Bangkok and Phuket one

travels

My flight left Denver on time at 8:15am to Seattle for a four hour layover.   Boarded the plane in Seattle to Incheon Korea, In a middle row seat for 11 and ½ hours good god.  I slept for a few hours and the girl next to me who slept most of the trip, once curled up next to me, placed her head on my shoulder and wrapped her arm around my waste, all while she was sleeping.  In order to avoid embarrassment for her, I didn’t inform her of this cuddling while she was asleep.  I watched 7 movies and few episodes of Tv.  The transfer from Incheon Korea to Bangkok was seamless and easy even though I only had an hour to trek across a large airport.  After a 5 hour flight from Korea, I arrived in Bangkok.  That is a lot of plane riding and travel.  I would like to take this time to comment on how much better foreign airlines are in re: to service and amenities than the US.  Free glasses of wine, two full dinners, complete with warm bread, a warm towel to clean my face and freshen up and 8 flight attendants for our needs. 

Bangkok

The first night went to night market in a predominately Arab section of downtown.  The food was delicious as I dined on lamb Kofta and ordered apple sheesha for the hookah while surrounded by and chilling with the Saudis.  They were up late due to the start of Ramadan.   The food is extremely cheap. For lunch I got two coconut waters and pan fried thai noodles with prawns for the price of 70 thai bht, the equivalent to about 3 us dollars.

I stayed at the Conrad hotel in the downtown area.  Free breakfast; free happy hour complete with a large spread of food and drinks, everyday.  The executive level is sweet. 

Phuket

Flew into Phuket on Saturday early morning, booked 10 scuba dives and settled into the Westin.  This place has everything I could want.  They have three pools, four restaurants etc. and all for the equivalent of about 35 us dollars per day.  Life is good. 

Staying here for four days before transferring to Karon beach on a different part of the island.  The first three scuba dives are off of phi phi island on Sunday July 22.  Dive five was in Koh Doc May at a depth of 22 meters for 37 minutes.  This was my first real dive outside of getting my certification.  Visibility was 8-12 meters and I saw a bamboo shark(sweet)

Dive number six was in Koh Bida Nok, depth of 18.5 meters for 45 minutes, Visibility was 10-15 meters and saw a black tip reef shark and numerous large schools of colorful fish.  This was the best dive of the three.

Dive number seven was in Bilek Bay, depth of 16 meters for 41 minutes, Visibility was 8-12 meters and saw moray eels, porcupine fish and a few giant puffer fish. 

 My awesome dive master 

some pics of my dive sites

More to come as my trip continues.