Doxycycline

The acid reflux situation has been solved. Christie had a small revolation that maybe our anti malaria medicine was causing the problem. We brougt out our iPad and did a little google. Shockingly the symptoms that Amy was having were nicely written out as possible reactions to doxycycline. Problem solved!

Anyway, today was our last full day in Thailand. We got up at our usual 8 am. Christie has found that it is possible to go to bed at 10 and get up before 8am. Anywho, we went to breakfast and had another language barrier issue with the hotel. Our flight to Bangkok that night was not until 7. We were told that we could check out at 4pm by our travel agent and our hotel said we had to be out by 1130. Amy, as the yes person, rolled over and agreed. Christie, who does NOT roll over, figured out how to call our travel agent in Bangkok and demanded a late check out. Moments later our room phone rang from the front desk saying we did in fact have a late check out. Go Christie!!!!!

We laid on the beach for the rest of the day watching a soccer tournament. Now our dreaded departure was upon us. Yes dreaded because we were leaving our tropical paradise, but also we wer concerned if we would have to walk through knee high water to the boat. Fortunately, this time we were princessely escorted to the airport.

We got to Bangkok around 8 and stayed at a lovely amercanized Novotel. We haven't mentions this but every hotel we have stayed at has garnished our bed with a honeymoon flower design and this hotel was no different. We ordered a very tasty room service and fell asleep by ten.

5am wake up call for our two day flight back to home tomorrow....

Relaxation

Today was a very laid back day in Railay. Amy has now had some fairly painful acid reflux for the past week. So breakfast for Amy has been milk and dry toast. Christie has really experimented going with a lite French diet of toast and fries :). Anyway after breakfast we wondered the beaches of railay to find a nice restaurant where we made dinner reservations for that night. The rest of the morning we laid on the beach and relaxed. 

In the afternoon we both got two hour spa treatments. Christie got a foot scrub and a painful Thai massage. We have learned that a so called thai massage is more like a yoga work out then a massage. Amy got a Thai massage and a facial. It started to pour in the afternoon so we watched a movie called Buddy. Buddy was a movie based on a real story about a lady in the 30's who raised a gorilla in her home. 

After the movie we headed to dinner... The actual hotel the resturant was in was really nice, with modern Asian architecture. The food was yummy and had a nice presentation... Amy did fail to finish her bebida so Christie had to take one for the team.  

Today actually felt like a relaxing vacation. Tomorrow is our last full day in Thailand and off to Bangkok in the evening....

We woke up to some sun and blue sky this lovely Wednesday morning. We have not noted this but it has been actually mostly cloudy since we have been Thailand. They were not joking about the so-called rainy season. Fortunately when it has rained it really has not effected our trip.

Today we were supposed to go on a kayaking/snorkeling trip, but received a phone call from the company saying the waters were to rough. This was another situation wheN knowing Thai would have been helpful. The lady on the phone said we could do something else involving elephants and a waterfall. To get there we would need to take a boat somewhere and they would pick us up. Also, we would have to leave now. We were slightly apprehensive since we were not sure what boat to take and where we were going, but off we went.

Somehow our hotel got us to the correct port and after waiting we met our personal guide for the day. In my opinion that was a miracle, but it definitely taught us to just trust that things will work out.

Anyway, our guide, Hen, told us that we were going kayak, no waterfall, and then elephant trekking in the afternoon. We drove about 45 minutes and hopped into our two person kayak with our guide in another kayak. At first we were paddling through the rough open sea asking ourselves why we made this decisions. After about 15 minutes our guide took us through a deep mangrove Forrest for the rest of the trip. It was gorgeous. We saw monkeys and wildlife that we have never seen before. At one point a fish jumped into our kayak. Christie got so startled that she threw her hands in the air and off flew her ring (not her wedding or engagement ring. Amy thought it was gone, but our guide had different plans. Aftere helping us get the fish out of the kayak he went into the shallow swampy water stuck his hand down once and came up with the ring!!!!!!!!! Hen also told us that it was good luck that a fish had jumped in our kayak......


We had our best meal yet at a small cafe next to the sea and then headed to the elephant trekking. As you may remember our last elephant trip was not our favorite experience, but Christie really wanted to see them again. Welllll this experience made the last one look like elephant paradise. First of all it was raining, second we were sitting on top of an elephant, third the mahoot kept hitting the elephant on the head. The experience was terrifying and it could not be over any sooner. We somehow we talking into buying a three dollar dvd of pictures of our adventure.

Hen took us back to the port and we returned to our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Just a side note, I am writing this on a remote beach in Thailand. It is truly amazing where technologies goes.

Tomorrow is our last full day at this beach until we head back to Bangkok. I think some spa treatment is in store for us....

Okay get out now

Today was our last day at the tropical resort on phi phi island. We were still not completely sure how we were going to get off the island, all we knew is that we were departing at 130. We haven't really found anyone that knows great English, so maybe next time we need to learn a little more Thai. Anyway we decided to get a massage. We were picked up from our bungalow and taken to their spa on the side of the cliff. We were served tea listening to the waves hitting the beach. Christie got a cucumber wrap and Amy got a full body oil massage done side by side. After our hour massage we headed back to our bungalow to pack.

We met at the pier to depart and Amy was a little nervous about getting sea sick again. We wer both a little apprehensive on how we were getting to our next destination, Railay Bay. We took a long tail boat to the main phi phi island port. Once we arrived there we got to wonder around for an hour. We met some monkeys and took in some sights. Then we boarded a very large ferry to the Railay port. This was a very very rocky trip, but fortunately Amy did not get sick. When we get to the port our princess trip came to an abrupt pause. We then went onto a long tail boat where the driver about one hundred yards from the shore said "okay get out now". At first we thought it was a joke. We are aware of the saying only pack what you can carry, we just never thought we would have to carry anything through the ocean. When there is challenge we just have to find the support. Fortunately, some very nice canadians offered to carry our luggage for us. We got to shore with wet bodies but dry luggage.

We were then taken to our private bungalow with a beach front view. Railay bay is gorgeous. Pictures will come soon.

Tomorrow we have a sea adventure..... It is very sad that our days are winding down, but we are definitely starting to appreciate our lives in America.

The Beach

One thing Christie really wanted to do while we were here was see the actual beach from the movie The Beach. It's about a 45 minute boat ride from our resort... Amy was not looking forward to that part. And she was a trooper and we signed up. We left bright and early, Christie fully clothed, covered head to toe.

We got some motion sickness pills... Which Amy took while christie hung out in the shade. We got fitted for snorkeling gear and off we went for the day. 

It was well worth the trip... Amy did not get sick, Christie is no more burned, and we got to see some of the most beautiful water, fishes and beaches you could imagine. We had quite the adventure getting to The Beach - really called Maya Bay - the water was too choppy to go around the end of the isle d, so instead we climbed through the jungle to it... We had to jump off the boat and then pull ourselves in the water along a rope and then climb a ladder out of the water. Once we got to shore we walked through a jungle on some of the softest sand these feet have ever touched. We reached the other side and were in beach heaven. The water was a green we have never seen in this gorgeous cove with 30 foot high cliffs on three sides... we were actually on the beach the movie was filmed. It was unreal and almost too much to take in. Christie managed to get a camera over in a ziplock... And back! So hopefully there are some good pictures.  

We spent the next five hours or so boating around, docking, and then jumping off into some of the most blue/green waters this planet has to offer. We snorkeled around so we could see everything around us. This day we will never ever forget. What an unbelievable experience. 

Onto our next and sadly our last destination tomorrow, railay bay...... But first a massage and sun burn treatment.

Smothered with sun kisses

We awoke to cloudy skies... And quickly realized that was a blessing, as it meant we would not melt in the heat, but rather enjoy it! Breakfast was fine... No raw chicken, and we were defiantly spoiled in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, in terms of food. We wandered over to the pool and found a spot where we could see and hear the ocean and be next to the pool. We spent the morning swimming and laying by the pool, at one point some people came and sat next to us and they were completely burned to a crisp... We commented on how it must have been sunny the days before! Well... It hasn't been sunny in a week, and what we realized is that we stupidly made the same mistake they did... Thinking the clouds would protect us. Christie suffered a worse fate then Amy. It's not good. 

During the reckless sun exposure we sat a the pool bar and had a bloody Mary, swam in the ocean, played in the pool, watched the people walk by... And quite a lovely time! 

Large container of aloe and "headache medicine" on board... And laying in e air conditioning, lucky we were not too upset about missing dinner. Amy did venture out to see some of a buddhist wedding. 

Sea sick chicken

Today was a travel day to remember and unfortunately not in a good way. It was our last morning in Chiang Mai so we wanted to wonder around and try to find Christie an elephant before leaving. We were not successful on the elephant hunt and headed to the airport to Phi Phi Island in the south.

We arrived in the major city, Phuket, outside of Phi Phi. The resort picked us up and took us to their ferry for an hour and half trip to the island. Before getting on the ferry Amy had memories of the last time she was on a ferry for a long period of time. Oh some good old whale watching off the coast of LA when she was younger. Sadly times had not changed and as she was sea sick then oh boy did she get sea sick again.  There may have even been prayers for a tsunami to take her away from her misery. We finally did arrive at the island where the tide was at least a quarter of a mile back from the beaches. They picked us up in this funny looking water truck mobile and took us to the beach. 

We were greeted with a fruity beverage and then taken to our own bungalow. They had meticulously spelled out Happy Honeymoon with grass and two intertwining hearts made out of rose pedals on our bed.  The resort we are at is on Phi Phi Island, which is a small gorgeous island on the Ademan Sea. It is very heavenly here and we had both felt the "honeymoon" part of our trip had begun. 

I did start this blog speaking about unfortunate events, so I will end with one. We had made reservations at the supposed nicest restaurant at our resort. We ate outside on the side of the cliff on this lovely island. All the food was Thai, so we ordered a chicken lettuce wrap to start the meal.  The dish came with three lettuce wraps and we each ate one. We split the third one only to immediately realize that the chicken was completely, 100%, absolutely RAW.  Did I mention we were eating in the dark?  A, number one, we are praying that we don't get salmonella poisoning, B number 2, that kind of ruined our eating experience going forward here, C number three, Christie can barely be in the house when chicken is cooked, so you can only imagine how traumatizing this experience was cutting through raw chicken. 

Onto the next adventure on this beautiful tropical island......   

Elephants and fishies

All the days are starting to blend together. We are definitely filling every day with a lot of Thai adventure. Today was a day that we really looked forward to, elephants. 

Our guide took us into the mountains/jungle of Chiang Mai to go to an elephant camp. We made it very clear to our travel agent that we did not want to see elephants trained to do rediculous things and unfortunately that did not happen. We arrived at the camp and got to feed the elephants bananas and sugar canes. There were some big elephants with tusks and small elephants. We got to pet them and quickly saw how loving they were. There were two elephants that we around ten years old that had to be next to each other, holding their tales and playing the entire time. Soooo cute. Each elephant had their own handler, called a mahoot, and we could also see they had a great bond.  After feeding the elephants we watched the mahoot bathe them in the river. So far the experience was wonderful. The next part we really didn't love. We watched the elephants do tricks, pick up trash, carry the mahoot's hats, and even paint a painting. It was really sad to see the elephants being forced to do these silly things (and sadder to think of them being trained to do them) and kind of soured our elephant experience. I suppose our silver lining is now there is a reason to come back, to see elephants in a natural setting at the conservatory. 

After the elephants we took a slow bamboo raft down the river and then headed to lunch in a very small town.  Our next stop was something we will never forget. We visited a small village of displaced mountain people from the Burmese border. There is some conflict between Burma and Thailand due to drugs. A couple of years ago the Thai army slashed and burned the Forrest and discovered they had destroyed these peoples homes. So the Thai gave them some land and set up a minimal water system to start a new life. We were told that these people were happy to be in Thailand, but it was kind of hard to believe. We have never seen people living like this and there were really no words to describe. We will post pictures soon enough to you can see for yourself. 

We left the mountains of Chiang Mai, stopped at a market, and headed back to our hotel. We experienced our first sudden down pour and decided to relax in our room. After the rain cleared we took the "took took", their motor taxis, to a restaurant on the river for dinner. Then we headed back to our haven, The Night Bazaar, and purchased more fun items. 

On our way back to the hotel we walked by a fish spa and had to try it out. For three whole dollars for thirty minutes we were fortunate enough to stick our feet into fish tanks and have little special fish eat our dead skin cells. We are thinking of opening one of these shops in Boulder. Does anyone want to invest?  What a crazy experience!!!!!!!

The beaches tomorrow......

The Chiang Mai Night Market

On Thursday afternoon we flew out of Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Everyone in the airport was beyond helpful. We could really see how much they value tourism. We had lunch in the airport where we could eat burger king, auntie annes and even dunkin donuts. We stuck with the Thai food which was all in English and Americanized. We assumed that it must not be that common for Thai people to fly domestically. We boarded our plane via bus which took us only to the next gate over. The plane was very clean with bright seat covers and calming music playing. They served us lunch again which was a vegetable sandwich and a Thai sort of fruit cake. We have learned to never depend on the airline food for a meal, but this one was not too bad. The flight was only 55 minutes.

We arrived in Chiang Mai with our new guide, Bamee, picking us up and transporting us to our next hotel. We quickly saw why so many people we spoke with love this city. It is located in a more mountainous region, the tempature is cooler and the life style is much slower. Definitely a city more for us.

Our hotel, Yaang Come Village, is wonderful as they greeted us with fresh squeezed oj. We were also put in the honeymoon suite as our bed was covered in a heart of roses. We decided to put on our swim suites and relax by the pool for the next couple of hours.

We left the hotel prior to them spraying down for Mosquitos. Thank god Christie got us our high powered deat and malaria medicine. We went to a hotel down the street called the Chedi, which was recommended by one of our friends in boulder. This hotel was stunning as it was modern day Chinese architecture. We had a delicious tea set and a lemongrass martini in spirit of grandma Mandel. The experience was amazing with candle lighting in shallow pools. Next time we are here we will stay at the chedi.

After The Chedi we were told to go to the night market. We were told that this market had a lot of souvenirs. Oh boy we had no idea. It was at least a mile long and a half of mile wide of non stop knock off purses, ie Gucci, Louis Vutton, Prada, and shirts, ie polo and lacaste, and elephants. It was our little haven and we definitely helped the Thai Economy to say the least.

After several hours at the market and now being very exhausted we had dinner at our hotel. Christie had an amazing curry dish that was the best thing she has had here. We headed back to our room watched some good old law and order and fell asleep. Until tomorrow.....

Full day tour of Bangkok

What even happened today? The jet lag has taken over as it is 9:30pm and we are non- functional. We started our day with breakfast at our hotel - Arun residences -and the were picked up by our tour guide. Off we went to the Grand Palace to see the Emerald Buddha. He was carved out of jade in Cambodia and was taken after cambodia lost a war to Siam (old name for Thailand - was changed because Thai means freedom and thailand is the only SE Asain country tom have never been colonized). The coolest thing is that the king changes the outfit on the Buddha for each season- winter, summer, rainy.

It was very very hot and humid out... We took a million pictures.

We took a water taxi across the river a few times (which I can't imagine figuring out on our own.. At least in one day!) we sawtherclinging Buddha, the arun temple and a gemstone market. lunch was at the Suptra Water House... Umm... Thai food!

We spent the afternoon on a tour of the canals on a thai river boat... Gourgous houses and hovels... And everything in between. It was kind of amazing.

Our day ended with 1.5 hourthai massages for 2000 bhat for both of us... which is the exuivalentof $60.

Flower markets

Well the sad truth is that we (by we I mean Christie) forgot the charger for the small camera... And only brought the zoom lens for the big camera. So we spent our morning searching for a new small camera... And low and behold, we found one... aND it has the needed cord to charge our original camera. 

But on our search we came upon the flower market -- the Thai people spend a great deal of money on flowers to adorn the Buddha. The most amazing thing were the orchids,.. A bunch of about 50 branches of orchid were 15 bat...or 50 cents. 

We are sitting on the porch at our hotel over looking the river resting be fire we leave for the airport to catch our flight to chang Mai! Elephants tomorrow!!

Bangkok bound...

Oh boy... So to our disappointment, we were not flying in luxury on JAL from Tokyo to Bangkok. Fortunately we fell asleep right away and unfortunately because wevwere asleep during the food choosing and when the flight attendant showed us our choices - western, recognizable or Japanese, but nothing they have at Hapa Sushi in Boulder - we were told, "thank you for your cooperation, we only have Japanese meal." Now we know this sounds very non adventurous of us but we were hungry and scared about the fish we had never heard of - shrimp roe? I didn't even know they were big enough to lay visible eggs. 

And then it came... A bowl of rice, miso soup - so far so good - and then the bento box. All I wanted with said box was to take it with us... Minus the scaly, hairy, slimy, unidentifiable piece  of fish. Not even Amy would touch it. Well the flight attendant felt bad for us, you know that the only westerners got stuck with the bento box -- yes, even the locals choose the western food. I don't know if that is a commentary on globalization, or vindication in our desire for the western meal... Either way she flet bad and brought us a fruit and cheese plate that no one else got. Phew, we won't starve ( after the fist flight it is surprising we were even hungry, and honestly we have no idea how many hours have passed since we left Denver. 

And then we landed in Thailand... Doors opened, its 11pm, and we realize our long sleeves will be completely unnecessary... It's 85 at least with 100% humidity. Every person we encounter smiles and is beyond sweet. The airport is modern and clean. Lots of pink... Signs, chairs, carpet. There are makeup counters open and designer bags for sale. Customs took two minutes, our bags were waiting for us on carosel 18 and there was Waio... An adorable thai girl holding a sign that read, "GROSS: Ms. Amy and Ms. Christie." She spoke perfect English, walked us down a ramp and to our car, a fully loaded toyota camry... Oh and they drive on the left. Ours was black, and all of the taxis we saw were pink. The Thai people seem to have a thing for pink!

She told us about the royal family... They are on their 9th king. And the democratic parliament... They have provinces, I can't remember how many, but mire than 50. There are 64 million people in Thailand. We were informed of our dress code form the following day - pants and closed toed shoes, good thing I brought crocs, yes I did. And that is another thing I will never again make fun of tourists for - dressing silly. 

And then we arrived at our amazing hotel on the river across from the grand palace. 

Shower and bed. 

Oh and ps... In case you were wondering, the western meal was beef and noodles not too exciting.       

12 hour flight and Tokyo airport

Somehow it is already Tuesday evening... 12 hour passed by so fast we cannot believe it. Constant refills of Hall Cabernet Souvengion, sushi, carrot Ginger soup, steak, salmon, nuts, hummus, ice cream, fruit, cheese, ice cream (yes, the diet has been placed on hold). Christie slept for 3 hours and watched the karate kid and grownups with her borrowed Bose noise canceling ear phones. Amy drank double jacks on the rocks and barely slept... She also watched avatar and all the simpsons they had. We got new dob kits ( how do you spell that?) with Berts bees products!

We arrived at narita international in Tokyo and were greeted by serious cleanliness! Everyone is really nice and speaks perfect English! This is Christies haven as everything is done right! The sandwiches are perfect squares, you know like you would make a British tea sandwich! Sushi is amazing!

Wierdest thing so far... Halloween decorations and candy in the japaneese admirals club. Humm...

Oh and PS we will never make fun of tourists taking pictures again Since we have been taking pictures of EVERYTHING!

Our first class experience with American Airlines

After 16 hours of sleep (and too many drinks to count) in 3 days... We sat down in our frusta class seats and promptly passes out. 2 hours down. Then we arrived ain Chicago international and found the first class lounge... One large bloody Mary down. This is the life!