| October - Thailand Website pictures or Google photos My second trip for 2024. I went back to Thailand.I think this was my 5th trip to Thailand. The usual route: SFO to Taipei; In Taipei, walk by the "Hello Kitty" gate; Taipei to Bangkok; Bangkok to Koh Samui. Flights were on time. My driver was waiting for me when I arrived in Samui. This time I decided to stay at Nikki Beach Resort & Spa. It was about a 40 minute ride from the airport to the resort. My driver told me I was lucky because it had been raining just about everyday before I arrived. (It was sunny when I arrived.) Quick check-in. Short tour of where the restaurants and bar are. Then off to my villa. I slept for a little bit. Then got up later to go eat dinner. After dinner, I called it a night and went to sleep. Next day. Woke up. Went to breakfast. Then decided what I was going to do for the next few days. I had a revelation. I had visited Koh Samui so much, I had already seen and done most of the activities and excursions. Not really a problem though. The resort was very nice and I was more than fine with going the the spa everyday. The routine became spa/restaurant/bar, not necessarily in that order. This worked out well because the rain picked back up. After my stay in Koh Samui, I checked out of the resort and was off to Koh Lanta. I flew from Samui to Krabi airport. I had another driver waiting for me. It's about a 2 hour ride from Krabi airport to Koh Lanta. That includes the ferry crossing. I enjoyed the ride there. The resort I stayed at was Avani+ Koh Lanta Krabi Resort. When I checked in, they upgraded me from an Avani Sea View room to an Avani Pool Access room. The Pool Access room is a nice room and, as the name implies, you walk out onto your patio and the resort pool is there. However, if I were to do it again, I would not take the upgrade. This is the resort pool so other guests are occasionally swimming by. Also, the restaurant and spa is quite a walk. It's not so much the distance as it is they're on top of a very steep hill. Here is a map of the resort. It does not adequately convey how steep that hill is. I walked it the first day. I took a "buggy" everyday after. It rained a lot while I was in Lanta. So much so that all the boating excursions I had planned didn't happen. I did make it to Lanta Old Town which was nice. I did the touristy thing, ate, drank, bought souvenirs. It didn't rain while I was in Old Town. When I returned to the resort, I found out it did rain there while I was gone. My return trip home started early in the morning. The nice part about this was I got to see sunrise at the ferry. A good way to start the long trip home. Thailand is 14 hours ahead of California, so I left Thailand and returned to California on the same day. That made for a very long day with a few long layovers in between. Luckily, I have a lounge pass. Things of note about this trip:
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