Bangkok arrival & dining at the Banyan Tree

Arriving in Bangkok is fairly mental after spending over two weeks on a little island. Luckily we had been prepared slightly for how mad traffic is (as in there are no rules just put your foot down and hope for the best).

We did find when our cases finally got to us that they had been opened and checked, i’m not quite sure what they were looking for but nothing was taken that we can see. They did however pull a handle off one of the cases, we were not impressed!

The drive through the city was very long and stuffy but we made it to The Dream hotel in one piece. The hotel is a bit mental. There are neon lights under our bed and in the bathroom. It seems everyone in Bangkok is totally crazy for this hotel so it must be good. I’m just happy to finally have some comfy pillows.

The Banyan Tree is really a dining experience not to be sniffed at. There wasn’t a great deal on the menu for my fussy Husband to eat but i dug right in. I’ve never been to a restaurant and had so many courses (a lot of which are complimentary). The night was so good. We dined on the 61st floor, which makes you feel a little dizzy at first but the view across Bangkok was amazing.

The tube is super easy to use as well, pretty lucky for us. Although they give you a plastic coin to use instead of a ticket which did baffle us for a second or two.

Wife xoxo

p.s the hotel has a mac which has made me miss mine a lot. must remember to travel with mine next time.

Checking out FOR REAL 28/01/10

So it’s really Thursday today!!!

We’re packed and waiting in reception to grab a taxi to the airport.

We touch down in Bangkok around 2.30pm and have reservations at the Banyan Tree rooftop restaurant tonight.

We are fully prepared for the Temples we are about to see to blow our minds. Martyn is armed with a map and guide book and has it all planned out.

Mr and Mrs Hare xoxo

A big Wife wooops. 27/01/10

So we packed up and hurried out to reception before 12pm only for the ladies to be really confused as to why we wanted to check out.

This was because its only Wednesday and I thought it was Thursday.

We got laughed at a lot, we laughed at me quite a lot too.

So with no plans what so ever we soaked up some sun by the pool during the day. Went for the worst meal we’ve eaten whilst we’ve been here (Martyn was brought a frozen pizza – YUCK)  .Ended up curled up back in our room stuffing in sweets from the family mart watching Awake and The Condemned (a film i’m sure only Jamie will appreciate).

A very embaressed Wife xoxo

Last night at the Boathouse 26/01/10

Seeing as it was our last day/night in the luxury of the boathouse we decided to spend the day here.

We slept in real late because of the colds we’ve picked up and then headed out to the beach to walk around and explore anything we’d missed out on down there.

I built a sand castle,  we wrote stuff in the sand and climbed around the rock pools. A pretty fun afternoon.

So for our last meal we dined at the hotels beach front restaurant. I decided to treat us to some Lobster and Martyn had some grilled meats from the beach BBQ. We both found our favourite cocktails of the holiday, mine was a Pink Lady and Martyns was a Dragon Ball (non alcoholic and stuffed full of strawberry ice cream).

After dinner we took a stroll down the beach and found a band playing on the beach so we had a little dance in the sea to some really badly covered songs, most memorable will be the Green Day cover in which he sang mostly his own made up version of the lyrics.

Wife xoxo

Temples & Fights 25/01/10

Breakfast at the boathouse was amazing! Pancakes with chocolate sauce, danish pastrys and strawberry yogurt, total yum. Martyn was let down as the natural yogurt had zero sweetners so didn’t taste nice at all (kinda the point of natural yogurt).

After the super unhealthy breakfast we dipped into the huge pool again.

We explored temples some more. First headed to Wat Plai Laem. This place blew our minds at how good it was. Kind of puts the big buddha to shame but don’t let him know we said that. The monks were collecting donations to write on roof tiles for the new temple they are building so we donated and did a few scribbles.

After that we walked across to the Big Buddha to take a few more snaps and shop around the village. Martyn got a very nice linen shirt with a dragon embroidered on it. This will hopefully only be for house wear, I can’t imagine him bringing any mosh wearing that.

We came back to the boathouse stuffed our face at Captains Choice and hit the pool again. Possibly pool addicts in this place.

I’ve been a very good wife and last night we went to the semi final of the Samui Super Pro K1 event. I think K1 is probably my favourite if I had to chose between that and Muay Thai (less of the cuddles knees). Martyn of course enjoyed himself quite a bit and got some Muay Thai shorts that a cow probably died to make. Drago was probably the best fight of the night. Although the Canadian that threw out his knee rather than getting beaten by the Thai fighter was probably a wise sissy.

We both seem to have gotten poorly now so our last full day in Samui will be full of relaxing and possibly a beach massage.

Loving life right now!

Mrs Hare xoxo

Boathouse & Chaweng 24/01/10

Well pulling up and checking into the Boathouse was an experience neither of us have had before. The extra star this place has on Bayview is very clear to see. It has perfect gardens everywhere and ponds with coy carp bigger than our cat in.

Our room is a converted rice barge and is so lovely. It has an upstairs which is a sitting room and private sun deck and below is our bedroom, bathroom and a room we aren’t quite sure what you’re supposed to do with. Maybe if we were rich this would be the money room.

One of the pools is in the gardens and has huge monkeys spitting water everywhere (stone monkeys, we weren’t that lucky). The second pool is right by the beach and is designed like a huge boat, possibly the best pool ever. We spent 4 hours swimming about and even figured out you could dance in water. Excellent fun.

The hotels restaurant on the beach is pretty good too.

The beach itself is probably the quietest we’ve found on the island so far, but that’s good.

We ate in Chaweng again that night at another restaurant which had thai dancers during the meal. Nothing as fancy as the Baan Boran but nice all the same.

We spent the evening haggling and Martyn went too low and offended someone (it may have been me who told him to go low). Our cases are going to be so heavy when we get home. I hope my Mum’s been doing some weights ready to lift these into her car seeing as Martyn will be carrying them half way across the world.

Wife xoxo

24/01/10

Breakfast eaten, bags packed and now we are waiting for our check out time at Bayview.

Today we’re heading up to Bo Phut to stay in the Imperial Boat House. Cannot wait for the amazing boat room on the beach

This means only a week left until we fly home. It’ll be nice to not have fresh bites every morning when i wake up but i’ll miss this island and the sun quite a lot.

The Samui kittens aren’t nearly as friendly as the mittens either!

We have found that everywhere we go black labradors seem to be following us. This has convinced us that Martyn’s old dog is following us in different forms around the holiday. There was even one sitting watching us when we got married. Martyn thinks he’s protecting us.

xoxo