Thailand: Day 10

I know it's the worst way to start my day in regards to my metabolism, BUT I am not one who eats breakfast.  Ever.  My regular morning consists of me running out the door to work, and I'm lucky if I could brew coffee for the road.  But, if it's available without me having to give up minutes of sleep, I will absolutely indulge.  Like below :)

Omelet, extra crispy bacon, fruit, and 

TWO types of toast to go with my fresh orange marmalade.

Check out that lush forest behind me.

The Anantara Spa - such a soothing sanctuary

Hubs exploring it all

The hammock was totally calling my name!! 

And of course, so was the SPA!

And it never got old to say, we just dreamed, chatted, and read!

Then this was one of my ALL time favorite nights in Thailand as we were the first to arrive to dinner and the last to leave.  As much as I love technology ... it's times like this that make you realize how fantastic life can be without them as they are the biggest distraction.  Just me, the hubs, and nowhere else I'd rather be. 

Until next time .... LOVE

Thailand: Day 9

Our last morning in Chiang Mai consisted of us being super-duper-excited to pick up our tailored suits just before catching a redtruck to the airport.  

Quick overview to catch everyone up to speed ...

- on Friday night at 9pm, we spur of the moment popped into a store and pulled the trigger to get tailored suits.  We picked out our material, chose our so-called preference style from a picture book, and the salesman took our measurements.  Someone came to pick up the material and measurements while we were there and left to get to work :)  We paid for half the total cost in Thai Bhat hoping their work was up to our standards and we would receive our suits before leaving town 36 hours later.

- on Saturday morning at 10am, we went for our first fitting and was pleased with fit and requested for some of the material to be let out so it wouldn't be SO fitted.  Heck, I wanted to be able to sit down.

- on Saturday night at 9pm, we went for our final fitting.  The suit was 90% completed (yes they did two beautiful suits and one of Gabe's shirts in 24 hours).  They just needed to make final tweaks and press it for us to pick up Sunday morning.

- on Saturday night, we also decided heck these are amazzzzzing, we should order MORE!  So, we picked out another suit material for our second suits, which is hysterical as we chose the same.  I actually picked out the first one for Gabe and then went with the same when I decided to get a suit made.  Then, I picked out the second material and Gabe went along with that one too.  We are total TWINS, but will never wear them to the same place at the same time as we don't work together.  So, we both win!!!

- on Sunday morning, we were completely satisfied with each suit and paid for the remainder of the first set as well as the second set of suits and four shirts for Gabe with his initials embroidered on the cuff.  The salesman told me it would be best for him to keep the the suits to be able to make an identical copy ... which means I left with nothing.  Period.  No suits, no shirts, just a receipt and my information for him to mail them to our hotel in Koh Samui with our name on the box.

I must say, I was quite on the fence being in another country trusting one so, but he assured me that he "would be in trouble with the Gods if he took customers money without providing a final product."  My lovely readers, you will have to wait and see if we received it across the country in the islands of Koh Samui!

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Off to the airport for Koh Samui, in my new sandals from the market :)

From the northwest of Thailand, to the southern tip

Bangkok Airways is the only airline to fly into the small Koh Samui airport, which was a sleepy airport with I think four gates.  I didn't realize this island was as small as it was until arriving and the fact that taxis weren't available and only prearranged shuttles.  

We chose to stay in BoPhut at the Five Star Anantara Hotel as it was just a redtruck away from the shopping in Chewang and nightlife, which was ideal to us.  We saw a lot of relaxation on the horizon.

In awe of this place~!

Found the perfect spot to park a few hotels down @ the Coconut Rum

Ohh, how I miss the island life as a vacationer!!

Thailand: Day 8

At this point, we couldn't believe we are halfway through our vacation and still have so much time remaining to soak up all of Thailand.  After us having such a busy day prior in Chiang Mai, we wanted to plan day 8 as we the day went.  It started with a yummy breakfast spot with fantastic coffee.   

It still makes me laugh that the menu 

we ordered from most every day was from a picture.

That's the prettiest lion I'd ever seen - IN a coffee cup!

I don't talk about my career much on my blog for one reason or another, but being that I am a pharmaceutical representative ... I always take a picture  by a pharmacy or anything drug related out of the states.  Most often they are advertising one of the drugs I sell, but in this case the broken English made me smile!

At 10am, we went back for our first fitting at the tailor, and I was so pleased to see the style and fit to be similar to what I pointed out from the book.  Such an experience seeing it all come together, and can you believe they had this much of the suit made in just TWELVE hours?!?!  Someone was busy working through the night to make two suits in the short window.  We were super pleased so far, and I just had to request a little material to be let out in the thighs as they didn't have much give for sitting.  I would of had an interesting time getting in and out of my car 15x a day, but luckily those changes could be made based on how far they had progressed.

I had Googled crossfit in Thailand prior to leaving on our trip and had read that there was ONE box in all of Thailand, which happened to be in Chiang Mai.  Gabe and I were determined to pay them a visit, and it was like a scavenger hunt to find tucked away off the highway.  I almost gave up at one point as our English map wasn't very helpful to our Thai speaking driver.  45 minutes later ... WE MADE IT!

We had never worked out in a hotter environment, it was something else

but just loved the open feel with bamboo "walls" so to speak.

Power cleans in a developing country rockin' my Keens ... so cool!!

Our most favorite memory was learning about THE "prowler."  Who knew after 2 and a half years of crossfitting, that I would have to travel to Thailand to learn about this piece of equipment.  

It drained every bit of me to have this part of the WOD!

With the nice trainer who's originally from Boston.

Our evening was spent at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar 

with tons of shopping, eating, people watching, and exploring. 

Can you believe the number of scooters?  

This is the locals way of transportation and so happens to be 

the number one cause of death for foreigners, scary stuff.

Took a break from Thai for some pizza ...

I loved my new find - beautiful sandals

We ran into our friends from Pantara Elephant Farm

Here is a quick clip to capture the Night Bazaar!

Clearly I was in another world as Gabe took this right as we arrived and I was curious to scope it all out.  The best part about this market was they shut down the street for miles for locals to sell their local handmade items.  They were all so unique.

Thailand: Day 7 Continued

I'm almost done with obsessing over my elephant adventures,
but I just had to post a few of my favorite clips from the day
before moving on to the rest of the trip :)



This was our first real interaction with our elephant for the day, and I was pretty scared with her pushy trunk all up in my space as she was sooo hungry, oopsies I only got half of the bananas/bamboo in her mouth!

AND, I laugh every.single.time I watch this clip as there is a huge difference in my "cleaning" and Gabe's.  He's a fierce swatter with that branch - LOL!!!

Bathing Be-Joon, my fav part is when she genuinely scared me with her sweet talking and then rolled around and dived face first!

Gabe getting on like a champ, he thinks he is an elephant trainer :)

Graceful as I could be ...

Please entertain yourself and watch me fall, twice!

Getting bucked off as a couple :)

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That night we were absolutely pooped, and we all we wanted was the street food from the same place we ate the night before.  When in doubt, go with what you LOVE!  And we just loved this Thai food.

and the $1 Leo beer

Top it off with a banana pancake and what we thought was a bottle of beer, which ended up being some real classy wine at that costly price of 90 CENTS from 7Eleven 

Hubs and I both wear full suits on a daily basis, and we had heard many suggestions from friends who visited Thailand that we had to take advantage of getting a tailored suit while we were there as it was a steal of a deal.  Before heading home that night ..... as it was like 10pm, we decided to pop our head into a tailor shop.  They had beautiful material, looked legit from what we saw, and the gentlemen was willing to do anything to get our business.  The crazier part was the fact that he said he could have a suit for both of us completed well within the 36 hours we had before catching a flight to the islands.  It seemed too good to be true, but hey why not we're on vacation ;)

Little did we know this was only the beginning of a long relationship!!