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Published: April 30th 2008
Hi Everyone, Hope this finds everyone doing well and the weather getting warmer.
Well we had some exciting times in Krabi. Got got in a massive monsoon type rainstorm. We've never seen it rain so hard. We were sitting on the deck of a restaurant and had front row seats to watch the lightning show. All was well until Marcia and I had to go to the toilet. I had flip flops on and just about fell on my ass going down the stairs - marble is very slippery when wet. The guy from the restaurant gave us an umbrella because we had to go downstairs and outside. So there we are with an umbrella in a lightning storm, on some very slippery stairs and a huge bolt of lightning goes across the sky. We had the whole restaurant laughing because we both screamed so loud and then killed ourselves laughing back to the table. And then there is the incident with the squatter. I've never laughed so hard - next time you see Marcia ask her about it. I'm sure the staff at the restaurant are still talking about it.
Krabi is a neat little town - totally untouristy. Nice for a change. We found a brand new hotel with a pool for 1500Baht per night. Pretty nice. Went into the mangrove which was interesting and then to a fish farm. Made me question any seafood we've been eating.
From Krabi we took a vehicle of some similarity to a bus to Serithani - we went thru a rain storm and it turned into a boat - a sinking one. The roof leaked so bad that there was not a dry seat on the bus. After the rain the guy went thru the bus wiping up the seats. All the locals just sat thru like it happens every day. Probably does. That bus ride was only 3 hours.
At Serithani we were to pick up the overnight boat to Ko Tao - we were expecting a nice little boat with cabins for everyone, maybe even a bar. Welllllllll...... we should have known better. We arrived at the boat at about 9:00pm - the boat left at 11:00pm. They were packing everything into this boat from food to motorcycles to fridges. No kidding. The sleeping arrangements consisted of 62 skinny mattresses side by side for the full length of the cabin. After finding our assigned beds we got off the boat and started to drink. At 11:00 we got back on to find all the locals sleeping. Bill found beside his bed a huge guy fast asleep, snoring and invading his space. Marcia and I got on and got the giggles so bad we thought we'd wake up all the locals. All Mike could say was "This is goofy, really goofy". He got the best bed in the house on a bunk. Marcia, Bill and I all snuggled as much as we could so we wouldn't touch the other people on each side of us.
After a semi sleep we got off the boat at 7:30 am.
Ko Tao is a beautiful island with great snorkelling. We had a pretty nice spot overlooking the water. We spent 3 or 4 days here. It was really nice. Another place we would definitely go back to.
After Ko Tao we arrived in Hua Hin - a seaside city - not as pretty as the islands.We spent a day in a tuk-tuk seeing the sights. We found the silk cultural cte which we were impressed with. Some really nice silk clothing and beautiful souvenirs.
We found some really good restaurants and really just hung out. Bill had his birthday party here - we don't know who partied the most - Bill or the rest of us. We all had a great time. Spent some of the night at the street bar - I'm sure the guy thought we were crazy canucks.
Then Mike and Marcia had to leave us - we were pretty lonely after all our fun. We headed up to Ratchaburi where no foreigners have ever set foot. We were definitely the odd balls. We got lots of stares with wide open mouths -quite funny. A few guys welcomed us to Thailand - we were waiting for the sales pitch but they didn't do that here.
We were in Thailand for their Songkran which is their new year. The tradition is to get everyone wet and put chalk on them. It's for good luck and a good year. In Ratchaburi we lucked out and didn't get wet - only because we spent the afternoon at Tesco - Thai Walmart. I know we are chicken but we got our share in Bangkok. We had to walk thru Koh San Rd that was wall to wall people with water guns or hoses and buckets of this chalk. Bill was carrying a large cardboard box over his head and was definitely the target for most of the water. The Thai's would come up to me an apolgize as they smeared my face and watered me down. It was all in good fun. We arrived at our hotel looking as if we just got out of the pool. We were totally drenched. After that we holed up in that area only venturing out to go to a restaurant or ATM. Craziness.
We left for Vietnam on April 16 and boy are we having an experience - more to follow.
Take care everyone.
Love Jo and Bill
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Murray
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WOW
The photos are stunning! Sounds like you are having a grand time. Keep up the postings. Cheers