Who would've thought that of all the things to enjoy while being sick, Al Jazeera and Ritz crackers would have joined the list. Either way, I'm better now and at the beach, and I thought I would share with you other great things about Thailand:
1. Sunsets- They are always impressive over the ocean here. We face west, so it is great because on the Atlantic, you have to wake up early to catch a beautiful sunrise. Here you just have to be outside and you won't miss the sunset.
2. Seafood- Actually Shelley loves this much more than I having grown up in Norfolk. There is a restaurant that we love called Lanta Seafood. You walk up to the front of the restaurant, whatever they've caught that day is on ice, you choose which one you want, what flavoring you want, and they throw it on the grill and bring it to your table. Shel and I opted for seabass with garlic pepper last night.
3. Lime soda- 
Josh introduced me to these a few years back. They are called Manao, and they are made by Schweppes, the same company that makes ginger ale and tonic water, but so far I can only find them in Thailand. Do you remember the Fresca craze in America? Everyone loved Fresca. But the first time you tasted Fresca, you thought to yourself "They like this stuff? It is lacking something. It is kind of sweet, and kind of lemon-lime like, but also kind of cough-syrup like." Fresca was a lot like the sticky hard ribbon candy that sat for years at your grandma's house. Yet, you still said you loved it because everyone else was loving it. Well Schweppes Manao is all that was missing in Fresca (mostly because it isn't a sugar free diet soda). It is a really good lime soda. Now I drink one a day. I have introduced them to other people who like them as well. I just hope they aren't really bad like Fresca and other people are saying "this is terrible, but he really loves them, so maybe its just me. I'll keep drinking them and say I love them too." If that is the case, Josh started it.
4. Fruit shakes- 
Who knew that cutting up watermelon, a banana, or pineapple, adding ice and a little sugar water and blending for 15 seconds could lead to the most refreshing drink of all time? I order at least 3 of these a day here. So many, that when we got to the beach, Lon, the lady who runs the place remembered me from three years ago and said "shake boy back! Tomorrow I must go buy more banana!"
5. Siam Center- This is a giant mall in the heart of Bangkok that sells nothing at all that I can afford. Literally, on the 7th floor there is an Aston Martin showroom, with an Aston Martin that you can touch. However, it does have a foodcourt with a Burger King, a Dairy Queen, and this little addition: 
Yes. Krispy Kreme has come straight from North Carolina all the way to Bangkok. What this picture doesn't show is the wrap around line to order your doughnuts. Either way, we waited and paid the international premium of 8 dollars a dozen for glazed. They were hot and put us into a diabetic ecstasy the likes of which we haven't experienced in quite a while. The biggest bonus was that we got to introduce some of our East Asian friends to this hometown treat. After eating one, one of my friends put his head in his hands and said "I'm dizzy. Too much sugar." They were giggling likes drunks on the tram back to the hotel from the sugar high. There is nothing in East Asia that has the sugar content of a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
6. Riots- No we haven't seen any since we've been here thank goodness. It seems that all has calmed down in Bangkok for now. But last year they totally ruined the tourist industry, which is a large part of the Thai economy. That means that in order to draw tourists back a year later, every thing has remained about the same price as the last time we were here 3 years ago. This is awesome when you consider how the dollar has fallen and prices have risen everywhere else. Our first year here, it was approximately 40 baht to the dollar and a room at the beach was about 2100 baht a night (a little more than 50 dollars US to divide by 3 people back when we were single). A year later, the baht was 30 to the dollar and a room was 2300 (a little less than 75 dollars US). That was a 50 percent increase in one year. At that rate, we wouldn't be able to come to Thailand much longer. Throw in a couple of coup d'etats and some violent rioting in the nation's capitol, and here we are 3 years later, the exchange rate and prices are the same as when we left. And, the riots seemed to have left the Aston Martins in tact.
All in all, we still love Thailand, and are so thankful to be able to get time off in such a beautiful location.
