Saturday, May 31, 2008

Travels With Chad

Chad was staying for about another week. We were going to go back up to my site, but our bus didn’t leave until evening (and Mom & Kim left early in the morning). We spent the day doing a little shopping…I took him to Siam Paragon which is this huge shopping mall with a ton of expensive shops (although I think he was more impressed with the level that had the Lamborghinis, Porsches, and Bentleys than he was with the Jimmy Choo, Cartier, and Burberry stores.

Our bus left at 8:30 and we got into Nan the next morning at 4:00 am. We then had to take a songtao to my site. We got to my house at around 8:00. I did some laundry & Chad took a nap then we headed over to my work at 12:00ish. The school principal picked us up at around 2:00 and Chad was put in front of a Thai classroom. We made the kids go outside (which was torture for them because they don’t like to be in the sun – it’s the whole dark skin thing) and he taught them how to play Frisbee.

The kids had a great time.


And they loved Chad.

We did the same thing the next day just at a different school.







My work took us into Nan & dropped us off at the bus station. We were heading to Chaing Mai & our bus left at 10:00 pm (they dropped us off at 4:00). So again, we had some time to kill. We walked around the town & discovered that they were going to have muy thai boxing later in the evening (this was great as we had wanted to see a fight with the entire family, but the King’s sister passed away & they cancelled all fights during the initial morning period). (Sorry the pic is so bad).


Our bus got in at 3:00 in the morning and we were soon on another bus heading to Pai (pronounced "by"). This bus was definitely not as comfortable as the 1st class buses we had taken earlier.


Pai was beautiful! We stayed in these really neat bamboo huts.


That evening, Chad lit a lantern for good luck.


The next day we explored the city, did some shopping, and just relaxed. Pai has a relly laidback atmosphere (a little hippy-esque) with a lot of alternative medicine places and organic restaurants. That evening, we went to a few bars & listened to live music.

The next day, we hired a driver to take us on a tour to the Long-Neck Hill Tribe. The drive was amazing…we even saw a leopard run across the road!


The Long-Necked women were beautiful!


This little girl is from a different tribe but lives in the same village.

We stayed in Mae Hong Song that evening & spent the next day exploring.

We then flew down to Chaing Mai & saw another Muy Thai fight that evening. The next day we went back to Bangkok so that Chad could catch his flight the next day (but he was able to get in a last meal before he left).

Kanchanaburi With The Family

The next day, my mom, sister, brother, and I got on a bus & set out for Kanchanaburi. We stayed at a really nice resort about an hour’s drive from the city. We hung out at the pool the first day…which was nice because we pretty much had the place to ourselves (there was one other family at the pool).

The next day we went to Erawan National Park. The Park has an amazing 7-tiered waterfall. It’s quite a hike to get to the top tier, but we were going to try.

Chad was the first one into the water. Kimberly was a little scared because our driver had told us that the fish will come up and "nibble on you."

She eventually overcame her fear (more like she fell in and had no choice in the matter).





Each level of the waterfall was amazing!


They were filming a movie at this one.


The next day, we went into Kanchanaburi to see the bridge & visit a museum (I’ve posted pics of the bridge before so I’m not going to do it this time). We got on a bus & headed back to Bangkok as Mom & Kimberly had to fly out the next morning.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Burma

I've received a few emails asking about the Burma situation. We're ok over here in Thailand...we have received a lot more rain than normal, but it's cooled things off so I'm not complaining.

It's unfortunate that nature can be so destructive & deadly, and my heart goes out to those who have lost friends & family to the storms. But it's saddening that the Burmese government is turning away help! I was able to watch the news the other day (CNN no less) and there was a story about an aid worker whose plane landed in Burma, they unloaded crates of food, then the Burmese Army showed up and made them leave...with the food still sitting on the tarmac. There have been protests in Bangkok...how that helps I have no idea.

I do know that they need our help even if the Burmese government doesn't want it. So if you have a little extra pocket change and wish to help out, visit www.redcross.org for more information!

Friday, May 9, 2008

Bangkok With The Family

I wanted the family to get a feel for what the PC volunteers experience when we stay in Bangkok, so I booked a room at Suk 11 - a guesthouse that we will sometimes stay in - and let's just say that they were impressed with the personality of the place.



That evening, we went to...

for dinner. Their hope is to make condoms as easily accessible for the average villager as cabbages. The decorations were all made of condoms.
The next day, we went to the weekend market. It's best to go early in the morning because it tends to get really crowded & hot.We then took the river taxi... to the Royal Palace.





They have a rule that you can't wear shorts/short pants, so the ladies had to change into pacines & the guys had to change into pants.

That evening, we went to the Oriental Hotel for a dinner show. I thought that it would be at the hotel itself, but it turns out that it was across the river from the hotel. But no worries, because the hotel had a shuttle boat to take us across.Most Thai families sit on the floor when eating dinner. It gets a little uncomfortable after a while so I was a little concerned when I saw the low table, but they had a little "hole" under that table for our legs.

The show was amazing! And the costumes were stunning!








The next morning, Karmen & Lew & Dad had a plane to catch back to the States & the rest of us headed over to Kanchanburi for a few days.