Off to the Beaches

We arrived in Bangkok and eagerly awaited Andrea's arrival (Meghan's old roomie from university) and filled out time with a trip to McDonald's, escapades to get bike boxes while the boys dismantled and packed up all 4 bikes, and an evening of random karaoke and dinner. This felt like a perfect addition to our time in SE Asia as karaoke is raging popular and we had not yet taken part. Pamela and I wailed away (and I think the boys will attest that wailing is a good description) to Backstreet Boys and a couple other ditties that I can't recall. We had fun, the audience was...amused...and we even got a gift handed to us onstage...

A 20 Baht note and tissue flower given to Pam and I from an admirer in the audience

Andrea arrived in record time having just brought carry on luggage and we flew out the next morning from Bangkok to Trang City. From there, we had a mix of minivan and boat to get us to our final destination, Sukorn Beach Bungalows on Koh Sukorn. Andrea's mad Lonely Planet research skills landed us in a piece of paradise for 5 days--a tiny island with only four other resorts on it we had the beach to ourselves.

Pam and Andrea chillin' and relaxin' on our way to Sukorn. Fortunately this photo is taken before the sunburn that came as a result of this boat trip.

We had a most relaxing time--with cute little bungalows, a nice restaurant, and the beach about 50 steps from our door it was hard to do anything else! The days were sunny and warm, with a thunder shower in the afternoon for a couple hours (at which juncture we took advantage of moving indoors and napped, had a beer and a snack, and read our books) that would clear away by dinner time. With the warm weather abounding, and feeling like he was back to civilization Cameron decided it was time to rid himself of his beard.

Is this actually the same man in all three pictures?

Cameron, in his own piece of paradise...water, sun, a good book, and no one else around!

When we all felt full of relaxation we decided to get up and on the move a little bit. A day of fishing on the ocean was just what was needed and so off we went...the five of us, Tom our fearless guide, and Tom's father, a well-seasoned fisherman. We spent the day on the water using plastic pop bottles with fishing wire wrapped around them as our lines, squid as our bait. It was fun and we had just enough being caught to keep things exciting. A few bottom feeders, a little bit of coral (whoops!), and finally something we could eat.

Dave, with Tom and his Dad, getting our lines sorted

Red snapper caught by moi...I feeling like I'm born to be a fisherwoman (please refer to earlier Ontario posts)

The girls went out the next day on a snorkelling trip while the boys held back for an adventure day. This meant they were going to run around the whole island, climb the highest mountain, scale a cliff and drink beer...they did accomplish about half of this I believe. Us girlies had a great trip and saw some beautiful fish, really colourful coral, and nice limestone cliffs.

Celebrating (sadly) our last night in paradise..little did we know what was to come

No words needed