The Beach

Ao Patong, Phuket, Thailand

Sorry for the lack of blogging in the past week but:
1- we were in paradise and felt guilty bragging
2- we couldn't bear to get off of the beach
3- we spent most of our internet time transfixed by pictures of our new niece


As the pictures show the beaches and islands of Thailand are amazing. From Krabi we took the ferry to Koh Lanta. This was a great pick by Noah. We stayed in a bamboo bungalow on "Long Beach" which was a very long white sand beach (although surprisingly full of pine needles and acorns). The atmosphere was extremely relaxed and we basically had the beach to ourselves. We spent most of the day relaxing, reading and some swimming when I could convince Noah (he hates reapplying sunscreen). At night we were mesmerized by the sunsets over the water, hot air balloons being launched, and the heat lightning over the water.







It was hard to pry ourselves away, but we eventually left for Koh Phi Phi which is described as the true paradise here in Thailand. It definitely did not disappoint. We had amazing swimming right in front of our place and then about 20m in we had amazing snorkeling. Quite a combination. We spent our first day sitting on the beach but for our only full day there we took a boat ride around the islands that make up Koh Phi Phi. It's really interesting to see the varied topography of the islands. Most of the shoreline is really high cliffs and then all of a sudden there is a sandy beach. Its hard to imagine the forces at work that could make such dramatic changes over such small islands. The boat ride took us to several great snorkeling and swimming spots. We also went to the famous Maya Bay (from the movie "The Beach") which is a fantastic perfect O with only a small opening between the high cliff walls and then a shallow white sand beach. We actually saw a lot of wildlife on Koh Phi Phi: monkeys (at the bungalow and at "Monkey Beach", a school of dolphins (probably at least 30 different fin sightings), and a snake that first jumped (specific word use) on a girl's head at the restaurant and then 15 minutes later jumped from a different tree right in front of us to catch a gecko. Noah thinks this is their hunting technique. Well, it grabbed the gecko and soon the tail was off writhing on the ground for at least 3 minutes. We couldn't figure out if the snake was able to bite off the tail, or as Noah guessed it is a stress/escape reaction for a gecko when it is threatened. Either way, I have never seen a tail do that!










Yesterday we had a great shock as we got to Patong Beach at Phuket. All evening I tried to think of a good way to describe it, and the best we came up with is Vegas meets Spring Break. It is crazy here at night. Neon lights and bars everywhere. Hundred of people selling just about everything knock-off: Louis Vitton, Tiffany's. You name it is here. I think today we will take it easy with the crowds as we still have a lot of planning to do for our trip. It is unbelievably hard to move every 1-2 days. Just the maximizing of the guest room is tiring. But we are having an amazing time, and minus the big bumps on my head and leg from losing my balance and almost falling off the boat we feel great.

One last thing, we got a few questions about the food we've been eating. Noah has been pretty consistent with ordering all types of curry available: red, yellow, green, massaman, pha nang (which I love too). I was on the Pad Thai kick for a while but I did snap out of it long enough to have some stir fry (chinese style) and some curry. Noah also had a whole grilled snapper which he liked. Other than dinner foods, I've been set on having banana pancakes almost every morning and Noah has had muesli with fruit and yogurt. We also have indulged in Thai style crepes with chocolate and banana. Yum. We've also been drinking fruit shakes like crazy. I am partial to the watermelon and Noah loves the coconut. They have a dessert here that consists of bananas in hot coconut milk. It's really tasty. The food here is so fresh, especially the eggs which have really orange yolks and are so tasty that I had to break away from the pancakes sometimes. It made us think about the Industrial Food System in the USA and how unhealthy our food really is. It certainly does not taste as good as the food here.