Bangkok

After an amazing week in the Dolphin Bay area of Thailand, we made the trek back to Bangkok. We spent a day here seeing various sights and managed to pack a ton in one day! We took a boat along the river. It is said that to be Thai is to be Buddhist. So our first stop was the reclining Buddha at Wat Poh. It is an impressive sight. Next we went across the river to another temple, Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). For some reason, I had been reluctant to take the time to go across the river to see this one (not sure why), but it turned out to be my favorite thing we did all day. At this temple, you can climb to the top. The view of Bangkok is spectacular. The steps were incredibly steep, which just added to the adventure. After sampling some of Bangkok's famous banana pancakes, we were onto the Grand Palace. For those of you not familiar with Thailand, they have very strong feelings and affection for their royal family. So much so that you can be fined for defaming the king's picture (which includes the money that bears a picture of the king). Because of this, the dress code for entering the Palace and accompanying temple (where the royal family worships) is strict: no shorts or tank tops. Shortly after we got there, I saw a sign telling about a free tour in English starting in 10 minutes. The tour proved to be very interesting and even the kids were listening and learning new things about Thailand. A busy day, but a great end to our trip.

Our super tourists on the skytrain.

Courtyard at Wat Poh

The Reclining Buddha -- this was impressively huge.

Tori pointing at the toes

Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn)

Tori conquering the steps -- did I mention they were steep?

At the top of Wat Arun

The view from the top

Then the other direction along the river

Climbing down.

Courtyard at the Grand Palace. And yes, that building is covered in gold leaf. Impressive, huh?

Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) located within the Grand Palace.

The Emerald Buddha can just barely be seen through the doorway.

The Night Market

On the same day we rode the elephants, we went into Hua Hin and shopped at the night market. I LOVE open air markets! It can be such a window into the culture. We ate dinner and shopped for souvenirs. Even the kids had a great time.

Hmm, is this dinner?

Waiting for our fresh fruit smoothies.

Uh-oh, a shopper at 4?

My boy enjoying one of his favorite things -- meat on a stick!

Dates with Daddy

While on a boat ride we saw some ocean kayakers and Becca was intrigued by them. Andy and I got to talking and he commented that it would be fun to do when the kids were older. I looked at him and said, "Why wait? Take Becca." So later that day, they set out for a trip to several of the islands and had a terrific time. The next day Andy rented a motorbike (something he really wanted to do) and took both Becca and Josh on rides along the coast. There is just something about a date with Daddy!

Signing up

Taking a break from telling the vacation adventures, I must tell you about my adventure today. Tomorrow Tori starts back to preschool after the CNY (Chinese New Year) holiday break. Today I needed to go pay for the next term. I just had a feeling that this was going to be a bit of a bother, so I asked someone from the Andy's company to call her school to see what paying would entail. After discovering that it indeed was going to be a pain, I asked someone from the company to go with me. (I am sure that I could have struggled through it, but it would not have been pretty.) We first needed to go to the school and pick up Tori's "number". We then had to go to a certain bank (which was of course not where we bank), and open a new account. Next we needed to use the ATM card to pay for the school tuition using her "number". At many banks in China, you use specified ATMs to pay your bills. Finally, we had to go back to the school to show them we paid and pick up the receipt. All I can say is that I am glad that someone came with me, because midway through using the ATM she had to call the teacher and ask a question. I would have been totally lost (because the ATM where you pay bills does not have the "English" option). But thankfully, it is done! I go next week to sign up at the university. I can only hope that will be a little easier. :-D

Monkey Island

One of the excursions we took was to Monkey Island. We could see the island from our little stretch of beach (in the picture above it is the large island on the left). A fishing boat picked us up and took us to an island inhabited by monkeys. The driver of the boat provides bananas and then you can feed the monkeys. Josh absolutely loves monkeys and this was the thing that he looking forward to most about the trip. The monkeys would come right up and take the bananas from your hand.

The welcoming committee

Do you see the cute little baby?

Fun in the sun

Our first full day in Dolphin Bay we went to the beach, grabbed lunch and spent the afternoon in the pool -- pretty much all day in the sun. And our poor fair skin suffered for it! While we love the sun, it does not treat us so kindly. Thankfully, after a day or so our sunburns were a bit better. But in the meantime, it did not keep us from the beach and pool, we just covered up a bit more while there (and used several tubes of sunscreen).

Taking a break from the sun. Of course with my boy, it would be in a book.

My sand princesses. . .

So, I hope the kids had fun, cause Andy and I certainly did! Amree snapped this pic without our knowledge and it just makes me laugh. Every time I look at it.

The view from our porch. Can you see why we just couldn't stay away from the sand and water?

Turns out Amree is quite the sand artist. Her mermaid:

and crab:

Riding Elephants

Possibly one of the most fun things that we did while in Thailand was go on an elephant ride. Now this was not the 5 minute ride around a circle at the zoo! We were on the elephants for an hour. I must say that it was a lot different than I thought it would be. For one thing, they are HUGE (which means you are really high up). And then, they move with much more jerky motions than I thought they would. In fact, you will notice in some of the pictures we are using umbrellas to shade us from the sun and others we are not. Now it was sunny and hot for the whole trip, but I was often making a choice that I would rather hold on well to Tori and the umbrella would just not be a safe addition! In fact when we went down the first hill, I was unprepared with how steep it would be and hoped and prayed that Tori would not slip out and off the seat! But probably the most amazing thing was that midway through the trip I turned around to see Becca riding bareback where the guide normally sits. She rode that way for 15-20 minutes. She described the elephant as "having really prickly hair and that it felt weird when it moved under her."

As we were riding, Andy's elephant kept sneezing (on me). The guide says that they do this when they are hot. So I can now say that I have been sneezed on by an elephant and licked by a camel.

At the end of the trip, we went through a small river. As the elephant went deeper, Tori began to get worried. She called out to the elephant, "Okay, elephant, that is deep enough!"

Look at our girl!

Thailand!

Last Thursday we had a monster day of travel (okay, not quite as bad as traveling back to the US but it was a LONG day), but we made it to Hua Hin, Thailand. We are staying at this wonderful family resort (Dolphin Bay) and are having a blast. We were able to meet up with Amree (our sister-in-law, who would have been going alone in Japan since Andy's brother is traveling over this time). We have done a few excursions, but most our days have been like today: food, beach, pool, repeat as needed. Here a couple of pictures of the highlights. . . .

Unfortunately, this is how Andy spent most of the first day. On his cell phone finishing up business.

Josh conquering the waterslide . . .

with Daddy to catch him.

Our bungalow (it has two adjoining rooms). Josh informed us that he knew what a bungalow was -- a house that old people live in. :-D

Tori LOVES the sand.