Day 151 Last Day in Paradise 5 July 2012

Today it was truly our last day in Thailand. Since our flight was quite late we were still able to enjoy the good life at the resort during the day. Both of us were spoiled with a 2 hours Thai massage. After dinner we went to the airport and headed to Malaysia. But before we left we gave Martijn’s brother a Birthday call.

Day 150 Beach and Pool Fun 4 July 2012

The monsoon weather held on today, but it was still nice enough to head out to the beach in the afternoon.

After some playing in the strong waves we returned to the pool in our hotel and finished our last plates of Pad Thai.

We set out to live in out pajamas, swimsuits and dinner outfit for the week and happily succeeded.

We ended the day with a celebration ice-cream sundae and a birthday call to Ana’s mom. 

 

Day 149 Monsoon Weather 3 July 2012

Today we had our first real taste of monsoon weather, rain followed by more rain.

It was a good excuse for Ana to extend her lessons in American culture to Martijn with “Now and Then” a girl movie, not a chick-flick.

In the afternoon the weather cleared so we swam and enjoyed the rooftop pool.

Day 148 Karon Beach 2 July 2012

Today we actually made it further than our resort and headed out to the beach for a swim. Upon arriving there were red danger flags, meaning we shouldn’t swim, so we walked the shore instead. But we could not resist! We went for a quick and safe dip.

We then explored the little town and decided staying at the resort was just the thing to do

Day 147 Relaxing in Phuket 1 July 2012

We spent the day wondering how it is possible it is already July, and that we have been traveling for almost 5 months.  This was the view from our room.

Ana educated Martijn further with “The Sandlot”, an American classic about boys losing a baseball to a monster dog.

Day 146 Travel to Phuket 30 June 2012

Today we woke up early to catch our flight to Phuket, where we had booked a nice five day retreat. Our resort ended up being just what we needed: a nice room with a gorgeous view, tv with many movie channels, excellent restaurant, ten minutes away from the sea, and a great pool on the roof.

Day 145 Two Buffets are One Too Many! 29 June 2012

Yes, we indulged today with two buffets! Sizzler’s salad bar for lunch and Sushi buffet at Zen for a late dinner. We also went for a morning swim, hung out at the bookstore, roamed the mall and went to the movies (Madagascar 3).

Our last night in Bangkok was spent repacking- our least favorite thing about travel! But the Hangover 2 was on tv - a funny coincidence- so we had some distraction from the task at hand. For sure that was not our Bangkok experience!

Day 144 Daytrip to Ayuthaya 28 June 2012

After navigating the skytrain and metro we made it to the train station with 10 minutes to spare for the train to Ayuthaya. Around 11:30 we arrived at rented some bikes, ate a picnic lunch and then set out to see the major sites. Compared to all the other old Buddhist temples we have seen these were less impressive but still made for a nice day. Our personal favorites were the Buddha head literally growing in a tree

 and a dressed reclining Buddha.  

Day 143 Third day is a Charm 27 June 2012

You are starting to get the picture here, another resting day!

Day 142 Resting Day 26 June 2012

Another lazy day! We slept even longer! Then we got to work on some laundry and the blog.

Day 141 Resting Day 25 June 2012

We slept all day since we are exhausted from our travels to Myanmar. It was a very lazy day whose only highlight was a sushi buffet for an early dinner at our favorite mall in Bangkok.

Day 140 Back in Bangkok 24 June 2012

Today we landed in Bangkok and returned to our luxury hotel to check in. We called Ana’s parents, then headed out to the mall for a late lunch at Sizzler’s,

saw a horror movie (Chernobyl Diaries), returned to the hotel, called Martijn’s parents and went to bed. It was a perfect reintroduction to modernity.

Day 129 Visa for Myanmar Part 2 13 June 2012

After lunch at the Sizzler again we went to the Myanmar Embassy to pick up or visas. We also changed Thai Baht to American Dollars- they must be new, crisp and in perfect condition.  

After the errand we had a little street treat: crispy pancake drowned in sweet condensed milk.

 We head out tomorrow with a flight at 7 am. There will be no blog updates until we return from Myanmar in 11 days- but we will take the spot along!

Day 128 More of the Same 12 June 2012

Today we had the choice, to go proper sightseeing, or to experience more of the city activities we had been taking pleasure in. No surprise we ended up at the mall, having lunch at Sizzler, swimming at our hotel and enjoying the good life some more.

Day 127 Visa for Myanmar Part 1 11 June 2012

 Today we applied for a tourist visa to Myanmar. We have been discussing whether to visit this newly opened country and decided that this would an opportunity we could not pass up. Apparently we were not the only ones with this thought as there were over 100 other tourists applying for their visa too.  The guy at the counter, an Oklahoma U graduate was every enthused and offered us some travel tips.

After this errand we returned to the mall to get out of the heat, stop by the bookshops and eat at the best deal in Bangkok- the Sizzler. Open salad bar with tuna salad and Cesar salad makes us very happy.

We returned for an evening swim and an early night in.

Day 126 Reclining Buddha 10 June 2012

 After a relaxing morning we headed out by skytrain to the river. Here we caught an express boat that lead us in the end to Wat Pho, home of the reclining Buddha, one of Bangkok’s top tourist attraction.

 

After walking around some more we hailed over a tuk tuk driver so he could bring us back to the mall or so we had hoped. After some haggling we settled for about 1 euro including a visit to a tailor where we had to stay for 5 minutes so the driver could get a free gas ticket. We played the game, discussed some clothes and then went back to the tuk tuk, where -surprise surprise- he offered to bring us for free with just one more stop. We refused and he ended up bringing us to a boat that in fact did bring us to our destination. He had never been planning to bring us from the start, one of the more entertaining Bangkok scams.

The boat itself was a little adventure, we went fast enough so that Martijn could taste the water, while the other passengers had been smart enough to hold up a protection screen.

Full of adrenaline we arrived at our mall, where we ended up having Sizzler’s for dinner.

Day125 Mall Fun 9 June 2012

After lunch we walked through the city and explored the Malls of Bangkok. A tourist destination in and of themselves the malls are huge and full of top brands and happy shoppers. Ana was happy just to window-shop and Martijn was happy because, at least, it was air-conditioned.

We decided to go to the movies and make a dinner date out of the afternoon. We watched Snow*White and the*Huntsman and ate at an all you can eat sushi buffet (with an hour and a half time limit).

We went back to our luxurious hotel room with a flat-screen tv and in-room wireless internet access. We are enjoying this luxury because Martijn had to make sure he did not miss the Dutch team playing in the Euro*Cup. He is watching Thai television and streaming Dutch internet radio on the laptop (with a 20 second radio delay). He is a die-hard fan!

But as they lost we will not speak of it.

Day 124 Traveling day to Bangkok 8 June 2012

 After a short ride to the bus station by tuktuk we hopped on a bus for a 7 hour ride to Bangkok.

At the lunch stop we saw a truck transporting a million or maybe a billion spring onions. It smelled so good!

Day 123 Sukhothai 7 June 2012

After breakfast at our guesthouse we ran for the bus and headed to the Sukhothai Historical park. The bus ride alone was an adventure! 

At the park we rented bikes and set out for the day visiting the Sukhotai ruins of the original capital of the first Thai kingdom dating back to the 13^th century.

Wat Mahathat is the largest and main wat (temple) of the area.

Wat Si Sawai with a cairn that we topped off with our little stone.

 

Traveling has truly changed, as even Buddha now brings an ipad along.

Wat Chang Lom with a circle of 36 elephants at its base. Ana’s favorite wat so far!

 Wat Phra Phai Luang with oxen loudly having lunch on the grounds as we biked through.

  Wat Si Chum with a 15meter seated Buddha- we were impressed!