I never expected during our travels I would be standing in the Koh Samui airport waiting to see my parents faces on the arrivals walkway. But there I was, waiting for their delayed plane and feeling quite excited. My mom was in dire need of a vacation and had an idea to come and see us. After many chats on the phone I managed to convince her Thailand was the safest and easiest place for us to meet up and travel together for about a month. Some might cringe at the idea of traveling with their parents for a month, but Scott and I get along very well with my parents. They are great fun to hang out with and even all of our friends agree.
After waiting for an hour with no signal on the arrivals board that their plane was delayed, my parents smiling, sweating faces finally appeared. As a nice gesture they were wearing matching T-Shirts with our cats name on them. Dad was Charlie and Mom was Kerrigan. It sure made us smile! We piled into a taxi and the conversations didn’t stop for days. It was so nice to see some family and I could tell they were quite ecstatic to see us too.
We wanted to stay at the Jungle Club again but alas with high season just beginning it was fully booked. After some searching on hostelbookers.com I found an amazing looking resort that met all my parents prerequisites and more with an amazing deal of stay 2 nights and get the 3rd free. Baan Hin Sai couldn’t of been anymore perfect for my parents first introduction and ease into Thailand. A variety of hotel rooms and private bungalows sit on a steep incline against the ocean. I had no idea it was going to be so steep but luckily they had a golf cart service to take you down and up the hill. Service for Thai standards was spot on. Free buffet breakfast, friendly staff, beautiful comfortable bungalows and delicious food in the restaurant. Don’t forget about the two infinity pools and if you feel like it, the most beautiful location for a spa I’ve ever seen. Needless to say my parents were blown away and found the price hard to believe. A resort like this in the Caribbean would be three times as much per night.
Since Scott and I had already spent a fair amount of time on Koh Samui, we turned into pretty good travel guides. We filled our first 6 days together with a perfect amount of relaxing at the resort, shopping, dinners at great locations, and even a Muay Thai kickboxing match! We also rented a 4 door truck and gave my parents the same self tour we gave ourselves a month ago. However, this time we actually made it to Grandmother and Grandfather Rock in the daylight because we skipped the sucky waterfall. In the shopping area my parents spotted a sign that said “Doctor Fish” and to my surprise they actually gave it a try! Doctor Fish are small fish that will only eat the dead skin from your feet. They are also beleived to massage your feet and increase the blood circulaion, leaving your feet clean and feeling great after a 15-20 minute session. It was quite amusing watching them give this a try, espcially since my Dad has very ticklish feet. There was one sucker about 4 inches long that liked his baby toe! But soon enough, as stated, their feet got use to the sensation and they claimed it became quite relaxing. My Dad’s feet felt so great afterwards he declared any time he sees this again in Thailand he is getting a treatment.
PS: Also to our advantage, their arrival to Thailand was perfect timing with our unfortunate Camera trying to become a fish and boxing week sales. We picked out a camera online at Future Shop and asked my parents to go pick it up and bring it with them. The camera we ended up getting was a fantastic deal on a actual SLR. Olympus 420 with a second telephoto lense 80-300mm. It’ll be fun to try and take some better photos with an sLR.
Here are some of our test shots:
Sharing this with my parents ASAP. Perfect timing!
Never expected also to go to Thailand for a month,but we did & it was the most beautiful holiday we have ever had.Our kids were the perfect tour guides & again thank you for showing us such a good time.Your next journey you just might find the parents asking to tag along.We are very fortunate parents to have such wounderful children.Love Mom & Dad
I’m attempting to get my parents to come visit me for 4-6 weeks doing the islands in Thailand plus potentially Malaysia/Singapore when I go off on my trip later this year. They’re still hesitant on being gone for such a long period of time. How much walking with luggage did you have to do between trains/ferries and such? I think this is a big concern of my parents but I’m trying to say that taxi service is present everywhere in the major places.
Re.Jeremy Walking with luggage was never a problem,there were so many people to help at all times.They are very equipped for tourist of all ages.Maybe not your 90s.Parent 1 walks with a cane & had no problems.Strongly suggest not to bring much as laundry is very cheap in Thailand.Shorts & tops,that is all you need.
Excellent. I am trying to convince them my mightiest. They might have questions for you, haha. Have you seen a lot of the world before this trip? I think my parents are trying to choose between Thailand and Hawaii.
Tell them Hawaii will always be the same with easy options for 1 week vacations etc… But Thailand on the other hand won’t have YOU in it.
In regards to luggage… My Dad was saying half way through the trip that he loved to have WAY less stuff with him and just carry a backpack instead of the luggage. But again, like my mom said getting the luggage around is not a problem at all. Long as it has wheels your A-Okay! Only places you might have to actually walk a bit with luggage is airports, ferry docks (but sometimes even then they take your luggage from you), and the distance from the taxi door to where you get on your bus. The Thai’s are very friendly and helpful, they even carry our backpacks when we arrive to hotels etc and we don’t at all need them too! Get your parents to email my mom I’m sure she be a great source of info!