Samui Laguna Resort Surat Thani

... a plane headed for Surat Thani, a small city south of Bangkok on Thailand's gulf (eastern) coast. A minivan van delivered us from the tiny airport to our hotel, where we both enjoyed some rest in a luxurious room compared to the rooms in our near future. Thailand is basically on the other side of the world from the U.S., so McNeill was seriously jet-lagged. Exhausted, she conked out at about 7:00 in the evening.

... on the way to bangkok for lunch... trying to get into the trucker style at a road side stop amongst fellow truckers :-) Ensuring we had enough jammy dodger and peanut butter oreo supplies in the truck we rather successfully negotiated our route around and through Bangkok and headed aloong the coast line aiming south... Our first stop was Petchaburi where we visited 'Kao Luang' Caves. A walk up through a sea of monkeys took us to a short climb and then a ...

... a city where there's no space for anything but traffic. In the end, we found a little Italian restaurant called Viva that has the live program. We rested. Pan and I wanted to wait there for the next bus to Surat Thani. Heated Oven Bus Ride Finally, after 2 glasses of pineapple juice, our bus arrived. It only takes 2 hours from Krabi to Surat but it was the hottest time of all! First, I did sleep soundly along with the Western ...

... station where were meeting a girl who has our tickets that we purchased in Koh Sok. After a good 45 minutes of pacing back and forth a little thai women approached me and gave me 2 tickets. I guess the description of 2 white people with blonde hair was good enough! So we get our tickets and we ask the guy at the counter where we should wait. He suggests we upgrade to aircon sleeper express, the express gets us there a few hours earlier as it has no stops. Sounds ...

... pleasantly crunchy and cracker-like. The legs felt a bit creepy rubbing up against one's tongue, but other than that there was nothing gross about it. Rushing to get the experience overwith, I swallowed my bug before I'd adequately chewed it, so I could almost say "I ate a roast cricket WHOLE!" Don't eat them whole. Back at the dock we were accosted by the creepiest drunken homeless man who thought that caressing my knee would be a good enticement for me to give ...

... 23 May 08- Chinatown revisited Revisit to China town was as invigorting as the last one! This time we did strike some bargains.The rain on the way back drenched us while getting down at the Siam Centre. It is fun to get wet like this once in a while! 24 May 08 Arrived in Krabi!! After spending a hectic day going around Bangkok's Chatuchak Market and enjoying all the local color and festive spirit it was time to pack the bags and head for Krabi. We took a cab ...

... common, but given my timing I had few options. I experienced all during my 18+ hours. Luckily I spotted my luggage lying on the side of the road (in the rain, of course) as our bus pulled away from a stop and I was able to get the driver to stop so I could retrieve it. (It seemed that the policy of the bus was to unload all luggage even if only half the people were disembarking). With both my luggage and myself wet, I was dropped off at a ...

... candles flickering away in the night, each bar separated by fire topped pillars and fairy lights entwining the palm trees that stretch all the way down the bay. Its an amazing sight and on Saturday night, Andy and I had a fab meal at a restaurant called Gecko where they barbecued my meal (Red Snapper fish of course!) and prepared Andys curry on the beach and we sat contentedly eating at a table on the sand with the warm sea lapping round ...

... of the day for me to meditate. The yoga exercises filled me with energy, woke up my lungs for the day and chased the sleepiness from my body and replaced it with awareness. At 8 am the big bell would call us to the dining hall for breakfast. Meals were always served buffet style, and you had the opportunity to fill your stainless steel bowl to the brim many sif you wanted to. Most breakfasts were the exact same with very little variation. Rice soup, lettuce, cucumbers, this ...

... to a place called Surat Thani. Saying that the bus was quite good is in response to the many horror stories we have read about back packers and bus rides. Some have included being swapped onto many different buses half way through the journey to being robbed and the air conditioned luxury bus that was promised turned out to be a crammed mini bus with no air con. Ours was a ...