The friendly ladies who greeted us on arrival.  They all gave us “a welcome drink” which was nice.  One of the hotel drivers drove us about an hour from the airport to get to our hotel.                                                                                                  We are really satisfied with our room, especially when you consider that it only costs 1445 baht/2 nights which works out to 8.4 OR or $21.60 US/night.  And that’s with free use of high speed internet in the room, a rooftop pool, a full size gym, a sauna, jazucci, free breakfast and friendy staff!   http://www.pacific-club-phuket.com/                                                                                                                The kitchen part of our room                                                                                                                                                        The view from our room looking down from our balcony at the front of the hotel

                                                                                                     The flight from Bangkok to Phuket took 1 1/2 hours

                                                                                                      Che Brown at Bangkok International Airport                                                                                                                         The people really seem to love their king in Thailand.                                                                                                     They were giving out free samples of the fruits in Thailand                                                                                          Interesting                                                                                                                                                                                          Had this delicious health drink while waiting for Che to get her hair done at the airport                                                                                                        A few people wore these silly masks on the plane and in the airport-I think from fear of catching the swine flu

                                                                                                  An idol outside our hotel.  These things are everywhere!                                                                                                        Idols seem to be located in front of every business.  Heartbreaking.  “Their idols and silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.  They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not.  They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.  They that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. (Psalm 115:4-8)                                                                                                       A friendly neighborhood street vendor.                                                                                                                                    Shrub cutters taking a break.  It was a bit humid in Bangkok on that day.                                                                                                       Che with this statue in front of a police station.                                                                                                                            A military post along the road                                                                                                                                                     What a sweet photo of Che!                                                                                                                                                          Chickens hanging in the foodcourt of a nearby mall

                                                                                                     A fortune telling machine at the mall.  Where idols thrive, fortune telling and horoscopes are also accepted.

                                                                                                      You can see some rain.  It was pouring on our first day in Thailand.                                                                                                    It was nice to see a New Testament Bible in our hotel room.  I was surprised to see the “Teachings of Buddah” book there (donated by the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism) as I have seen idols everywhere and so assumed that they were all Hindus. (They just happen to be Buddhist idols)  Found out that Buddhism is the predominant relgion here with 95% of the population claiming to be Buddhist while only 0.5% are Christian.  On Buddhism, one website read “ Free of dogma, it is a flexible moral, ethical, and philosophical framework within which people find room to fashion their own salvation”.  Fashion your own salvation!? Good luck with that.  I’ll stick with the atoning work of Christ on the cross!                                                                                                                                                        Yours truly at the hotel pool.  Open 8:30am-11pm each day (same with the gym there).                                                                                                        The love of my life looking great in the pool!

                                                                                                     It was probably an hour for us to get to our hotel from the airport.  We stayed at “Xen Suites Bangkok Hotel” which you can read about here: http://www.hotelthailand.com/bangkok/qualitysuites/  It is NOT 2 kms/10 mins away from the airport as described on their website!  It cost us 330 baht (+ a 50 baht “service charge”) + toll gates fees (which totaled 80 baht) = 460 baht.  Again, I mentioned to the hotel that if they don’t provide transport, they must remove it from the list of services they SAY they provide on their website!

                                                                                                    Here we are pulling into Bangkok International Airport.                                                                                                  These HSBC ads are in many airports.  I really don’t like them.  “The more you look at the world, the more you recognize people’s different views”.  Then they put different pictures with the same words like you see here with the word “passion“.  They also put the same picture up but with different words.  For example, they put up 3 posters with the exact same picture of a Buddhist idol with the words “entertainment“, “souvenir” and “worship“.  They forgot to put up a photo with the words “false idol” on it.  How about that point of view from the Bible!  The reason I don’t like these ads is that they indirectly imply that “there are no wrong views-just different views” which is a “grey morality” that opposes the truths of the Bible.  Okay, off the soap box…more on this later!                                                                                                                                     This guy must love his job!  Seriously though, he was asleep there quite a while.                                                                                                                                                           My lovely Che just after we got our luggage.

Like that old 1980’s song says, we were “one night in Bangkok” before flying off to Phuket!!!  If you aren’t familiar with that song, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqj31VPNoE  Some of the lyrics to this song read “You’ll find a god in every golden cloister” which is both true and sad.  Idols are EVERYWHERE!  Jonah 2:8 definitely comes to mind as I walk around!

                                                                                                  Thai Airways serves some yummy meals onboard!  We left Oman at 21h35 on Thursday and fly into Bangkok at 08h05 the next day.  We had a stopover in Karachi, Paskistan but we had to stay onboard.

                                                                                                      It was 4 months ago that Che and I were united in holy matrimony, praise God!  Because it was so late in January just before I had to return to teach, we didn’t get a chance to have a real honeymoon.  Here we are 4 months later and now it’s our time to enjoy some precious time together on our “late honeymoon in Thailand”!  God has been SO good to us !