Thailand 2023

Bangkok, Thailand

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 19:30:00 +0700

3/20/23 - Last day here!!!! We landed in Bangkok around 9:45 am. We took a free shuttle from the small airport to Bangkok international and then another shuttle to our hotel which is close to the airport. Hotel 43 is our airport and it’s nice, but the area is terrible. Which is usually the case around airports. We grabbed some lunch at a local street restaurant. I had noodles and gravy with shrimp. Nicky had some pork belly dish with rice and now her stomach hurts. We walked back to the market area for some dinner. I got some Takayoki balls filled with shrimp and squid and some fried rice and we got a Chang beer. 3/21/23 - Woke up at 3:45 for our 4:30 am shuttle to the airport. We made it to the airport without any issues but it took an hour to check in at Nippon Airways. When we finally checked in, we were also able to change our seats for the United flight, so we were all set. Our flight to Norita Japan was about 5 and a half hours. When we arrived the airline let off people staying in Japan and then people with connecting flights. That makes zero sense! After leaving the plane we went to the United lounge to eat some food since were flying Polaris. They had some good grub. Noodles, sushi and other items. After the lounge we boarded our flight. The Polaris seats are really cool, however our seats were at an angle and I couldn’t fully extend my bed because my feet felt trapped. The service was awesome and the food was very good. They really take care of you in business class. I just wish I could have slept for a few hours. That would’ve really helped. I closed my eyes for a while but never fell asleep. After the 9 and a half hour flight we landed in Denver and went to customs. There were no other planes so we zipped right through. The sniffing dog liked Nicky’s bag so she had to open it for CBPand she had to give up the pork rinds. No foreign pork of any kind is allowed in the United States. After getting our bags checked, we met Larry outside and we were off to the house and to see the boys. There was no traffic so we made it home pretty quick which was nice. The boys were happy to see us and we were happy to see them! That’s a wrap on the Thailand 🇹🇭 trip. It was a really good time! Adios amigos!

Surin, Thailand

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 19:30:00 +0000

3/17/23 - Waiting at the airport for our ride. We made it back to the home. Took a little over an hour to get here. The place is really ice and has a nice yard. There were two dogs that greeted us. One lives here and one is now a street dog that they feed. Bot are good dogs, when we got here I met all of the aunts and cousins. Everyone is super nice. Nicky’s cousin gave us gifts, which was very cool. They had elephants on them. We all went to dinner. There were about 12 people. The food was really good. I tried some fried crickets, but they didn’t have much flavor. I also had somespicier food which was good and drank a lot of Chang beer. We then came back to the house and hung out on the grass and played some tunes and drank beer. It was a good time and got to ‘talk’ to the cousins who are very nice. It’s bed time now. 3 more full days before home time. 3/18/23 - Nicky woke up at 5 am to go to the market. 😂 Thankfully I stayed in bed and got some more sleep. I did hear the ruckus outside of my room and thought about getting up, but didn’t do it. When I got up I went out back and collected some fresh eggs and some mangos. We also picked some fresh veggies for dinner. I had some coffee and fried banana and some other pastries. Some fried dough type pastries. Now just chilling in bed for a nap. Got up and walked around and everyone else was napping. It’s 96, so why not?? Nicky’s aunt asked me if I wanted to eat something and I said yes. There was fried chicken wings and rice left over from last night, but then a green curry bowl with chicken came out, and then a bowl with a soy sauce and 2 eggs and 3 wings, and then a shrimp and veggie stir fry came out, and finally my cookie desert with something wrapped in a banana leaf. I ate a few wings, some green curry and some chicken from the soy dish and finished the shrimp stir fry. It was all good, but way to much food. The rest of the day we just hung out around the house, it was 96 outside. A few of us sat in the living room with the AC on and watched Maid in Manhattan. It was in English with Thai subtitles, so that helped. The baby stayed awake the whole time. Around 5 pm, Nicky’s relatives came over for the big dinner. Her cousin on her mom’s side and his son, who acts, came over and they brought some gifts, which was nice. Everyone started to partake in the alcohol that was brought from the US, and they loved it. Beer came over and started to drink. He’s a funny guy, and was saying the bourbon isn’t strong and good whiskey takes better when it’s not mixed. I gave him some straight bourbon and two minutes later he was adding coke. Everyone said he was wasted, but I couldn’t tell. Everyone left around 11:30. Fun party with the family at the 5 star hotel. 😜 3/19/23 - Our last full day in Surin. Had some more fried banana and we are going to a temple to do some sightseeing. High of 98 today. 🥲 The baby is actually napping. We drove an hour and a half to a temple with a really large Buddha. Spent about 20 minutes touring the temple and about 30 minutes feeding the catfish. We also got a shaved ice which was very good. Then we went to another temple which was really old and had the influences from Cambodia. It was really hot out. Wipe the sweat from my back, hot! We then started to head towards home. I did get to hold the price a few times and he was loving it. We stopped about 5 times for different things. Once for chicken and rice, once for some sweet taffy like candy inside a 2 types of paper. Then again for a few other items. We finally made it home and everyone got ready for dinner. I ad some fried chicken and sticky rice. Nicky told them that’s what I liked, so they thought I would want it at every meal. 😀. Beer and his wife came over for the dinner and he drank a lot of beer. 😀. Nicky called her brother on Line and everyone did a video chat for a little while to say hi. Around 10:30 was when everyone left and cleaned up and then it was bed time. Early flight tomorrow morning. 3/20/23 - Up at 5:15 and now ready to go. Made it to the airport and Pook and Thao stayed to hang out with us until we boarded. Good times in Surin!

Bangkok, Thailand

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 19:30:00 +0700

3/14/23 - Made it back to Bangkok. Our flight left about an hour later than it should have and circled the airport for about 29 minutes before landing. Flying at international places is fun. I’m not sure why people who cough every 2 seconds on a plane can’t figure out that they should be wearing a mask. Nope, not our plane. The genius behind Nicky was constantly coughing. At least he covered his mouth, but still nasty! After getting off of the plane and taking the train to downtown Bangkok, we checked into our hotel. The Rembrandt Hotel was recommending by Gigi. Well, their internet really sucks! And the tv only had 1 channel. We called support and they rebooted the router to fix the internet but the tv wouldn’t be fixed until tomorrow. We were offered a new room and we took it. This room is much nicer. Higher floor and everything works fine. Props to the manager! We walked around Bangkok and checked things out. Went to the 21 mall because it had A/C but the prices were comparable to the United States. We also got some street food. I got 2 chicken balls skewers with tamarind sauce. Basically chicken in a ball. The first skewer was good but the second one had bones in every ball and wasn’t good. Oh well, it was super cheap! We walked around some more and decided to get a Thai massage. Good god was it worth it!!!!!! She worked on my bad shoulder and it feels really good since the massage. $24 with a good tip for 2 massages. Then we got 5 street food spring rolls for 1.25 and they were really good. Nicky got some papaya salad with oysters and she liked it and I got some fat noodles with gravy and veggies and it was very good. I’d definitely get it again. We got back to the hotel and went to the rooftop bar for a drink. It was a cool view. Bangkok has a light fog over it. Guessing the air quality isn’t the best, which is probably why I’m still coughing a little. After the drink we’re back in the room for the night. 3/15/23 - First morning at the hotel. The breakfast buffet was huge and pretty good. There is a conference here for Air India, so a lot of people are staying here. We’re off to see the temple. Saw the Grand Palace and the Wat Haroon temple’s and they were amazing. It was really hot so walking around was kind of rough but it was well worth it. After doing some sight seeing we took the subway back to the hotel and had our margaritas at the pool. They were pretty good. After getting back to the room and showering we tried to figure out where to eat. We went to one sushi place and Nicky saw the prices and we left. So at the recommendation of our masseuse we went close to the hotel and ate at a sushi restaurant. They were getting ready to close but they sat us. We ordered and the food was pretty good. The wasabi was fresh and Nicky said the Uni was really good. My seared scallops was really good. The fatty tuna platter was ok. Some pieces weren’t cold and we didn’t finish it. The fatty salmon belly was over seared and they took it off the bill. Overall we paid about $160 US. I didn’t think it was worth that price since we pay that at Isaiah’s in Denver. After dinner we came back to the hotel and got a dark chocolate ganache dessert which was really good. Also had mango and sticky rice and it was way better than in the US. After that we went to the room for the night. 3/16/23 - Ate the buffet again. It was pretty good with plenty of options. I need to solve this coughing issue. So annoying. We went to the pharmacy’s and salon. Nicky was at the salon while I went back to the room to relax. After she got back we went to Central World for shopping and food. We finally took the BTS which was cheap was cool. We walked through a pricey mall. They had a Reidel store which was also a wine bar. Nicky did a bunch of shopping at the market, which had a ton of stores and people could barter the prices. We also bought some souvenirs for Larry, Scott and Susan. We ate dinner at the food court in the market. The food was nothing special. I did have the Japanese octopus balls at another food stand and they were actually good. On the way home we stopped at a Big C market, which is like a Walmart. There were people buying tons of crap and putting the stuff in their suitcases to take to another destination. We bought some stuff to bring back to the United States. Nicky bought some durian on the way home and after getting back to the hotel room we had a drink and watched tv and then went to bed. 3/17/23 - last day at the Rembrandt hotel. We finished it off with a nice buffet….again. It was good again. We got another massage and mine was really good. The lady bent me in a bunch of different ways. Nicky said her first one was better. We went back to the hotel and cleaned up and checked out. We took a Grab (Uber) to the Ma Deung airport which is different from Bangkok international. For there we took a 45 minute flight to a Buriram airport to see Nicky’s relatives. We were going to take the ‘free’ shuttle to her aunts house but that doesn’t exist. It’s about 800 baht for a shuttle ride to her house. We are now waiting for Nicky’s cousin to pick us up in an hour. Kind of cool since we are buying 15 people dinner on Saturday.

Krabi, Thailand

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:30:00 +0700

3/7/23 - arrived in Krabi. Stopped at 7 eleven for Chang beer and Asahi beer. House we’re staying at is very nice. Went to bed and woke up at 2:30 am to go to the bathroom and the rooster was already crowing. It was still dark out, so his timing is off. 3/8/23 - 78 at 8:20 am Our scooter rental came and got to test drive it. We then took it down to the Krabi beach to catch a longboat to Railee Beach. Took the 10 minute long boat ride which was really cool and pretty fast. Got off at Railee Beach and walked around and saw 2 monkeys and made our way past all of the restaurants and down to the beach. Jumped in the water and it was really clear and saw a few zebra striped fish swimming around. The water was very relaxing and just hung out for a while and took pictures of the rock formations sticking out of the water. On the walk back we stopped for Roti and it was really good. Walked back to the longboat area and took one home. After departing the longboat we walked around looked for a place to eat. Decided to go somewhere closer to home. We found a joint on the side of the road and stopped there. I got Shrimp Panang Curry with a Leo beer. Nicky got papaya salad, which she said was very spicy. My curry was really good. The server asked Nicky if she was 100% Thai, because she didn’t speak real Thai. 😀 3/9/23 - 9:30 am. Drove to the Khao Ngon Nak hiking area. Stopped at a roadside market and grabbed some chicken and rice and we were allowed to pick fresh mangos from the tress. The hike took us about 3:15 minutes to go 5.86 miles which was to the top and back down. It was a challenging hike but worth it. Nice views at the top and great exercise. Also got to see an amazing pond. 😂 On the way back we stopped at a beachside restaurant for some glass noodle salad with seafood and a Chang beer. On the way home we saw a kid walking his elephant 🐘. The elephant was not on any type of leash. Going to fast to take a picture. Great day! Went out for some groceries and got some fruit and snacks. Ate dinner at the same roadside place from yesterday and got Pad See Ew and grilled chicken and sticky rice. Nicky got 3 items and our total with a beer was $14. 😀 3/10/23 - The power to the neighborhood was being cut from 9am to 3 pm. At 10 am we went to a local Krabi beach and hung out. The water was nice but not clear like Railee beach. A local school arrived and it looked like a field trip. The kids started playing by the water and they had plastic bottles with them. They dropped 4 by the water and threw one in the water. I was very surprised that a teacher literally stepped over one of the bottles and said nothing to the kids. Then a few of the kids started talking Thai to me but I said I didn’t t understand. They asked where I was from in English and I said America. They giggled and looked at each other and kept walking. NIcky was walking on the beach, collecting shells. She came back and I told her about the kids and she said they were screwing with me, which I knew. After a while, the kids left and I immediately picked up all of the plastic bottles that they left behind. About 30 minutes later we left and more kids were arriving. Hopefully they don’t trash the beach but I’m not betting on it. We then went to an elephant sanctuary to check it out and they had chairs on their backs and their hind legs were in tight chains. I said we’re definitely not going there. It was the Krabi elephant house park. We headed towards home and stopped at another roadside ‘restaurant’. As I was parking I hit the gas and the scooter jumped a little. The people inside were saying something in Thai (Nicky said they were talking about me, which is fine, because of my parking job), but when Nicky started speaking Thai they looked at each other as if to say, shit, we didn’t know she talk Thai. I ordered crab fried rice which was pretty good. I added a few hot chilis and it tasted good. Nicky had a chicken and rice stir fry dish. We then came home and the power is on! Took Nicky’s aunt to the market on the scooter. Saw a cat drop a huge dump and bury it. Very neat cat. 3/11/23 - Went to the Krabi Elephant Care House to feed and bathe with the elephants. Took about 45 minutes to get there and it was so worth it. We first made up some elephant food with tamarind and sugar cubes and then we put mud all over the elephants skin while they stood close to the stream. After that we fed them bananas, a medicine mixture and tamarind with sugar and salt. The elephant’s really enjoyed it. They would take multiple bananas and hold them with their trunk while they chewed the ones they had already taken. They were trained by voice command which was really cool and there were no bull hooks or chains. They had 4 elephants and after putting mud on them we walked with 1 elephant and there was one that was already waiting by the pool area. We got in the water with scrub brushes and cups to pour water over the elephants. They are magnificent animals. So majestic! After washing them for a little while we hitched a ride back to the camp and hung out for a little bit and ate pineapple and talked to the main guide. They gave us a picture frame made of elephant dung. Highly recommend this place as the elephants appear to be treated very well. 3/12/23 - supposed to do the 4 island tour today. Expected to be picked up at 8:15 am but no one came so we made a call. The tour sent over their taxi and they picked us up and drive us to the rendezvous. Our first stop was Maya Bay which was gorgeous. It was crystal clear water surrounded by huge rocks. We waded knee high in the water and saw a school of baby sharks. They had black on their dorsal fin, but not sure what kind of shark they were. Took some pictures and Nicky collected some ‘souvenirs’. We then went to Pileh Bay and parked the boat. We were able to jump off and swim. The water was gorgeous and it was nice to be able to swim and float around. We then took the boat to Monkey Island the Viking Cave island. Saw 3 monkeys hanging on the rocks. The rest are supposably inland. We then went to Phi Phi Don and ate lunch. Had some chicken curry, chicken stir fry and potatoes. Then went back for a noodle dish. The lunch was decent. We then went to Runtee Bay and did some snorkeling which was fun. Saw a ton of sea urchin and fish. The fish were all different kinds. Some colorful and some not. It was really fun. Our last stop was Banboo island where we got to snorkel some more although the water was shallow. Didn’t need a life vest for this place. We spent an hour at Bamboo and it was really cool. Saw a lot of fish just swimming around and we had a spot in the shaded tree area. We then started to head home but ran out of gas. No big deal since they had extra petroleum on board. After leaving the boat our taxi took us home. We then decided to go eat dinner at a beach restaurant. The food was pretty good. Nicky had a very spicy octopus dish and I had glass noodles with baked crab and a mango drink. On the way home we stopped for durian which Nicky ate with her aunt. Tomorrow we turn in the scooter and I get my passport back. 3/13/23 - today was a hang out day. Around 9 am we went towards downtown to pick up some food. Came home and did wash and packed. The scooter people were supposed to come at 10 but didn’t come until 1:00 pm to pick up the scooter. Ate chicken and rice for lunch and dinner and then watched the whole series of Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes, True Life.

Railee Beach

National Forest!

View from the top

Beachside restaurant.

Elephants!!!

Bangkok, Thailand

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 15:30:00 +0700

Bangkok 3/6/23 Ate breakfast and went to the pool to get some sun and dip in the pool. 85 and sunny at 10am 91 and sunny at 1pm Went to the outlets and had Thai food which was good. Not as hot/humid as I thought it would be. Lots of dogs on the side of the road. Gave one some chicken and another some fish and rice. Walked to the market and got fried chicken and sticky rice for dinner (street food). The food was good. Bangkok 3/7/23 Ate breakfast and went to the pool. Checked out and waiting to leave to the airport for Krabi. The flight was done. The rows started with number 31 and went up. Weird but good for us at row 35. Arrived in Krabi and at the house we’re staying at. Had a large beer and ready for bed.

Tokyo

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 15:30:00 +0900

Flew direct from DIA to Tokyo, Norita airport. Flight was supposed to take 12 hours and 20 minutes but it was 11.5 hours. The flight itself wasn’t bad. Premium plus was definitely worth it. Watched a few movies and didn’t sleep much. Had a 3 hour layover and then flew to Bangkok. Another 6.5 hour flight. Slept about an hour and watched a movie. Got to Bangkok at 11:30 pm and didn’t clear customs until 1:00 am. They were a little disorganized. Finally checked into our room around 2 am. Now it’s bed time and Monday March 6th.