we were there with Tina and Sharon. We had driven up to this point of land that offered an amazing 360 degree view of the ocean. When you watch it, you'll see Tina walk by and then at the end will be Jim also filming the water. It was a bit windy that day, as you can see! Oh, and sorry about the gloved fingers over the lens in the beginning........

Chiang Mai Continued

After spending 10 wonderful days here in Chiang Mai, we leave Saturday for Ko Samui, and island in the Gulf of Thailand for the last 10 days of our trip. Our time here in Chiang Mai has really been fantastic, much of it because of the great place we stayed. Originally we were only going to stay here until June 4th, but after just one day in the place we liked it so much we decided to extend our stay until the 11th. The property is called Baan Orapin Guesthouse, and it started as a family plantation about 100 years ago. As the city built up around it, the family keep it and the grounds in their original condition until the current owner, who’s grandfather built the place, decided to turn it into a guesthouse. It consists of about 5 buildings set among lush tropical gardens with an inviting swimming pool as it’s centerpiece.

Our room is certainly the largest and nicest we’ve had on this whole trip, which is amazing given that we are paying the equivalent of about $65 U.S. a night. That also includes a full breakfast each morning that is really delicious. Unlike a lot of places where it’s just a breakfast buffet, they bring you a menu where you can choose from 6 daily breakfasts or there are another six which are more of a specialty that you can order for the following day. All of them have been really, really good and the service is impeccable. The fellow who serves breakfast every morning is the cousin of the owner and although his English is minimal, he is always so friendly and accommodating. He’s gotten to know us pretty well so every morning when we come to breakfast he tries to teach us one new phrase in Thai. We've tried to remember them, but by the next morning, it’s a bit of a struggle!

As I’ve mentioned a few times, the best part of traveling for us is the wonderful people you meet along the way and we were very fortunate to meet Colleen and John who were also staying at Baan Orapin. They are from Adelaide, Australia and we just hit it off right away. We visited the markets with them and enjoyed a few meals together as well. They very generously invited us to visit them in Adelaide and of course we told them once we’re settled in Seattle and have a guest bedroom we would love to have them come to the States as well......that will be a hoot!!

The nice thing about Chiang Mai is that it is much smaller than Bangkok so consequently, much easier to get around and not nearly as frenetic. I think that, in combination with all the fun outdoor activities there are to do here, make this place an excellent Thailand destination. We’ve also been fortunate that even though we are technically here during their rainy season, the weather has been quite cooperative and there have only been a couple of times we’ve been caught in an early evening shower. The markets are amazing and the variety of things you can find is really something. I can see why people go crazy with their shopping here!

I guess that’s it for now from the northland……next dispatch will be from the island!

Temple Spotting in Chiang Mai

Obviously, one of the big draws in Thailand are the buddhist temples, and Chiang Mai is a wonderful place to see them.

Our Place in Chiang Mai

Here are some pictures of where we are staying in Chiang Mai. Totally beautiful!! In fact, we liked it so much, we extended our stay by a week!

Jim Sailing Through the Zip Line

This is a great video Jim made while he was on the zipline: