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Published: March 7th 2007
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A Weekend on The East Coast
This week Jack and Diane had a three day weekend, so we decided to stick around long enough to be able to go away on a brief trip with them. Since Jack and Diane live here they have the opportunity to explore areas of Thailand that the casual traveler doesn’t. With years of experience in traveling the area, they are more prepared to go off the beaten track and see smaller towns that haven’t been infested with “farang” (Thai word for foreigners).
Saturday morning we set out for the south east section of Thailand about 320km from Bangkok with our final destination being a farang free town known as Khung Wiman. Khung Wiman is a very small town with a few beautiful shallow bays and hills that border directly on the sea.
We arrived at our resort Faa Sai just after lunch time after a harrowing drive through the roads south of Bangkok. Since it was a national holiday the roads were crowded and the normally aggressive drivers were even more aggressive than usual. There were multiple times on the trip that Kel and I thought we were going to
get crunched between the cars surrounding us but, due to Jack’s superior driving skills we made it through in one piece.
Our resort was only a few hundred meters off of the water and consisted of multiple bungalows stretched over a small hillside. Of the bungalows there were three varieties, small thatch bungalows with no A/C, a larger wooden bungalow with multiple bedrooms and A/C and a couple of brick buildings with A/C. We ended up in one of the small brick buildings which seemed brand new. Our room had a fabulous shower and a great front porch with comfortable chairs and a small wicker couch.
Upon arriving, Jack and Diane immediately started setting up their hammocks on the front porch. After some difficulty, Jack managed to rig up three hammocks on the front porch between cement posts, two of which were immediately filled by Diane and Kel. I, not really the hammock lover, stuck to the chairs but Kel spent many an hour in the hammocks throughout the weekend which I’m sure will not be a surprise to those of you who have spent time with Kel in her youth.
Relaxation, Reading, and Rest We spent our first few hours driving around the area to get a feel for where we were. Since it was near lunch time we stopped at a small seaside restaurant to get a snack. In areas like this Kel and I would never be able to eat on our own due to the language barrier. All menus were in Thai and no one in the area spoke more than a few words of English. Thankfully Diane and Jack do a great job of working with the Thai people and asking for things that they know. All of our meals in Khung Wiman consisted of seafood in various forms. The faves for the trip were the fried sea bass, the garlic and pepper squid and the shrimp with vegetables.
The afternoon consisted of lounging, reading and relaxing until close to sunset when we walked down to the beach to watch the spectacular views over the ocean. The beach is unfortunately pretty dirty due to the fact that tourists don’t really come here. The locals don’t have the time or the money to pick up the refuse so it washes ashore and stays where it is. Objects from pens,
to sandals, to plastic bags are strewn all over the place. Despite this impediment, the beach is very beautiful and the water is clear and blue-green.
After sunset we had another meal on the beach and then walked back to the hotel. Since we had all gotten up early to get a jump on the day we were tired and crashed pretty early. The big king size bed and brand new air conditioner in our room made for a very pleasant nights sleep.
Much Relaxation and Thai Massage Sunday pretty much involved laying around doing nothing. Kel spent some time in the morning on the internet getting the next few weeks of travel planned. This tends to cause her a lot of stress due to the amount of research and work that’s involved but after a while she gave up so that she could relax.
Jack left at about 11:30am to go golfing while Diane started her two hour Thai massage. Kel and I were schedule for a complimentary one hour message and Kel also opted for a facial as well. If you’ve never had Thai massage it’s very different from massage in the
states. Thai massage involves much more digging and deep kneading than massages I’ve had in the past. Quite frequently the massage can be painful but the outcome is definitely worth it. If you can make it through the deep thumb kneading you end up feeling wonderful when its all done. You can ask them to go lighter but I tend to let them do what they think is right…no pain, no gain, right?
After our massages Kel and I sat and read for a couple of hours prior to Jacks return. Diane went down to see the sunset again and discovered some more restaurants so when Jack got back we again shot down to the sea for dinner. Sunday night’s dinner was great, eaten on a wooden table right by the beach in a local place - it was one of the best meals I’ve had in Thailand. The fried sea bass was extraordinary.
We returned to the hotel after dinner where we lounged on the front porch and talked for a few hours before bed. Sitting under the stars in a secluded place always seems to aide conversation. We talked about all sorts of topics and finally
wound down until we could barely stay awake and then went to bed.
The next morning we got breakfast and rested some more while Jack and Diane got another Thai massage, I guess you get addicted to it after living in Thailand a while. Soon after they were done we packed up for another harrowing ride back to Bangkok. How more people don’t die on these roads escapes me. People drive like they’re in a controlled racing environment despite the fact that it’s a regular two or three lane highway. Wild!
Tomorrow we head off for the south of Thailand. Kel and I will be flying to Krabi and taking the ferry to Ko Lanta for a couple of nights. Hopefully we will have internet access so we can show you pictures of, what we hear, are some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
Hope you all aren’t freezing back home. Keep reading the blogs, it’s why we write them. We miss you all!
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Don and Lindz
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Freezing?
Nah, it's been great here. It's this darn cold that I have and then passed to Lindsay (unintentionally, of course) Is there anything more pitiful than a nine and a half month pregnant woman with a head cold? I doubt it. Poor thing. So...the corn starch adventure has me thrown. Is the Thai holiday on the agenda or is it a diversion?