The Thai Sampler

Since I was so light on the details - I thought I should recap our first day in Thailand (Saturday):

It started with our lovely breakfast buffet and heading directly to the pool. Kim and I had chosen chairs that were poolside close to the little canteen so water and coconuts were handy!  It was incredibly warm out and the sun was shining so the close proximity to these were very important.

The routine seemed to gos sunscreen  pool, sunscreen, read, sunscreen, pool, sunscreen, water, pool, sunscreen, read, pool, sunscreen, coconut, pool, sunscreen, read, sunscreen, pool, sunscreen, lunch, sunscreen, pool - you can see the pattern - lol! Mercies it was hot but my diligence was worth it when i picked up some fantastic color and only got a little burn in a couple of places.

After the pool, we headed up to shower and went for a quick jaunt into town for a pedicure - well the rest of the girls got a pedicure - and I a manicure. Hmmm it may have only been $7 but it kind of looked like it was only $7. I was glad that I had a pedi before I left as 2 girls got cut (ouch). My manicure didn't involve blood but the polish certainly wasn't nice and smooth. Oh well - the experience was worth $7 - that is for sure.

Then it was back to the hotel, piled into the back of a truck that is covered with benches lining the sides (Kim and I were loving it as the farm girl was coming to the surface) to pick up the stragglers and head into town. We got dropped off at the Burger King (of course we did) and started down the street. The shopping consisted of a lot of knock offs, various clothing stalls, jewelry, etc. All in confined little kiosks. The odd time you would pass a nice air conditioned stored that had the same type of stuff just pricier. They had to pay for their air conditioning bill somehow.

Shortly into our walk, we bought coconuts. What a refreshing treat as we wandered down the sidewalk. This effectively killed my shopping as I no longer had a free hand to browse. Unfortunately it also killed my picture taking as I no longer had a free hand for that either. As always, I was the last one done mine and had to carry it forever looking for a garbage can.

By the time we got to the end of the street we were ready for the beach - we hiked up this little road that cuts to the beach, passing by a motel boasting - "Not great but good" the consensus among the group was that was an understatement - we probably would have advertised - "Not okay but survivable". The beach was such a nice break. The water was beautiful and warm, the sand soft and white for as long as you could see.

As we strolled, we passed roasting corn and satay's. Coconuts and jewelery vendors. Sea doo rentals, fishing boats, locals and tourists. Beach side motels and lovely restaurants. As it was towards the end of the day, beach lovers were starting to pack up and restaurants were claiming their spots on the sand. This gave us an advantage for the evening to know which restaurants may look beautiful by night but not so fantastic during the day.

We got back to the hotel, quickly freshened up and were off for dinner. There was a pretty big group of us - maybe 15 of us - so we found ourselves a little spot along the beach. What a delightful way to dine - al fresco with the stars shining, cool breeze coming up from the sea. We sent up a Thai lantern in honor of Todd and Mish and enjoyed a relaxing night. I had my first Thai curry - Green Curry with Prawns - it was delicious.

The perfect way to spend our first day in Thailand! A little sampling of everything!