Koh Samui, Thailand

Judy. A friend asked me, “Where is Koh Samui?” Fair enough question—I didn’t know, either. Not till another friend recommended we come here. Koh Samui is the lesser-known  sister of Phuket, Thailand. This is the beach resort that never quite became famous, and our idea of the best kind.

Oh, there is plenty to see here: Big Buddhas, waterfalls, Pig Island, but we’ve not done those. I’ll tell you this: If you come down with a “travel cold” and feel rotten, there’s not a better place to be than in a lovely warm place by the ocean, and that’s where we are. 

Mornings are so peaceful

There are shrines everywhere. This is outside our hotel

The town, or rather the strip along the ring road, is one of those awful touristy places with a massage parlor every other store front, “gas stations” that consist of bottles of gasoline (which we also saw in Cambodia), touristy restaurants serving Thai food and pizza, and the ubiquitous 7-11. 

The mountains across the road look inviting!

The streets, not so much

Takes me back to the 70's

Double duty in this shop

A different kind of gas station

You should see it. But once you get inside our little Resotel, all that disappears. There are glowing white villas with private or semi-private pools, morning birdsong, open-air restaurants, and the ocean and beach. Just what we needed for recovery.

Shrine in the Resotel lobby

 

Evening at our shared pool

We have ventured out for lunch. We had delicious sushi and tempura at Bento, a small Japanese restaurant up the road, and, most notably, Phensiri, a Michelin Thai restaurant, an out-of-this-world experience in Thai food—for a total (with tip and drinks) of less than $60 American. 

A little piece of Japan in Koh Samui

Phensiri

Tomorrow we head to Chiang Mai. Looking forward to it. But this chance to get over jet lag (first time we slept through the night since arriving in Asia) and to heal our bodies has been a sweet gift.

Bangkok

Ted. In four days we have barely scratched the surface of this town but I know one thing - Bangkok is big! It’s the 14th largest city in the world, with a population larger than Mexico City. It dwarfs New York!

Our hotel's rooftop pool

There are skyscrapers and tar paper shacks, lovely parks and rat infested alleys, unbelievable traffic congestion and one of the cleanest subways I’ve every seen.

 

Monks get priority seating

We saw Buddhist temples (called wats) everywhere but we chose to spend time at just two. 

Wat Arun

Wat Pho is adjacent to the Royal Palace and houses a famed reclining Buddha. They have a staff of hundreds to manage the thousands of visitors who come every day. 

Nobody has ever heard of Wat Khlong Toei Nok. It is a ramshackle, broken down affair and appeared to be the home of a solitary monk who spent nearly an hour with us wandering the temple grounds. Our guide proudly pointed out a classic Mercedes sedan from the 50’s, hundreds of well tended bonsai trees, banged up old Buddhas, shiny new ones and an assortment of odds and ends reminiscent of an episode of American Pickers. 

Leaving the temple, we were greeted by some locals who invited us into a tiny cafe they had discovered. “Come here for good coffee!” We enjoyed another hour at this tiny cafe and chatted a bit in broken English until they piled into their car and drove off.

Feeding koi

We spent another morning exploring Lumphini Park, a lovely escape from the noisy city streets, it held a special treat. The ponds and canals are home to dozens of Water Monitors. Known locally as Bangkok Dragons, these lizards get up to six feet long and are great swimmers. I guess they’ll eat just about anything but don’t seem to even notice the humans. 

We mostly just wandered the streets, especially enjoying Chinatown and the Talat Noi neighborhood. 

Car parts shop

WWII vintage Willys Jeep

Will we ever return? Doubtful. Are we glad we experienced this legendary city and some of it's residents? You bet!

West to the East

Ted. As Christopher Columbus hoped to do, we traveled west on January 1 to get to Asia. He never did get there but we made it safely. Even today, it is not a trip for the faint hearted. 

The first leg of our journey was a 14-1/2 hr non-stop flight on Delta Airlines from Atlanta over Alaska and along the coast of Siberia to Tokyo. We arrived mid afternoon on January 2 and dragged our weary butts to a hotel in the terminal. It was a very nice and, before turning in, we wandered around the terminal to visit the many little shops and get a bite to eat. 

Look whose lurking in Tokyo Haneda Airport

Japanese toilets are complicated!

We started the next morning with a Japanese breakfast.

Salmon roll - yum!

We then took a Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore during which we got a great view of Mount Fuji from our window. This is one of our favorite airlines and they spoiled us! On landing we enjoyed our brief layover at the world's best airport; Singapore Changi.

One of many gardens

Next, we caught our connecting flight on to Bangkok. Again, we crawled to our hotel in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport and, too tired to eat, headed straight to our room. 

Hyatt Regency lobby

Today is January 4 and we are about to commence a 2-1/2 week exploration of Thailand. The first part will be to venture downtown to wander Bangkok for four days. We leave this country on January 20 and the next 2-1/2 months will involve short stays in Singapore and Malaysia, a long stay in Vietnam and then three weeks in Japan, returning to Georgia on April 1. 

We’ll be in touch!

Leaving Athens

Judy. Our return to Athens this time only lasted two months, and they were packed, mostly with joyful friend and family visits. 

With favorite director David at the ART Station

Met Gary and Sally for lunch

Great surprise to run into Pam and Evan when we were in North GA

Friend & former student Kim came to Athens!

Our delightful and interesting neighbors Taylor and Emilie

Stefan, his boys Oliver and Callum, and Parker and Caed surprised Ted on his birthday by just showing up. I think you could have heard our whoops all over the neighborhood! It’s a two hour drive from Stefan’s to here—it was a great birthday gift—planned, we understand, by Caed! Yay grandsons!

A beautiful birthday surprise!

Ted and Caed spent time together, moving our possessions into a larger storage unit (more later), rebuilding a broken shelf I trash picked (yes, I am that kind of person), and teaching Caed to make crepes for our traditional Christmas Eve blintzes. We also had a great hike with him to the State Botanical Gardens, and a couple of meals out—just the three of us. 

Christmas Eve tradition

Hike by the river

Holidays were great—the big one was Thanksgiving at  Stefan and Sarah’s new house, with all ten of us potlucking dinner. Vishal, one of Stef’s oldest friends, and his sons Avery and Devi came, too, from Philadelphia. There was a plethora of wild boys running around the house and yard. Absolutely grand!

 

The boys were not thrilled to have their photos made with us

Christmas was quieter—we had a lovely day with Leslie, Daniel, Parker, and Caed. (Note Parker’s LA Lakers wear.) On Boxing Day we drove back to Stef & Sarah’s and took Ollie to the movies for a treat, for all three of us. 

Quiet at our place, a tiny bit crazy at Les & Daniel's

Dates with grandsons are great!

In addition to my yoga classes at Sangha with the inimitable Meghan, I attended a glorious concert of Vivaldi and Handel by the Athens Master Chorale, thanks to a fellow yogi, Ellen, who was part of the choir. Ellen and her husband Roger invited Meghan and me to “Unsilent Night”—an unforgettable experience that’s difficult to describe. Look it up. It was one of the sweetest nights I could have imagined, as we walked the streets of Athens playing tracks of gentle techno music. 

Vivaldi and Handel

And an Unsilent techno street party with Meghan, Ellen, and Roger

Leslie is now a marketing and event planner for a local Realtors’ Association. She invited me to be her “plus one” to the Divas Who Win Gala, an evening celebrating women who are kicking addiction or who have been rescued from sex trafficking. It was moving to see the fifteen new graduates in their DWW jackets and hear some of their stories. A “shopping” area had been set up for moms to get Christmas gifts for their kids, and Santa was waiting to hear from those kids and take photos. There was even a makeover artist who gave facials and makeup to some of the women who have graduated in years past. It was an inspiring and humbling evening. 

A marvelous celebration

Both of us returned to our Friday morning volunteer work at the Thrift House. It’s sweet when regular customers remember us and ask about our travels. We also joined a group from our church to feed dinner to the unhoused at Bigger Vision. The clients were kind, gracious, and grateful, and we look forward to volunteering there again. 

A Christmassy volunteer opportunity

Another sweet evening was seeing my dear friend Ramòn receive his certificate of study at his church, and watch him with his nieta. I don’t see as much of Ramòn lately, and you can see why. Right now he’s not only abuelo, but also babysitter, and is happier than I’ve ever seen him. 

Ramòn and family

So, off we go again—three months in Asia. We can hardly wait to get there (a 14-hr flight, then an 8-hr one!), and we carry with us so much love for the folks back home.