Good morning.
Writing from the roof. Its still cool but its gonna reach up to a sweaty sticky 34 here today. Its early morning but i am so excited, i had to jump out of bed at 7 and take my laptop up to the rooftop pool to write so i could sit and look out at the Andaman Sea over there for the last time. Soaking up the last little bit before we fly home tomorrow.
We are staying in one of the newest luxury hotels in Phuket. It is easily a hundred dollar a night room ($150 plus taxes in Canada) but because it is some sort of a “soft opening”, we somehow lucked out and booked it online at a deal of $24 Canadian, (paid in Indian rupees), taxes, breakfast and welcome drink IN! Which is pretty much one of the juiciest deals i’ve ever scooped up online. This is only one of the many reasons i enjoy travel.
So ya, both Nakul and I are in culture shock. I had my first bath in a true bathtub in 3 months, and he had his first bath in a true bath tub ... in his whole life. We jumped on the bed, we danced around, we turned on all the lights and the a/c, fired up the free wi-fi, turned on the t.v. and ordered room service. Nothing like roughing it for a few weeks to make you appreciate the good things.
Everything is virtually new in the room. I have stayed in luxury hotels before but this one is luxury “modern”, so it has the full granite bathroom and rain shower and 700 mirrors and sliding doors that open up to the bedroom, a setee, a flat screen and super wicked high tech mood lighting (even inside the closet!!). Its all very exciting to us. Its our last two days together until god knows when next and we have just come from a very modest grass beach hut that we shared with a variety of critters and bugs, with dogs and cats adopting us and sleeping on our front porch, with holes between the wooden slat floor boards beside the bed, with one very well broke-in mosquito next (which thankfully was still effective), a bucket flush toilet, and no hot water (not needed). But we were dry and mosquito free (inside the net) and had some wonderful sleeps listening to the birds and waves. It was all so we could enjoy to the fullest the nature around us there and be right on the beach and in the water for the maximum amount of time. No one needs luxury when you are ON the beach.
And now we are here, feeling like fat cats and quite proud of ourselves for staying here for next to nothing at all. I suspect i won’t venture far from the pool or the room today. I have no urge to mix with the riff raff of Patong beach where we are located. Patong beach is supposed to be the riff raff capital of Thailand (after Pattaya and Bangkok).
My intention is simply to rest and enjoy. Nakul is adjusting amazingly well and appears to be like someone who has lived with luxury like this all his life and takes it all in stride. One would never know what a modest background he comes from. It’s quite charming. We have fun with everyone everywhere we go.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Koh Lipe
It’s the hot season in Thailand right now. The hot season right before the rainy season begins proper in a month. So that means its around ... i dunno... 34 in the day perhaps? Which doesn’t feel all that hot, but its the humidity sometimes, when there is no breeze, that makes it so sticky. But the cool sea is never more than 5 steps away at any given time, so it’s really a non-issue.
We have a fan and a mosquito net in our room so its more than sufficient and comfortable. I love sleeping in the tropics with the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves softly lapping at night like a lullaby. Ya, our room is basic beach hut bungalow chic. Replete with a toilet with no flush. You use a couple scoops of water of course to wash it all down. I don’t think it ever was a flushing toilet. I think it was meant this way from day one. No problem. Not a one.
The island is no bigger than 2km from any given walking point to another. I am glad we have two weeks here because it has taken us a whole week to get our island legs. But we are fully and completely chilled out now. Everything is flowing. The pure simplicity of waking 20 feet from a crystal clear warm sea with blue horizons, white sands and palms is enough to transform anyone, even the hardened city person or stress case. Slowly surely, every tense muscle in your body starts to release, every ache and pain begins to ease until you realize you are waking in total comfortable bliss every morning. Sand between the toes becomes addictive.
We have pets too. One lovely dog who adopted us on the first day we arrived. Claiming us as her own. She protected and accompanied us for 3 full days before we even began feeding her. Now that’s loyalty. We have named her gypsy. Oh, and here she comes now. Gypsy is beautiful, with dark soulful eyes and a golden coat. Her face wrinkles up when she looks at you. She has a great big black scar where the fur doesn’t grow all the way from her left ribcage across her shoulder and back to the right ribcage. Looks like maybe she got tangled up in a barbed wire fence or something, i’m not sure. She is super intelligent and likes to chase crabs on the beach for fun. She also likes to hunt in tandem so if you point her out a hermit crab hole to dig, she will oblige you on demand. She must be accident prone because yesterday she stubbed her toe, (or got in a fight with a cat) and has the pad on one back foot ripped open and a long gash on her ankle. So she is hopping around on three legs everywhere, even though we tell her to stay at home and rest, she won’t sit still long. I figure it is a minor scratch compared to what she has already lived through. She is always hungry so we bring her scraps from our table. We also feed a whole family of cats that hangs out here.
I can’t come online much. The internet is on the other side of the island. It costs about $6CAD per hour. (In Rishikesh its about 50cents an hour). So one could say it’s a “little” expensive here.
We went kayaking and snorkelling. It was amazing. The water is the clearest and most amazing I have ever seen in the world. We took loads of pictures and videos, but due to aforementioned internet situation I will wait until i return to Canada before posting them. Perhaps put a few on facebook.
Grandma passed away the night before we left India. So that morning i dealt with that as well as having to say goodbye to the whole of Nakul’s family until god knows when next.
Life goes on.....
We have a fan and a mosquito net in our room so its more than sufficient and comfortable. I love sleeping in the tropics with the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves softly lapping at night like a lullaby. Ya, our room is basic beach hut bungalow chic. Replete with a toilet with no flush. You use a couple scoops of water of course to wash it all down. I don’t think it ever was a flushing toilet. I think it was meant this way from day one. No problem. Not a one.
The island is no bigger than 2km from any given walking point to another. I am glad we have two weeks here because it has taken us a whole week to get our island legs. But we are fully and completely chilled out now. Everything is flowing. The pure simplicity of waking 20 feet from a crystal clear warm sea with blue horizons, white sands and palms is enough to transform anyone, even the hardened city person or stress case. Slowly surely, every tense muscle in your body starts to release, every ache and pain begins to ease until you realize you are waking in total comfortable bliss every morning. Sand between the toes becomes addictive.
We have pets too. One lovely dog who adopted us on the first day we arrived. Claiming us as her own. She protected and accompanied us for 3 full days before we even began feeding her. Now that’s loyalty. We have named her gypsy. Oh, and here she comes now. Gypsy is beautiful, with dark soulful eyes and a golden coat. Her face wrinkles up when she looks at you. She has a great big black scar where the fur doesn’t grow all the way from her left ribcage across her shoulder and back to the right ribcage. Looks like maybe she got tangled up in a barbed wire fence or something, i’m not sure. She is super intelligent and likes to chase crabs on the beach for fun. She also likes to hunt in tandem so if you point her out a hermit crab hole to dig, she will oblige you on demand. She must be accident prone because yesterday she stubbed her toe, (or got in a fight with a cat) and has the pad on one back foot ripped open and a long gash on her ankle. So she is hopping around on three legs everywhere, even though we tell her to stay at home and rest, she won’t sit still long. I figure it is a minor scratch compared to what she has already lived through. She is always hungry so we bring her scraps from our table. We also feed a whole family of cats that hangs out here.
I can’t come online much. The internet is on the other side of the island. It costs about $6CAD per hour. (In Rishikesh its about 50cents an hour). So one could say it’s a “little” expensive here.
We went kayaking and snorkelling. It was amazing. The water is the clearest and most amazing I have ever seen in the world. We took loads of pictures and videos, but due to aforementioned internet situation I will wait until i return to Canada before posting them. Perhaps put a few on facebook.
Grandma passed away the night before we left India. So that morning i dealt with that as well as having to say goodbye to the whole of Nakul’s family until god knows when next.
Life goes on.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
