After going to bed early, I got up early to go read on the beach since I hadn't actually done that yet. Boston slept in, and Kavita went back for another massage with Hong. She didn't get the full body, but she got head, shoulders, back, and neck. She claims it was amazing!! I didn't get another massage as I'm still pretty sunburned and needed a day off. In case you are wondering what a full body Thai massage looks like this is a pretty good video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAWB8ms4XYUIt was really nice and quiet at the beach, but it was fairly windy, and the ocean was pretty rough. After about an hour of sand blowing in my face, I headed back to the hotel to get packed up for our next country!
In Phuket we cheated and ate at the airport Burger King for convenience. However, we redeemed ourselves with a proper last Thai meal at the Bangkok airport. I got my fave, Tom Yum soup! This greatness was even served inside a coconut.
Boston, inspired by the lovely Heineken girl, got a very large Heineken. One of the benefits of this is that anytime he gets about 4 sips down in his mug, she comes back and pours more from the bottle in. This is her ENTIRE job. Even at home, the shot/beer girls have to do something more than just keep the mugs full. She didn't sell it, do a transaction, have a conversation, or anything. She wears a very small green dress with Heineken down the side and waits silently. I can't decide if this is the best or worst job ever.
Boston, inspired by the lovely Heineken girl, got a very large Heineken. One of the benefits of this is that anytime he gets about 4 sips down in his mug, she comes back and pours more from the bottle in. This is her ENTIRE job. Even at home, the shot/beer girls have to do something more than just keep the mugs full. She didn't sell it, do a transaction, have a conversation, or anything. She wears a very small green dress with Heineken down the side and waits silently. I can't decide if this is the best or worst job ever.
Then after a couple hours delay we headed to Vietnam! This is the most difficult country we'll be entering. Everywhere else, you just show up. We had to apply for a visa on arrival through our hotel first. Then once we got here we have to have a passport photo and $25 USD to complete the visa application. Since I had applied for this 3 weeks ago, I forgot about the USD detail. Unfortunately we only had about $23 amongst all three of us, and they don't take ccs. (We had traded some in for baht for shopping earlier. Priorities.) What to do?! Of course, I get into a slight (major) panic. Will they send us back? Will they put us in Vietnamese jail?! I start asking other people around us to trade some cash for baht. (We had PLENTY of THAT!) One guy helps me out for another $30, but everyone else is claiming to be USD poor. Then after sweating it out for about 10 minutes, the lady informs me that she'll take baht. Really? Could have used that info earlier. She shafted us on the exchange rate, but frankly, I didn't care. "Take it all, lady! Just let me in!" Finally we made it through and found our taxi sent from our hotel. We had a interesting taxi ride full of honking at midnight through Hanoi and got here safe and sound. We're staying at the Jasmine Hotel in a very nice room -- hard beds, small bathroom, but pretty nice with a computer in the room for $35 total. Bargain! www.thejasminehotel.comPhuket Pics
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