Bangkok Week 93 — Mika's Photos

And we're off! (To the car rental, with our new suitcase courtesy of Citibank.)

First stop: Wat Huay Monkon, home to a famous four-storey monk.

The monk attracts visitors from all over. He's supposed to bring safe travels.

Up close and personal. Our camera never failed to locate and focus on his face.

Applying gold foil, and being foiled by random gusts of wind that blow it away.

The monk looms over his visitors.

A three-headed elephant into whose mouth you're supposed to throw coins. Also, you're supposed to walk under its body 3 times. It's very graphic under there. No details omitted.

Next stop: veggie fried rice #1, at the side of the road.

As we approached our hotel, we were greeted by these guys (and hundreds of their comrades) guarding the Asean leaders here for a summit.

Final destination: our hotel! We arrived before they were ready for us, so we took a quick walking tour of the resort's property.

A view from the resort's beachfront property. The temple on the hill is the one covered in monkeys that we visited last November.

You can indeed see the sea from the decks of Let's Sea resort.

A nice green garden between the rooms and the seaside restaurant.

Finally time to check into our room! It was on the second floor.

Very modern, designed, minimalist decor.

The study area has windows that open onto the canal-style pool.

And there's a spiral staircase leading to our personal "moon deck". There's a reason it's called a "Moon Deck Suite".

The view from our moon deck. You can see how the rooms line the 120m pool like traditional riverside houses.

The roof deck had a lovely view, but it was far too hot to spend any time up there during the day. See the sea in the background?

What a bed! Their signature mattresses are available for purchase, too.

Posing with the bathtub. Don't worry, not using it for real. All just visual trickery.

The window seat was quite comfortable. Just not in this particular pose.

This captures the resort's overall atmosphere -- open, airy, nicely designed.

A view of the pool from its beginning -- at the hotel lobby. The resort has only 50 rooms.

The hotel lobby. A very open design, where we were welcome to come get free refreshments whenever.

Lounging around, waiting for some of said free refreshments.

Freshly made iced tea and coffee, on demand. Great perk, great service.

Enjoying the refreshing iced coffee and comfortable lobby cross-breeze.

Showing the lobby's proximity to the pool.

A throwback to my years at Marshall School. Apparently I left my monkey bar skills there when I graduated.

This tree was covered in these fruit. We have no idea what they were!

Everyone comes out of their rooms for an afternoon dip in the pool.

Us included! These loungers are actually sitting in shallow water.

Posing with one of the deck-side docks... just not ours, since our room was on the second floor!

So refreshing on a 38-degree day.

The pool was exceptionally clear.

Enjoying our free treat!

The resort attracted lots of Chinese tourists. This group was just lounging around in the pool -- literally.

We preferred to lie on the recliners rather than the pool floor.

Another "playground" apparatus. A slide made of rollers. Was just dangerous enough to entice me!

They said to watch your fingers. They didn't warn that your eyes might pop out of your head!

From 5-7 every night, there's a happy hour in the lobby -- free snacks and booze for the privileged.

One sip of this sparkling wine, and I was matching that lovely shade of red on the walls.

Our classy dinner at Tesco. Had to flee the resort for an affordable meal!

A night market and art gallery. Some neat stuff both on display and for sale.

Old rickshaws. Where's my driver?

Palm sugar juice served in a bamboo glass. Refreshing!

Cicada Market, as it's called, happens every weekend. Here, a crowd gathered around a group of young break-dancers.

Back at the hotel. Beautiful in the nighttime, too.

Finally getting to use the moon deck for its intended purpose -- stargazing!

Breakfast the next morning. The tide was high -- couldn't be any closer to the ocean waters.

Peaceful now -- but too hot to sit here during the rest of the day.

The resort's restaurant attracts many outside customers for Sunday brunch and dinner.

Waiting for our breakfast to come.The most valuable meals we've had in ages!

Enjoying his sea view... but not fully awake yet?

Our breakfast -- eggs, yogurt, breads and pastries. An assortment of syrups for the coffee and jams for the breads.

Another view of the little green park.

Some of the many tropical flowers scattered throughout.

More alert now that he's had his breakfast.

A funky see-saw. We couldn't quite get it to work properly.

These are gonna be bananas one day!

The local bees are enjoying their breakfast, too.

An artsy purple wall.

The spa area (on the lobby's roof)...

... at which we were treated to an "expert application of sun screen".

Another view of the beautiful pool. The ground-floor rooms would have been nicer, in retrospect. We missed having direct pool access.

Same view as at breakfast, but now the tide's gone out. Time for a dip!

Reassured by the sign at the entrance to the beach.

A view of the resort's beachfront property... from the beach!

Enjoying the sand before the peak of the day.

After the tide went out, tiny crabs got to work digging holes all over and spitting out these round balls of sand. By evening, the beach was 100% covered by them.

Look! A busy little crab!

Photo in front of the resort. Still haven't touched the sea water!

Okay, finally getting ready to take the plunge.

Aha, warm ocean water! Nothing like the shores of NJ. A huge upgrade from our visit last November.

Going under, on the count of 3!

Posing with the resort's beachfront sign, now that I've actually swum in the ocean.

Cold water and a great view. How relaxing.

Lounging around, and (slowly) reading about Greece (in Thai).

The restaurant balcony that overhangs the beach. Too sunny for anyone to sit there now!

A western family, who spent the whole time in the sun. The father is determined Mr. Red.

Our affordable lunch -- pastries we bought at Tesco the night before, and fresh fruit courtesy of the hotel.

Ghetto, but relaxing!

Another trip back to the lobby for refreshing drinks. I ordered a "black iced coffee" and instead got a black hot coffee. When they realized the mistake, they then brought an iced coffee, too.

To quote Jim Carrey at his finest moment, "Smokin'!"

Talk about an hourglass figure!

The pool was much shadier for afternoon swimming than was the ocean.

The far end of the pool features a bar, where you can sit and drink with your bum still in the water. I guess you don't have to get up when you need to pee!

My sun exposure led to a rather funny tan line.

Late in the afternoon, swimmers returned to the beach.

The wind showed no signs of slowing, either.

Too windy to play frisbee!

See what I said about those crab balls? They were totally covering the beach by day's end. Kind of creepy to walk on.

Enjoying a swing. First time in years!

This picture made possible by the timer function on the camera.

That shot required several takes. Turns out, jumping on a moving swing without ruining its momentum is difficult.

At happy hour, the wine selection is displayed on an old bicycle.

Not my gin and tonic!

Heading into town for a second night means leaving my difficult parking spot -- yet again.

Dinner at a recommended "roti" shop. In Thailand, "roti" is fried dough, filled and/or topped with sweet things.

We ordered four kinds -- the roti in the background has a fried egg; the one in the foreground is stuffed with egg and corn.

This one is a paper roti -- extremely thin and crunchy. The 4th is a "traditional" roti -- thicker dough, with sugar and condensed milk. A real sugar buzz after this meal!