The Hotel

     The Daluyon Resort is right on the beach, and when I say right on, I mean that your room door is about 15 feet from the sand. There is a covered area (covered with palm trees) before you get to the actual beach where there are a few hammocks, a swing, and a bar. A little further out are beach chairs with a little table and an umbrella. There is also a pole with hole for an attached stick that has a flag to attract the attention of the staff. 

     The beach itself (the water part) is very shallow. You have to go a ways out before it is decent swimming depth. The water is also much cooler than in Galveston, but not as cold as it is up in Cape Cod. It is pleasantly cool. The water is not as clear as I thought it would be, but this again is probably because it is shallow. The sand is very soft, and doesn't get super hot like it does in Galveston, and there aren't any sharp bits, which makes it very pleasant to walk along the water. 

     The room we booked was 702. No, there weren't 700 different rooms, we were at the 7th building on the 2nd floor. The room itself was a one bed, one bath. I slept on the pullout couch. It was very important that we had the key to the room whenever we left it because the lock was automatic whenever the door closed. Right after the guy led us to our room and told us what was free and what wasn't, and told us about the key, I was the last one out of the house and forgot the key and locked us out. Surroundings: 1, Ben's Listening Skills: 0. 

     Not only is the resort on the beach, but it also has an almost infinity pool, a massage hut, and a restaurant.  There is also a village about half a mile away filled with souvenir type shops sporting things like hats, shirts, and jewelry, more on that in a later post. There is also a fantastic view of a mountain behind and on either side of the resort.

     We arrived at the resort around 2 or 3 o'clock on Friday and we didn't have anything booked so we went on a beach walk to explore the plumes of smoke coming from the aforementioned village. Along the way, we discovered the nice things about the beach that I discussed earlier. We also discovered that my dad is hydrophobic (afraid of water). Not once during the trip was he willing to get into any form of water, not the pool, not the beach, and avoided wet spots. He also drank much more than he usually does, but more on that later. We spotted many scores of crab holes along the sand, and occasionally saw a crablet or two scuttle around. We also saw a big dead crab on the edge of the water. I found a couple bamboo sticks. One was small and thin, the other tall and thick. The bamboo in Asia is much sturdier than the stuff growing in Houston. There was also a small green pointy stalk sticking out of the sand which happened to be a mangrove fruit. On the way back to the hotel room, we found small "doodle" bugs walking under the sand and making small doodles.

     P.S. Sorry for the ADD post. I'll try to keep it more cohesive.