Good Bye Thailand...for Now!

Well, after 9 days we are heading home to Hong Kong and to Bailey! While we were away we missed our first typhoon warning. 

Here are a few random pictures from our last few days of beach hopping in Thailand...

From Karon Beach

After leaving Karon, we headed to the far east side of Phuket to Siray Bay.



to Siray Bay!






Siray Bay is nice - but as the name would imply, more bay than beach. There is a river outlet near by which makes the water murky and there is no real beach to speak of but we enjoyed seeing & exploring this unique and relatively undeveloped part of Phuket. No suit shops or massage places as far as the eye can see!



Laguna Beach - Waiting for Ferry to Canal Shops



After Siray Bay, we headed back to Laguna Beach. We took the ferry to the the Canal Shops - which as promised was a Canal but the Shops were well....lacking...or at least lacking things that we would be interested in buying. We left after less than an hour with only a few drinks and a couple of postcards. After lunch, we headed to the pool which was conveniently located right outside our back door. Can't say that we have enjoyed that perk before! It was really nice!

Laguna Beach - The pool is right out our back door!



Our last night in Thailand and ...



one last morning walk along Laguna Beach.....for now!! We'll be back!



Another Day, Another Beach...

Welcome to Patong - Shopping Paradise?

We spent one afternoon at Patong Beach - the largest & most busy beach in Phuket. This is definitely where EVERYONE comes.  

Who knows how many bars, suit shops or massage places there are in Patong? Yeah, me neither. Ironically, alongside all of those shops are stalls selling T-shirts - one of which says something like "I don't want a suit. I don't want a massage. I don't want a DVD. Get out of my face!"

How much is our tab?

We had lunch at a Thai restaurant, which surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly) was not great so we headed to a beachside bar. Beers in Patong were less than $2. Not as cheap as Kata Beach circa 2003 but not too bad!







How many are we getting?

On our walk to the beach, we came across a pancake cart and of course had to stop. They weren't exactly like pancakes - more like a hybrid between a pancake and a crepe, then add in bananas and Nutella - Melissa was set!

After beer & pancake/crepe treats, we headed to the beach for sunset on Patong Beach...

After that, we headed back to our hotel in Karon - via tuk-tuk - our most favorite Thai mode of transportation because it is cheap!!

Kata 8 Years Later....

Yesterday afternoon, we left Laguna Beach and checked into our next hotel at Karon Beach. Karon Beach is relatively close to Kata Beach so the first thing we did after checking into the hotel was get a cab to take us to Kata Beach.

During college, we spent a lot of time there. Kata Pool Side Hotel & the Lobster Prawn Restuarant ("No View But Taste!") are perfect options for college students - rooms for less than $20/night including breakfast and (great!) meals for $10-$15 - including drinks! 

Our last visit to Kata or to Thailand for that matter was November 2003, which was also before the tsunami. We were anxious to see how much or how little things had changed. Some things were much the same - including some of the waitstaff who surprisingly almost 8 years later remembered us! The menu was the same and we quickly settled on Singha beer, pineapple juice and tuna pizza!

A mom & pop convenience store a few doors down from the restaurant was also the same, as was the woman who owns the store - although her child is now a teenager and is now helping run the store instead of just playing in it.

Kata is doing well, so well that aside from these few things, it  is barely the same place it was 8 years ago. The tsunami washed away much of Kata. The low infrastructure stalls have been replaced with multistory buildings and there's even a Starbucks there now. Who would have imagined that?

There are a lot more people - both locals & tourists. There are a lot more shops, restaurants and bars.

We were hoping to catch sunset on Kata Beach as that was one of our favorite things to do and we made a point to catch every sunset. A little before sunset, all the locals & the tourists would gather down at the beach and just watch the sunset and take pictures in an attempt to capture the memories.

We walked down to the beach a little before sunset yesterday and the beach was so crowded and busy and no one seemed at all to notice the sun. They were getting massages, surf lessons, drinks and henna tattoos.

We left shortly thereafter to get a cab back to Karon. We were happy to have gone back to Kata and while sad to see that some of what we loved about Kata is now gone, happy to see that more importantly, the local economy and more importantly the local people are thriving in what is clearly a successful post-tsunami Kata.

Another Kata Beach sunset with Crab Island in the background

Land of Smiles...Must be Thailand

After a few days in Bali, Indonesia, we are now spending a few days in Phuket, Thailand. 


Room with a view!



Lucky is a good kisser

 This morning as we were leaving breakfast, we noticed the resort staff had 2 young elephants for photos and rides for the kids. 

This is not our first time to come face to face with an elephant but with those big eyes and long eyelashes, you can't help but smile. 

As there was a little bit of a crowd, we went on our morning walk along the beach. As we were coming back from our walk, one of the elephant trainers was on the beach giving his elephant a break from the kids. 

Lucky, the three year old elephant is so smart!  He sits down on his butt and crosses his front 2 legs all while waving hi with his trunk.

Back in Bali!

It has been a while....but we are back in Bali, Indonesia!

As soon as we stepped out of the airport, it hit us... Not the heat and humidity we were expecting, but sunny blue skies, with a calming cool breeze.  We have never been here during "dry season" but the weather has been fabulous for the entire trip!!

Out hotel is in Nusa Dua, a secluded resort area of the island.  It has been nice break from Kuta Beach - away from all the street hawkers and crazy drunken Aussies!

Within walking distance from the hotel, there is a street that is lined with a few restaraunts and tons of souvineer shops (which as is the case in a lot of Asia tourist cities,all sell EXACTLY the same products!)

We have been reunited with our favorite Balinese dish, Balinese Sate.  It is similar to the Thai and Malaysian Sate, but a little diffrent, and it always comes out on its own grill to keep the meat warm. 

Of course we have had our share of seafood too -  red snapper is on the menu everywhere so we have been getting whole fried fish with chili soy sauce, yum!

Tomorrow, we are off to Phuket, Thailand! We have such wonderful memories of this very special place and we are anxious to see how much it has changed in the last 8 years.

Aloha-inan! (Translation - Aloha - Hainan!)

We went to Hainan Island (Island off the coast of China, advertised as "The Hawaii of China") for a long weekend.

Hainan is just an hour flight from Hong Kong so it is super convenient for a weekend trip.

Customs, immigration, and baggage claim were all uneventful, but after that...is where the frustrations began.  As soon as we went into the main lobby area, there were hoards(!!) of people asking if you needed a taxi.

 Melissa and I have traveled enough to know to look for a taxi stand or service rather than going with someone that's offering their own taxi services... But at the Hainan airport we soon discovered....there was nothing... at all!

So what the hell, the next kid that asked us, we said ok.  Walking over to his taxi he asked where we were going, Sheraton Sanya.. a large 5 star hotel that should be on the map.  He looks at us like he has no idea what I said or where it is at, so he had to ask another taxi driver... at least that is what I assume he said.  I think the whole transaction was negotiated in less than 5 words.

So then he types the rate in his cell phone for me to see... I tell him no and point at the meter.  (Again, another lesson Melissa & I have learned over the years, always, always go with the meter. If not, you will be at the mercy of whatever price the cab driver thinks he can get out of you.) He tells us something about it costing more with the meter...Fine, whatever. I negotiate the fare to 150 RMB from 180 RMB and we are off! However, as soon as he started the car we noticed that his last fare was 55 RMB, not too happy...somebody got to the airport for practically a 1/3 of what I negotiated to leave the airport! Nevertheless, we eventually made it to the hotel....

The hotel was really, really. nice. There was even a Ferarri in the lobby... no idea what for but definitely the first time we've seen that.  As it was getting late, we just grabbed a quick bite to eat in the hotel and crashed...

The next morning we were able to appreciate the hotel property. It was awesome - complete with lotus ponds, palm trees and pools, all right on down the beach.






























We woke up early and walked down the beach which was powdery white sand and clear blue water, for a moment I thought I was in Hawaii...however, of course other events during our trip very clearly reminded me that we were NOT in Hawaii!

We found an umbrella and chairs and camped out in the shade for most of the day. It was great! Though it was so strange that the beach was so empty!

The following day, we made out way up the coast on the other side of the island to Le Meridien resort. This place was even nicer that the Sheraton!  Some of these rooms even had their own plunge pool!

Most hotels have flyers with the activities offered, not in Hainan.  Neither hotel offered any day trip or any activities to speak of - how UNHawaii?!

Hainan has pretty water and sand, but they definitely don't know how to cater to tourists...or at least Western ones!

We eventually found another restaurant within walking distance from the resort which was recommended by the staff at our previous hotel.."oh, you go up there, very famous restaurant you must try.." "What's the name of it?" "Oh, I dunno. It's very famous though...Everyone knows it...You go there."


 Upon arriving at the "famous seafood restaurant," we asked for a menu and they handed us a Chinese menu with no English.
Okay, no problem, it's seafood we can figure it out. There are pictures so we think we have it under control.  When the waitress comes to take the order, I point to a fish and say we want that and she proceeds to tell me "no good." OK.  We're off to a great start. The waitress then quickly runs out of her English and runs off and comes back with one of the cooks, who spoke "better" English.  She confirmed that the particular fish we were trying to order was "bad." She then proceeded to tell us to follow her.  She took us to the aquarium room.  I am not used to this - picking out exactly which alive and swimming fish and shrimp we're going to eat...but we dove right in and chose a fish and some shrimp.  When we got back to the table we found a picture of a fish that appeared to be fried in the menu and pointed to the fish and shrimp we just chose and said a lot of uh-huhs to the now cook/waitress and the basically just crossed our fingers...

When it was all said and done, we looked at each other and had no idea what would be coming out and how much it would cost for that matter.

Luckily, when the fish finally arrived, we were pleasantly surprised - grilled & fried fish & rice and shrimp (all familiar!)... and it was all actually very good too.

We spend the next few days just hanging out around the resort.  On Saturday night, there was a beach BBQ. The advertising showed a picture of steak... there was no steak! Luckily, there was still lots of great food. But more importantly we were enjoying a nice evening with live music on the beach...band from South America- go figure!

We are...Going Local!!

As I was going through our kitchen, I noticed a few things....

No Mexican beer, Filipino beer

No frozen pizzas, frozen dumplings

No large bottle of ketchup, a large bottle of soy sauce

No jalapenos, red and green Thai chilies

Our newest small appliance purchase - a rice cooker(!!) along with the biggest bag of rice we have ever bought and we are almost out

I think we are officially.....going local!


But, some things never change...

Bailey still waits patiently...In Dallas or in Hong Kong, Bailey knows she wants whatever it is I am making 

And....of course we are still holding onto our favorite California wine and did I mention we miss our ice maker?!!