25 Dec -- Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Korea! We had a great day. Charlie does not know who Santa is, as you can see in the photo below...

...but Santa obviously knows Charlie. Charlie walked out of his room and was quite happy to see the bike, the tool set, the drawing station, cars and other great things that appeared over night.

While this is not quite a walk at Hampton Beach after lunch...
...it still ended quite nicely.

14 Dec -- Bangkok, Thailand

We have just returned from Thailand. We spent 5 days in Bangkok and 7 days in Phuket. Bangkok was a crazy city. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and enjoyed taking in all the cool sights.

1st day in Bangkok: We settled into the hotel after arriving late in the afternoon.

2nd day in Bangkok: We took the train to a river boat ride to see the Emerald Buddha/Grand Palace, Wat Po and Wat Phra Chetuphon (Reclining Buddha, 46m long and 16m tall).

The pictures from the river boat ride do not do it justice: the waves/wakes were huge and you could hear the floor boards clapping below us as we went up and then came crashing down.

Charlie does not think the boat's inspection is current.

The boat sped away before Charlie could inspect the driver's license.

Charlie's primary mode of travel.

"Listen lady, get that knock-off camera out of my face!"

The Reclining Buddha doing what it does best. 2nd day in Bangkok: We went to Wat Benchamabobhit (the Marble Buddha), the Golden Mountain, the City Parapet Phrakan Fortress and the Wat Intharawihan (Standing Buddha, 32m tall and 10m wide).

The Golden Mountain needs a 'Golden Escalator' or a 'Great Glass Elevator.'

The view from the top was great even if Charlie's face does not show it.

Yes, we climbed up the side of this one, too.

We finished with a trip to the hotel pool.

3rd day in Bangkok: It was their King's 80th Birthday so we went to Lumphini Park and had a low key day.

The next day we made the 1 hour flight down to Phuket, Thailand, a small island on the southwest side of the country.

14 Dec -- Phuket, Thailand

After the bustle of Bangkok, it was nice to relax at Phuket. We spent 3 nights at Laguna Beach Resort which was a blast. The breakfast was delicous, the beach was so close and the water so warm. They also had two elephants roaming the grounds. After that we moved a few beaches south and spent 4 nights at Katathoni Beach Resort. Equally beautiful and close to the beach; it was wonderful.

This is the view from our room to the west and the sunset every night.

It looks like somebody missed the breakfast buffet.

Charlie tried to walk right up to pat the elephant.

Don't look now, Charlie, but I think the elephant is following us.

Charlie in his super-suit.


Nap-time by the pool.

We had dinner almost everynight on the beach at Tom Yang Goong's.


The following pictures are from Katathoni Resort.

"We" made some killer sand forts that were the envy of the beach.



This was a serious project: note the master pool, major wall, minor trough, minor wall. The ocean never stood a chance.