Celebrating 7 years together...

After 9 months on the road we have been living it up in 4 & 5-Star resorts and it's hard to beat Thai hospitality at under $70US/night. We've been treating ourselves to an early anniversary celebration because we started dating 7 years ago! The Langham Place Eco Resort in Krabi (Koh Lanta Island) was amazing with activities daily like cookie making, swimming, thai massage classes, air conditioned gym, smallest movie theater in Asia where we picked out the DVD and had the whole thing to ourselves, tennis, waterfalls on site, snorkelling on our private beach, and was definitely the ultimate honeymoon destination! Watching a bright orange sunset from our balcony and ending the night with a bubble bath helps us reflect on how healthy we feel emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

l

Next we stayed for $ FREE at a timeshare called Laguna Phuket Property where there are six 5-Star Resorts where we played golf at Banyan Tree, got massages and chilled at the Luxury Sheraton pool when it wasn't raining. At the Banyan Tree Spa they have musicians all day playing traditional thai music (photo below). Having time to meditate, cook at home, and work out everyday has been just wonderful. The ammenities were nice, but this timeshare was too secluded for us and we're ready to go to Bangkok for the weekend and get back to Thailand!

Our favorite driver in Phuket who is always smiling, Mr.Rong (pictured below left), gave us a ride to the bus station we headed to the Ranong border with Burma to extend our Thailand visas. This was an adventure on a long tail boat in stormy seas whose engine kept stopping (pictured below right) during a 40 minute ride. I thought we were going to sink a few times as the young boys scooped out water continuously and our boat kept tipping to the side as we went over big waves.

We ended our trip in Thailand by staying with Rudy and Ika in Bangkok near the Four Seasons and US Embassy (the highest rent district in BKK where all the land is owned by the King). They were lovely hosts and we enjoyed the urban life, especially the boys' day of golf at the Lakewood Country Club and girls' day with facials with body oil massages at Su Esthetic. We just love Bangkok because it is a big international city (i.e. The Earth From Above photography exhibit was going on at Central World, Galileo Chini Art Exhibition at Central Chitlom, running in Lumphini Park, visiting the Royal Elephant Museum, looking at the orchid displays in Paragon, and wandering around the Dusit Palace grounds too). Our tapeworms, parasites, and sundry illnesses were put off by all this luxury and have subsided. We go into Vietnam feeling refreshed and fit.