Day Four
23rd March
Today a new word from Alex: “ walk “ Since we all fell asleep around 800 pm and I think I was asleep by 815pm latest. We all woke up around 6:15 am. The Sun hasn’t even rose yet. Snow noticed from the balcony how beautiful the pre-dawn moon was. We have a bench on the balcony. It’s all wood. Not super comfortable without any padding. The hotel has great food. Every morning there is a complimentary breakfast. American breakfast is two small hot dogs, two slices of ham, two slices of white toast, an egg, a slice of bacon. There’s also boiled rice, a staple of Chinese food.
The hotel is only a year and half old. Its owned by this couple who are there every day. The staff is small and seems like a family. They have all taken to Alex. There are only 9 rooms and we rented a double room, one for us, one for Kung and Snows mother. They are next to one another, but separate. The first night there seemed to be other guests, but Sunday night, there seem to be fewer and on Monday and Tuesday, we may be the only guests. Its impossible to be sure. They didn’t tell us this, but by the look of things it seems possible. They are open to getting us anything we need. They really care about giving us good service.
The owners of the hotel are this couple. The wife and her assistant handle the front desk and the restaurant. The husband Sayan has a small auto shop in town, and he drives guests around the area. This day he would drive us down to the Pranburi River. We hired a boat to take us down the river, just like the canoes in northern Michigan, cept there were the five of us and he had a small propeller. The ride down the river to the Gulf took a little over an hour, and was very peaceful. There are many fishing boats all along the way. There are craps, fish and shrimp to be harvested from the muddy river. Whenever the old man driving the boat heard his cell phone ring, he would cut off the motor so he could be heard on the phone. We had gotten to the end of our journey, in the channel leading out to the Gulf. The wind was strong and the currents were much stronger. Then he got another call. Apparently, a woman coming to see them for a boat had gotten lost on the local roads. We noticed as he talked, we were quickly drifting towards the large rocks that line the channel’s side. As we got closer and closer to the rocks, we were getting more apprehensive. I expected him to cut short his call, whip on the motor and get us out of danger. No such luck. We struck the side of the rocks and were buffeted around. He finally now got off the phone, but had to slowly maneuver us around the rocks with an oar, to be able to get us around to where he could use his rotor. We stuck the rocks three or four times before he finally turned us around and got the motor in action again. None of us were thrilled.
After we came to a local beach just down the channel, Sayan met us with his Isuzu pickup. We headed up to a small temple at the top of a large hill. It had beautiful views of the valley below and to the sea. Snow’s mother burned some incense for good luck.
We had lunch back at the hotel. The food was great, they make a good Tom Sum soup with fish, tomatoes and a broth with is tart with the flavor of lemon. After resting back in the room for a bit, we went to the Mangrove Forest National Park, which is almost across the street from the resort. We learned about how cutting down the forest was bad for the ecosystem. They cut them down to build shrimp farms, but the fishing in the area was hurt by loss of the trees. The King stepped in, and they built back the lost forests in 2001. There was a cool 3-D presentation of this process. We climbed a 4 story tower that looked over the forests and nearby landscapes. It was very hot and steamy out.
Sayan drove us to the local beach. There was a beautiful spot. Its called Koh Galok. The Galok Mountain of rock is large and juts out to the Gulf. Next to it, the sand is white, fine, and soft, and the long beach stretches out into the warm Gulf waters. We rented some wooden deck chairs and set up camp. We changed Alex into her key lime polka dot swimsuit.
This was her first time in the sea. She loved it. Really took to it. She enjoyed it as the small waves crashed into her one after the other. After a while, she thought she would enjoy sitting down in the water. Well that made her lower, and even in shallow water, she was hit in her face by part of the wave, she just brushed it…no problem She just brushes the water off her face and trudges forward. It happened a few times.
We did not see her upset, she did not cry. She enjoyed watching the other children playing. We ran in the shallow water long the edge of the shore. She sometimes had me hold her up while we walked around in the water. She just had a wonderful time. Since we got to the beach around 5 pm, it was dusk. The wind was quite brisk, and it drove the waves faster. Sundown being close to 6:30 PM, the beach began to empty slowly after 6. Snow went to the local vendors and got her a beach towel to dry off. We had failed to bring a towel from the hotel, as we didn’t really plan ahead for a beach trip. She also got an inflatable boat, and she rode in it on the Gulf, but not for long. We relaxed on the deck chairs before heading home, enjoying some snacks and drinks. Snow, Kung, and mom had coconuts, drinking the juice. Snow picked up a can of beer for mom and me.
Sayan took the pickup and came back with a jeep. We sat in the back. We laughed thinking he just didn’t want sand inside his nicer pickup. We showered off at the hotel and enjoyed a dinner back at our hotel. Their cook was really good. Everything was excellent. I finally got the internet to work up in the lobby around 9 PM. I had to unplug the wireless router to get the signal to work. This allowed me to catch up on what had happened in sports since Tuesday. I sent the email to Taylor, Lauren and Nicole, and to mom and dad.
23rd March
Today a new word from Alex: “ walk “ Since we all fell asleep around 800 pm and I think I was asleep by 815pm latest. We all woke up around 6:15 am. The Sun hasn’t even rose yet. Snow noticed from the balcony how beautiful the pre-dawn moon was. We have a bench on the balcony. It’s all wood. Not super comfortable without any padding. The hotel has great food. Every morning there is a complimentary breakfast. American breakfast is two small hot dogs, two slices of ham, two slices of white toast, an egg, a slice of bacon. There’s also boiled rice, a staple of Chinese food.
The hotel is only a year and half old. Its owned by this couple who are there every day. The staff is small and seems like a family. They have all taken to Alex. There are only 9 rooms and we rented a double room, one for us, one for Kung and Snows mother. They are next to one another, but separate. The first night there seemed to be other guests, but Sunday night, there seem to be fewer and on Monday and Tuesday, we may be the only guests. Its impossible to be sure. They didn’t tell us this, but by the look of things it seems possible. They are open to getting us anything we need. They really care about giving us good service.
The owners of the hotel are this couple. The wife and her assistant handle the front desk and the restaurant. The husband Sayan has a small auto shop in town, and he drives guests around the area. This day he would drive us down to the Pranburi River. We hired a boat to take us down the river, just like the canoes in northern Michigan, cept there were the five of us and he had a small propeller. The ride down the river to the Gulf took a little over an hour, and was very peaceful. There are many fishing boats all along the way. There are craps, fish and shrimp to be harvested from the muddy river. Whenever the old man driving the boat heard his cell phone ring, he would cut off the motor so he could be heard on the phone. We had gotten to the end of our journey, in the channel leading out to the Gulf. The wind was strong and the currents were much stronger. Then he got another call. Apparently, a woman coming to see them for a boat had gotten lost on the local roads. We noticed as he talked, we were quickly drifting towards the large rocks that line the channel’s side. As we got closer and closer to the rocks, we were getting more apprehensive. I expected him to cut short his call, whip on the motor and get us out of danger. No such luck. We struck the side of the rocks and were buffeted around. He finally now got off the phone, but had to slowly maneuver us around the rocks with an oar, to be able to get us around to where he could use his rotor. We stuck the rocks three or four times before he finally turned us around and got the motor in action again. None of us were thrilled.
After we came to a local beach just down the channel, Sayan met us with his Isuzu pickup. We headed up to a small temple at the top of a large hill. It had beautiful views of the valley below and to the sea. Snow’s mother burned some incense for good luck.
We had lunch back at the hotel. The food was great, they make a good Tom Sum soup with fish, tomatoes and a broth with is tart with the flavor of lemon. After resting back in the room for a bit, we went to the Mangrove Forest National Park, which is almost across the street from the resort. We learned about how cutting down the forest was bad for the ecosystem. They cut them down to build shrimp farms, but the fishing in the area was hurt by loss of the trees. The King stepped in, and they built back the lost forests in 2001. There was a cool 3-D presentation of this process. We climbed a 4 story tower that looked over the forests and nearby landscapes. It was very hot and steamy out.
Sayan drove us to the local beach. There was a beautiful spot. Its called Koh Galok. The Galok Mountain of rock is large and juts out to the Gulf. Next to it, the sand is white, fine, and soft, and the long beach stretches out into the warm Gulf waters. We rented some wooden deck chairs and set up camp. We changed Alex into her key lime polka dot swimsuit.
This was her first time in the sea. She loved it. Really took to it. She enjoyed it as the small waves crashed into her one after the other. After a while, she thought she would enjoy sitting down in the water. Well that made her lower, and even in shallow water, she was hit in her face by part of the wave, she just brushed it…no problem She just brushes the water off her face and trudges forward. It happened a few times.
We did not see her upset, she did not cry. She enjoyed watching the other children playing. We ran in the shallow water long the edge of the shore. She sometimes had me hold her up while we walked around in the water. She just had a wonderful time. Since we got to the beach around 5 pm, it was dusk. The wind was quite brisk, and it drove the waves faster. Sundown being close to 6:30 PM, the beach began to empty slowly after 6. Snow went to the local vendors and got her a beach towel to dry off. We had failed to bring a towel from the hotel, as we didn’t really plan ahead for a beach trip. She also got an inflatable boat, and she rode in it on the Gulf, but not for long. We relaxed on the deck chairs before heading home, enjoying some snacks and drinks. Snow, Kung, and mom had coconuts, drinking the juice. Snow picked up a can of beer for mom and me.
Sayan took the pickup and came back with a jeep. We sat in the back. We laughed thinking he just didn’t want sand inside his nicer pickup. We showered off at the hotel and enjoyed a dinner back at our hotel. Their cook was really good. Everything was excellent. I finally got the internet to work up in the lobby around 9 PM. I had to unplug the wireless router to get the signal to work. This allowed me to catch up on what had happened in sports since Tuesday. I sent the email to Taylor, Lauren and Nicole, and to mom and dad.
posted by Unknown at 4:35 PM
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