Being Marcus: 28th of November 2010……. An Anniversary To Remember…..

I have always wanted to surprise my baby with a trip to somewhere special. Now that my mind has conceived this idea, I needed an occasion to put it into action. What better time to do it on our 1^st wedding anniversary. I made all the necessary arrangements well in advance and all I had to do was wait. Well, to be honest, it was a long grueling wait. I had to drone on to my wife for a very long time regarding planning for our long awaited anniversary agenda. I had successfully deceived my better half into thinking that we were going to Penang. Oh wait!! I have not told you guys where I was taking her! You guys will just have to wait…. After a month long infuriating wait, the time finally came.

We reached LCCT and by that time my baby was going crazy. She was about to explode!! That’s it! The time is now!! I kissed her and said, “Happy Anniversary Baby,” and gave her the ticket and our bookings. “Krabi!!!” she yelled. To see that joy and excitement in her face gave me a natural high money can’t buy. To watch her face glisten made the entire wait worth while. We checked in, said our prayers and we were off.

An hour flight, a two hour car ride and 2 ferries later we reached our destination. As our taxi dropped us at our spot; my baby and I stood there dumbfounded. It took us a good five to ten minutes soaking up the view of our hotel. There it was; Sri Lanta Hotel, Located in Koh Lanta, Krabi. It was perfect. It was better than what we had expected. It was as picturesque as it can be.

The hotel staff greeted us with a refreshing welcome drink and scented towels. They checked us in and walked us up to our villa. Our villa was nestled well away from the hustle and bustle of the busy Krabi streets. It was tucked away nicely on a hill overlooking the beach. It was made of wood and had a verandah with a cleverly planned bathtub right at the edge of the verandah. The room had been beautifully furnished. A four post bed stood at the corner of the room with a view of the lush green hills of Koh Lanta to its back. A small hallway made the room more comfortable with low lying diwans. We felt so comfortable and relaxed.

We arrived at Sri Lanta in the evening and after freshening up we headed to the hotel restaurant for a well deserved long quiet romantic dinner. The restaurant sat strategically on the beach front. It adopted a Japanese style seating where we sat on the floor buffered with lots of mattresses and pillows scattered all over the place. I guess they planned it that way so their patrons can nap right after eating their scrumptious Thai cuisine. We had dinner exactly the way we planned; authentic Thai cuisine, light Bossa music playing in the background, comfortable seats, perfect weather and well mixed cocktails. The ambience was just perfect. Once we had successfully stuffed our pie holes, we took a long romantic walk on the beach. (Like what you see in movies J Common now!! I had to make it complete right!!!) We retired to our villa shortly after that.

The following day greeted us with a light shower in the morning. Nevertheless we were up early; had a complete western buffet breakfast and decided to check out the hotel in detail. To our astonishment this hotel was self sufficient. It had almost everything you will ever need as a vacationer. The lobby was beautiful, warm and inviting. The waiting area was stocked with cozy sofas, fountains and lots of reading material. Sitting there you wouldn’t realize if you taxi was late. A wooden gazebo stood right in the center of the landscape, it was surrounded by a water way which had lots of carps. It housed a foos table, board games and books. The pool looked pretty cool in its own way. I’m not much of a pool person. Why have pools when the beach is right in front of you?? The spa was situated to the left of the hotel and my! My! It looked amazing. We booked ourselves a massage appointment later for the day and continued our escapade. The hotel had a well looked after lawn with lots of hammock. The entire view looked like something you would see in a postcard. It is a honeymooner’s paradise. We completed our survey just in time for lunch. We rented a bike and decided to ride around town to see what is was like and got back just in time for our massage.

The massage was heavenly…. We were given our massage in an open air hut with the sound of the wave’s right behind us. It was and hour and a half of pampering. Once that was done we hit the beach. Pristine clear waters!!! I could actually see my feet below through the crystal clear waters. We had our fun and swam our hearts out till sunset. We got back, cleaned up and got ready for another round of dining.

Our last night there left us contented, happy and grateful to Our Father above for blessing us with a beautiful and memorable anniversary. We left the next day after saying our goodbyes to the warm hospitable crew of Sri Lanta Hotel. It is a place where guests are treated with care and pampered. The warm inviting scenery is picture perfect to the eye and the ambience is soothing to the soul. I recommend this place to anyone who would want a beach retreat. The entire experience left us begging for more but unfortunately time was not on our side. We promised to ourselves that this will definitely not be last time we came here. It was a perfect way and place to spend our 1^st Anniversary

Thank You Sri Lanta …….

The View from one of the ferry Ride of the few neighboring islands