Obviously, I'm back dating these entries on Thailand. There's no way that I was going to blog while we were on our MEGAMOON!
Let's back up a little.
So last year, in the flurry of events that were our courtship, engagement, and wedding, Stewart and I decided that we would take a smallish honeymoon and then go on a megamoon for our first anniversary. Well, we ended up going on a regular honeymoon but that didn't mean we weren't going to take a megamoon too! Given that we were moving to India, I had my heart set on going to the Maldives. Unfortunately, we got married during what turns out to be monsoon season here. People thought we were crazy when they heard that we were planning on going somewhere beach-y for holiday (look at me using the lingo). We went back and forth trying to decide where to go: Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the mountains, Slovenia? We finally settled on Thailand because, well, I wanted a beach. We knew we were chancing it and may be restricted to our hotel if it rained the whole time. Oh well, get me out of India!
We started to get ready. Now, my husband is a ginger. I love the red hair and beard but, sadly, this means he sunburns if he even thinks about the sun. Living in India for the past two months has resulted in me being quite pale as well. The whole conservative, cover your shoulders and legs things really hampers getting any decent sun. I set out to find some sunscreen. When I asked Sunil where I could buy some, he looked confused and then said "oh, screen like for car window!". I explained that no, I was looking for a lotion or spray that would protect us from getting burned by the sun. He looked at me like I was crazy and then told me he didn't know. Must be nice not having to worry about sunburns.... We did happen upon some during our outing to the movies. Ridiculously small bottles for not so small prices. But protecting ourselves against skin cancer is worth it.
We left bright and early for the airport. The really nice thing about having a driver is that we didn't have to worry about 1) finding the airport and 2) parking the car. We got through security quite fast and got to our gate pretty early. We were flying Thai Airways which have very colorful interiors and much more legroom than any airline from the states. We took our seats and headed off. The food on the plane was great. And they kept serving tea and coffee. Stewart tried the Thai beers while I enjoyed the sweets they were passing out.
We had a transfer in Bangkok and then landed in Phuket. Everything had been arranged for us. We got our luggage and headed out of the airport where someone was holding a sign with our name on it. We were instructed to wait on the curb until the driver came to take us to the hotel. The "taxi" was a huge party van. It was pretty comical just having us two as the only passengers. Oh wow, Thailand is so different from India. It definitely had a feeling of cleanliness about it. Even at night, you could tell that there wasn't a layer of dust on the buildings. And people drove in their lanes! It's definitely doable to rent a car on your own and drive there.
We pulled up to our hotel which was so gorgeous. It just opened about three months ago and was running specials so we lucked out. While we waited for our room to be ready, they gave us lemongrass juice and we sat in the open air bar. Pretty much the entire hotel was open air. The only things that weren't were the check in desk, the gym, and both of the restaurants had options for eating indoors. The weather was perfect though. We dropped our bags off in our room and headed to the restaurant to eat. I opted for Pad Thai so I could see what it's actually supposed to taste like while Stewart had beef tenderloin (and real beef!). I was not prepared for the huge prawn that came with my dish ... complete with head and eyes. But dinner was good. After dinner, we walked down to the beach. It was so nice being able to listen to the sounds of the sea and bugs chirping instead of planes flying overhead, horns honking, and dogs barking. We were looking forward to the next day.
Let's back up a little.
So last year, in the flurry of events that were our courtship, engagement, and wedding, Stewart and I decided that we would take a smallish honeymoon and then go on a megamoon for our first anniversary. Well, we ended up going on a regular honeymoon but that didn't mean we weren't going to take a megamoon too! Given that we were moving to India, I had my heart set on going to the Maldives. Unfortunately, we got married during what turns out to be monsoon season here. People thought we were crazy when they heard that we were planning on going somewhere beach-y for holiday (look at me using the lingo). We went back and forth trying to decide where to go: Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the mountains, Slovenia? We finally settled on Thailand because, well, I wanted a beach. We knew we were chancing it and may be restricted to our hotel if it rained the whole time. Oh well, get me out of India!
We started to get ready. Now, my husband is a ginger. I love the red hair and beard but, sadly, this means he sunburns if he even thinks about the sun. Living in India for the past two months has resulted in me being quite pale as well. The whole conservative, cover your shoulders and legs things really hampers getting any decent sun. I set out to find some sunscreen. When I asked Sunil where I could buy some, he looked confused and then said "oh, screen like for car window!". I explained that no, I was looking for a lotion or spray that would protect us from getting burned by the sun. He looked at me like I was crazy and then told me he didn't know. Must be nice not having to worry about sunburns.... We did happen upon some during our outing to the movies. Ridiculously small bottles for not so small prices. But protecting ourselves against skin cancer is worth it.
We left bright and early for the airport. The really nice thing about having a driver is that we didn't have to worry about 1) finding the airport and 2) parking the car. We got through security quite fast and got to our gate pretty early. We were flying Thai Airways which have very colorful interiors and much more legroom than any airline from the states. We took our seats and headed off. The food on the plane was great. And they kept serving tea and coffee. Stewart tried the Thai beers while I enjoyed the sweets they were passing out.
We had a transfer in Bangkok and then landed in Phuket. Everything had been arranged for us. We got our luggage and headed out of the airport where someone was holding a sign with our name on it. We were instructed to wait on the curb until the driver came to take us to the hotel. The "taxi" was a huge party van. It was pretty comical just having us two as the only passengers. Oh wow, Thailand is so different from India. It definitely had a feeling of cleanliness about it. Even at night, you could tell that there wasn't a layer of dust on the buildings. And people drove in their lanes! It's definitely doable to rent a car on your own and drive there.
We pulled up to our hotel which was so gorgeous. It just opened about three months ago and was running specials so we lucked out. While we waited for our room to be ready, they gave us lemongrass juice and we sat in the open air bar. Pretty much the entire hotel was open air. The only things that weren't were the check in desk, the gym, and both of the restaurants had options for eating indoors. The weather was perfect though. We dropped our bags off in our room and headed to the restaurant to eat. I opted for Pad Thai so I could see what it's actually supposed to taste like while Stewart had beef tenderloin (and real beef!). I was not prepared for the huge prawn that came with my dish ... complete with head and eyes. But dinner was good. After dinner, we walked down to the beach. It was so nice being able to listen to the sounds of the sea and bugs chirping instead of planes flying overhead, horns honking, and dogs barking. We were looking forward to the next day.
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