Friday 23 – Thursday 29 January
We left Shenzhen airport at 11:30PM and flew into Bangkok airport at 1:15AM. We stayed the night in a great hotel near the airport for $23.00 which included breakfast. In the morning, we hooked up with another couple from the school, Abby Morgan, Ed Dame, and Ed’s mom. We took a personal shuttle van to Koh Chang Island via Oasis Sea World.
At Oasis Sea World we watched a dolphin show for about 45 minutes. Then 3 of us from our group got to swim with the dolphins! (We were late in booking it, and they only had 3 spots left. Tom and Ed’s mom opted out.) We got to pet and kiss 2 types of dolphins, the Chinese White Dolphin and the Irrawaddy Dolphin. If you look at our pictures, you will see how different they are from each other and how they look so unreal! They were so soft and sweet and gentle. (The Irrawaddy’s know how to really squirt you right in the eyes!) It was all natural sea water pumped into the pool. We got to be with them for 1 hour. It was an awesome experience.
We finally got to the island and to our wonderful resort…The Dewa. We felt like we were living the lifestyle of the rich and famous! We were treated like royalty. It was so relaxing and quiet. The room had a deep tub for a nice soaking. The breakfast was included, and it was incredible. They had regular breakfast foods of all sorts, including making your omelet in front of you, cheeses, cold cuts, Thai food, pasta bar, and freshly squeezed Mandarin orange juice. We stuffed ourselves. It was so good for Tom. He actually put on 5 pounds which was one of his goals after losing 10 pounds from being sick in December.
We went to a waterfall, did a Tree Top Adventure ropes course, whereupon I fell on a swing bridge and really bruised up my left ankle….but it was great! I walked the beach every morning and Tom and I together every evening. I had 2 different hour long oil massages on the beach, a facial at the hotel spa, and just quiet time reading on the beach. It was just what I needed. Tom got caught up on a lot of sleep and caught up with stuff he wanted to get prepared for school and our fellowship. We ate at various restaurants around the island and every meal was wonderful. We even ate at a place called “Pirate’s Pub.” It was English, but had a lot of Russian food. We were told that a lot of Russian tourists hang out there in the evenings. I had borsch (beet soup with sour cream) for lunch. It was great! We met a Russian couple on our Tree Top Adventure.
We experienced a lot of neat things that we’ve never done before. One night we had a BBQ dinner right on our beach as the sun was setting. Another night we had a nice seafood dinner at another hotel and then took a boat to see the fireflies light up the trees. That was very romantic! We had a lunch on a glass table that overlooked the ocean and our feet dangled underneath. It was an awesome trip and hard to come back to reality.
