Day 6 – Boat Ride and Relaxing

The Zthrough hotel is very beautiful, but the beds are very firm, so we got up early. Mark, Thomas, Susan and Elizabeth had a morning swim.  We had an absolutely fabulous breakfast, way too much food.  After checking out, we headed to the beach to claim a spot under the beach umbrella’s as we waited for our boat to take us out to Lan  Island.  Mark, Susan and I sat in the front of the boat and got tossed around all over the place, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way, it was great!  We get there and oh no, that was a party island, boats, jet ski’s and people everywhere.  We were invaded by vendors the moment we sat down to enjoy the scenery and do some more people watching.  Most we turned away, but then, here comes a tall slender Thai man carrying belts, wallets and purses.  The belts caught Mark’s eye.  They were very well crafted.  Most of them were made of eel, but he spotted an unusual belt that he liked.  The vendor said it was made of kangaroo (how fitting, since Mark was one for 4 years in football – Go Roos!). The haggling was on, first 3000 baht (about $95 US) then it’s too high, then he has 2 kids to feed, hen he throws in a wallet and then two, Susan spots a wallet she likes, and so do I, in the end,  Mark got a belt, 4 man’s eel wallets, 2 woman’s eel wallets all for 5500 baht ( about $160.00) which is not bad for eel and kangaroo.  We have a picture of Mark bargaining with the vendor.  When it was all said and done, both parties were happy and the man told Mark he was big like Rambo, it’s was pretty funny.  We then had lunch at an open cafe right there on the beach, it was very good, we haven’t had a bad meal yet.  We met some elderly wise men from China that sat beside us at the cafe that my social butterfly, Mark just couldn’t resist talking to they ended up becoming buddies and taking pictures with each other.  It was time to leave the beautiful oasis and head back to the mainland.  The boat ride back we decided to sit in the back as to not get beat up anymore, but of course Susan had to be in front as to not get sea sick.  We loaded up in the van and had to head back to the Montien Hotel in Bangkok.  It rained for a brief 30 minutes for the first time on our trip.  We decided to eat there at the hotel, since we had a long day.  The Vietnamese restaurant there was very good, we enjoyed a very relaxing meal with a little wine and turned in for the night.  We are flying from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the morning,which is 6 hours North from Bangkok.  More photo’s bel

Food and Drinks from Bangkok and Pattaya.  Enjoy the pictures!!