Thailand

If you ever have the chance to go, you HAVE to go to Koh Samui, Thailand.  I've heard Phuket is amazing, too.

Todd and I were blessed enough to be able to spend a few days there recently and I wish I could live there.  It's paradise.  The people are so nice, and their service is beyond most you would receive in the US.  It was also amazing to speak english the entire time we were on our trip.  You realize you miss doing so while you're in Shanghai, but you really realize it once you're able to do so again.

Below is a little video I put together of our trip.  I'm sorry for the shakiness of some parts, but walking in flip flops + filming on a point and shoot camera + major breeze = hard to stay still.

The video doesn't do the view justice.  The water is a Tiffany blue.  It's absolutely breathtaking.  It was so wonderful to completely relax in the sun.  The high each day was between 85 and 90, and the lows were around 78.  It was perfect all the time. 

Our hotel was wonderful.  It's set up to where you can literally not lift a finger the entire time you're there.  You don't have to walk anywhere if you don't want to... just call a buggy.  You can order the entire menu from any of the restaurants to your room, and the rooms are so great you just want to stay in all the time, or lounge by your private pool instead of heading anywhere.

The best part about the vacation was Todd was finally able to truly relax.  For anyone who knows Todd, it's hard for him to relax.  While he enjoys sitting around watching sports on TV or a movie, he has to leave the apartment at least once a day purely because he gets restless.  The last "lounge-ish" vacation we took, he came to the pool with me and laid out for 15 minutes before getting too restless and going off to find something else to do.  This time, he stayed out at the beach with me for hours, swam in our pool, lounged on our day bed on our deck, and really relaxed.  It was wonderful to see.

While in Koh Samui, we had some of the best food we've had in a very long time.  Todd has been in Shanghai since the middle of May and the city definitely doesn't have the best food we've ever had.  We've found some pizza we like, some chicken, burgers, items like that, but not anywhere we go for a really good meal.

Todd had an amazing ribeye steak with truffle mashed potatoes.  It was delicious!  If I hadn't loved my meal so much, I definitely would have stolen more than just a taste of his.  But I had this...

It's a lobster and caramelized pineapple red curry with rice.  SOOOO delicious!  The curry was spicy, but had a coconutty flavor that complimented the pineapple and lobster.  It was amazing.  I wish I could eat it every day!

We also loved the breakfast buffet.  Todd eats Pop Tarts or cereal every morning for breakfast in Shanghai.   I made pancakes and scrambled eggs once, and will make them again, but it's so expensive!  We paid $8 for syrup (an off brand... Aunt Jemima was $13) and $9 for pancake mix.  Of course we'll get multiple servings out of each, but it's still hard to swallow when we know how much we would pay in the US.  So every morning in Koh Samui we would go to "The Kitchen Table" and have fresh squeezed juice, and anything our heart desired.  Todd would have cheesy scrambled eggs, pancakes, fresh fruit, and REAL BACON.  I say REAL bacon because in Shanghai, bacon is typically a piece of lunch meat ham, fried in a skillet.  Otherwise, it's a fatty, disgusting piece of bacon-looking meat.

Our view at breakfast

I LOVED being in the sun.  When we left Shanghai, the weather was dreary and cold.  When we came back, it was drearier and colder.  It's amazing what a little vitamin D will do for your mood and overall health.  Todd and I had never been in the sun this close to the equator before, so we had to be very careful.  Honestly, I laid out a total of 3 1/2 hours in the sun the entire time I was there, and got burnt.  I used SPF 50 and reapplied, and I even used the timer on my phone so I wouldn't lose track of how long I'd been in the sun.  The sun is just SO STRONG!  The rest of the time I laid in the shade.  The amazing thing is I look as if I've laid on a beach for days.  I guess the sun penetrates so deeply I tanned much faster than if I were on a beach in Florida, not that that's a good thing from a health perspective, but I am loving having a tan again.  It's too bad I'll be covered from head to toe in pants, boots, jackets, scarves, and gloves. : (

So if you know me very well or have read my previous blog posts, you know I have a stuffed lavender monkey named Elliott my friend's son gave me when my mom passed away.  I take him everywhere, so he came along to Koh Samui.  Our hotel room had a red bear stuffed with tiny foam pellets like those pillows everyone sells.  Each night, "twilight service" would come and turn down our bed and prepare our room for sleeping, and they would dress the bear in his robe.

Elliott and the bear from our room

The bear was so cute and comfortable (makes a great pillow!) I had to have one.  Todd was nice enough to buy me one, and he picked the color, so now we have another addition to our family.

Elliott & Thai

We named him Thai W Strawn.  Get it?  Thai?  Thailand.  W?  W Hotels.  Creative huh? LOL.  He even came with clothes including the tie pictured above, and an equally as tacky, shiny robe.  I love that my husband is as goofy as me and embraces my emotional attachment to stuffed animals.  Here's what he did with Thai's robe when we got home...

Doesn't it look good in the closet?

If anyone is looking for an amazing, international, tropical vacation, please consider Thailand.  It was a wonderful trip I'm so thankful we were able to take.  Here's a few more pictures from the trip...

This is the view from our gate at the airport.  The entire airport is open air.  To walk to your gate you walk outside down a street filled with shops, and suddenly come to security.  It's wonderful.

These are the little trams that take you from your gate to your plane.  The airport only has 1 runway so the plane lands, turns around on the runway, and goes and parks.  Then trams take you to and from the plane.

OOH!  I almost forgot.  Bangkok airport had 2 things Todd and I had desperately been missing...

Auntie Anne's pretzel and cheese with lemonade for me, and 

Popeye's biscuits for him.

If you know me very well, then you should know I LOVE soft pretzels and cheese.  I will make a meal of them.  I used to get one practically every time I was at the mall, and even hunt down the reheated ones at amusement parks like Disney.  I had read an article before moving to Shanghai and it said there was an Auntie Anne's here.  When I arrived, I was sorely disappointed.  It went out of business.  I don't understand why, because Chinese are obsessed with fresh items and they're freshly made.  Maybe if they made a disgusting fish pretzel with soy dipping sauce it would sell.  Anyway, I was thrilled to get an Auntie Anne's pretzel and lemonade even if it wasn't as good as in the US.  A mediocre pretzel and cheese is better than no pretzel and cheese at all.

As for Todd's biscuits... we don't have an oven.  I'm going to elaborate on this in my next post, but because of this, Todd can't make biscuits and he LOVES biscuits.  He would eat biscuits and cereal for breakfast practically every single day in Dallas, and sometimes for lunch or dinner, too.  Therefore, he was thrilled when the airport had a Popeye's and he was able to get biscuits.  What can I say?  It's the little things in life. ; )