So I've been meaning to tell you all about the stray dogs here - they are everywhere and are the mangiest looking creatures I have ever seen. They actually scare me and I move quickly to get away from them. We've been told to buy a tall umbrella so that we can use it to shoo them away as pretty much most of them have rabies and they do attack. We both got our rabies vaccine before coming here but apparently that does not completely safeguard you from Rabies - if bitten we must go to the ER immediately and we still must get the shots in the stomach - just not as many as if we did not have the vaccine. Lovely. Anyhow - they call them Soi (pronounced Soy) Dogs.
This week I enjoyed lots of pool time. I bought some books and have almost finished my first book - Undomestic Goddess. It has been a rather relaxing week. Late in the week, the President of the American Women’s Club in Bangkok contacted me, as she wanted to meet with me to convince me to join her club. I already knew I was going to join as I have heard about it from so many people and everyone recommends it. So this was my first time navigating the city of Bangkok in a part of it that I had never been - all on my own. I was a little apprehensive but had no choice to make a go of it - in the end I found it with no problems - even though her directions were slightly off. We had a nice meeting and she told me all about the club - they do charity events and they have various groups that are part of their club. Every Monday a group meets to discuss Adjusting to Bangkok - I am definitely going to check that out. They have a book club, sewing club, needlework’s club, bowling group, tennis group, golfing group, bridge group, mahjong group, bunco group, ladies night out group, coffee group, lunch time group, dinner out group, shopping group, pamper group - you name it they have it. Pamper group caught my attention as they kept mentioning I should join it - I immediately said well we don't have kids (thinking clearly it was a group for those with kids). She laughed at me and immediately said no - no, pamper as in going to get facials and massages. I am all over that one. So it sounds like there is plenty to keep me busy if I get involved with this club.
So Friday Joe and I received some new pieces of furniture from the embassy to go with what the apartment complex provided. We got a china cabinet, floor lamp, two large bookcases, computer desk, and two large carpets (living room and bedroom). We are quite happy with our extra pieces as it is filling up our very empty apartment and making it feel more like home. We still have a shoe storage bench and a recliner coming that will be delivered a week from Monday - along with our Air Freight Shipment! Woohoo! Our first shipment of stuff is here - quite excited. I am quickly running out of hair gel and Joe has already run out of his fancy Colombian coffee!
Friday night, Joe and I boarded a plane and took a quick flight down to Phuket, which is an island south of us just off the coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean. It was approximately a one-hour flight - we flew Thai Airways, which is a star alliance with United. The seats were a bit small but the food was actually quite good - and we were sitting in economy! We were amazed to even get food. I made a little friend on the plane - a little 6 year old boy from Canada who has two homes - one in Canada and one on Phuket - he kept telling me all about them and how excited he was to come home to Phuket and that he has lots of toys here. We took a limo service to our hotel - the JW Marriott Resort and Spa. We managed to get our room upgraded to one with a terrace and lounge chairs due to our platinum status with them and we also managed to stay here for $70 per night, as we are now Thai Gold Members. They have this club you can join if you are living in Thailand. I think we paid $72 for it and we were given like 10 vouchers for 50% off at certain hotels (this being one of them) throughout Thailand. You get a membership card and you get 50% off food at their restaurants and 15% off beverages at their restaurants. We have figured out that in the end the card ends up paying for itself. Our room is quite nice but the bed is still hard as a rock here - though not as hard as the one in our apartment. We spent all day today at the pool. They have three pools here - the one near us is awesome - it has a bar in the middle of it that serves you drinks and food. They have really nice lounge chairs all around the pool with umbrellas and tables - and a staff of people waiting on you the entire time. They come over and wrap towels around your chair for you and then bring you ice water. The come around often with the water pitcher to refill for you. They basically wait on you hand and foot. You can go out on the beach - there are very few people there but most of the people that are there are getting massages. They have tents set up on the beach with beds that you lay on and you get Thai massages on the beach. A one-hour massage is 400 Baht, which is approximately $12. Not too shabby - I think we'll test it out tomorrow. We had planned on doing it today but we were enjoying the pool way too much. The place is pretty much deserted and there is no one in sight. I remember going to Hawaii - Maui and the Big Island - on our honeymoon thinking this is the most relaxing place on earth. Then we went to Hawaii again for my job on a two-week trip - went to Kauai for a few days and fell in love with that island thinking no, this is even better. Then we took a family vacation to the Caymans for Christmas one year and I was like now this is the life - this is so much better than Hawaii. Now that I have been to Phuket - I cannot imagine it getting better than this. It is the ultimate in relaxation - not a care in the world. So they have all kinds of excursions you can take - elephant rides, AV tours, kayaking tours, boat tours to the other islands, fishing trips, snorkeling, diving, old town Phuket tours, rafting tours and the list goes on. We are going to look into signing up for some of them tomorrow - there are a few that are high on our list - elephant ride, kayaking, fishing and a boat tour of the other islands (we'll only do fishing and a boat tour if we can get Joe some dramamine though). We enjoyed a great dinner tonight - I had fresh steamed lobster and Joe had fresh grilled red snapper. Then we walked around and Joe took some night shots here at the hotel (see attached photos). I think they are going to have to give me some more of those vouchers - I am going to need to come here once a month just to get away from the noise and busy life in Bangkok!
Nicer than the Caymans!?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteWoah.