Originally written on December 15, 2004

Check out time was 12pm. We managed to get out on time, thanks to a takeout Burger King breakfast (we just had that for dinner, but when you have to shop who has time to be choosy). Shopping… and picking up glasses. Pizza Hut for lunch. Fancy mall browsing… Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Our last day in Bangkok and every food establishment we ate at also exists in Canada. Alas, Bangkok belly is fierce (as we experienced-see pineapple story) so we weren’t going to risk it before a long plane ride. Last minute purchases after dinner, including lots of dried curry packages, fake burkenstocks then repacking the bags and getting a taxi to the airport. Forgot to make our new black bag (full of presents) distinguishable from everyone elses, so we settled for many name tags. Paid airport departure fee and then spent rest of baht on snacks for the plane, and one last fruit shake. One watermelon/pineapple, the other pineapple/orange. Kirk wanted just one flavour, pineapple of course, but they were insistent that he had to choose two flavours. Plane departed at midnight. Good bye Thailand, hope to see you soon! Next stop Narita Airport (Tokyo, Japan), then Washington DC, then Toronto…. Home in 26 hours. » Read the rest of the entry..

Which mall/market did we miss in pursuit of gifts (hardly any). Man did our dogs bark at the end of the night. From 10am till 1am the next morning. Perscription glasses were bought too. We even bought another bag to cart everything home in Shopping districts visited. Silom Road, Surawong Road, MBK centre, Pratnum market, Pantip plaza, Siam Discovery Centre, Patpong market…

Originally written on December 13, 2004

Point form for now… Heather puts her back out, while packing. Tiger balm saves the day. That and another incident described below. Kirk swears profusely while packing his backpack. The last time he did that it was because he got out of bed and almost stepped on a huge cockroach. This time he called me over to the backpack, and a giant toad jumped out of his backpack. My back was instantly better, and although I am a biologist, I ran promptly to the bathroom until Kirk removed it from our room. Taxi at 11 am from Khao Lak resort to Phuket Airport checkin and then satisfy western craving, hello burger king! gorgeous views (both sea and sky) as we fly over the ocean and back to bangkok airport shuttle bus to our hotel checkin to the “Regent Silom Serviced Apartments” Christmas shopping and browsing along Surawong Road, Central Department store (on Silom Road) and the Patpong night market. Somehow I did not read that the night market is amidst the the strip joint/sex show area. An eye opener. A good night’s sleep for a full day of shopping tomorrow.

Originally written on December 12, 2004

Spent the day on the beach. Walked north of our resort and found a shady spot on the beach. Crazy waves where they came back from the shore, and met with waves coming to shore. This occurred because the water was really shallow, then deep only 3 ft from the shore. The result, big waves that crash really fast, and happen in triples. You have to ride out the series of waves, as it the current was too strong to make it back to shore. Bathing suits were difficult to keep on. Evening. Celebrate our last night at the beach by bar/restaurant hopping. Kao Lak Seafood restaurant for Masamum curry and beer. Then bar, name escapes me for girly drinks. Then cheap mom and pop place, for french fries, beer, and chicken fingers. Yes, western food at your service, and cheap. Crawl to bed, and sleep well. Nite nite.

Originally written on December 11, 2004

We spent the day at the pool. I was awoken early, again at 7:00 am by the gardeners raking the dirt and chatting to each other. This time I went out and politely asked them to be quiet, in English with charades for shh and sleeping, but to no avail. Ten minutes later I awoke got dressed and ate breakfast (muesli and yoghurt) and read my book on the porch. By 8:30 am I headed down to the pool, where only 3 others were reading by the pool. I secured myself and Kirk a lounge chair and laid back and read enjoying the peace and quiet and the view. An hour later I headed back to the bungalow to see if Kirk was up, and he was, and we headed back to the pool where we sat and swam till the middle of the afternoon.

The internet was next, and then dinner, then bed.

Originally written on December 10, 2004

I awoke early, as I had on the boat, at 7am. I let Kirk sleep and took a book to read and some yoghurt and museli for breakfast out to the front porch. At 8:30 am I was off to the supermarket to purchase an international phone card, and called my parents and my grandparents. Impressed with how much I had accomplished by 9:30 am I went back to the bungalow and slept till 12pm. And so the sleeping begins.

We went to the closest restaurant for lunch, and were pleasantly surprised to find it reasonably priced, you can always tell by the price of drinks (pop/alchohol etc). Grilled ham and cheese sandwich was on the menu and was promptly chosen, along with a new thai food (muslim origin) favourite, masamum. This is a creamy spicy stew with potatoes and either chicken or beef. With a pineapple shake and a diet coke the meal cost 5 CAD.

After lunch we checked out the facilities at our hotel, our bungalow is in a separate section from the main complex. We went past the pool, the restaurant, and down to the beach. During high tide the beach completely disappears, as told by the large breaker wall separating the beach from the resort property. The sand beach is intermixed with rocky outcrops, which we explored for sea stars and other intertidal animals. We found a sea slug, and lots of small fish in the tidal pools. The air was hot and still, really muggy. After a short walk down the beach it was time for a swim in the pool.

The pool has water jets to massage your aching muscles and ceramic elephants that shoot water into the pool from their nostrils. The water went only to my neck which was the perfect height for me! After swimming we went back to the bungalow, where we read (Kirk listened to an audio book), and then I layed down for another nap (3 hours!). Crazy~

Kirk woke me up at 7pm for dinner, and we headed back to the restaurant where we ate lunch. For dinner I had spaghetti, as I was craving it. Never crave western food in an asian country, because you will be surely disappointed. A 3 out of 10. Kirk had his favourite, Tom Yam Goon (coconut curry chicken soup) by default. He wanted red curry, but the curry dishes were in Thai and we were unable to communicate with the waitress, so Kirk decided on an all time favourite. After dinner to the internet to catch up on stories and then to bed.

Originally written on December 9, 2004

I awoke at about 1am with an urgent need to pee. Once up, I decided to sleep on the top deck for a bit and watch the stars. It was howling windy and the boat was rocking crazy, hard to get to sleep, but hard to keep your eyes open. The stars where very bright with the Orion constellation right above me very very easy to see. The big dipper was to the north, upside down and the handle disappearing into the horizon. I watched several shooting stars while dozing on the top deck before going back down at 3, it was great being alone after spending 2 days in somewhat cramped quarters with others. The rest of our day was spent at 2 dives the first being spectacular with an octopus sighting, and 10-15 meter visibility. The second was at island number 1 which was forbidden to divers and contained amazing corrals. We being snorkelers were allowed to swim around. We also went ashore to the whitest sand beach imagenable. After, a 4 hour trip back to thai mainland and a taxi into Khao lak where we passed out. You can see some pictures from these adventures here.

Originally written on December 8, 2004

Our day started with an even earlier as we rose to meet the rising sun. The boat crew turned off the AC to the sleeping cabin fooling me into thinking it was breakfast time. It was 6:30 and breakfast was at 7:30, the hour was spent waiting and watching the water turn from dark blue into the greens and topaz crazy colours, and the fish swim about. We had a pleasant sleep even though our bunk was located on the bottom of the boat (right on the hull) and therefore had the least movement on a wavy night. Our snorkels continued that day, although due to the wind stirring up waves the visibility was a little less than spectacular… it was still fantastic! You can catch pictures here.