Koh Samui

As we previously mentioned in the last post, we spent a beautiful Christmas weekend in Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Some flights go there directly, but two airlines use the airport exclusively and therefore charge a premium to get there. So instead, we tried the plans-to-bus-to-boat route.

 

Was the money saved worth the trouble? Who really knows but the end result was well worth it. For 3+ glorious days, we had our own teak house right on our own beach with crystal clear water, views of the islands across the way, a tropical plant-filled garden and all of the other trappings of paradise.

 

 

 

 

When not enjoying our idyllic accommodations, we found other activities to do such as hitting the local towns for their walking streets full of food vendors.

Had dinner literally on the beach and released paper lanterns into the night sky.

Went to other beaches to see how the other sides of the island looked.

 

Went for morning beach walks and took pictures of ourselves.

Went 4x4ing to see elephants and a jungle waterfall.

Went to the pool.

 

 

On that note, that wraps up a great Xmas weekend.

First visit

Posting has been a little light of late, mainly because we've been occupied with our first guests from the States. Bibi and Poppy (aka Anne and Peter) came our to visit us for about two weeks. We packed quite a bit in, including Xmas weekend in a beachside house in Koh Samui (we'll save that for another post) and had a great time. The kids were especially happy to have company. Here are some of the highlights:

They visited Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace:

Rode a tuk-tuk:

 

And the sky train:

 

And a long-tail boat:

Fed Shane his first solid food (and also experienced his first teething, although no pictures of that):

Ate Poon's amazing dinners:

And had a nice meal out at Cabbages and Condoms:

And met Izaak for Isaan food near his work:

Went to Chatuchak Market:

 

 

 

Saw interesting signage:

And helped bathe Shane:

Happy New Year!

The iPhone doesn't quite capture the fireworks as well as we hoped, but here's the view of the goings on in Bangkok from our balcony on New Year's...