Sunday, March 29, 2009

Phuket, Thailand

$6, one ferry, one large bus, one minibus and 5 hours later we arrived in the famous Thailand peninsula Phuket. We were looking forward to sitting on the beach, visiting the gorgeous Phi Phi islands, snorkeling and just soaking up the sun.Again we managed to find a terrific resort that was across from the beach and had what turned out to be the best breakfast buffet of the whole trip. Our tropical garden resort was ideally located a block from the beach and sandwiched in between good restaurants and nightlife.On our first night we had a decadent dinner of local lobster. We couldn’t resist after seeing the huge selection of fresh seafood displayed right out front of the restaurant.
The lobsters were the most beautiful ones we have ever seen.
The next night we decided to go to a large row of open-air seafood restaurants called the 99 Restaurant. Each eating establishment had its own name and section, but they all basically sold the same thing – fresh seafood and Thai food.
We decided on the Red Boat because it smelled the best and was packed.
The night before we had splurged on lobster so we decided on the more economical vegetarian noodles and a pork noodle, both were delicious.We spent a terrific week eating memorable buffet breakfasts, soaking up the hot sun that never seem to move from the same spot in the sky and leisurely drinking the best Thai Iced Teas while checking emails.We decided at the last minute to fly directly into Penang, Malaysia and had to find accommodations for one night and stayed at The Tiger Inn - interesting place.The reception area is in the main restaurant where breakfast was served, is designed to look like a jungle cave.Phuket was really nice, the best water for swimming and sand we found our whole trip. We had no agendas, no rush, just life – paradise.

Friday, March 27, 2009

We've Got Spirit

The spirit houses found all over the island of Ko Phangan were absolutely beautiful and the most ornate we had seen.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Ko Phangan, Thailand

We planned to spend Vietnamese New Year dancing the night away at a Black Moon Party on the island of Ko Phangan, a twenty minute ferry ride from Ko Samui. It seemed as a perfect day to leave because the weather became cloudy and rainy.We decided to stay on the southern side of the island, on the other side of the peninsula from where the famous Full Moon Parties take place. This side of the island turned out to be very quiet, almost to the point of desolate. There were no restaurants and we had to make due with dinners consisting of raman noodle cups and soda from the convenient store up the road.
This tropical fruit soda was delicious!
The so-called resort we stayed at was just as desolate, we were the only people there the whole time and the resort owners were less than cordial, on top of that we were given a bungalow on the road and not facing the beach, it was strange.In between the rain and twiddling our thumbs we would walk up to the nearest cluster of business which consisted of travel agencies, a 7-11 and a few food stalls, where we would buy banana pancakes and make arrangements to get off this island.After two days of painfully not having much to do, the weather didn’t warrant sitting by the pool and the beach had this huge hard pipe that laid the length of beach which would become swamped during high tide.Soon it was Lunar New Years and we made our way over the a small beach where the Black Moon Party was being held. It was your typical several thousand people dance party on the beach.We were disappointed that there wasn’t anything significant to Lunar New Year, but we were finally able to eat some real food. There were several food vendors set up right outfront of the party and they had a great selection of snacks.We opted for thick slices of foccacia bread style pizzas, grilled corn rolled in butter and chilis and pork skewers, all prepared and sold by this woman: A little after midnight we took the scariest taxi ride home. The taxis on the island consisted of dodge trucks suited with bench seats and a cover. They looked like this:On our last day the sun came out and we decided to rent a scooter and see the rest of the island, which was gorgeous.Even though the southern side of the island where we stayed didn’t have a great beach or anything great, however the sunsets were great.