Ko Phi Phi With The Family

So when I last left off, we were about to head off to Phi Phi Island. We woke up early & headed over to the ferry boats. It was really crowded as they had a whole bunch of boats & going to the same place. Luckily we had some guys helping us. We had to walk across two or three other boats to get to ours (they were all tied to each other). But soon we were on our way.

The boat made a brief stop at the island where “The Beach” was filmed so that we could all see the infamous beach. (It’s now a national park & they charge a fee to even step on the beach).

We finally reached the island & it was beautiful!

We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach.

The next day we went snorkeling.

The water was crystal clear.

Even though it had been a few years, you could still see signs of the tsunami.

There was a memorial close to our hotel that was really moving.

And the next day we were off to Bangkok.

A Brief Interlude

It’s that time of year again. Songkran starts this weekend…you may remember…the holiday that turns into a week-long water fight?!? Anyway, I could hear splashes & screaming this morning as I was getting ready for work so I knew that the previously-planned on white shirt was not going to work. And sure enough, as soon as I stepped out my front gate, the sweet kids that shout “hello” to me every day came running over with buckets of water & proceeded to douse the farang.

So now I’m sitting at work, soaking wet. Plus, the kids had added green dye to the water & now my arms & clothes have a definite green tinge to them…hopefully it doesn’t stain too badly!

I’m excited for this Songkran because a whole bunch of volunteers are going to Chaing Mai to celebrate. For those of you in America, Chaing Mai is to Songkran what New Orleans is to Mardi Gras…so it should be a fun time!

Phuket With The Family

I had tried to book plane tickets for us out of Nan, but they only have a few flights a week & not at the time that we needed…so we had to take a night bus. The bus arrived in Bangkok at 5:00 in the morning & we took a taxi to the airport. Our plane was supposed to leave at 10:00 but was delayed. We were stuck there until noon.

We eventually arrived in Phuket & after some last-minute complications, we were off to our hotel.

We went out to dinner & on the way back were able to catch the performance of Thai Elvis. He was AWESOME!!!

The next day we spent some time on the beach.

And got more foot massages.

The next day, we went on a “James Bond Tour” where they took us to James Bond Island

& we did some kayaking. It was a lot of fun!

We even got to see some wildlife!

And the next day we were off to Ko Phi Phi!

P.S. Sorry about the different sizes on the pics...it's been acting up on me again!

Nan With The Family

We arrived in Nan late in the afternoon & took a songtao to the hotel.

I then took them to the market where I do some of my shopping.



I also took them to one of the temples. We ate dinner at the hotel & then turned in for the evening…there’s not much to do in Nan.

The next morning we headed over to Fhu Travel as I had arranged for an elephant trek for the day. But when we got there, Mrs. Fhu had forgotten about my reservation. She told us to give her a little while & she would get it arranged.

We spent some time wandering around the market & then I took them to the museum. By the time we got back, she had gotten everything set up & we set out to ride some elephants!

When our elephant riding had finished, the driver took us to my village & they got to see my house.

That evening, we had dinner with the people at my work. It was really nice & I’m so glad that my family was able to meet everyone.

A very nice gentleman from England let us use his home for the night. My house is not large enough to sleep 7 people…so he was kind enough to let us use his house.

The next morning, the driver took us back to Nan as I had also arranged for a Hill Tribe Trek. We all piled into the back of a songtao & set off. It was really nice because we were able to see some rice paddies…

And a water buffalo…

The guides were a lot of fun. They knew a lot of neat tricks…here is Kimberly with some popping plants. They explode as soon as you add water to them.

And here is one of our guides blowing bubbles.

We ate lunch in this little hut up in the hills.
They took us to quite a few villages, but the neatest one was the last one. We went to this older guy’s house & he showed us how he cooks dinner. They stick meat (in this case pork) in a bamboo pole & stick the pole in the fire.

It was really interesting to see. After the tour finished, we were dropped off at the bus station as we had a night bus to catch!

Chaing Mai With The Family

The family’s plane got in at 11:00. I had never been to the Chaing Mai Airport, so I left the hotel at 9:30. It didn’t take long to get there, so I had about an hour to wait until their plane got in…and then they had to go through customs. I don’t know why, but as the time neared, I got incredibly nervous! I had butterflies in my stomach like you wouldn’t believe! It had been a year since I had seen them & it was torture having to wait! The wait was even longer than it should have been, because the airline had lost my Mom’s luggage…so they had to get that taken care of.
Once the hugs were taken care of, I greeted them with the Thai wai…

We then grabbed a songtao to head back to the hotel.

I knew that they would be pretty tired after the flight…so I didn’t plan too much for the day. The ladies went & got foot massages while the men went to a pub.

We then got some dinner & I took them to the Night Bazaar. I remembered when I first got here, I was ready to drop at about 8:00 & sure enough, when 8:00 hit, they were ready for bed.

Chad’s plane got in the next morning, so I went back to the airport to pick him up.

Poor Chad didn’t get much of a rest. We headed over to Doi Suthep which is this temple that is situated on a hill overlooking Chaing Mai. You have to climb about 300 steps to get to the temple.

But the view is amazing!

That night, I wanted to take them to The Riverside & take the dinner cruise, but when we got there, they were full (I didn’t know you needed reservations). So we had dinner at the restaurant instead.

After dinner, we took a tuk-tuk back to the Night Bazaar so they could do some more shopping & again they were ready to drop by 8:00.

The next day we took a bus over to my site.

New Years

Ok. I know it’s been a while…but I promised that I would tell you all about the family trip. So here it goes…

A Peace Corps volunteer from Samoa had gotten in touch with me (through this blog actually). She was coming to Thailand with a friend & wondered if I would be able to show them around a little bit. I told them that I would be in Chaing Mai over New Years & would love to meet up with them then.

They were a lot of fun & it’s always interesting to hear about other volunteers’ stories. We ended up hanging out at a rasta bar for a little while then we decided to head over to The Riverside. Traffic was horrendous so we had the driver let us out a little ways from the bar so that we could walk. We found people lighting off lanterns along the bank of the river so we decided to give it a try.

When we finally got to The Riverside, it was packed so we decided to try another place. We ended up staying there for a little while then headed back to the gate where they were having the “big” celebration. It was pretty neat as they had this big tree-like structure set up with these lanterns…it was really pretty & everyone just hung out drinking & talking. They started lighting off fireworks & we were expecting a countdown, but it never came…so we ended up doing our own (a little past the official time but no one else knew that).

After that, we headed back to the rasta bar & met up with even more volunteers. It was getting late (about 3:00am) when the other volunteers decided that they wanted to go to Spicy (this really sleazy after-hours bar). I had to pick up the fam early the next morning so I went back to the hotel.

It was really great to meet Laura & Stephanie & I hope they had a wonderful time while they were in Thailand!