My best tip would be to make sure you have a great travel agent like ours who will book you a flight on Singapore Airlines. You will be treated like royalty. The attendants are amazing and stunning in their jewel-like uniforms with impeccable manners. You can order special food ahead of your flight, like "Vegetarian, no MSG" and they will come beforehand and make sure you like the FOUR meals you are going to be served! Second "in flight" tip is to walk around whenever you get the chance, or you may find your feet have swollen and you can't get [View Full Entry]

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Oh YEAAAAHHHHH...This is just hauntingly beautiful, the landscape that dreams and movies are made of. If you saw Leonardo in "The Beach", you will recognize this island paradise. By now, I have run out of superlatives to describe this experience. Here it is that we find the whitest of sand and the impossibly bluest of blue water, so deep, so clear, so perfect. Pooh had arranged for a driver to pick us up and deliver us to Cape Panwa where we got on a speedboat with some other passengers and headed out for some of the world's best snorkeling and visions [View Full Entry]

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Only two days left, and we are wondering why we didn't arrange to stay longer. Our list of "must sees" now turns into "hope we have time". I am anxious because I haven't even experienced all of the resort, we have only eaten at two of the twelve restaurants, and I still can't get around without the map! We squeezed in our last activities: intro to Thai language, dancing, and origami, which I flunked, but excelled in Yogilates, Ab torture & stretch, and finished well on a wonderful sunset bicycle ride. We bought a last bunch of bananas for Yum Yum, [View Full Entry]

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Our story continues from the previous blog. Ming told us only that we were going to a river that runs back and forth into the sea, so we were not prepared for an everglade so gorgeous that tears sprang to our eyes in wonder. My heart ached just looking at it, being actually IN it, like some kind of artist's animation or even a wide-awake-blue-ray-dream. The color of the water glowed; supernaturally verdant and luminous, so alive, so radiantly ALIVE. The twisted and gnarly mangrove trees had roots growing up out of the water around their own trunks and then down [View Full Entry]

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It's easy to get up near dawn, thanks to the time change, and that's what we did, just to soak up those magical moments of first light and be even closer to the sound of the never-ending sea. I am determined to make it at least as far as the lobby, as we are meeting our new friend and driver, "Pooh" today for a tour. So far, we made it to the large central pool and managed to get part way around before sinking into plush chaise lounges overlooking a portion of the pool with a "vanishing edge", so that it [View Full Entry]

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We got curious about the jungle next door and who might live there. We had a "day off" today, so we walked south along the beach a few minutes and met Bob, a retired time share salesman who was building a "5 star campground". So far, Bob has spent 3 days hauling a driftwood log onto the beach and has succeeded in making a nice bench. He has also outlined a campsite in driftwood. When we met him, he was pounding a hook into a tree to hold a hammock, but seemed so happy for some company. I think I knew [View Full Entry]

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We drove north in Phang Nga and stopped at a pier where Pooh knew there were longboats for hire. They look like long canoes with a canvas tent-like canopy and can hold about 35 people. The weather was threatening that day, and he was able to negotiate four hours of boat time just for the three of us at a price well within our budget. That meant the boat driver would take us anywhere we wanted to go and we had no need to rent a canoe to explore the island nooks and crannies. Again, the Royal Treatment! The weather actually [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Phuket on Sept. 28, 2008 ...we landed in the middle of a jungle! We could already feel this was going to be an exciting trip. The flight over on Singapore Airlines was a dream and went by quickly, but more about that later. Nothing could have prepared us for the extravagant luxury of our hotel and the piece of heaven where it's located. We knew the room would be gorgeous, but we had no idea that the resort sat on about 27 isolated acres of pristine beach just north of a giant leatherback sea turtle sanctuary! This property [View Full Entry]

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We left the balcony doors open that first night and every night after, so we could savor the steady rhythm of softly crashing waves. There is nothing like the gentle but powerful tumbling of the Sea, so constant and reassuring, to calm the spirit and soothe the soul...like God watching over us all night as we slept a deep, healing sleep. The next morning was more than ALIVE with exotic bird calls and jungle noises, the fragrance of plumeria, and the intoxicating Ylang Ylang massage oils wafting up to our room from the beach. The unmistakably enticing aroma of Thai food [View Full Entry]

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