thailand yowzah

So our trip to Thailand was a little rough.

We did one of those package deals (airfare, hotel included) which Leda coordinated with a travel agent in Singapore. But when we got to Koh Samui, driven in little open-air shuttle buses directly from our plane to the terminal - so all started out very vacationey and nice, we discovered that the hotel she thought she'd booked was not actually the one we'd stay in. The Nora Chaweng Hotel and the Nora Beach Spa & Resort: two different spots!

We made it work, but our first room had the smell of wet towels, so Leda worked it the next morning and we got a free upgrade to a suite. Even so, walking out of the hotel we were in the midst of Chaweng Beach, which is basically the Times Square of Koh Samui, with the added bonus of prostitutes. So Times Square in 1986?

We wandered a bit our first night though and found a little outdoor bar/restaurant where I ordered papaya mango salad. Bad choice as it turned out because Saturday morning I woke up feeling a little wonky, and it all went downhill quickly from there. Body aches, urpy tummy, the whole nine. Luckily in Thailand there are pharmacies on every corner where you can purchase over the counter antibiotics, birth control pills (seriously straight out of the box) and any number of other so-not-over-the-counter-anyplace-else meds. I bought some amoxycillin, which I'm still taking. Haven't really had a full meal since Saturday so I guess I have now entered the weight loss portion of my trip - heh.

The good stuff: we had some great phad thai Saturday and also a good Thai dessert: sticky rice with mango. I swear the desserts in Asia - whoah. Yum. Also, although we couldn't stay there we were able to get to the Nora Beach Resort during the days to use their pool, hang on their beach and use their SPA! We had our second round of 2-hour massages/scrubs/baths which were great. Also the water was amazing, really beautiful. We were on the east coast of the island and the island itself is off the east coast of Thailand. The water was the Gulf of Siam, and very serene, warm and beautiful. The horizon looked endless. It was great to swim out there and just float on your back, with just the sound of the wind and the water in your ears.

Because I was under the weather a boat tour of the island wasn't really in the cards - bummer. The Thailand weekend turned out to be kind of a strange ending to a really fabulous trip, but that's okay. Everything else had been so stellar, I suppose we were due for some wonkiness. I feel like someday I should have a Thailand do-over.

I flew out of Singapore Tuesday morning and now am back in San Francisco where it's somehow still Tuesday. But yay - so so glad I'm here! I'll head to LA for a bit in a week or two and will be back in New York by the end of August.