American Ramble

Welcome to the Andaman Sea. I’ll admit it, I never heard of until earlier today when we arrived in Krabi.

We got here today by first taking a 40 minute taxi ride from our hotel to the Koh Samui ferry terminal. Upon arrival at the ferry terminal, we were delayed getting our boarding passes since the printer broke down. The printer was finally fixed and we got our passes and walked to the end of the pier where we waited for our delayed ferry to arrive. The ferry ride to Don Sak took 90 minutes and it put us back on the Thailand mainland.

When we got to the Don Sak terminal, there were busses waiting and we got on the bus headed to Krabi. The two hour bus ride took us from the shores of the Gulf of Thailand (in the east) to the Andaman Sea (in the west).

We arrived in Krabi around lunch time and we split a Margherita pizza at an Indian restaurant called The Crab House. We then got a Grab and took it to the Varana Hotel.

The Varana Hotel bills itself as a holistic and sustainable hotel. In fact Varana is derived from the Thai words Vana – forest, Nava – water, and Nara – people.

Jane scheduled some time in the spa and I took a walk on the beach. it was here that I finished listening to the book, American Ramble. I have always enjoyed travel – road books. Some of my favorites include Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck, On The Road by Jack Kerouac, and the half dozen or so travel memories by Bill Bryson. Do you have any favorite road books? Would love to get your recommendations in the comments.

American Ramble was published last year and Neil King chronicles his walk from Washington to New York. He goes into detail about the people he meets and the historical background of the places he visited.

When King rambles through Lancaster, PA he talks about the Amish people he meets. It reminded me of Burton, OH, a small town 40 miles east of Cleveland where my sister Renee and brother-in-law Pierre live; as Burton includes many Amish families.

Pierre produces organic maple syrup in his originally designed 1800 square foot sugarhouse. Last year I told him I assist him and learn the process in producing maple syrup (even though I hate getting my hands sticky). Since this trip took priority, I bailed on him. The least I can do is promote the upcoming tour dates they are doing.

For those near Cleveland, I highly recommend a visit to Butternut Maple Farm. And if you are further away, Renee has created a lovely AirBNB in a private apartment on the second floor of the sugarhouse. I can vouch for it as we have stayed there numerous times.

Finally, back to our adventure. We had dinner tonight at the hotel in the restaurant, Kin. The chef, David Thompson, is the first award winning Michelin star chef in Thai cuisine. The meal was good, not Michelin star good though.