Ten Days on the Beach in Thailand

We landed in Suvarnabhumi International Airport outside of Bangkok, immigrated, picked up our luggage, and then waited in what felt like a mile long taxi line, all the while being misted by high mounted wall fans. The taxi driver took our address and began making his way to the city where he eventually turned down the alley street that runs behind Bumrungrad Hospital and in front of our hotel. The whole family would be having dental check ups at the hospital within the next 24 hours, starting with me. I got out of the car as it waited in traffic and raced to the third floor to keep my appointment. Allen followed later after getting the boys settled across the street in our hotel. Bumrungrad Hospital is an extremely nice facility with helpful Thai staff and excellent service. They must see in the hundreds of thousands of medical tourists every year.

The next day after the boys' dental appointments, we headed for the domestic airport, Don Mueang, and our ultimate stopping off point, Krabi. The flight landed us on a small flat tarmac in the midst of a wooded, mountainous landscape . Krabi is absolutely gorgeous with sculpted limestone upcroppings, rubber trees, and jungle like mangroves. It was to one of these mangroves that we made our way. Unlike Bangkok, where taxi drivers express their faith with small gold Buddha's and "phuang malai" (or floral garlands made of flowers, often jasmine) on or near the dashboard, our drivers there seemed to be Muslim. Their cars had little or no ornamentation. Both of the drivers who taxied us around during our stay were helpful and friendly. The first got us safely to our more remote and unfamiliar destination of Klong Muong Beach and the Sheraton Hotel. Having reserved this hotel for free through our American Express Starwood points, we knew very little about it, and were a bit out of our league. As we waited to check in, hotel attendants brought us fragrant ice cold wash cloths and sweetened lemon grass water, both invigorating and cooling to the body. Then they drove us in a huge golf cart to our rooms only two buildings away. After we settled in, we followed an elevated concrete path through what seemed like a jungle and out to a lovely pool deck area with white umbrellas and fringed by palm trees. The pool looked out on a sandy white beach and the Andaman Sea. We splashed into the warm spa salty waters of the pool and then relaxed in deck chairs reading and watching the boys swim and play. I turned to Allen in my ever observant and cultured way and said, "I think this hotel was built on a swamp."

Later we came to find our that it was purposely set in a mangrove, which added to the natural beauty and isolation of the whole environment. Peter, however, experienced more nature than he wanted to when he was heading back to the room one afternoon and came across a good sized monitor lizard laying across the path. The lizard seemed to have no intention of moving until Allen walked up from behind. After that Peter always sped quickly though that section of the walkway and asked daily, "When can we move to a different hotel that doesn't have lizards?"