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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Thailand Honeymoon Part III: Bangkok day 3 and Travel to Koh Pha Ngan!

Today has been the first day in MN that has really felt like fall - a welcome relief after a hot and humid week. I went to the State Fair on Thursday with co-workers and almost melted out of my shoes. Last night Ben and I had an amazing dinner at Piccolo, one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants - although, I forgot to bring the camera so we had to use the one on my phone. None of the food photos really turned out, and this one of me in front of the restaurant has some serious freaky-camera-eyes going on.

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This morning we walked to the farmer's market, and then back home for breakfast - I know they are all summer fruits but something about the color of this yogurt and cereal bowl just says "fall" to me. Makes me happy

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Anywhoo - on to the main event!

I started off the third day right with some healthy fruit - a dragonfruit! I had never tasted one before but they were easy to come by in Thailand, so I brought one back to the hostel from our local supermarket.

Dragon Fruit!

(Amount of food we were allowed to bring up to our room: none. Amount of food we actually had in the room: six or seven granola bars, some godiva chocolate bars, banana bread, moon cakes, a bag of mangosteen and a dragonfruit.)

Start by slicing it in half...

Victory!

Dragonfruit, as my friend Evan pointed out, looks a lot prettier than it tastes. Not that it tastes bad, it's just slightly underwhelming - but I still much prefer it to papaya, honeydew and canteloupe (those are my three least favorite fruits...sorry if I've offended anyone...).

After breakfast and dragonfruit snack, we ventured out for another day of sightseeing! Our first stop was the Jim Thompson silk house.

Jim Thompson was an American businessman who helped turn the Thai silk industry around in the 1950's-60's - when his fabrics were used in the film adaptation of the musical "The King and I," Thai silk became highly sought after and the industry hit the big time. However, in addition to his business savvy, Jim Thompson has sort of a weird and creepy story. While vacationing in the Cameron Highlands, Thompson went for a walk one day and just never came back. No one ever found him and his mysterious disappearance was never solved. Thompson was a former U.S. military intelligence officer, so obviously there has been speculation that he was part of a "planned disappearance"...but really, no one knows.

In any case... the house was gorgeous but we weren't allowed to take photos inside, so this is the only picture I have from the Jim Thompson Silk house: the flower pots outside of the garden.

Lotus Flower

Lotus Flower :)

After visiting the silk house, we went to the flower market...which took forever to get to. I will give you this one piece of advice: if you ever have a choice between taking a taxi through Bangkok traffic and not taking a taxi through Bangkok traffic, choose not. Just saying. But it was worth it because the flower market was really interesting.

Bangkok Flower Market

Bangkok Flower Market

Bangkok Flower Market

Tuk-Tuk in Bangkok

After our long day of running around the city we were pretty hungry, so we went downstairs for a bite at the Suk 11 restaurant - with special guest Michael Cuddyer!

This might need some explaining - last year we brought former Twins outfielder Carlos Gomez('s baseball card) with us to India and took pictures of it in strange places. This year, we decided that Cuddy should have the honor.

Cuddy likes hanging out at Suk 11, too!

Cuddy bounds fearlessly through the foliage - is there anything this man can't do??

It was a great dinner, even with Cuddy barging in on our romantic evening ;)

Dinner at Suk 11 Restaurant

After dinner we grabbed a quick drink at Cheap Charlie's, a local bar, and then went to bed super early because we had to be up at the extremely painful hour of 4am to catch our flight to Koh Samui. Love those early mornings...luckily the Bangkok airport has coffee.

Getting up at 4 to catch your plane = coffee needed.

The flight to Samui only took about an hour, and it felt so great to finally be relaxing on the beach!

we are coming for you!

Landing in paradise

Waiting for the ferry to Koh Pha Ngan

Contemplating the ocean

Alright... I have wayy too many pictures from the rest of this day to fit into this entry - mostly of the beautiful island and our awesome villa - so I'll save them for the next. Plus, Ben and I are going to hang out and enjoy our evening with a movie and some tea. Happy holiday weekend everyone!


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2 comments:

  1. Honey, I love you but Shhhh!!!!! (Pay no attention to this post Suk 11! We totally had no food at all in the room!! It's all photoshop!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm pretty sure they are going to chase us to the other side of the world to chastise us for our trespasses with dragonfruit :)

    ReplyDelete

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