Thailand Adventure, Part 1: The Beach!

Our countdown to the trip was going smoothly as we struggled through our last few work days to get organized before leaving. Everything seemed pretty much in order at noon on Friday when we received some bad news. Our friend Lexi had taken a tumble while skiing in Queenstown that morning was on her way to Dunedin hospital via helicopter with a head injury. It sounded pretty bad so as soon as we saw the heli land (we can see the landing pad from our offices), we went over to the hospital and spent the rest of the day and evening there. Long story short, Lex had not been wearing a helmet and was knocked unconscious during a fall on her first run down the mountain that day. She ended up with bilateral (both sides) base skull fractures and some bleeding in her brain. Luckily though, no neck injury and the doctors expect her to make a full recovery. Pretty serious injury but we're thankful it wasn't worse. She's now home from hospital and showing mild deficits with balance, vertigo, and memory recall but otherwise doing well. Lex, if you're reading this, we're glad you're feeling better but wear a helmet next time!! See her on the stretcher here.
So, we stayed as long as we could at the hospital that night and then rushed home to pack quickly and get some sleep. Our friends Dan and Emily showed up bright and early Saturday morning walking down our driveway with a Deluxe Euro-Dog (one of Craig's fave market foods) and singing Happy Birthday to him. It was hilarious! Craig was very pleased with his birthday breakfast! After that, the Pinto's dropped us off at the airport and our vacation began.
Our flights were all fine and uneventful. I got to see the Sydney Opera House, Olympic Stadium, and Sydney Harbour Bridge during our landing there. We flew Quantas from Sydney to Bangkok and they gave us 2 meals with ice cream after each. Yum! Unfortunately, the second one was a popsicle which had clearly been in the deep freezer for awhile. In my excitement to try to ram the whole top of it into my mouth, my entire bottom lip got stuck to it! It hurt really bad and I couldn't get it off for anything. I finally had to peel it away while trying to thaw with saliva at the same time. Painful experience and lesson learned!
Poor Craig had to spend his entire 30th birthday on planes so he had a few celebratory drinks on our long flight. The guy next to me also had a few (3 Jim Beam and Cokes) and never got up to pee once in the entire 9 hour flight. I need to learn how to do that!


Southern Alps and Mt Cook from the plane

We arrived in Bangkok at around 11pm Saturday night, got a taxi, and arrived at the Salil hotel at 12.45am. It was HOT, even at that hour. Thankfully, our room had AC and we fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, we were up at 6.30am thanks to our internal clocks. Craig informed me after his shower that there was no hot water. I got through half of my cold shower before realizing that he simply had not turned on the hot water and finished in comfort. We then went down to our first Thai breakfast. Typical Thai brekkie's include the same things they would eat for lunch or dinner: chicken, rice, noodles, etc. Luckily, since I can't stomach much of that so early in the morning, they also had eggs, toast, and fruit. But we did sample the other stuff and it was pretty tasty, a good appetizer for later!
After eating, we walked down Sukhumvit Road. We met a man who claimed to be a police officer and told us everything was closed due to public holiday, and then tried to take us somewhere. Luckily, we had read about these tricksters and knew to just walk away from them. Apparently, if you go with them, they take you to gem shops to get a commission.


Crazy Bangkok traffic

The weather was hot, 90's and humid which was a shock to our systems. We hopped on the sky train to the JJ Market which was MAYHEM. It was this huge market with everything from souvenirs, clothes, and housewares to food and drinks. Oh, and even puppies! We drank some coconut milk out of a coconut, and the best pad thai I've ever tasted from a street vendor. Craig had a spicy chicken dish. All of that with a bottle of water cost us 4 dollars! Good deal.


Sneakers anyone?


Huge Jack fruit

After the market, we grabbed our bags from the hotel and hopped into a taxi to the airport. Drivers in Thailand are crazy. Drive on the wrong side of the road (regularly), weave in and out, speed, etc. So, it's always exciting but what made me really nervous was the fact that our driver was falling asleep! Thank goodness he managed to keep his lids open until we got to the airport. We checked in for our flight to Phuket and settled in at the Bangkok Airways lounge, enjoying free drinks, iced coffee, popcorn, pastries, spinach puffs, and sweet sticky rice wrapped in a leaf. We arrived in Phuket and took a shuttle to Amari Coral Beach Resort in Patong, which was sweet. It was dark but we could tell the place was gorgeous and were greeted with a cup of yummy lemongrass tea and a fruit plate with several exotic fruits.


The Pool


Pirates!

Then next few days were spent lounging by our 2 pools, enjoying huge buffet breakfasts with a huge array of food (the fresh fruit was amazing), and walking into town periodically. Our first time in town was for lunch on Monday and after enjoying our meals and fruity drinks, we realized we didn't have enough money to pay. We were somehow able to communicate to the staff, who didn't speak English, that we would go back to the hotel and return with the rest of the money (which worked out to be less that 50 NZ cents). So, we had some extra time in the sweltering sun but eventually paid our bill. That night, we watched the sunset from the pier on our resort, drank some Singha beer (not too tasty), and then headed back into town for dinner, drinks, and a few games of connect 4 at the bar. Party animals we are! Craig haggled for a pair of Billabong flipflops at the market. We later saw the exact same flips labelled Diesel. Knock-offs anyone? Also that night, Craig found the chapstick he had lost earlier in the day, lying on the street. Weird!


Craig with Thai Ronald


Sunset

The following day was much the same and we ended up having a fabulous dinner that night. Craig ordered something with prawns and he got to pick the ones he ate. It was fun, and the prawns were huge! Both of our meals were delicious and I got a maitai served in a pineapple. Craig had the largest Heineken I have ever seen. After dinner, we wandered the streets a bit and saw a video showing the tsunami hitting that very spot in 2004. It was crazy to stand there and imagine that huge wall of water that was higher that the palm trees in the video. The area was pretty hard hit but seems to have mostly recovered. Only a few hotels on the main street had obvious signs of destruction remaining.


Rocky Beach Bums

Patong Pics

JJ Market Pics

That was our last night in Patong and we flew back to Bangkok the next morning. Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!