One last hurrah

Four months of travel can take it out of you. Hot crowded buses, strange food, time changes, staying up late, getting up early, hot guest houses, bug bites, etc., seem to wear you out, no matter how beautiful the sites are. Sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation. So we decided to fly back down to southern Thailand and spend a few days soaking up some sun and drinking tropical drinks. After a little bit of internet research, we discovered a sweet Sheraton that was just screaming to us to come visit. So we ended up in the small beach town of Khao Lak at Le Meridian Resort for 4 nights, which turned into 5 nights.

"As expected from a 5-star resort" we were greeted with refreshing lemongrass towels and tea upon arrival. The place was beautiful, all it was missing was a friendly little elephant to swim with in the afternoons, but you can't have it all.

Our days consisted of lounging on the beach, lounging in the pool, and lounging in our room when there were afternoon showers. Questions such as "Do you want to go to the big pool or the pool with the water jets?" or "Should we lay in the hammock under the palm tree or on the sundeck in the Andaman Sea?" became commonplace.

Every evening, we would enjoy a drink outside on the beach while watching a spectacularly colorful sunset.

This resort had all sorts of activities to keep you busy, if sitting in a beach chair reading a book wasn't enough to entertain you. So we took advantage of this and did some kayaking, windsurfing, beach volleyball, and hobiecatting.

It was a beautiful end to a wonderful trip. We knew that in a few short days we would be looking down on the Pacific Ocean on our way back to familiar lands. We were of course looking forward to going home to see family and friends, but while watching the sunset with the warm breezes sweeping off of the sea, it made it just a little bit harder to leave. There is no such thing as a vacation that doesn't end and we know how fortunate we are to have been able to extend it for this long. What we've learned and will take back home with us from this trip is going to be the best souvenir of all.

Until next time....