We flew from Carlsbad airport on December 11th, on United through LAX and Narita to Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi Airport, where Marea picked us up.
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| 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.
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| Elaine on beach in front of Park Royal Hotel -Thats a lifeguard tower behind her |
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| 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.
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.
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!
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
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:
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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
While on Langkawi, we did explore some of the island. We took the Cable Car ride to the top of one of the mountains
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| 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/
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| Floating behind the sailboat |
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| Kayaking around the cove to explore some of the caves |
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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.
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.
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