August Already??

Okay, so it's been a month since I updated the site. So sorry! :)

Things have been so busy and I just haven't been online. I know that everyone is devastated. Quick update. We went to Koh Samui (Thailand) in late July. Then we came back to work. Wow, what a surprise! We've been having fun on the weekends are are lucky to have people we like stuck here in Okpo, too. The cycle seems to be work, hang out, work out (a little) and plan for vacations. That's about all there is to do. Next up is going to be China. I found a group that provides tours around Korea in English!!!! We were going to head to Japan for an upcoming Korean holiday (Chuseok, week of Sept 24th). We lucked out and got the last seats on the ferry to Japan, but we just haven't had the energy to research the trip. Then I ran across the Royal Asiatic Society and they give all of these tours. So, we will hop onto their trip to China during the Chuseok holiday and probably go with them to Japan in October. Mike and Amanda (houston) are coming through Korea in 2008, so we'll do Tokyo or other places in Japan at that time also.

By the way, Rob is in Houston now for work right now. He left for about two weeks and the creep is going out and eating mexican food without me!!!!

BUT, lucky for us... Lindsay (one of the ones we hang out with) researched home made tortillas online and is now a PRO. Mitch and I told her we'd put together a tortilla fund so we can get some every week. I brought tons of taco seasoning, too! We are in business now!!!!

Here are some pictures of Koh Samui in late July. Very very very hot place. All of the restaurants (Except for McDonald's) are open-air restaurants, so there may be a fan blowing, but you never got dressed up in this place. No matter what, you will be sweating and it's a beach town, so no need to get too dressed up. Here is a picture of our resort pool, cabana bar and the beach in the background.

What a beautiful picture. So serene... But checking into our resort was hilarious. I did TONS of research for available resorts. The only requirements were pool, breakfast included and spa at the resort. Well, we finally found the place that fit the bill. Now, to decide on a room. None of these resorts had too many pictures online. It was amazing at the variety. You could get a room for $40 a night or $250 a night. So, we searched and searched and decided that the "superior deluxe room" looked like a winner. That sucker was only about $67 a night. Sweet! We arrive in Koh Samui and the resort is picking us up from the airport. We start to get nervous that maybe we cheaped out and this place sucks. The shuttle bus pulls up and there is our name with the driver. He then runs off to get the Resort Van -- this is a good sign - they have their own van. It's raining at this point as we head off to the hotel. Along the way we pass TONS of people on motorcycles (or scooters) and it's raining?!?!?! Then, we make a turn onto a little side street with junky houses. Could this be the way to the resort? And finally, we dead end into a tiny parking lot and we're there. It's looks a little sketchy. We get out to go to the "Front Desk", which is an old desk with roof, but it's all outside and there's not even a computer! They finally show us to our room. We got a semi-detached cottage, so we only shared one wall with another cottage. We walk in and Oh My Goodness - what a sh*thole!!!!

What's even better is that our giant garden tub that "blends with nature", doesn't even have a shower hose long enough to go above your head. You had to squat to wash your hair and it didn't have a shower holder high on the wall, so you had to hold it the whole time. Here is Rob demonstrating our shower technique (with clothes on). Too bad the place was too gross for me to consider sitting and bathing in there. Not to mention that you have to brush your teeth with bottled water because their water is bad. That makes you feel even more dirty that you aren't bathing in "good water". Well, the room sucks, but back to the positive. We're at a gorgeous beach in a place where you can't spend money if you try (unless you get an expensive room)! :)

So, we are in shock with disappointment over our room but we decide to wait until daylight to see if we need to change hotels. We ended up staying there - I guess you can just about get used to anything. Although we were thrilled to get back to our own clean bathroom and large shower after 9 days of this!

Now to the good stuff. I made poor Rob do everything they had to offer, so we went on a quite a few adventures and even had a few days to shop and lay around doing nothing on the beach. We started on the first day with a 3.5 hour spa package. I think we spent about $100 total for both of us to get a mud wrap, steam room, massage and facial. Sweet. Then it was off to snorkeling, fishing, kayaking, canopy tours, elephant rides, etc. So here are the obligatory action pictures. Sadly enough, the picture below was the biggest catch during the "Big Game Fishing Tour". ha ha...Here we are, just swinging in the trees. Rob was hot in his tree swinging getup.

Kayaking out at the Marine Park.... a dreadfully boring 2 hour boat ride from the island. Should've taken the speed boat tour. Lesson Learned!

A hike up the uninhabited island.

The people behind us on the Elephant Trek. We bought our picture, but I can't scan it right now, so you get to see this family. What a gorgeous trek through heavy forests......or not. Maybe it was just a circular path. oh well, I got to ride the elephant --- which also rid me of my previous desire to take a elephant safari in Africa. Can you say uncomfortable.

Okay, another funny story. We are walking along the beach at night and we see this bright light in the sky, but it's moving slowly. Must be a small private plane coming in. Wait, there's another one. They sure aren't moving fast, but that is bright. What is it?? That one is moving around in crazy directions and the other light just went out. What is going on????!!!! Then, another night we see them and listen intently. Definitely no engine. Finally, on yet another night, we are at the restaurant on the beach and these guys walk by and are trying to sell this "bag". Then, we see them light one and off it goes into the air and burns for 5 or 10 minutes. THAT'S WHAT THOSE LIGHTS WERE! Boy do we feel dumb. Anyhow, we bought some lamps while we were there and had them shipped back to Korea, so the owner of the store gave us two of these "hot air balloons" (can't remember the Thai name). He said that you send it off with all of your bad luck. We are so excited because I wanted to do one and now it's free. :)

That night we are ready to set our bad luck free. Too bad it's windy and I go first. We set the core on fire and I'm holding the thing because it's not ready to lift and the wind is very strong. Then my dear husband says "let go of the top".... fine, I'll listen to him because I don't know what I'm doing either. So I let go of the top and it blows over, lights the side of my balloon on fire, which I then have to let go before it burns me. And it crashes to the beach and burns. GREAT. Guess I'm doomed. Then, the guys who sell the things come help us with our second one (good advertisement for them). Rob gets to successfully launch his bad luck out over the ocean.

Finally, I will leave you with the most interesting part of the trip. We had to go see a ladyboy show while we were in Thailand. We tried to decide between taking the Baht Bus (too tired to insert the picture) to Chewang - the nicer beach - or staying on our beach (Lamai) and going to the show we could walk to. We decided on walking. Lucky for us. :) We got to the show early and were the only ones in the whole place while this "lady" (or boy) danced on stage in lingerie and stared us down. Geez, are there any other weirdos on this beach that want to see a lady boy show? I thought we were going to be the only ones. Finally the place fills up and a lady from Australia sat next to us and we had a blast with her all night -- her husband refused to come out for such an event. The reason I say lucky for us that we stayed in Lamai for the show was definitely not the costumes or stage props -- this place was a junker and the poor ladyboys had costumes with holes, etc. They definitely need to increase the price of their drinks to buy some new costumes! But we were lucky because the show was fun and it had one chick/dude that did a comedy portion, so it was hiliarous. In between the shows (yes, we stayed for the 2nd show), they would come hang out with the crowd. So, here is Rob getting to know them and also the hilarious one, who proposed to Rob during his/her skit and picked on the crowd. Great show! We had a blast!!

I would upload more, but this took me an hour. The picture are the slowest part. It's past my bedtime and I've stayed up just so I can call Bank Of America - now that they are open - and transfer money for our next trip to China! The tour group only accepts money orders or wire transfers -- what happened to the great credit card!
I will try to post more soon. We had a fun teambuilding last week with plenty of good pictures.

We hope everyone is doing well!