Tag Archive: pool


Ess-cappay

Filed Under: Thailand
Mar.20, 2010

With 2 goals, 1 to see the island, 2 to stay out of the sun a bit, we decided to scoot down south (the goal we originally had the day we ended up on the east side of the island.)

We stopped along the way for breakfast, drinks, and spent a good chunk of time at a beach side bar which had some umbrellas and loungers on the sand. My routine was, have a dip, sit in the chair till the wind dried off the water, then have a dip. I kept that up for a good while, Amy and Jen played cards and used the free internet… eventually we took off to find some food and ended up at a really nice place.

Our road eventually became a bumpy dirt mess, and we trucked on for a while, but we wanted to hit the pool before it closed so we turned back. Jen spotted monkeys and we stopped for pictures… after a night time swim we had a couple of drinks to cool off before hitting the hut. This time Jen had her own hut, a much nicer, ocean view, working fan hut.

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Fun In The Sun

Filed Under: Thailand
Mar.19, 2010

Well, being that it was check out day, I figured I would check and see if maybe the water had cleared up it’s little jelly fish issue. It had! We spent a huge amount of time swimming around, trying the water proof camera Amy bought for me back in Laos, walking up and down the beach, etc… eventually we figured we should go check in to our new place.

We loaded our bags on our backs and bellies and took off on the scooters. When we rolled in to the resort, we were greeted with fresh pineapple juice and were escorted to our cozy hut bungalow. An extra bed is 300 baht, and a hut is 400, so our plan was to get 2 huts, but the first night they were all booked up so we all squeezed into the little bungalow, tucked way at the back in the jungle.

It wasn’t long before we were back in the water at our new beach. The resort is located at the north end of the island on a little delta, and you almost feel like you are on your own little private island. Our new beach is kind of like Rathtrevor where the sand bar goes out forever, making the water even warmer. In fact, on a hot day, you cant even find a cool bit of water to refresh yourself. The infinity pool is hot, the ocean is hot, the shower is hot, the shade is hot….

Towards the end of the day it was clear we had a little too much sun. We had dinner at a little roadside stand which had the best shakes ever, and headed back to our much to warm, cooled only by a broken fan, bungalow.

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Pool Party

Filed Under: Thailand
Mar.15, 2010

We woke up late. Like 12:00 in the afternoon is when we finally got out of bed. We haven’t had any decent sleep for a while. To was a chore day. Booking travel, choosing an island to chill out on for the rest of our trip, laundry, hair cut, etc…

Eventually we made it up onto the roof of the hotel to see their pool. It was only 3-4 feet deep, but it was fantastic. It looked nice, the water wasn’t freezing cold, the chairs around were nice… it was a shame it was only open to 6:00.

After we frittered time away in the streets and then headed off to check out the protests. They were definitely being done the way a protest should be done. Organized, visible, calm, good natured… and finally we got to see the non-tourist prices. There were food and merchandise stands set up for the protesters, and for example, glasses that are priced at 250 baht on khao san road were priced at 50 baht.

After we checked out a show, and then after a little more shopping we headed back to the room.

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What is this? The rip-off store?

Filed Under: Thailand
Feb.16, 2010

Well, I don’t remember if I had mentioned before, but the place we got the “tour”/trip to Laos was at our guest house. We checked a few places, felt good about a couple, but eventually settled on getting it from our guest house because it was such a nice place and the people were always so helpful. We got a really good feeling for sure from it…

So we wake up in the morning, they let us leave our bags at reception and we went off to have our breakfast at the hotel we stayed at previously (which is connected to the guesthouse by management and proximity.) It was really tastey as always. The bus shows up (kind of like one of those big vans you would expect a bunch of rich Chinese tourists to pile out of, and once again we are the first people on. As we pick up people we realize that they are from some pretty upscale places, so our expectaions of the planned guest house (from the tour) went up a fair bit. I mean the pictures looked nice, but the pictures ALWAYS look nice.

We had a nice little pitstop and got some food, a little bathroom break, and then it was back to the airconditioned minibus/van; back to enjoying the countryside until we eventually pulled up to the guest house. We roll in, and WOW, this place is like some garden of Eden or something. The buildings are gorgeous wood siding, hidden among the trees, the brick and greenery paths through the gardens were picturesque. The pool looked fantastic, there was a little waterfall included, warm showers, lounge chairs, the works. Then we start reading the signs, and the rip-offs begin. Pool, an extra 50 baht, towel annother 120, cusion for the boar 40 baht… etc etc etc. They tell us that the way the tour is set up they need to send our passports ahead for the exit stamp, even though we insisted we wanted to do it, they said it wasn’t possible, we needed to fork over 180 baht for it too, plus they wanted 3 pictures for the visa (we wanted a visa on arrival, which shouldnt need a picture for obvious reasons.) They wouldn’t budge, and we didnt want to get stuck on the wrong side of the river with the tour carrying on so eventually we gave in.

I drew the line at water. I wandered through town to find cheaper water (as I drink a lot of it) and I refused to buy one of their damned cusion (it’s almost like I have some dutch in me eh?) We (Amy and I) DID give in to the pool fee as it was so warm, and granted, it was enjoyable, but when it was time to use the warm showers after… I think I spent a good hour in there enjoying the hot water after.

After dinner (no one understand a buffet over here I suppose) and a movie, we went to sleep in our room under mosquito nets, leaving the door open to try and stay cool through the night.

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Cooking, Trekking, Swimming, Elephants and the Irish.

Filed Under: Thailand
Feb.10, 2010

Jen and I hurried off in the morning to find a place to switch to while Amy was getting ready in the prison erm… “guest house” shower. We tried a place we had asked yesterday (900 baht.. no thanks) but today they had a room for 560. That’s 10 more than what we were paying Sarah for 2 rooms, but it fit all of us, two HUGE beds, two bathrooms, and A POOL! I ran back to get Amy before checkout time and when we got back it turned out that while one person said the room was 560, the one taking the money from Jen said 500… right on!

We had some breakfast at the restaurant downstairs and met an Irish girl… she had a bit of insight on what to look for in treks, but not much more than we already knew ourselves. She invited me to go horse back riding with her while Amy and Jen were cooking, but again around 1000 baht, massages wins over bumpy rides in the hot sun.

We set off from there with plans to meet up at 7:00 to eat up Amy and Jens 9 dishes of hard work. The three of us decided we needed to book a trek as time was just passing by and so after what seemed like ages we finally found an actual tour company instead of a reseller and went with them as we got a really good feeling (which was not what we expected after hearing all the horror stories of failed, not fun, not enough food, over touristic treks.)

Amy and Jen went off for their class, I read a book and picked up the laundry etc while I waited for them. We met up with Christina (the Irish girl) and her friend Leigh-Anne who had a bit of bad luck and was back in Chiang Mai after losing her bike off of a bus. The food was amazing. Probably my favorite spring rolls and pad thai yet, and the sticky rice with mango and deep fried ice cream were a great dessert.

We headed to get a drink and while we had THOUGHT the ladyboy bar-girl keeping all the old guys excited was going to be entertainment enough, we were just blown away when a dancing elephant showed up at the front of the bar. It was a young looking thing and while our logical side said “what a horrible life, cruising the streets with it’s owner, dancing for food” it was really hard not to enjoy the surrealistic experience. The elephant looked well taken care of as well which made it easier.

We went back to the new room and packed for tomorrows trek.

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