Rayong Beach: Grown-up Spring Break

Spring Break should be mandatory. Who doesn’t need a break this time of year?  Grown-ups need it even more than kids (sorry, kids).

With that thought in mind, and even though the heat (100 degrees F in the shade) belies an actual “spring”, we sped out of town last Thursday night and hit the beach with friends.

The timing for our grown-up Spring Break was perfect because, although it wasn’t a full week, it was a four-day weekend in Thailand.  The seven of us - Anne and Ben, Natalie and Ryan, Frank and I, and my cousin Carolee who is here from Boston (!) piled into two cars on Thursday night and immediately found ourselves in gridlock along with every other person fleeing Bangkok for the long weekend.

By the time we arrived in Rayong Beach Thursday night, nothing sounded better than to sit outside in the breeze off the water, drink a cold beer, and toast to our success in simply being there.

Unfortunately, unpacking the cars was no small feat. We brought all of our food with us and spent a good hour piling it all into the kitchen.  We gently nudged the refrigerator door shut, and called it a night.

(The good news, which I discovered the next day, was that the kitchen was far more photogenic than our kitchen in Bangkok.  I snapped even more food pics than usual.)

Rayong, two and a half hours from Bangkok (or indefinite hours, if the traffic is particularly temperamental), had been recommended by a number of friends in Bangkok. We booked a three-bedroom villa, which was more than enough space for the seven of us.

We had a view of the pool from the ground floor of the house, and a breathtaking view of the beach from the top floor.

I had low expectations of the beaches, since we’ve been to some pretty spectacular beaches much farther South, but Rayong had more than enough of that tropical beach thing going for it. The pool was great, the sand was white, the water was clear, the palm trees were swaying….what more could we need?

The weekend was an absolute blast. We laughed, we swam, we grilled, we relaxed.  There may have been some late-night karaoke.  A good bottle of wine or two. And, possibly, a beach bonfire with a spontaneous dip in the warm water under a full moon.

I got in a little time with my book, and some sun even made it past the wall of SPF 70 with which I slathered myself.  Easter morning we woke up to bright blue skies and celebrated Natalie's birthday over brunch.

We also cooked.  A lot.

We ate every meal at the beach house, and the food was far too good not to put into another post.  I'll be back later this week with a full re-cap of all of our rental beach house cooking (and eating)!