Thailand... the Third Visit

In the past year I've been lucky enough to visit Thailand three times. No I'm not a trafficker of anything other than souvenirs. But the odds were in my favor and I was lucky enough to have just enough money and a few travelling companions willing to wander southeast Asia with me. This time, as you may have guessed, it was my very own hobbit family. Destination? Operation Koh Samui. Our trip began with a seemingly long series of flights, connections and customs inspections. I've been told they lasted under 12 hours, but I'm rather certain it was an eternity.

We made it to our beach-side resort around 10 pm local time and were shown to a beautiful bungalow. We spent the next 5 days dividing our time between the beach, restaurants, shopping, and mostly watching on-demand movies. We would've spent more time in the pool, providing the resort hadn't photo-shopped it into an olympic size, when in reality it was more like a 'let's sink our portable above-ground pool into the backyard' kind of a deal. All in all, we had a lovely time when we weren't bickering or sulking from sunburn (which didn't happen much because we were too busy eating and drinking...and enjoying the island!).

After Koh Samui, we went for a day and night in Bangkok. We stayed at an absolutely gorgeous Holiday Inn on Silom Road, which left me wondering: Why can't they be that nice in the U.S.? I successfully maneuvered myself (and family) through the Skytrain (thanks to Dave navigating us through it on my 2nd trip), but did make the mistake of purchasing Passion Fruit and Beet Juice. Never again. We made it the Central World Mall with just enough time to purchase popcorn and A & W rootbeer before sitting down to watch Harry Potter 5. Despite a sense of urgency to purchase tickets, the theater was 98% empty. The hilarious Thai previews alone, full of cross-dressing and innuendo, were worth the 160 Baht. The movie itself was magical enough and yet again reminded me that I'm still just a Squib.

We went back to China the next day. The end. Goodbye.