part 2: my christmas vacataion by jethan

day 3 [venturing into town]
the morning started off with heading to the hotel buffet. seeing that this was included with our payment we felt that couldn't miss breakfast. looking back now i could have miss one or two. it was good though. there was bacon, potatoes, eggs, etc. nothing really knock my socks off but it was food. after breakfast we went back to the room for a minute then decided to head to the beach. with a short climb down the stairs we were on the beach. horace had gone down earlier to snag some chairs so i walked the beach until i found him. most of the day was spent laying on beach stairs and swimming. it felt so good to do nothing and knowing that there was nothing we had to do. the water was like bath water. i felt like a fish myself as i swam around picking up seaweed and tossing it into the air. the water itself was fairly swallow so you actually could go out really far. it was rumored that you could actually walked to the island that was in front of us. i never tested this theory. perhaps next time. after splashing around and sunning we decided to venture into town. i needed to find contact solution. we headed down the beach. along the way we passed several little restaurants, bungalows, and little tourist stands. it was pretty rad to walk along the beach. passing both locals and vacationers. we got to the little town along the beach which consisted of two long stores and a restaurant. unfortunately there was no contact solution but the lady told me that if we walked up to the main road and turned left we'd find a 7-11. before making that journey we decided to have lunch. i opted for the seafood pad thai. it was delicious. you can see it in the photos. loads of loads of seafood were in it. some of the things i didn't even know what they were but it didn't matter cuz it was tastey. now it was time to head to the street. along the way we passed the chickens, guienna fowl, and bunnies. i love seeing random animals. along the road were various shops and restaurants. when i finally did make it to the 7-11 there was no contact solution but they did have big gulps. this is something the 7-11's don't have in korea. i was so excited that i had to get one. lucky enough there was a pharmacy next to 7-11 where i did find what i needed. we walked back toward the direction of our hotel. instead of taking the beach way we traveled along the ride which was a mistake. it was one big hill after another. we did find on lookout spot which was cool. of course once we found that someone who works at our hotel drove up and offered us a ride. studpidly we said no cuz we were enjoying the site. as we continued on there was yet another hill and a giant decline to approach the hotel. once back at the hotel we headed poolside. the pool water was ice blue and cold. it was one of those horizon pools so you could watch the sunset from the water. thats just what i did. it was great. we had dinner at the hotel and afterwards went to the porn bar for drinks. this was the night we met monica from japan whose boyfriend is a bartender at porn. she was quite nice and she would soon be seeing a lot more of us.

day 4 [swim and sun and tsunami]
today was spent much like yesterday. laying in beach chairs and swimming. i'm usually so bad at just laying on beach chairs but for some reason i wasn't having much trouble here. a lot of it had to do with the fact that you could actually have your chair in some shade. that was sweet. seeing that i'm so fair skinned i can only spend so much time in the sun. however, having some shade meant that i could lay there all day if i wanted to and thats what i did. i had my walkman and the bar was right behind me. what more could you want. the only downer to the day was when we found out how bad things were elsewhere in thailand. as i said before we knew there was an earthquake but didn't realize there was a tsunami and all this destruction until today. while horace was having his massage vickie and i enjoyed cocktails and the sunset. the colors of the sunset were absolutely amazing. you can see them too in my photos. at one point the sky was so pink and purple that it almost didn't look real. the reflection off the sand was breathtaking. i went a little crazy with the photos. after we showered we headed up the hotel to try to get on the internet. we figured we should really check e-mails and let folks know that we are ok. it was quite surreal and very emotional reading all these e-mails. especially when so many of your loved ones are distraught. i quickly read through them and replied. i also decided to put something on my blog site to inform everyone. that night at dinner all we could talk about was what happened and how lucky we were that we ended up in koh chang. thats all because of vickie's friend. i don't even want to think if we had been else where. tonight we ate at porn bar. it was pretty packed so we got to eat upstairs. it was like our own personal tower. this was the first night i had a young coconut which was quite delicious. the food too at porn bar was excellent. for dessert we had fried bananas with a coconut cream dipping sauce. i thought i had died and gone to heaven. we spent the rest of the evening there drinking. back at the hotel i tried to call home but couldn't get the phone to work so instead i went on the internet to reread emails. back at the room vickie and i sat on the porch chatting. it was so peaceful.

day 5 [elephants]
today we went to the elephant camp to ride elephants. YEAH!! the taxi for the elephant camp came to our hotel and picked us up. i love how they call them taxis when really they're just beat up pick up trucks. vickie and i ended up on one elephant and horace had his own. the elephant that we had was dao, the star female. she was so cute. our guide who i wish i had gotten his name was great. he was like mogui from the jungle book. leaping and hopping from the neck to the top of dao's head. i was surprised that he didn't fall off. the trek went through rubber jungle and too a waterfall. unfortunately since its been very dry there was no waterfall. we did take a rest by the water where we got to watch elephants drinks, wash themselves, and even swim. yes dao decided it was just too hot for her and she needed to swim. i actually have video of her going under the water. it was actually quite cool to watch. at one point vickie dropped her camera case into the water and little miss dao retrieved it for her. after returning from the elephant ride we changed into our swim wear and headed for…yes thats right we went back to the beach. we sat there for a little bit then went into town to buy some stuff. dinner that night was once again at porn bar. our new home. as usual we spent the majority of the night there until we decided to go back to the hotel. i could have just sat there for hours. the night air was cool, the sound of the ocean was relaxing, and the smell made you feel alive. thinking back on it now i wish i was still there.