Back from Thailand: Birthdays and Drinking Water

The first thing I need to say is that Hat Rai Lay was disappointing. It was so disapointing I didn't take a picture of it at it's most disapointing point. The coolest things about it were the bungalow we stayed at--mosquito net for sleeping, bucket baths, basic anemities and chickens--

--and the kayaking trip we did through the mangroves with a special visit of pineapple-eating monkeys.


Everything else about the beach was uncool. The water is so shallow that when the tide goes down, it REALLY goes down. The tide happend to go down when we were kayaking and it revealed a disgustingly muddy and slimy beach. The beach is also seriously lacking in the nightlife department. I suppose an upside was that we saw a Thai boxing match against at a bar we were having drinks at. We stayed there for 2 nights and then spent 1 night in Phuket because we had to catch a flight back to Bangkok the next day. We stayed right next to the airport at Nai Yang beach, which I quite liked.

I accidently booked an expensive bed and breakfast for $46 online, but it turned out to be so worth it when we we got upgraded to a bigger room because there were only 2 guests staying at the B&B and the room was absolutley amazing compared to the places we'd been staying at for $9.

How do you accidently book expensive accomodation you ask? Well, when you book at hostelworld.com the prices are per person and not per room. It was the only place near the airport and spending $23 didn't seem that bad. However, after I booked it I was reminded that upon arrival the B&B, a total of $40 was due. Ha!

Well we're back in Melbourne and it's great being back home. Hot water showers, drinkable tap water, a kitchen to cook in and cool people to hang out with. We even got new furniture while we were away. When we first moved in, we had these horrible bright red pleather couches that must be the most uncomfortable couches ever made in the history of furniture making and now we have soft, blue fabric covered couches. Ah, life is good again.

Speaking of life being good, my favourite person named Bill (and/or Will) in the world turned 24 yesterday. We had a smashing martini, dancing-on-the-couches fueled afterparty:

Cheers to my favourite birthday boy!