God, does 3 am ever come early! We meet our traveling companions in the lobby. There is a bag breakfast for each of us, which we gulp down on the way to the airport. Interesting to see the lack of traffic at this hour, since Bangkok's highways have always been jampacked before. Our flight is from Bangkok to Tokyo Narita airport, a nine-hour haul on airline ANA. Little leg room, and I am seated behind a guy who insists on reclining (even after I politely explain the situation to him) and who constantly wiggles and bounces on my two patellas. Thankfully, we have a spare seat in our group of three where I can extend my legs. Otherwise I would have had to move seats. We have to undergo security checks once again in Tokyo, a ... read more

I sleep like a baby and awake a new man. What a relief, after feeling so lousy for the past few days. Today is another wasted day, and our last day in paradise. Four of our group arrange an excursion to a waterfall, but we hear from them later that the trek through the jungle is difficult and the temperatures unbearable, so they don't even make it to their destination. One couple goes shopping for the afternoon. For the rest of us, it's beach life. Even though I make an effort to stay out of the sun as much as possible, I still manage to pick up a burn on my shoulders and back. We are very close to the equator here, and so the sun literally is closer and hotter. Unprotected skin burns in a ... read more

I don't sleep well, unfortunately. I don't understand what has got my insides all knotted up, but it's damned uncomfortable. Somewhat better come morning. I am able to eat some breakfast. The plan for today is to visit a tourist area known as Fishermen's Village. It turns out the the cheapest way to get there is to take the free shuttle to Chaweng, then another free shuttle from there to Fishermen's Village. This works out well for me, since I missed Chaweng yesterday. Chaweng is how I described it yesterday: lovely beach, over-commercialized shopping district. We have a couple of hours to kill, so we eat lunch at Tropical Murphy's, an "authentic Irish pub." It's silly, but the burgers, fries and potato skins really taste good. The couples go their separate ways for shopping. Violet "wants ... read more

We awake in paradise. The view from the back patio of our room, which faces inward to one of the pools, is idyllic. We enjoy a leisurely buffet breakfast with a huge variety of choices (even ice cream!). Hmm, this is going to be a short blog entry. Here's what we did the rest of the day–nothing, with a capital N. We spent the day almost entirely on the resort's small but lovely beach. The ocean is very calm here because we are in a sheltered bay. We swim in both the ocean and the large infinity pool that meanders around the resort, passing under many bridges. We actually enjoy the pool more, because even though it's bath-water warm, it is, incredibly, cooler than the ocean. One of our party spends most of the afternoon sculpting ... read more

Up early, because we have a busy itinerary today. Breakfast at hotel, which features a nice spread that includes creamy scrambled eggs and "Canadian bacon", which we haven't see before on this trip, We head west out of Bangkok on the bus. Much of the trip is reminiscent of the 401: 4 lanes of traffic on each side, plus collector lanes. Speeds, too, are approaching 100 km/hr. We notice that many of the buses and transport trucks are garishly painted, either in traditional Thai patterns or in western-influenced themes. The land is getting progressively flatter. We are entering on of Thailand's main agricultural districts. At a rest stop, we are amazed by the giant pumelos for sale, the size of basketballs. We enter the town of Damnoen Saduak. This city is crisscrossed by canals, which Wat ... read more