Final Posting from Thailand

We hope everyone had fun reading about our Thailand trip over the past three weeks. We have had an incredible trip, but unfortunately today is our last day here and we are headed back to the US this evening. We just finished packing our luggage with all sorts of gifts and keepsakes from Thailand. The past two days we layed low by finishing up some last minute shopping as well as saying good bye to a lot of family. This was one of the best trips I have taken and couldn't have asked for more. We will each post some final impressions of Thailand once we get home, but, in the meantime, here are some pictures of our final days here.

See everyone in the US soon! We will also be stopping by Silverbrook to see Murphy and his training progress!

We will also be going on a diet from the all the constant eating we did on this trip.  I think I may have gained ten pounds.

Picking out my fish for our last dinner in Koh Samui.

Said fish.

Tuna app.

The best banana pancakes as advertised by the street food cart.  Pretty darn good.

Sushi dinner when we got back to Bangkok.

The salmon set.

Tuk Tuk at the convention center.

Fresh spring roll and yen ta pho noodles.

Deep fried herbs, fish ball stuffed with salted egg, fried calamari, and calamari soup.

Desserts - French style.

Open air market.

Shrimp pad thai wrapped with egg.

Tapioca stuff with a sweet pork and peanut.

Fried oysters with egg and tapioca. 

Protests - Thai style, it felt more like a concert. 

Afternoon pick me up with P'Som.

Our last dinner here in Thailand - Ba Nom hosted a wonderful family dinner at her home, so we could say goodbye to everyone. Above is Waterfall beef.

Chicken larb.

Bamboo shoot salad.

Grilled chicken.

Deep fried mini whole calamari.

P' Por's family.

Lueng Nien's family.

Mangosteen - not in season, but we still managed to find some at the market.

Renee's first taste of mangosteen, she liked it!

Na Nee and Ba Nom.

P' Bong's family.

P' Pui and her mother in law. 

Last full day on the island

Today is the last full day in Koh Samui and we wish we had a couple more days here before we start to head home.  Monika says that after looking at our pictures she thinks that we have vacation face and in her words, "For me that means when it is obvious that the person is so truly relaxed. It takes especially long vacations for me to experience letting go of thinking that returning to work is just around the corner."

I would tend to agree with her that this has been one of the best and relaxing vacations that we have taken and I don't want to see it end, however we do want to get back home and see the Murph-dog and all of our family and friends.  I think that was probably a run on sentence, but this is my blog and I do what I want!

Anyways, back to what everyone is looking for - pictures of food! There are also pictures of our excursion today, where we went to the Ang Tong Marine Park.  Happy Monday and see everyone soon!

Late night munchies. (you wouldn't think a silly bag of chips would be spicy, but those drum stick thingy's were f'ing HOT! -says Renee)

Our lunch spot yesterday - see the vacation face?

More vacation face.

Chicken ka-pow. (good, but Renee wanted more Thai Basil)

Koi Soi - a little different than the one we had up in the north but still equally as good.

We went back to Cafe 69 for dinner since it was so good the first time.  Duck red curry wontons.

Fried rice Tom Yum - interesting twist on fried rice - super spicy.

Salt egg stuffed chicken legs in a penang curry.

Kayaking today at the Marine Park.

A view of the Marine Park.

A shot of us.

I think we had to climb about 10 flights of stairs similar to this to get to the Emerald Lagoon.

The Emerald Lagoon.

First Days in Koh Samui

On Wednesday, we took off from Bangkok and headed about an hour and some change, south to the island of Koh Samui. We decided to stay at the Anantara Resort on the north side of the island in Bophut near the Fisherman's Village.  We chose this side of the island because we heard it was a bit quieter than the bustling Chaweng Beach where all the youngens go to party - man we are getting old. We are also able to walk to a lot of places around here, which was another advantage.  

For tomorrow we booked a day trip to one of the other islands here, Koh Tao, where we will be able to sightsee and get some good pictures.  Hopefully we can get those posted soon, but in the meantime here are some of the pictures so far of the hotel and the food on the island.

We are sad that it is our last week here but are excited to see how Murphy and his training with Trish at Silverbrook Kennels are doing.

We have not fallen off the grid...

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lapse in posts the last few days. We were in Bangkok the last few days and the hotel we were staying at did not have free WiFi and we refused to pay for internet. So, we arrived in Koi Samui today and have free internet, so the blog posts will return. First, we'll recap the last few days in Bangkok.

So, when we arrived back in Bangkok from Chiang Mai we had a tasty lunch with P'Pui and her family. See tasty food shots below:

The next day we made a day trip to Petchburi where Naa Taew (Natie's Aunt) lives. It was about a two hour trip from Bangkok. When we arrived we of course had to eat. We had a tasty lunch at a place called Relax. I had my first taste of a really good noodle dish called Mew Krab - it is fried noodles with chicken and veggies and chilies with crispy fish bits on top. It was delicious (see below). The other dish is duck feet, but I didn't try those...

We also visited a shrine to King Rama the sixth that was located on a small waterfront beach area. 

We didn't know the shrine had the same rules as a temple (no shorts allowed), so I had to wrap my sarong around my waist to cover my legs down to my knees, ha. I'm so stylish :)

Naa Taew and her family are in the middle of having a new home built, so we went to visit and see the progress. It was huge and filled with gorgeous gorgeous wood! I included some pictures below. They'll get to move in about 3-4 months. 

Our last day in Bangkok we finally were able to make it to the Grand Palace as well as the Wat Pho where the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand resides. Lung Nian (Natie's Uncle) and his son, Ji were nice enough to take us into the city to see these sites. Because of the protests going on in Bangkok, we weren't able to stay directly in downtown Bangkok, so due to this we had to take multiple modes of transportation to get into the city (the protests have also closed a lot of the roadways into downtown). First, we drove to the metro (underground), then we connected to the Skytrain (above ground). From the Skytrain, we hopped on a boat which took us down the river to the Grand Palace. It was quite the trip, but the boat ride was pretty cool as we could see all the original boathouses/piers along the water. The Grand Palace was very impressive - it is the royal residence of the King and Queen, but the temple within houses the famous Emerald Buddha (sorry, no photos were allowed of that one). 

We had a great couple of days in Bangkok and as I mentioned earlier, we just arrived in Koi Samui! More posts on that soon! Hope everyone is staying warm at home - we heard there is some snowy weather!!

Happy Birthday Joy! We will eat some Thai food for you!