purplelara

copy of email sent during trip to Thailand, December 2003 - January 2004

Well, still here, enjoying ourselves. went on a boat ride the other day to some islands I don’t know the name of. went snorkeling, etc. went to one place that had a cave you swam through - pitch black - when you got through to the other side there was this little round, secret beach where pirates used to hide their stuff. Really cool. The sides up were like over 100 feet. Don’t know if i’m describing that right, but it’s like if you were above, you would be looking down into a well with the beach at the bottom.

Last night was a quiet night - went to a beach bar down the beach (had burgers & fries - isn’t that sad, with all the thai food around?).

Christmas was fun, there are about 20 people in our group here and we did a secret santa - could only spend 40 baht, which is like $1.50. christmas eve we had a nice buffet dinner. tomorrow we are going on another boat to a place called Koh Rok for more snorkeling so it will be an early night tonight.

Last night the bathroom light blew out so I took a flashlight in with me and I found a scorpion on the toilet seat - look before you sit down here. It was just a baby, but I still don’t think my butt would have enjoyed sitting on him. Jeff & Nicole have a mouse in their bungalow, luckily we don’t, just lots and lots of skeeters, a few geckos & a frog.

Trying to decide whether to stay here until the 5th (when we leave for bangkok) or go exploring a bit. Like to see some more places, but all the travel places say that most places are booked up around new years, so not sure. it is also really nice and cheap here so haven’t decided yet. Well, I’m being charged a whopping 2 baht a minute here, so I’ll wrap it up. Hope everyone is OK, drop me a note if anything exciting is going on. I don’t know what day or date it is, but I’ll try & drop another line before we go to Bangkok, or when we get there.

copy of email sent during trip to Thailand, December 2003 - January 2004

Merry christmas everyone! holy smokes I can’t type already. I’ll send one email instead of replying ’cause it’s hard to get a connection here and it’s just a lot of work to walk two doors down anyways

We arrived in Phuket safely, drove down to the end of the island with jeff & nicole. stayed over night at a nice resort. Had a nice dinner, swim in the pool, breakfast & took a speedboat to Koh Lanta (about 2 hours). Very fun but wet ride!!

We stopped at Koh Pei Pei (pee pee) to snorkel for an hour or so. Apparetnly this is were they filmed The Beach, which I haven’t seen anyways. Oh! when we were snorkelling I found Nemo, he’s a Maya Bay on Koh Pei Pei. Lots of them!!

It is super cool here, little bungalow with a bed and a little “bathroom” which is a toilet we flush with a bucket of water & a shower head - all in the same room, so you have to close the toilet when you shower. Cold water only, so they’re quick ones. Haven’t washed my hair since Phuket, but so what, everyone is the same! I think I’ll do it tonight, as it’s christmas tomorrow!!

All and all it’s very rustic & very awesome. I think my mom & glenn are in culture shock, but we’re enjoying it alot. Today I got up and had breakfast then took a ride to town in my pajamas - hey they are light cotton. Did my chirstmas shopping in my pjs and I spetn about $20 - all but 40 baht (about $1.10) on my self. ha! Lots of cool stuff here.

The food here is UNBELIEVEABLE. So far I’ve had prawn tempura - which isn’t really like tempura, it’s the best damn deep fried prawns (HUGE!), garlic & peper prawns - the best thing ever, green curry with seafood, all sorts of noodle things and so on and so on. oh calamari too. and I’m living on watermelon “shakes” - fruit blended with ice. So good. The most expensive meal on the menu is about 80 baht - under $3. You get cheap here, 100 baht is like “whoa, are you kidding me?!?!”

There are lots of great people here and the day is usually spent lying around & eating and yakking. getting up to get a drink is a major effort and takes about 20 minutes to work up too. Well, should run before this blows out on us, Nicole and I could stay here forever, we are in A/C - what a luxury!! We’ll be here ’til the 5th, then we take a sleeper train to Bangkok. should be fun.