24-26 June 2018

Krabi, Thailand

We had a few days enjoying the view, the beach and the pool, and rain, and Thai boxing!

And then we head off to the other coast of the Thai peninsula on a flight to Koh Samui and a ferry to Koh Tao.

 A usual breakfast of pancakes (we have found some good pancake mix), with butter (and olive oil spread from Laos!), bananas, jam, and chocolate spread.

Here is a pic of Brian and his stack of pancakes!

We enjoyed some time of the beach, while it rained. The kids and Brian played in the water, a game they made up called “Rescue the princess.”  It was something like one person was captured and being guarded and the other two people had to free her.  Fun for all although there was lots of sand/salt burn of the skin!

While Katie took a walk on the beach, Brian kept the kids busy by asking them to draw “Mommy” in the sand.

 I am not including any too detailed pictures of the sand sculptures which featured the breasts in detail!  It was very entertaining for all!

A cute kid pic.  Eliza is holding up a little monkey key chain they found in the sand.

We are heading back to the condotel to swim in the pool and chill out before dinner.

Apparently, Brian decided to join the girls “chill-axing” in the jacuzzi tub, which was on our balcony.  Not a lot of room, but everyone seems quite happy!

We had fun watching this bird nest which was built on a ledge outside the window of our 5th floor hallway.

We are walking across the road from our condotel to the beach for dinner.

We cut down this little path and we are on the beach.

 Another beautiful beach evening.

Brian and Lydia are checking out some interesting beach creature.

We decide that another dinner at Sa-ing Restaurant is just what we want.

The next day, we have a morning of trip school in the morning, followed by swimming in a rainstorm.

It was actually quite fun to swim while the rain was pouring down, especially to watch to raindrops fall into the pool.

We walked into Nong Thale town to try out a new restaurant, Sandwich Me, which had delicious Thai food, but did not serve sandwiches!

Brian and Hayden go to a two-hour Muay Thai boxing class in Nong Thale town.  They had the best time and wished it weren’t our last day because they would have done it everyday if they had known…

Here is a view of the Muoy Thai gym.

The girls and I (Katie) walked back to the condotel and saw this yard with lots of chickens and roosters!  This not an uncommon sight.  

While the boys were boxing, we had a “movie night,” and watched Sleepless in Seattle on Eliza’s ipad!

The next day, 26 June, we packed up and headed to the airport.

Here is one more view from our balcony.

The kids set the table out here for Brian and I to have breakfast dates.  They would close the sliding glass door and we’d have few minutes alone to chat.  This was actually quite nice because we have had a lot of together time!

This is the view from the other balcony, overlooking the pool.

You can see the back path to the road and to the beach from this view.

A few obligatory room pics.  The kids slept here.  The usual situation is that the kids get the “master bedroom” because it is bigger.  The girls share the king sized bed and Hayden gets a cot...

This is Brian and my room, which was right off the living area.                   

One more condotel pic, from the kitchen, looking into the dining and living room.  Brian and my room in on the right.

Some more baby birds have hatched.

Hayden was just complaining that we never have any good snacks.  And then we discover that  Bangkok Airways has a lounge for all passengers, and they serve popcorn!!  And hot chocolate, latte, mocha...  And other treats.  We wish we had arrived at the airport earlier!

Lydia is in front of the snack and beverage spread!

Farewell Krabi!

Hello Koh Samui!

We arrive at the Koh Samui airport after a 45 (or less) minute flight.

It is an open air, very pretty airport.

We take a van from the airport 45 minutes to the ferry terminal.  This is the market next to the ferry.  We find an air conditioned cafe for lunch.

As our departure time approaches, so do the rain clouds.

We are driven out to the end of the pier to wait for the ferry to arrive and it is starting to rain and is so windy.

This man is bringing his chicken on the ferry!

The ferry arrives.

The water is rough.  We are seated in the VIP section because we are some of the few passengers going all the way to Koh Tao.  Most people are getting off at the first stop, Koh Pha-ngan.  And we had “big luggage” which carried on ourselves because we didn’t understand that we were supposed to enter the boat from the front if we had luggage.   So we got on the back, and then were stuck with no seats.  They told us to bring our bags up front and then go upstairs to sit.  So we made our way to the fancy VIP seating area.  We were happy to find seats and happy not to pay extra for them.

The girls are having fun in the wind.  After 1 hour and 45 minutes, we arrive in Koh Tao.  The hotel, Dusit Buncha Resort, picks us up at the pier.  The kids are super excited to see our friends, the Duncans, who are meeting us there.  They are already asleep (at 8 PM) though, because they just arrived from Norwich, Vermont and are jet-lagged.