The Other Side of This Life

Last weekend, we discovered that Koh Lanta was a little piece of paradise.  We also discovered that "It take not long" means "It will take three and a half hours on four different vehicles to get there, and when you do get there, your room won't be ready which will of course lead you to believe they forgot about your arrival and you will have to tent it up on the beach."

Of course then we saw the beach and 1) We didn't care if we'd have to sleep there (putting a pin for a moment on the inevitable buffet we would provide to the mosquito population) and 2) None of the first three and a half hours of the journey even mattered anymore.  Why, you ask?

This is why:

We ate at the little restaurant in the resort, and enjoyed the lovely view of the ocean while we lunched.

Also, the bar next to the restaurant, the Why Not Bar, had a cool tribute to some familiar rock stars:

Clockwise from top left:  Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan,
Ozzy Osborne, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bob Marley, & Jimi Hendrix

We had it in our heads that we would be able to go hiking - an activity deemed necessary by us since we've been consuming more calories than we've been burning these days.  And with every weekend spent in a bikini, things could get unsightly, FAST.  Unfortunately, the closest hiking area was a ten minute ride away, and after the whole morning spent in that van, the last thing we wanted to do was get into another vehicle.

We kept our expectations low going into this whole thing since we barely paid anything by American standards for our room at the "resort," but we were pleasantly surprised by all of it.  Props to the travel agent across the street for scoring us a nice room with an sweet view!

Fortunately there looked to be some interesting terrain down the beach from our resort and we set about attempting to create a workout out of relatively flat ground and what appeared to be volcanic rock.  This guess comes from what I remember from a third grade geology unit, but judging by the fact that there was no volcano in sight, I'm going to assume I'm wrong.

Carlyn and I scaled what we thought was a relatively tall rock, but upon examination from across the beach turned out to be about a third the height of the PPG Christmas tree.

Climbing up

View from the top

Posing awkwardly as giant rock pieces poke me in the butt

Posing gracefully because four years of modelling
apparently teach you how to sit on rocks :)

Climbing down.  See, it totally looks steep, right?

Steep steep steep!

We didn't get to actually relax on the beach until a bit late in the day and believe it or not, it was a little chilly!  We saw one of the most spectacular sunsets though!!!  I took about a hundred pictures of it, so forgive me if it was a little difficult to narrow down my favorites.

While we were laying on the beach, a girl came up to us to tell us about the "Sunset Bar,," and since we had nothing better to do that night, we thought we'd check it out.  The "right up the street" location the girl lied to us about really meant "right UP the street," as in up a nearly completely vertical road.  It was brutal and further proof that we are so totally out of shape that John Goodman could probably beat us in a foot race.

The restaurant was worth the near cardiac arrest though because it sat right on the edge of a bluff over looking the water.  We couldn't actually see anything because it was pitch black outside, but we could hear the ocean waves below us and the general ambiance of the place was awesome.

We're slightly obsessed with fruit shakes.
Nary a dinner passes without us enjoying one.

Also, there was a 'Fire Show," which was basically a guy twirling flaming batons, which I'm sure if she practiced, Jane could still do better, but it was definitely a fun way to be entertained before dinner.

I ordered red curry, but this looks more like green curry or yellow curry.  Either way, it was fantastic :)

I'm still not positive if one is supposed to put the rice in the
bowl of curry and vegetables, or if it is better to put the curry
and vegetables on the rice.  I prefer the latter.