Trip to Thailand and Indonesia in February & March 2015

We had a very nice, easy & comfortable almost 2 month trip to Thailand & side trip to Bali Indonesia.  On 4 February we departed round-trip on JAL from San Diego to Bangkok, and Sean took us to & from the San Diego airport.  Marea & Tom shuttled us to/from Bangkok's airport--that sure made the trip easy for us! .  The connections couldn't have been much better, and the flights were very comfortable.  We had the Boeing 787 for both legs of the flights, and that plane sure is a lot more comfortable from a noise, vibration, and cabin pressure standpoint.  JAL's service always seems "over the top."
Since this was our third year visiting Marea's family in Thailand, we knew what to expect.  It sort of felt like home, driving the golf cart around their beautiful Nichada Thani neighborhood, using the nearby pool & gym and taking Everett to his Rose Marie Academy preschool just a block away.

Pink Plumeria in Marea's yard

 Below is a slideshow of photos from our visit

As you can see from the photos, we arrived in time to enjoy the end of Devin & Wyatt's little league season, and the beginning of Devin's basketball season.

Tom discovered that Asia Air had a special on flights within Thailand, and booked all seven of us on 1-1/2 hour flight from Don Mueong Airport (very near their home) to Krabi for 5 nights.

View of Ao Nang Beach at sunset

We stayed at a Holiday Inn on the beach at Ao Nang beach.  This was no "ordinary" Holiday inn -- it was a wonderful resort!  The kids loved it because there was more recreational stuff for them than I've ever seen at a resort.  Excellent pools, water-slides, trampoline, and a fabulous "kids club" with lots of space and very nice counselors who presented organized events & games.  Hotel had an excellent outdoor buffet breakfast with several interesting thai specialties in addition to almost every possible normal breakfast offering.  One of the highlights of the trip was a "long tail boat" ride out to Poda Island, one of the many islands just off shore

The family getting ready to board the longtail boat for the 15 minute ride to the island

.  There are a lot of islands just offshore.  Some are just big rocks --but many have beautiful sandy beaches.

Below are more photos from the Krabi Trip

Our free Thai tourist visa was only good for 30 days.  So before 30 days were up, Elaine and I flew from Don Mueong to Bali for a 10 day stay.  While in Bali we stayed in three different locations.  Probably the most difficult adjustment was getting used to all of the additional "zeros" in their currency, and getting over a million IDR's out of the ATM when we arrived. We first stayed 3 nights at the Jayakarta hotel on Legian Beach.

Pool at Jayakarta Hotel on Legian Beach

The Jayakarta hotel was a classic style, had a very nice morning buffet breakfast, and the beach had some serious surf!  I was able to body surf, but had to duck many of the waves that seemed too large.  There were lots of restaurants nearby along the beach promenade where we enjoyed some excellent Thai food and fresh fish. One morning it was raining pretty hard, so we took the hotel shuttle about a mile south to a huge, beautiful, multi-story outdoor beach walk mall (http://www.beachwalkbali.com/) with an unbelievable array of upscale stores, restaurants and food stands.

View from upper floor of Beach Walk Mall looking toward ocean

 The rain stopped after lunch and we walked home along the beach area and checked out some of the other hotels/resorts along the way.

Next we stayed 4 nights at all-inclusive Grand Mirage on Nusa Dua beach along the East side of the peninsula. Had a great ocean-view room and the meals & service was clearly first class!

View from beach looking at our unit on top floor above one part of the huge pool

 In addition to the excellent food, beverages and entertainment, they also had lots of included water sports.  We tried "sea walking" (included in room) -- which is sort of like "snuba" where you wear a helmet and don't even get your hair wet while walking on the bottom, exploring the reef and the many reef fish.  Due to offshore reefs, there was no surf at the hotel's beach. We did catamaran, biked the long bike path in front of the hotels, and I went out on kayak almost every day.

View of Grand Mirage from Kayak

There were some interesting starfish on the bottom.  It didn't appear they had any shellfish to prey upon, I think they must eat seaweed?

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Finally we spent the last two nights on Jimbaran beach, just South of the airport at another classic hotel--The Keraton.

 It looked like it might have been built 100 years ago.  But it was built in 1992 with very modern construction, but the architect added features throughout that gave the impression of grand old hotels of an earlier period. The grounds were beautiful, and there were many beautiful bonsai permanently displayed on pedestals around the grounds.

One of the many bonsai on display with tags showing species &
 date planted 

  The Keraton had nice gentle surf for riding waves (could get a body surf ride on every wave), beautiful pools, and beautiful dining on the beach, including breakfast buffet.

Keraton Hotel Breakfast dining area by pool with view of ocean

All along Jimberan beach there are small restaurants who pull tables out on the beach near sunset, and serve fresh, grilled fish.  You pick out your fish and they grill it.  Very nice!  Included tablecloth, candles on tables etc.

View of Keraton Hotel Pool looking toward ocean and sunset

Below are additional photos from our Bali Trip.

I was really impressed by the quality and quantity of the resorts in the Bali area.  In particular the Nusa Dua resort area was really amazing.  Below are some photos of the grounds and beaches that I took along the very nice bike path that runs along in front of all of the hotels in the area.

After we returned from Bali we enjoyed going to the boy's school, after school, and sport events.  We stayed with the boys while Tom & Marea flew to Laos for a long weekend. Devin started basketball, the boys went to Taekwondo training, swimming lessons, bike riding etc. One day when Everett didn't have preschool, we took him to the huge 7-story Central Plaza Mall just outside the Nichada Thani North Gate for a petting zoo.

 The mall (built in 2008) is immense, even by US standards, and is really classy (see this Wikipedia Link)  It is sort of cool that the mall has special "preferred parking" for Nichada Thani resident's golf carts.    I got to be a mystery reader at Devin's class, and was impressed by how nice the students were.  International School of Bangkok (ISB) is certainly a beautiful school!   Marea's friend, Anne Witkiewicz invited me to watch Devin and his dad, Tom, participate b-b gun team fighting at a facility just outside the Nichada Thani gate for her son, Eli's birthday party.   It was quite an experience!

Tom & Devin dressed and armed for bb gun battle

Thailand Trip December 2013-Feb 2013

We flew from Carlsbad airport on December 11th, on United through LAX and Narita to Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi Airport, where Marea picked us up.

Sunset at Narita layover on way to Bangkok

We adjusted to time zone and enjoyed going to events and playgrounds with the boys
Everett loved the merry-go-round at Prestige playground.


Wyatt and Everett like making smoothies (with Dad's help)


I enjoyed watching Devin at baseball practice and games.  Here Tom "warms up" Devin prior to a game:




KOH CHANG Trip
Christmas Day after opening presents, in the morning Tom and Marea arranged for a van to pick us up at their home and drove us about 4 hours South and East of Bangkok to Koh Chang an island.

 The van took us to the door of the Sea View Hotel where Marea & Tom had stayed before.  The driver, Tor, took us across the ferry.  Then 5 days later he picked us up and took us back home.  I didn't understand how they could do that trip so reasonably priced --but then I found out that he, and most long-haul trucks use natural gas for fuel at about 11 cents (US) per liter.


While at the Sea View Resort, Tom, Devin, Wyatt and I paddled kayaks out to "Coconut Island"  directly out from the beach.  Wyatt got to paddle out with Tom, and back with me.  While on the island, we made dangling "hoodoos" out of pieces of string and coral --and added them to the thousands that were already hanging from the beachside trees.. Water was very clear & warm.  Beach was quite nice with playground and pool.

Elaine and I walked couple hundred yards down the beach from the Sea View Resort past a couple other small hotels on the beach, and watched guests at a nearby "Elephant Camp" take a couple of cute elephants out to the ocean for some water play.  It amazed us how gentle the elephants were, and how they seemed to enjoy the attention from the people climbing on them.

Trip to Malaysia 

Penang Beach

We had to leave Thailand at the end of our 30 day visa, stay away for at least 48 hours and then we could get a new 30 day visa.  So we left Bangkok, Don Muong airport -- which was closer to Marea & Toms home on January 11th and went to Malaysia for 11 nights.  We flew to Penang airport and took a cab around to the NE side of the island where we stayed at the Park Royal Hotel.  We had a "coastal view" from our very nice room.  The hotel was really beautiful, had live music nightly, wonderful pools and a nice beach.  The morning buffet breakfast (included) was excellent and had the customary automated cappuccino machine.  There was a night market nearby that had all of the typical stuff, and a lot of very interesting restaurants along the beachfront.  We liked the Thai / Indian barbecue place and also enjoyed a spectacular rack of lamb dinner on the beach at Park Royal hotel. I did a hike up to a waterfall on a trail that started across the street from the Hard Rock Hotel -- about 100 yards down the beach from our hotel.  

Elaine on beach in front of Park Royal Hotel -Thats a lifeguard tower behind her

From malaysia.photo

From malaysia.photo

Right next door to Park Royal--on the beach-- was the "Sunflower Beach Cafe" --It's sign looked almost exactly like the business cards that Elaine used for years with her "sunflowerbeach@gmail" email address.

From malaysia.photo

Mike & Gill Calvert joined us for a late lunch & some beer at the cafe and got caught up with each other.  Mike & Gill lived in Sunnyvale in the late 1980s with their three boys and then transferred back to London.  Gill visited us around 1995 when we lived in Vista, but we hadn't seen them since that time -- almost 20 years!  They now live near Devon UK, and also have a condo in Georgetown, Penang, where they come each winter. 

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One of the very memorable dinners on the beach at sunset at Park Royal -- rack of lamb.  Good food, perfect temperature, beautiful sunset, candles burning -- wow!

Dinner on the beach

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View from our table of horses on beach at sunset

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To Langkawi

After 4 nights at Park Royal, we took a three hour "fast ferry" trip North to another quite large island:  Langkawi.  The ferry terminal was HUGE with lots of berths.  Below is a view from the ferry of "suburban" Georgetown Penang as we departed

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On Langkawi, we stayed at the Four Points Sheraton Beach Resort, which had one of the largest swimming pools I've ever seen at a resort.  They had a nice buffet breakfast (included) which featured a mix of Indian, Malaysian, Thai, and Western foods.
Below is the view from our room:

These were the dominant shells on the beach

There were some BIG plans for the water in front of our hotel.  This large drawing was on the wall in the hotel lobby

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While on Langkawi, we did explore some of the island.  We took the Cable Car ride to the top of one of the mountains

From malaysia.photo View from top of cable car

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We took a sailing cruise through some of the many small islands just South of Langkawi.  We got a chance to explore caves in a cove, had good food, and went on a tour of a mangrove swamp for the day.  I would highly recommend this trip for anyone visiting Langkawi  Here is a link to their web site: http://173.254.28.47/~rampants/

Floating behind the sailboat

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From malaysia.photo

View from top of cable car

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From malaysia.photo

Kayaking around the cove to explore some of the caves

Elaine and I swam in from the Catamaran Sailboat and went on the guided tour of the mangrove swamp

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HUA HIN Trip

In late January, after returning from Malaysia, we all went to Dolphin Bay, just South of Hua Hin --South and West of Bangkok.  We stayed at Terra Selisa on Dolphin Beach just North of the big National Park. Tom & Marea had stayed there before.   This photo is from the street and beach in front, and is of the tables where we had breakfast (very nice, included), and ate one dinner.of excellent Thai food, very reasonably priced.

From HuaHin.Photos

The beach was very shallow, so very safe for the kids and at low tide we could walk way out and found lots of interesting shells.  Below is hotel from the water edge at a very low tide just before sunset.

From HuaHin.Photos

From HuaHin.Photos

From HuaHin.Photos

Devin, Wyatt and Everett loved the beach because they could run and play safely, there was a lot of interesting stuff on the beach --and most of all--because there were a lot of other kids on the beach

From HuaHin.Photos

Below is Tom out in the water with the boys and their friends.  The island in background is "Monkey Island" -- You could pay for a guy to take you out to the island in a "long tail boat" along with a basket of bananas and mangoes.  They said that before you landed, monkeys would swarm the boat to get the fruit.  You could also take a kayak out to the island. 

From HuaHin.Photos

Little Everett Enjoyed digging in the sand

From HuaHin.Photos

Tom & Devin played checkers in the sand using shells as markers

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Of Course the boys had to get buried in the sand -- here's Devin

From HuaHin.Photos Here's Everett putting finishing touches on Wyatt

s Marea treated all three boys with a smoothie on the beach -- does it get much better than this?

From HuaHin.Photos

BLACK MOUNTAIN

On Sunday, we drove to North side of Hua Hin to Black Mountain Waterslide park.  It was a very modern, clean and very nicely designed park --at a very reasonable admission too.  The park had about 10 huge slides, big lazy river, and a wave pond.  Very few people for a Sunday, so we could just climb up the towers and go right down the slides.  Very nice water playground for small children too.  Devin and Wyatt did all of the "killer" waterslides.

Below is the "wave pond" where wave machine would create big waves for about 10 minutes every 20 minutes.  Devin bult big stacks of the boards, climbed on top and rode the waves.  Everett, in foreground enjoyed it too! 

From Thailand.HuaHin.Black.Mountain.Waterslide

  

From Thailand.HuaHin.Black.Mountain.Waterslide

We actually had some decent Thai food at the snack bar (that had about everything)  Below are
Marea & Everett on Lazy River -- passing by Elaine in the shade

From Thailand.HuaHin.Black.Mountain.Waterslide Elaine and Marea near the entrance to the park as we ended our day and headed back to Dolphin Beach

From Thailand.HuaHin.Black.Mountain.Waterslide