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Published: January 4th 2006
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Pre-game for Dinner
Our Christmas eve frolic along the beach looking for a place to eat. Firstly, Happy Birthday Annette.
So, Kristy and I returned home from our 7 day dream-trip-excursion, both exstatic and exhausted. It was absolutely unreal. The sights of the beach were breathtaking and we (I) spent most of the trip pinching ourselves as it just seemed so much like a Corona commercial. Certainly not the reality I know. (OK....I know Corona pretty well, but not the whole beach scene).
We arrived in Bangkok (still one of the funniest words I know) at around 2 am our time. The cab driver was out of control on some of the craziest streets I've ever witnessed. We probably looked pretty funny as we were pretty much huddled up in the back seat awaiting our instant death. We arrived at our destination street (Khao San road) which is apparently a Mecca for travelers (budget traveler’s that is). We made the mistake of staying right on the busy strip, which meant very little sleep that night due to both excitement, and the clanging of bottles from wild, drunken revelers (you’d think that I would be used to that by now).
December 24th breakfast was at the Starbucks we found. Nice. A little piece of home (Korea, that is).
Suppertime
We ate like this almost every night. We made our way to the bus station, rode an air conditioned bus for 4 hours, then hopped on a ferry for 45 minutes and we were there….at the 7-11. Along with a handful of tourists we stood looking very wide eyed wondering where the hell we would stay that night. It was a Saturday, of one of the busiest weekends of the year for Thai tourists who flock to this island of Koh Samet. We wandered down the dirty street of local businesses, and started harassing as many of the bungalow places we could to compare prices. After Kristy sat down at the beachside bar for a bite, with a beer and her book, I rented a motor scooter and took to finding a place for us the cool way. Alas, on this Christmas Eve, there were no rooms at the inns.
Finally, we found a place that was right on the busy beach (both good and bad thing). We were just happy to have a place, even though it was more than many of the others, a whopping $40 Canadian. We moved the next day to a place that charged nearly half that amount, and was way cooler!
Dinner and dazzle
Fireworks were going off non stop as we ate by the waves. Christmas Eve was nothing short of magical. Truly. There were fireworks (really good ones!) going off every few minutes as we strolled along the perfectly white beach sands, with Heineken bombers in hand. The temperature was a perfect room temp. Not sweaty, and not too cool. We were both laughing at the ridiculousness of how amazingly different our Christmas Eve was from the norm. We loved it. However we were, of course, missing the fun of the Beerwart Christmas Eve liver-fest, and the Christmas cheer (beer) with the Loisellies followed by the beauty of a Midnight Mass.
Our dinner was BBQ’ed fresh seafood served to us while lounging at mini tables placed on the beach. Tables lit only by oil lamps, placed on mats that lined the beach, were quite a sight. We ate (and drank..yessss) while looking upon the waves, the stars, and of course…the fireworks (which actually made me jump a few times to Kristy’s great delight).
Christmas morn had us dining on fresh fruit, fresh juice, and pancakes with our feet buried in beach sand, which is pretty much how we spent every morning for the rest of the trip. Not bad.
So, this strange
Breakfast Christmas morning.
Weird. Another shot of us eating. You'll notice eating was the theme of our trip. and wonderful first day would end up becoming the norm. Add some massages, pedicures, a 1 day boat tour (snorkelling and fishing), beach side reading and guitar playing and it was an amazingly relaxing 1 week of Christmas holidays. It almost felt longer than the two weeks I would have at home as it was not as busy.
The trip home was another adventure of sorts. Kristy woke up nauseated the day we were leaving (doesn't help when you drink the night before, and wake up by 7:00am). Needless to say it was a long, horrible day for her. By 9:00am she was sitting on the little ferry boat (rocking away) waiting the trip to begin....and waiting for her stomach to give in. By 10:00am we were on the Air con bus again. This time Kristy spent a little more time in the tiny little bus bathroom being rocked around than she would have liked. Thank goodness there WAS a can. After 3.5 hours, and a couple of sessions of throwing up, we finally arrived at Bangkok, with all its people, heat, crazy uniformed men blasting whistles, and wildly gross smells everywhere. It wasn't exactly curing Kristy of her
Great service=hard work
These poor older ladies would carry around huge baskets of fruit in the midday heat. However, we did enjoy their fresh coconut, mango, pineapple, banana and grapefruit. ailment. We returned to the Khao San road where we had been the week before. What a mistake.
New Years Eve 2006
So....its New Years eve, and we are wandering a very busy (but cool) street searching for a guesthouse. We know to try to wander off of the main strip, in order to avoid the evening noise, as we need to be in bed early to awake for our 7:00am plane departure. We aren't worried about missing out on the partying, we'd had enough. However, Kristy is green, and the heat is not great when you have a large pack on your back. She needed a place fast. She was not keen on my suggestions to 'wander' around. We found a nice (relative to the area), cheap place with air con and even a T.V......."Wow"....we thought.
Kristy unfortunately was not feeling much better. It was killing her not to go out and shop the cheap merchants who lined the street outside our guesthouse who were hocking the famously cheap knock-off shoes, shirts, dresses, jewelry, hats etc. (oh, those poor sweat shop children). And yes, I did go buy a thing or two. Kristy ventured out twice.
Beautiful
Kristy really did not want this photo to be added.....too bad. After she published Santa photos I get free reign. Valiant effort, but her body was still telling her she needed to lie down. So we both watched CNN, and saw how 2005 was really a year of tragedy all around the world. You see where I’m going with this by now?
By 10:00pm, while the world was just revving up for the parties, we were tired, sick, depressed and trying to go to bed. Too bad the party outside our door was increasing in volume dramatically. Symbols, drums, firecrackers, screaming, cheering, a live outdoor band, men yelling in megaphones…it was almost comical. I went out to buy us some earplugs and found our street looking like Mardi Gras…well...New Years I guess. It was packed with people wandering around or just sitting on the curb, all with drinks in hand. It was a little scary though, knowing things would eventually get out of hand.
Well, it took awhile but we did sleep (not well…but enough), and we were able to wake up in time to catch our cab at 5:00am. The best part was seeing the street still bumping with drunks and revelers. The bar across the street with a terrace was still packed. Apparently to reduce problems
Kristy's Christmas
Kristy had been talking about this moment for weeks. Her Christmas day pedicure. The lady would not stop asking why I didn't want one. outside bars, Bangkok allowed all the bars to stay open until 6. Genius.
So, that was our adventure. We made it home alive and well. Kristy felt better that day, and100% better by the next day, just in time for work. We are now back to the same old routine of being kindergarten entertainers. And things are good.
Hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve. Please write us with all the details of your partying. With pics!! Thanks to those who already have. Thanks also for the Christmas gifts from home. It means SOOOO much getting a piece of home brought to Korea.
later
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Avril
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Thinking of you
Just a quick note to let you know we have been thinking of you. Philip (my son in Taiwan) phoned a couple of days ago and said he was homesick over the Xmas season, for the first time in 5 years. I just got back from the Dominican and had a fabulous time. Your blog is great so I forwarded the address to a few people - hope you don't mine. Looks like you're having a fun and interesting time. A