Paradise Regained

Wednesday 15Nov2006
We awake early and go to the breakfast buffet that the resort offers and they have unlimited tea-- I wish that I could express to you how happy Shawn is about this...yes we are paying more for the place- about 4 times more than other places we have stayed at and yet it is still not top end- our place here is a whopping 1450baht!! We have been staing at places in the 350 - 500 baht range (exchange rate is 36baht- 1 USD) So it is roughtly $40 a night--way too expensive-- but we have head horror stories and Shawn says that he can drink the difference in tea so we have no worries!! For the price we get a very clean room, right on the beach, a free buffet breakfast. What we don't get is hot water..no hot water in the shower..no proiblem right? RIGHT... freezing cold showers that make you hoot and holler just trying to get in-- it doesn't matter how hot it it outside it is freezing cold!!
Getting back to the tea, Shawn estimates that we have to each drink about 6 cups of tea every day to make up for some things and to keep us in budget. So we leisurely eat breakfast and drink our tea and chat and enjoy the beautiful view of the bay for about 2 hours! Relaxation Station!!
We go off to the beach and relax, read, and ate the typical beach budget lunch. Back to the pancake stand we go and find that they have really yummy tuna sandwiches that are on 6 in baguettes and only 50baht!! We are delighted! We get the sandwiches, banana shakes for 20 baht each--totaly lunch cost 120Baht-- about $3-- yes we are stuffed after that----AND if we contin ue eating like this we will stay within out daily budget range!! (Making up for the room of course) We stay on the beach all day and watch the sunset again- you have to.
After we clean the beach off of us in the freezing cold water--Shawn making some pretty interesting noises that I have never head from him before as he tries to get used to the cold water! We talk about dinner and I suggest that there was this cute little restaurant that I remember Jen and I eating at that was pretty yummy called the Garlic Restaurant. Shawn agrees that we should try to find it if it is still here. We hike along all of these Soi's (backroads) and are starting to get sad that maybe it doesn't exist becasue there is soo much destruction and construction everywhere still from the tsunami. Alas!! The Garlic restaurant!! It is this little put together shack right beside a huge construction site that is basically a straw roof with 6 plastic tables under it- yeah!! We are greeted by the owner who seems grateful to have us and very happy to be there. Let me just tell you- We have shrimp kebobs, garlic friend rice, and kingfish dinner and are stuffed-- everything was soo good!! Best of all, it costs us less than $10 to eat! We are estatic at the find and the fact that they were COMPLETELY destroyed by the tsunami, did what they could to get back into business, and serves people everyday with a smile, and they are very thankful to be there. We wander along looking at the destruction/construction all around and of course all the little shops!