Mark at the pool. One thing we LOVED about the resort was the adults-only quiet pool. No cell phones, no pounding music. It was nice.

We’ve flown off to spend three weeks in Thailand. There’s really just one reason: we’re escaping the end of winter, and what better place than Thailand? Based on our somewhat more-than-modest world travels Thailand has among the best food, best beaches, and kindest, friendliest people in the world, all at bargain prices. So we’re spending three weeks on the beach here, not returning to New York until March.

One note about the flight over here. We flew Singapore Airlines from JFK to Singapore, connecting directly to Phuket. The JFK to Singapore leg, at 18 hours and 40 minutes schedule, is the longest flight in the world. There – another box checked off!

Our first stop, for four days, is the island of Phuket. We’ve been on the island before but always on the very southern part of the island where the city of Phuket and most of the people are. This time we’re way up at the northern tip of the island. Mostly just a few resorts and miles and miles and miles of beach. And that’s working out for us pretty well.

Lunch at a lovely resort a mile or two from ours. That counts as cultural travel on a vacation like this.

The resort we stayed at – a JW Marriott – is a beautiful property with really lush, tropical grounds. We’re not fans of really big resorts and this one is pretty darned big, but it was beautiful. Oddly though, we felt surprisingly distant from the beach, even though it’s a beachside resort. Presumably because of local laws (I’m just guessing but it’s as good a guess as any), there are no beach chairs or umbrellas on the beach. You can go down to swim and all that but for the most part you spend your days at the beautiful pools and just don’t go into the ocean that much. Thus you will note there are no pictures of the beach even though it was epically beautiful, just miles and miles of white sand.

That’s OK, though, as the pools were really beautiful. And the times I did go in the ocean were a little scary. There was nothing unusual about the surf but I’m still recovering from surgery on a couple toes and had a really hard time fighting the tide getting back to shore.

The quiet pool was really beautiful

And that’s it. Hours enjoying the pool, reading, recovering from jet lag. As for reading, I have my work cut out for me. I’ve been saving it up for a while until I had the time to really dig into it but I’ve started Edmund Morris’s magisterial three-volume biography of Teddy Roosevelt. The 2,400-or-so pages will keep me busy these weeks. And based on other experiences I’ve had I will for ever more connect Thailand with Roosevelt.

The one downside of staying in a place that’s mostly about the resorts is that there weren’t great off-resort food options, or at least many that we could get to with my still-limited mobility. (Note about recovery: I was still using the walking boot on the flight over, to make sure I could get around the airports and all that. By day three in Phuket, though, I was getting everywhere I needed without the boot so it stayed there when we moved on. YAY!) The food at the resort was OK, but we hope to pick it up a notch or two as we continue through the area.

On our last night we walked just a tiny bit up the beach to a little local restaurant that had pretty good Thai food. It wasn’t the kind of local restaurant we crave – it was clearly aimed at people like us staying at a resort but tired of resort food. It was good enough, though, and fun to sit on the beach in a decidedly low-key environment.

I had to get a picture of this kid who was bussing tables. I just loved the Classic t-shirt … with the Fuck You in big letters.

And since there are no photos of the beach, one more of our favorite quiet pool

Le Bouchon is certainly one of our favorite restaurants in Bangkok. Just a tiny little space right off one of the city’s most notorious sex districts, you walk in and are immediately transported to France. Small space, dark, tables close together, and mostly great food. Sadly, I had steak tartare that wasn’t really all that great. Mark’s meal, though, and my escargot starter, were all great.

Yup, Bangkok again. This time just two days as we transition from Koh Samui to winter in the U.S. No need to do any intense shopping this time in Bangkok as we can do all the shopping we want in a couple days. So this was just an opportunity to go back to our favorite restaurants and hang out a bit. Thus not much to add here except a few pictures.

Next stop: Dulles National Airport!

Our favorite lunch spot is the unfortunately named Tummy Yummy. The name is silly but the food, service, and space are all great.

That’s me, just outside Tummy Yummy

With nothing really to do I spent more time than usual in Lumpini Park, a big green space in the center of the city. To see this you’d think Bangkok is some pretty, perhaps even slightly green city. You’d be wrong, but this was still a lovely view. The sad part is that with mid-day temperatures in the mid-90s it’s just too damned hot to enjoy it that much. Of course, as I would stroll through the park or sit and read for a while, I’d see guys jogging around the park. I like running as much as the next guy but not when it is in the 90s for God’s sake.

Enjoying the amazing waters in the Gulf of Thailand

Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand, is one of our absolute favorites places, perhaps the best beach town we’ve ever been to. We keep coming back; we’ve been here twice before since we started this adventure and I’m pretty confident it won’t be our last. The water is perfect, the sand is perfect, the town is … well, good. And all a lot more affordable than other idyllic locations.

Planning a trip to Koh Samui has always been a bit of a struggle. The best beach, by far, is Chaweng Beach, and that’s where we want to spend our days. But most of the nicer resorts are spread out around the island. And then there’s Fisherman’s Village with neither great beaches nor nice resorts, but the best little restaurants on the island. This time, for the first time, we decided to stay right on Chaweng Beach at a hotel we’ve looked at many times, The Library. It definitely worked for us.

The swimming pool at The Library is tiled in red, which is a little weird. The overall effect, though, is stunning.

Here was the routine, then. Up early to run on the treadmill for 40 minutes or so. After stretching a quick dip in the ocean. Breakfast and then the beach, where I would spend the morning reading The Three Musketeers (I know, it’s about time!). Mark & I would go for a dip now and then and just marvel at how incredibly perfect the water was. Well, almost perfect. The first couple days the water was really rough and it was even a little dangerous to go in. After that, though, it calmed down and then it was pretty much perfect. When my only complaint was that the water wasn’t really cold enough to cool down you know things are OK.

Then it was off to lunch, sometimes after a taxi ride to Fisherman’s Village, sometimes just up the road a bit from our hotel. In both we found tiny hole-in-the-wall kind of places with great Thai food at really cheap prices, just the kind of places we love. And it was good that we found them: both of our favorite places from earlier visits – Eat Sense on the beach and Nirvana in Fisherman’s Village – were closed. The case of Eat Sense is a sign of how things are changing. When we stayed at other parts of the island we would take a scooter to Chaweng Beach and then get loungers and an umbrella from Eat Sense; as long as we had lunch there the rest of it was free. This time, though, the place was closed up. What happened? I asked one of the guys at our hotel and he explained that the Chinese bought it. They’re going to open their own resort for Chinese package tourists, but for now it’s empty. Yeah, that’s what the world is coming to.

That’s a pretty nice beach

At any rate, after lunch I’d head back to the beach for a late afternoon nap and swim while Mark would typically head out for a massage. While there are plenty of the, ummm, less reputable kinds of massage available, there are also seemingly unlimited perfectly legitimate massage opportunities, all at crazy cheap prices. One day after lunch in Fisherman’s Village he came back just gushing that it may have been the best massage he’d ever had anywhere, and all for about $10. Two days later we were back there for lunch again and afterwards he went to the same place. Sadly, the masseuse he’d had wasn’t in. Not to worry, though there are others. The result is that the earlier massage is now only the second-best massage he’d ever had. He could never figure out if the person doing the massage was a he or a she – gender can be a little fluid in Thailand – but whoever he or she was, it was apparently amazing. And did I mention that it was only $10?

Four dishes that make up lunch at Khaw Glong Too. Thank heavens for TripAdvisor which points us to places like this.

Meanwhile I managed to finish The Three Musketeers, so the novel and the island will always be connected in my mind.

We had seven full days on Koh Samui and each day we seemed to enjoy it just a little more. We’ll be back in a year or two. For now, though, we’re off to Bangkok for two days and then headed to the States to see family and friends. The plan is to spend two months stateside, by far the longest return visit since we started. Who knows, maybe we’ll decide we like the States again!

Mark caught me running while he was walking to breakfast. In front of me, through a big window, is a great view of the ocean.

The resort is called The Library and they have these simple statues spread all over the property. I thought it was cute.

That’s our room in the upper left. The design was a little strange – the stairs leading up were so small front-to-back that I would pretty much always scrape my heel when walking down – but the lighting was cool.

The water, the beach, the umbrellas

We had lunch at the hotel once, just to see what that would be like. The food wasn’t as good and it was a lot more expensive, but the views were fabulous.

Another shot from lunch

OK, one more shot from lunch at The Library

And another picture of me. And the water.

Of course, there was more to Koh Samui than just our little lodge. The rest of it was pretty colorful, too!