Thailand, We are so sad to say Goodbye!!!

Another Family Christmas Photo.  Wait is that Paul on the right??

  This week's blog is dedicated to the crew at Easy Divers in Lamai Beach, Ko Samui, Thailand.  Somkid Phabsing, Markos and Guenther did a great job and made the Scuba certification easy and fun.  I particularly want to thank Somkid for the extra time he spent with Taylor when she had ear difficulties.  I also want to thank him for the extra dive time he gave me as well.

SCHOOL: Sorry no school stories, still out for Chinese New Year.

Sunset from our Bungalow

ADVENTURES:  Well this week found us on the island of Ko Samui.

Our Bungalow

  After the week in Chiang Mai we felt like we wanted to have a week of rest and relaxation.  So we arrived on Saturday evening at The Lamai Bay View Inn.  The first thing we did was throw our bags into the bungalow, throw on our swimsuits and run down to the beach.  The air outstide was a balmy 82 degrees with a hint of humidity.  To our  pleasant surprise when we jumped into the water for our first family swim on Ko Samui we discovered that the water was actually warmer than the air outside.  The girls were in love with Ko Samui immediately.  After our family swim we went up and unpacked.

Our little beach

  Our bungalow was a small two bedroom unit with a bath and wrap around deck that went half way around the building.  The deck faced the ocean and gave us nice ocean breezes everyday.

Mad Blogger at Work.
This is what Steinbeck looked
liked when he wrote wasn't it?

The view was equally gratifying in that it looked down on our own little beach, as well as the long strand of pure white sand surrounding the bay. On the deck was a wicker love seat and a table with two chairs.  Cecelia and I spent most mornings by having coffee out on the deck, watching the sun rise over the ocean and listening to the waves lap up on the sugar fine sand.  With the scent of Ocean and Plumaria mixed together, it was a peaceful and mesmerizing place.

It doesn't get much better.  A beach, a swing and your sister.

   The week went pretty much as planned.  There was a lot of laying around on the beach, soaking up the sun, reading and sleeping.

A little exercise

Cecelia and I did take advantage of the inexpensive Thai massage service.  We both had two during the week.  One at the beginning and one at the end.  Cecelia's second massage was at the beach.  Many of the beaches on Ko Samui have massage stands where you can go and get a massage while listening to the water and feel the tropical breeze that caresses your body at the same time the masseuse does.

Gotta have matching suits

  The only real adventure we had during the week was getting the entire family scuba diving certifications.

Buddies getting ready for open water dive.

We were going to take a snorkeling trip, but when we found out the cost of getting scuba certifications we jumped at the chance.  We had a great time with the Easy Diver Scuba trainers at Lamai Bay.  The first day we did our classwork and pool dives and then the second day we went toward a place called Ko Tao.  The second day the seas were rather rough so we ended up stopping on the leward side of at a rock outcropping in the Thailand sea.

Dive Briefing

We made two dives and the girls got their first experience of scuba diving in the open ocean.

Please have oxygen, oh
Please have oxygen!!!

Cecelia and I got a lot of enjoyment from watching Taylor and Claire become certified divers.  Taylor did a particularly good job.  She learned her hand signals well and communicated with our dive instructor immediately when she was having problems with her ears.

Taylor looking comfortable

Taylor ended up doing the last of her certification at the surface, but not before she dove at about 30 ft. and got to see some of the awesome fish and sea creatures on the bottom.  Unfortunately, the visibility wasn't as good as we had heard about.  The wind had really come up the previous two days and stirred everything up.  Ko Tao is supposed to be famous for the depth of its visibility.  You are supposed to be able see 134 feet.  The dive instructors told us that when we go out to Ko Tao that we had to pay close attention to where he was and don't go below him.

James, James Oetinger!!!

All and all it was a great experience for the entire family.  I thanked Kid especially for making it interesting for all of us.  The two instructors that were with us recognized my previous certification and spent more time with the rest of the family.  It was nice, because I could then instruct and help with Taylor if she didn't understand.  
  We did go on a couple of scooter rides and made a couple of cool discoveries.

I told you it was a huge Buddha

The first was going to The Big Buddha.  It is a temple with exactly as the name describes a Big Buddha.

Claire looks like a Dolphin, Not!!!

I would have called it Ginormous Buddha myself, but I am not a Buddhist.  The other hidden gem that we found was a butterfly garden.  It was amazing and the butterflies were spectacular.  I have included a couple of photos, but the one butterfly I wanted to get a picture of was a black one that was as big as a swallow.

I'm now a dangerous sea creature!!!

 They were huge, but I could never get one to land long enough to get a photo.
 I am adding a number of photos to this blog to show you the beauty of Ko Samui as well.
  Cecelia and I have now put this place at the top of our list for retirement possibilities.

When each of our U.S. dollars is worth 33 Baht, it is hard not to consider this place.  I believe it is more beautiful than Hawaii and not as developed.  You can get a home here for a song.

I told Cecelia that I just want to buy a little island shack and spend my retirement days fixing it up, playing golf and doing activities in the ocean.  I don't think that it would be a half bad lifestyle, do you?
  This next week you can look forward to hearing about The Spring Festival and Chinese New Year.
  See you then, have a great week.