Whens My Vacation?: Thailand (Friday)

***WARNING*** Long Post***Lots of pictures***Do not read this right now if you are in a hurry***

We slept in on Friday a little since we did not have anywhere to be. We had a plan but we were not in a hurry. Sleeping in in Thailand meant that we did not get up and get ready and leave the room until 8 am. We headed down to breakfast and then out to catch a cab into town. We heard that the locals shop at this place called The Expo. We found it online (Facebook of all places) and saw that it opened around 10 am so we thought that would be a great place to go. We got our cab and he took us downtown. We asked him to come back for us at 1:15 pm and he gave us his card and would not let us pay him for the ride there. He said that we would only pay once when he came to pick us up. So we were shocked but we decided that if he did not come back for us it would be his loss of money not ours.

We walked into The Expo and it was like a warehouse. Each area had material draped to separate it from the next stall. It was clothes, shoes, luggage, kids stuff, makeup, jewelry and so much more. And everything was cheap. And when I say cheap, I mean cheap. We bought shoes for $3, clothes for the kids $3, gifts for the ladies at work, and anything else that we wanted. We bought another piece of luggage because of all of the things we bought. I was afraid at the time that I was getting too much but now I wish I had bought a lot more. I did not take pictures of The Expo because I felt it would be rude but I could not help myself when it came to the food court in The Expo. Oh my. So if you know me, then you know that I have food issues and cleanliness issues. The food court was not only questionable but it was nasty. Here she is:

Yes, the chairs are cheap plastic balcony chairs that you see in rental homes in California. Yes, the ladies are washing dishes in a small tub of brown looking water. Yes, they are serving food without washing hands first. And finally yes, the servers are eating and serving food at the same time. We sat down and bough the only safe things; water and coke. It was very cheap; less than $1 for both drinks. As you can see they always serve your drink with a straw, thank heavens. I did not want my lips to touch anything. Yikes!

Our cab picked us up right on time. He was polite and fast as we drove back to the resort. I needed food and I wanted a little pool time before we left. On the way back I took some pictures of the locals. Here is a local transportation bus:

The electricity is horrendous there. They just add lines as needed and we heard that they lose power like once a day for an hour or two. Crazy!! Safety is definitely not a priority in Thailand.

7 Eleven, a little slice of home. Plus the electric wires:

When we got back we changed into swim gear and headed out to the pool. This was actually the hottest day of the week and there were no clouds to be seen. We decided to eat at the pool restaurant and then sit by the pool for the afternoon. While we walked there I took a bunch of pictures of the resort and the pool.

This was right in the courtyard outside of our room:

My feet getting some sun:

Bridge crossing over the pool. We would swim under this bridge and follow the water all over the resort:

Gorgeous:

Me:

This was the little bar/club/lounge area that we would sit at in the evenings and listen to live music. This is the seating:

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not but on our first day in Thailand we went to the spa and had massages. I am sure that I did mention it but I had to take a picture of the sign on the last day:

This is where the boat would pick up and drop off to go across the lagoon:

After a wonderful afternoon in the sun Lewis needed another nap :)

He slept and I packed all of our stuff. I left out only the clothes for traveling and my carry on stuff. Surprisingly it only took 2 hours to figure out how to pack all of the new stuff.

Infor gave us a food voucher for lunch and dinner so we decided to try the nice steak restaurant for dinner. We made an 8 pm reservation and headed out to get there right on time.

We had like $300 to spend so we ordered whatever we felt like. Lewis got this side salad that was the size of my head:

We both got steaks with broccoli, potatoes and bread. It was a feast! I was able to eat the whole meal! Everything was delicious!

Once we were stuffed to the rim we walked back to our room for the last time. Here is a picture of the pool at night. You can see how if you are on the first floor you can go right out of your door and into the water:

Here I am at our lounge. Behind me is the bar that supplied me with the diet coke that saved me during the trip.

We went back to the room and showered, finished packing and went out to lobby to check out and get on the bus to leave. We had to catch the bus at 10 pm to leave so we knew we would have a long night/day/night ahead of us. Here is the last picture taken in Thailand. It is the wall behind the check in desk. I never even noticed it until we were checking out. Pretty cool.