A Day on the Beach

We spent a great day at the beach today. We managed to stay up late last night, but were still up with the sun this morning. Brian and I have been trying to get into the routine of running here, to stay in shape, so we started the humid morning out with a good sweat!

From there, we ate an awesome buffet breakfast at our hotel, which is included in the price of our room. After 3 meals of rice a day for the past couple of weeks, bacon, potatoes, toast, eggs, fruit and juice was the breakfast these Canadians were looking for.
This is a view of our hotel at night from our balcony. All the lit up areas are pools that cascade into other pools. It's amazing!

These pictures don't do the room justice. It's a very modern layout, complete with a decorative stone drain in the bathroom. This may be the most luxurious place we've ever stayed. We found out too that this hotel has only opened this month, so it's VERY new!

We spent most of our day today soaking up the sun (through the clouds) and jumping through the waves. It's been a good way to relax, and we're feeling rested and ready to move on again tomorrow. Our plan is to spend the morning here using one of the 12 pools at our hotel and then take a bus back towards Bangkok and eventually head up to Northern Thailand.

I think this picture may be too small so you won't be able to read the words on the chip bags, but they have very different flavours here. The one on the left is seafood flavoured and the one on the right is "double cheese pork burger" flavour. We haven't tried either of them.

I thought we should probably give you a little political update as well. I don't know how much has hit the news in North America, but Thailand is undergoing quite the political turmoil here. Over the past few months tensions have been growing between the Thai people and the government. Many people feel the government here is corrupt and they don't want them in power anymore. In 2006, the people of Thailand rallied against the government and ousted them from power, but now only a few years later, the same party is still in control. The Thai people are fed up with this political party and have been staging protests for the past few months. Everything is culminating now and the leaders of the protest group are encouraging as many Thais as possible to come to Bangkok to protest against the government, with the hopes of throwing them out of power. Over a million people are said to be protesting in Bangkok now....(Preecha has been involved in these protests in the past). They have taken over the airport and all incoming and outgoing flights have been cancelled as a result. There has been some gunfire and 3 bombs set off in the squirmish thus far. No one has been killed but several have been wounded. The prime minister that the people are trying to oust has been out of the country but is returning tonight with plans to call a "State of Emergency" in Bangkok, and he says he has no plans to step down as prime minister. We're keeping a close eye on the news here. And, there is NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT US!! All of the problems are in a certain area of Bangkok and we'll be able to steer clear of it all! Other than hearing about this on the news, we wouldn't even know anything was happening.

Anyway, tonight we plan to enjoy our luxury here before we head out again to rough it on the backpacker trail. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your comments and emails. We love hearing from you guys!!