Travelling is all about balance. Yesterday we headed into town to see a different part of the island oh Phuket; the part where drunk Australian university students are likely to relieve themselves not in private. Today we shall stick to our part of Phuket. All about balance.
Hotel site inspections, foods, and pools. That is balance.
The day began with breakfast.
Appetizing, no? This breakfast buffet will be photographed adequately for you someday. But not today.
Today's breakfast with the QuadCam app. I love that this app allows me to condense meals. You see the food, yet I don't have to post pic after pic and feel the need to describe. Joy of joys!
Barbie in our usual breakfast spot. This is day two in the same seats. Joy of joys.
Wait... did I make it clear that we went to sleep last night without dinner? I did. Well, allow me to comment that we awoke not hungrier than normal. In fact, we awoke feeling fine. This dinner skippage concept may in fact have legs.
This birdie came to visit during breakfast. Ever notice how birds looks beautiful and majestic and friendly from a distance, but when you get close they look like evil little dinosaurs with wings and a willingness to attack you mercilessly? It is not just me who feels this way. I know it.
From our room's balcony, the pool is THERE. In fact, the lounge chair I expect to occupy is very close to the finger's tip.
But before we spend the day at the pool, we plan to walk a section of the J.W. Marriott property that we have not yet seen, and then walk up the road to the neighboring Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa. It is around 2 kilometers up the road, and walking there should make us feel healthy and alive.
Barbie captures the local fauna with her camera. Her pictures are wonderful. You should feel angry and cheated that you only see my pictures.
This is the J.W. Marriott Phuket's Spirit House. It is, "A place of reverence to Buddhists, where prayers and offerings are made." It is blocked by a gate that says Staff Only or we surely would have walked out there. I understand them blocking it off. Hundreds of caucasians wandering out there with cameras is not what one thinks of as reverence.
We headed out of the resort and up the road. The Renaissance (note that I only pronounce this, Renn-ā-Saunse) is just over a mile up the road.
Halfway to the Renaissance we came across this taxi stand. Considering that this is basically a private road for four resorts, I suspect we could wait here a long, long time.
You know, in retrospect I am not proud of this. Too many lives were lost here in 2004 for me to make that face. My bad.
The maker of this sign either does not understand the concept of money or problem.
We have arrived!
In front of the Renaissance, I took a picture of this family with their huge, super-nice camera. We spoke briefly, and they were lovely and nice people from Jakarta, Indonesia. Soap Box Moment. Yes, I have to mention that Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation on Earth, and that the Muslims of Indonesia love and admire the West. Not only were these people lovely to meet, but it was even nicer to know that they represent the 240,000,000 Indonesian Muslims who our Western media choose to completely ignore because they like us and therefore not newsworthy.
Barbie recommends the Renaissance Phuket for those who want a more modern vibe, while our J.W. Marriott features architecture and design with a more tradition Thai vibe.
Above one of the open air bars at the Renaissance is this amazing display of bird sculptures. Beautiful. I have not bothered saying this very often, but right-click-open-in-new-window that sucker. It is worth it.
Thai snail.
My wife can literally walk on water.
A Renaissance Villa. It has a gate to the pool & beach and a gate on the other side towards the hotel. This might be one of the nicest places to stay on the planet.
Barbie walking to the beach, Renaissance pool behind her.
The beach behind the Renaissance.
That is a happy woman.
By my estimate, India is THERE.
By my estimate, Africa is THERE.
We decided to forgo the road and walk back the mile plus along the beach. Should be a good workout, walking over a mile in the sand.
See them? See them? This picture includes a few hundred perfectly camouflaged sand crabs. Seriously. It took me ten minutes before I stopped jumping when one moved near my feet. They are invisible.
We arrived back at the J.W. Marriott a bit tied and sweaty. Showers and then lunch!
I finally donned my Waste Wear shirt. That is me on the balcony, with the sun behind me. Alas, it was too warm and I quickly switched back to a sleeveless shirt made of that clima-cool material that is a traveller's dream. Just like last summer, I planh to wear these shirts every day, rinsing them with soap at night and hanging them up. When we get to cooler parts of the globe (think Scotland) I'll put back on the Waste Wear.
Lunch again at the Siam Deli. Siam changed its name to Thailand in 1939, then became Siam again from 1945 to 1949, and then permanently became Thailand again from there. Thai simply means "people," and Thailand is often thought to simply mean land of the people. In fact, the Thai call this country "land of the free" because Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonized by a European power.
A lot of thoughts came to mind when I learned that land of the free ditty.
We shared the turkey ham panini.
Nerd Corner. We are going to take a break to nerd out about photography. If you have read the iPhone photography page, you would have read all about HDR photography. Want another example? Check this out.
Barbie in front of the reflecting pool with the exposure set to the sunlight behind her.
Moments later a second shot, this one using Pro HDR to take a two shots at different exposures and then match them based on which areas are light and dark. Amazing, no?
Pool time!
I had guest photographer Barbara Howard take this one solely because I think the nephews and nieces will find it funny. That is an uncle's responsibility, you know.
Barbie took this one, too.
I have gotten feedback from one Beej Gefsky regarding the videos I have been throwing on the Waste this summer. He has some suggestions that inspired me, and I sat at the pool thinking how I would want to better present videos. And now... the results of said thought process:
I hope you can appreciate what a rough day I had at the pool.
Time to head back to the room.
Our room is right THERE.
Yesterday we were so tired after the exhausting Patong Beach trip that we crashed without dinner. Today... the same.
Instead of dinner we watched the DVR in our Los Angeles bedroom via Slingbox for an hour or so, and then went to sleep.
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