THAILAND: Mother Dearest

I returned from Germany on the 23rd at night, and 12 hours later mother arrived. Of course, after naerly 20 hours of travel she looked fabulous, alive, ready for Asia. Asia, a place she said she would never have come if it wasn't for my being here. Yet, she was like, "Let's go Asia!"

Her first 2-3 days she was both full of energy and crashing in the afternoon as her body got used to the new time zone. Perhaps the best moment which should give you a good sense of how things are was when I said:

JULIO: Reny, I was thinking we should go to these three sites. They are monuments and temples.
RENY: They look beautiful in the pictures. You said Bangkok was a great place to shop. Where do we do that?
JULIO: There is a weekend market with 9,000 stals. Today is Saturday, we leave tomorrow for Phuket.
RENY: When does Nicole arrive?
JULIO: In about 20 days.
RENY: Let's do this. You go to the sites with Nicole and shopping with me. How's that?

And, that was the last that was said about sites. We spent from 11am to 9pm in the shops. The day ended with the two of us getting foot massages.

Since then we went to Phuket. Specifically, we were at Patong Beach, an areas severely affected by the Tsunami. Things seems to be getting back to normal. Shop owners say that they still feel the economic effects both of tourists who are no longer coming to the region, and the fact that those who are coming are not buying as much stuff. Part of what has happened is that it has become cheaper to come here and folks with less money are traveling, and their budgets are focuses on hotel and food, not extras.

Phuket was nice, crowded, but nice. We spent most of our days walking around the shops and sitting at the pool at our hotel. The hotel was a mid-range place that provided all that we needed and was away enough from the night crowds for a good night's sleep. Reny loved it all and the daily massages we got made the experience that much better.

From Phuket we took off to Phi Phi Island, which is where we are now. We decided to go to the Phi Phi Island Resort. The resort is absolutely glorious with its private beach. It has beautiful hut/cabanas, fabulous grounds and lovely food. The beach, the pool and the great service provide for an outstanding experience. Check out www.ppisland.com

Will need to write faster. My mother just came back from a hike with a new friend, Sarah, and announced "WE FOUND PARADISE." A deserted beach nearby. I will leave momentarily to have lunch with them in Paradise.

Ok, ok, main thing to know. Parents are like everyone else. They are children. My mother's eyes when the boat came around the corner to PP Resort lit up. "Is this where we are going?" She was amazed at the color of the water, the blue sky, the ower of the sun. The first night we had seafood dinner on the beach. She said, "This is the most beautiful place I have ever been to. Thank you. I just wish Jeff and the boys and Carla were here too."

For the last 4 days I have my mother in a course: JULIO'S DO NOTHING COURSE. Whenever she says things like "do you thing they will mind if I clean the beach?" Or, let's go discover the island. Or, I am going to clean the room. I tell her, NO, SIT DOWN. DO SOMETHING MUCH MORE CHALLENGING. "What?" NOTHING. SIT HERE AND LOOK AT THE BLUE OCEAN. DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It's been good. But then she found a friend and now we are off to Paradise...

Nothing is good, but paradise is nice too...

"Into the Woods to Find the Giant..."
www.brazilbean.net