Life's a Beach!

Well, just a note to say we have been inThailand for a week. We'll stay here until we come home.

We flew to Phuket and headed to one of its beaches, Kata Beach. I think it may be the only place in the country you can surf, so even though its the low season we thought, maybe it will just be smaller waves? NOPE.. I asked at the place we checked into and the guy was laughing and gesturing, "The Sea is FLAT!" Yes it was...

We stayed put in Phuket a couple of days because Chris developed an esophageal ulcer from not taking his malaria pills with enough water. We went to the hospital to make sure it was what i thought and that I had given him the right medications. Didn't want to leave realizing the stabbing chest pains he had when he was swallowing were really something else. Something life-threatening, and we would be on a secluded island nowhere near a hospital! But once we had that sorted out, we took a boat out of there. Not where we wanted to be. A nice beach but other than that its a crowded town. We kinda had a mental picture of what we expected as beach bums and this wasn't it. But it was lovely for a few first days of sunshine and beach.

We jumped on a crowded huge boat taxi that took people to all different locations, indicated by the sticker you wore on your shirt and which pile they chucked your luggage into. We felt like refugees crammed together trying to find a bit of sitting space. At leat there was sun. Too bad we were dehydrated because there was no way I was paying $6 for a small bottled water! So after portaging in the middle of the ocean and switching boats and having people jump ship a few times, we finally arrived in paradise....The island of Koh Lanta....

Koh Lanta= Paradise. It just gets better every day. I'm not sure if we will leave at all. We have tough decisions to make each day. Lay in the shade and read a book? or sleep in the sun and work on our tan? or perhaps have a swim and cool off with shake?... Its tough... lol.... We love it here. Very few big resorts. In fact none where we are.. Mostly just huts and and nice bungalows, small family run operations. Little restarants on the beach. The relaxed feeling here is exactly what we were after.

We rented a motorbike and toured parts of the island today and found amazing secluded little coves and beaches we can't wait to spend time at. We went to the most populated beach (which is not that populated) where we saw a guy with a Pittsburgh Steelers tatoo. We talked to him and now found out how we can watch the Superbowl! 6am Monday morning at a little Aussie Beach Bar.. Yay! Anyhow, this place is great, and I think we are going to stay. Morning runs on the beach before its scorching hot, frisbee, gorgeous sunsets, beach bonfires, friendly locals, and lots of hippie types. No one appears stressed or too busy, hammocks hang all over the place. Just the place we imagined in our fantasies of Thailand. We are totally relaxed. Other beaches are supposed to be amazing and we planned to see a bunch, but it is so nice to unpack your stuff and not have to repack and move in a few days.

So we are just going to make it home here, take a break from traveling around and stay put. We'll see what happens, but for now this is the plan. Don't have my camera right now put will post some photos another day.

P.S. Chris has been getting better everyday, and within a day or two, he expects to have no more pain at all!!! Bye Bye Ulcer, hello everything else he has not been eating and drinking the last week and a half!