"Sure! Fuck it! That's your answer! Tattoo it on your forehead! Your answer to everything! Your "revolution" is over, Mr. Lebowski! Condolences! The bums lost! ...My advice is, do what your parents did! Get a job, sir! The bums will always lose--do you hear me, THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS--"
Well, as you may surmise, we are not on Phuket, but rather on Koh Samui, Thailand, in the Gulf of Siam (I think). We arrived in Bangkok at 4:30AM, Sunday morning, managed, bleary-eyed, to navigate immigration and customs without international incident, and found our way to the departure level. For a variety of reasons, we arrived in Bangkok, very uncharacteristically, without arrangements or even a plan of what to do. Vaguely, we felt like some beach time would be good, particularly following the 76 pretty intense days we have had, not even including those last few weeks in dear Missoula. Vicki had heard of a Bangkok Airlines "air pass" and previous attempts by Rebecca to get one for us (allegedly obtainable only outside Thailand) had not been successful. But at the sales counter, at 6 AM Sunday morning, contrary to what we were told in early October, Vicki bought two such passes. The only question was where to go, and the only Thai beach place we could remember (much less pronounce) was Phuket. The sales person told us flights to Phuket on Sunday were completely sold out, but that Koh Samui, on the east side of the peninsula, was nice, and there were seats available for an 8:30 AM flight.
Arriving in Koh Samui by 9:30, we faced pretty much the same lack of arrangements, but again lucked out, getting ourselves into the Buri Rasa resort (http://www.burirasa.com/home.html), on the beach, east side of the island, a really nice room (for a change!), at a decent discount. The resort is about as lushly landscaped in tropicals as anything I have ever seen, and the pond has lunker Koi's. One must be 26-28 inches long. The food is great, there are shops and things to do, and we may stay here for a while. It's hot, but the room has AC and a variety of amenities, and the beach is a short stroll away. It's pre-season, so not very crowded. It's touristy, yes, a bit, but even that is a nice change for us. We crashed on arrival.
Did I mention it has a topless beach?
PS. Clarification: a few of the women and most all of the men go topless on the beach. The Buri Rasa guest guide informs us that Thai people find women going topless "deeply offensive."
Well, as you may surmise, we are not on Phuket, but rather on Koh Samui, Thailand, in the Gulf of Siam (I think). We arrived in Bangkok at 4:30AM, Sunday morning, managed, bleary-eyed, to navigate immigration and customs without international incident, and found our way to the departure level. For a variety of reasons, we arrived in Bangkok, very uncharacteristically, without arrangements or even a plan of what to do. Vaguely, we felt like some beach time would be good, particularly following the 76 pretty intense days we have had, not even including those last few weeks in dear Missoula. Vicki had heard of a Bangkok Airlines "air pass" and previous attempts by Rebecca to get one for us (allegedly obtainable only outside Thailand) had not been successful. But at the sales counter, at 6 AM Sunday morning, contrary to what we were told in early October, Vicki bought two such passes. The only question was where to go, and the only Thai beach place we could remember (much less pronounce) was Phuket. The sales person told us flights to Phuket on Sunday were completely sold out, but that Koh Samui, on the east side of the peninsula, was nice, and there were seats available for an 8:30 AM flight.
Arriving in Koh Samui by 9:30, we faced pretty much the same lack of arrangements, but again lucked out, getting ourselves into the Buri Rasa resort (http://www.burirasa.com/home.html), on the beach, east side of the island, a really nice room (for a change!), at a decent discount. The resort is about as lushly landscaped in tropicals as anything I have ever seen, and the pond has lunker Koi's. One must be 26-28 inches long. The food is great, there are shops and things to do, and we may stay here for a while. It's hot, but the room has AC and a variety of amenities, and the beach is a short stroll away. It's pre-season, so not very crowded. It's touristy, yes, a bit, but even that is a nice change for us. We crashed on arrival.
Did I mention it has a topless beach?
PS. Clarification: a few of the women and most all of the men go topless on the beach. The Buri Rasa guest guide informs us that Thai people find women going topless "deeply offensive."
Vicki adds:
November 23-- Koa Samui
I have been taking it easy hoping my shoulder would mend itself. It has gotten much better but I did make an appointment at an English speaking hospital in Bangkok for next week. Of course we are now watching the Thailand network to see if we can even go to Bangkok due to the demonstrations there attempting to overthrow the government. We may be spending a very long time on the beach.
We got here really by accident. We arrived in Thailand with no plans other than to try to buy the cheaper airpass that Bangkok Airline sells outside the country. We could find no way to purchase it in US, China or India. I have a feeling it is not a product they sell a lot of. We had asked in Bangkok before with no luck--this time they said yes, but there were no seats that day for Phuket, which is an island on the west coast where the tsunami hit. I asked where else she could suggest--she said Koa Samui and we were here two hours later. It is an island off the the southern east coast. It was "undiscovered" until about 10 years ago. We spent 4 nights at a boutique resort which was small but very, very nice but also $80 a day after the various discounts. So we scouted around walking up and down the beach and found Seascape. It is exactly a cheaper imitation of the upscale small resorts except it is older. It is also $30 a night with breakfast buffet. It is low season on the east coast as this is the rainy season and they mean it. It pours about 8 hours in 24. However it stays over 80 degrees and usually turns partly cloudy in afternoon and evening. So we sleep late, eat breakfast at 10, walk on the beach in the afternoon, have a drink, wash the salt spray off in the pool, laze around and go out for dinner around 7 or so. Life is good.
1 comment:
I really enjoy reading your posts where I can get such useful information. Thanks for sharing. It's invaluable. Book Delhi to Ahmedabad Flights and get the best flight rates and deals on Domestic flights.
Post a Comment