Miloping

Mrs Stevens and I have been hanging out in the Chandara resort in Thailand for the past few days. It is a tranquil location, our room consists of a lounge, kitchen, giant bed, large bathroom with a massive bath, and a balcony with two deck chairs and a swimming pool. Everything is either in a nice stone or a dark wood, and our room is located near all the resort facilities. In the past few days we have concentrated primarily on relaxing, we have spent a great deal of time in the pool, hanging around the bar, eating at the restaurant, ordering room service, walking around taking photos and lying in bed.

So far we have made use of the spa treatment facility twice, once to get an asian blend massage, and once to get a Thai traditional massage. Upon arrival we were given a soothing drink made up of a plant whose name escapes me. It saddens me that I can not think of the name as I would like to drink it again. The asian blend is an oil massage in that they rub oil all over your body where as the Thai traditional massage is done on a traditional Thai bed, you wear special loose cotton clothes and you are rubbed all over. Both are equally relaxing and I think Ying and I are going to go back for some more later in the week.

To break up all this relaxation yesterday we went quad biking. We were picked up from the hotel and taken to a camp where we met up with another group to do the biking. It turns out that everyone that attended that day was Australian. Quad biking was extremely fun, we got to go around in a lot of tight tracks in the jungle going through deep mud and over high dunes and over rickety wooden bridges, all the while surrounded by lush jungle. The highlight was zooming down a beach overlooking large mud flats, tranquil seas and distant islands. It was a 2 hour ride but it did not seem to be enough. I am looking forward to doing it again sometime.

Today I am waiting for 10:30 to come, as we are heading into Phuket town to go shopping. I don't know what is in store but Ying is very excited to have the oppurtunity to shop. Tomorrow we are going on an elephant ride, we will learn about rubber tree harvesting, how to make jungle curry and we will head out on a junk boat. Friday will be a day of canoeing amongst the islands. Its going to be a full on couple of days.....