December 30, 2005
We are home!
I was not able to post during our trip to Thailand so I thought that I would give a quick update on our travels since my last post and let everyone know that we made it home safely. This will be my last post since my intention was to just let everyone back home know how we were doing while away and now that we are home I don't feel that I want to keep this up :) Anyways, here is the scoop since we left India:
We left India on the 12th of December and flew to BAngkok for a little R&R. We stayed at the best place called the Shanti Lodge. We highly recommend it. They have a really cool eclectice vibe there. The rooms are fabulous and they have a great cafe downstairs that serves really yummy vegetarian food. The had a couple of ponds with fish and one had a turtle in it (Rowan loved watching the turtle swim in the pond, but once it got out and she was terrified of it - we are going to have to toughen her up if she is frightened of turtles...). The prices were very affordable. Overall we loved it. Only complaint is that the staff attitude is a bit on the lousy side, but they really liked Rowan and we were probably treated with a little more respect than most.
We originally were going to do some sightseeing in Bangkok, you know the temples, kickboxing, etc. However, Jason't innate sense of shopping took over and we spend our entire time in BAngkok exploring their malls, outdoor markets, street vendors, etc. It was actually pretty cool. You can get some cheap shit in Bangkok - cool stuff too! Jason loved all the bootleg videos and cd's you could get. I liked all the girly stuff. Let's just say we both liked shopping in Bangkok.
Their traffic is a bit insane there, but besides that Bangkok seemed like a great city. Poeple were nice. It was clean. People warned us about the pollution, but coming from India it seemed like the cleanest place on earth and we weren't fazed by any pollution. They also have these souped up rickshaw looking things they call yuk-yuks. Imagine a rickshaw that is clean, has fancy lights all over, and goes about 60mph! They scoot all over town, but they are very expensive. We took regular taxis mainly.
We also went to the Bangkok Zoo which was really neat. It is probably the best zoo I have ever been too. Rowan likes all the animals and getting to walk around and look at everything. It was close to our hotel and we just walked there. That was probably the only non-shopping thing we did in Bangkok!
We went to Koh Samui from Bangkok and had planned on spending more time there, but we ended up not likeing it and going back to Bangkok to finish out our trip. Koh Samui was super touristy, very expensive, and while we were there the weather sucked. We were stuck in our hotel mostly because the weather was so bad and we didn't get to do the things we had wanted, like snorkel or dive.
We also did yoga at Yoga Thailand which was okay, but they charge alot of money and we felt like they went a bit over board with their prices. The facilities were nice, and it was probably a better deal if you did one of their workshops and stayed there, but to drop in like we did was over the top expensive. The guy that owns it was nice and they helped us find a sitter for Rowan while we practiced. That was cool. There seem to be a lot of kids around there and sitters were always available. I don't think we would go back, but if you have the money and are looking for a "yoga vacation" then I would recommend it.
So after Koh Samui didn't work out we went back to bAngkok for some more shopping :) and then left on Christmas Day. We stayed a night in Kuala Lumpur and then headed home the day after Christmas. The flight was fine. Rowan did fine. The only thing that has been getting us since we have been back is the jetlag. We all finally slept through the night last night, but up until then Rowan and Jason had been waking up in the middle of the night.
Well, we are happy to be home and we hope that all of our new friends that we met on our trip come and visit us in Encinitas! We would love to see you guys. My email address is taraisagoddess@hotmail.com if anyone we met wants to keep in touch. Hope everyone has a wonderful new year!
Here are the last pics from our trip:
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Posted by Tara at December 30, 2005 07:23 PM