Dear Readers - what an interesting past 24 hours weather wise. We have had extreme thunder and lightening storms along with torrental downpours, high winds, and high surf conditions. Will add pictures to show the weather. Am worrying about friends at home that we have not heard from - you know who you are and we know where you are at. Our time on Samui is winding down and hopefully the weather tomorrow will be calmer as we have to take the boat to the mainland to catch a night train back to Bangkok. We have to go to Naton today [View Full Entry]

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Dear Readers - We ate dinner at the hotel last night and watched a very red moon rise over the ocean. The picture will not do it justice. Digital cameras do have some limits. Festival ballons are common here in the evenings. They are made of very thin paper and are approximately the size of a large garbage sack. They are heated and lighted by a wax ring that is wired to the structure so it works like a hot air ballon. They are very pretty in the sky as they rise and follow the air currents. Can't image doing this [View Full Entry]

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Dear Friends and Family - Yesterday we headed for Naton using the local songtau (truck Taxi). Regular taxis are 400 baht where the songtau is 60 baht per person. Naton is a lot like we remembered from 16 years ago other than a new pier some more shops. Of course Ann headed for the nearest batik shops and purchased same. A couple of pieces were actually art work by the shop owner who also has a website and sells on EBay. Yeah!!! Last night we had thunder most of the night and a good portion of today. It certainly made for [View Full Entry]

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We have been on Koh Samui two full days now and are getting into the laid back life style. We have spent most of our time just setting in the sun and eating. Jim has found curry to be hot and spicy and one of his favorites. The fruit drinks here are wonderful and we have them at most meals. They consist of pineapple juice, coconut, banana, mango and/or cranberry juice. Some have yogurt while others are just juice with a spot of cream. Ann has a good sunburn on her feet and shoulders. It's as red as any fire truck [View Full Entry]

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Dear readers - when we first got here we met a monk by the taxi que at the front door of the hotel. He was wearing an orange sarong type gown which is common for monks in this area. Since he was queing for a taxi as were we, we asked him if we could drop him along the way. He bowed and shook Jim's hand and said "you have a face like an archbishop". So being who he is, he decided to run with it and has been calling himself the archbishop ever since. We ran into the monk again [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone - Sunday was a big day for Songkran. We hired a taxi in the morning to take us to the Kaosan area. We decided not to get out but had the driver take us around the various streets to see the activities. There were a lot of police and a few paddy wagons. We saw a small parade with one float, a band, and several vintage cars. After this the taxi driver took us around to other parts of the area so we could see the Grand Palace, many wats (temples) and several government buildings. It was a great [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone - today on a whim we took a taxi out to Khohsan road for laughs and giggles. While there a procession of floats, bands, and a car show went by. Took many photos from inside the taxi due to a fear of being drowned by the large amounts of water being tossed around by buckets and squirt guns. Some pick up trucks even had large tanks with engine driven pumps and hoses for wetting down the masses of party goers. There were many police and paddy wagons at hand in case things got out of control. The area this [View Full Entry]

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Today is the beginning of the Thai new year, Songkran, otherwise known as a countrywide water fight. This is a 3 day event and is a government holiday. I'm sure by the end of the holiday we will have been drenched many times. Yesterday, Friday, we did several modes of local transportation. We wanted to go out to a large shopping center called the Paragon Center which required using the Sky Train. Bangkok has a good mass transit system and we had fun trying to learn our way around. The shopping center was huge and connected to other centers as well. [View Full Entry]

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Dear Readers - Yesterday was interesting in that we found a new market . We got some new reader glasses which were inexpensive. This was a market for locals and much different than the markets that you find for tourists. We ate gelato from a little stall that was delicious and cooling. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a massage shop so Jim could get a foot massage and I got new polish on my toes. We may go back today so we can both get a foot massage. The Songkran (water) festival starts tomorrow so we [View Full Entry]

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Today we finally made some plans for the next few weeks. We went to a Travel Information of Thailand agency to get started on our Visas for Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma. While waiting for those we will be flying to Koh Samui on the 15th of April and will stay until the 25th. This should give us plenty of time to climatize. When we get back to Bangkok we will pick up our visas and head for Viet Nam for a couple of weeks. We will fly out of Hanoi for Laos for about three days. We are planning [View Full Entry]

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