Thailand, Part 1

[jaelie]

Note: If you want to see any of the pictures larger, just right click and view photo. I made these smaller so they would load more quickly. If you want to view all the photos (these are only a very few!), go to our Thailand 2007 vacation gallery.

thu 4/5:

We stayed up all night, packing, relaxing and generally trying to not fall asleep. Around 5am both of us drifted off, to wake to the alarm at 6am. We checked last minute details and were in general ready to go, albeit tired. Mir picked us up at 8am and we were at the airport by 8:30 and all checked in and ready to go.


(me, waiting to leave DFW)

The flight departed at 12:30pm and we were in the air for a long, long time. As for our airline, I have nothing but good things to say about them. If you ever plan on flying to Asia, I highly recommend Korean Air. The service is excellent and the food surprisingly good.

We were in the air for fourteen hours, and then we landed in Seoul, Korea for our plane switch. We had four hours before our next flight, so we wandered around looking at all the duty free shops. Our next flight was four and a half hours, which put us in Bangkok at midnight on Saturday morning.

fri 4/6:

/sigh

Eighteen hours in the air and eight hours at airports do not make for an interesting day.

sat 4/7:

Matt's brother Audt picked us up, took us to his house and we passed out. We woke up to an awfully cute pair of very curious black eyes, which as soon as she realized we were waking up, she whisked herself out the door with a very, very five year old giggle. We got dressed and faced the morning. Luckily neither of us was really jet lagged, so while a little tired, we were ready to go.

We had breakfast with Audt, Ning and the kids, and after discussing plans with Audt, we piled into his minivan/station wagon (? I'm not quite sure what it is) and headed out to visit with Matt's grandfather in the countryside a good two hours out of Bangkok. That's when I made my new friend. Apparently the language barrier is no problem with kids. ^_^ We spent the whole two hours out and two hours back playing silly games and in general just having a good time. Although Amy and Art (Audt & Ning's two kids) do have some English, so where there was confusion on more complex concepts, basic things are no problem.

The visit with Matt's grandfather was really neat. He has a small house on about twelve acres in the boonies with a few of his relatives, where there are fruit trees galore, including lychee and mango. Yum!


(me, Matt, Grandpa)


(Art, Grandpa, Audt, Ning, Aim)

Matt and Audt visited with him while the rest of us explored. Sometimes the language barrier is really big - I didn't like to have to interrupt them to have Matt or Audt interpret for me.


(Art, Grandpa, Audt, Matt)

Matt asked his grandfather for names and such so Matt can work on his Thai genealogy, and he got his grandfather's parents' names plus all of his mother's full siblings - apparently his grandfather was married four (maybe five) times and has twelve kids. Heh. Well, I saw his photo from when he was in the military and he was a very handsome man.


(Grandpa, when he was young)

After the visit with Grandfather, we piled back into the car and headed out. On the way back, we stopped at a cultural arts center with shops and educational stuff. We saw a really awesome exhibit and movie about making silk and such, with some samples of the cocoons, the fibers and the different kinds of weaves, plus looms and dyes and such. Very, very cool exhibit.


(Aim at the loom)

We headed back, got dinner and called it a night.

sun 4/8:

Sunday morning we got up and Audt took us to church, where we watched general conference again. It was good for us to hear it all again.


(The church building in Bangkok)

It took a bit to get there, then a while to get back - Audt went to the office while we were at church, so we had to take the el and hook up with him. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing.


(me at the el)

Amy is such a sweetie and so so silly, heh. Why do I get along so well with little kids?


(Aim playing with our camera)


(Both of us goofing off with the camera)

She and her father and Matt and I went to the housing complex's pool and cooled off. I swam a few laps and played a lot of games with Amy. She was fond of pretending to be a sea lion, so I of course had to turn into a shark. Heh.

As you can imagine it's pretty hot here. And humid. For the most part I don't mind. I do wish I didn't sweat as much, but that is why I brought primarily black shirts, heh. The only down side really to the heat and the humidity is that the mosquitoes really, really love to eat me. And I forgot to stock up on Avon's wonderful Skin So Soft body oil, which repels the little pests. Anyway, those skeeters chewed on me a LOT, at least until I made it to a drug store to pick up some local bug repellent. I also found some that smells tolerable. Thank goodness.

mon 4/9:


(Breakfast of a fruit called Rambutan. Yummy!)

Monday morning we headed in to Bangkok for lunch with Matt's godmother. Matt's mom came to the house and we went in to the city together. I think Matt has some AVI clips of Bangkok traffic. It is crazy, plus it takes for ever to get anywhere. So suffice it to say, we left after breakfast and went maybe ten miles (maybe, I really don't know. All I know is that it takes a long time), and were there in time for our lunch appointment.

For lunch we went to a really swanky place, a five star hotel called the Sukhumvit Grand with Matt's godmother, her son and daughter, and of course Matt's mom. The food, as expected, was very good. Mostly Japanese food, all of it good. I am still amused by the fact that each time we eat with them, we don't eat Thai food. We have Chinese or Japanese. Always good food, though.

After lunch, we headed to the mall to pick up this and that. Oh, and it's really odd to be considered exotic. I do have dark hair, but my blue eyes draw a lot of attention.

Oh, something that I find very interesting and amusing is the differences in what I consider smelling good versus what Thais think smell good. Ok, to be perfectly fair, I do think Lavender smells good. But I love, love sandalwood. However, apparently, sandalwood is the scent that old Thai women wear. Well, in a perfectly amusing opposite way, Thais seem to like lavender. Which I associate with elderly ladies. Heh.

Oh, and breakfasts are never "normal." Not to say breakfasts are not good, but definitely not normal breakfast food. So far our breakfasts have involved noodles of some sort and/or Chinese dim sum. I thoroughly enjoy my breakfasts but they sure seem a lot like lunch, heh.

tue 4/10:

Tuesday morning we headed back into Bangkok to go to Wat Phra Keo, where the Emerald Buddha is kept. It is actually made of jade - I think it is one of the largest solid pieces of jade, and it is very beautiful.

Anyway, before going to Wat Phra Keo and the royal palace, we went to Wat Ratchanada. This beautiful wat was forgotten by the general populace for years because there had been a there was a theater in front of it for decades. The theater was recently torn down, and now its roofs are visible by all again.


(Wat Ratchanada)


(me at the entry of the Wat Ratchanada, wet. Totally got rained on.)

I must say that Wat Phra Keo was much more interesting the second time around. I think that is because I knew more about it this time. Matt and I have read the Ramakien, which is Thailand's national epic poem, very much along the lines of the Iliad or Odyssey. Well the reason that is significant is because around the inside of the outer complex wall are murals telling the story of the Ramakien. So this time we were able to walk the whole wall and see the story again. Fascinating and beautifully done.


(me in front of the Wat Phra Keo)


(Economy of Scale: Matt in front of a jedi. He's the one in the yellow shirt. The jedi are completely gold plated. Yes, real gold)

After meandering all around the wat, we headed over to the royal palace. Of course, we were only allowed to wander the grounds but it was cool. There is one building, the central one that is cool mix of Thai architecture and western architecture, heh.

We went to the museum of coins and regalia, which I thought was a bit deceptive. Yes there were coins, but also a bunch of ancient Thai jewelry and medals and such. Very interesting!

On our way out of the wat, it started raining. It seems to rain every day for at least a half an hour. And not just drizzle. The skies open and it rains buckets. Usually we've managed to be either in a car or inside a building when it rains, but this time we were caught outdoors. It was fun. People running this way and that, huddling underneath trees, bridges, etc. And Matt and I just walked. It was just rain after all, and a lovely cool rain at that.

After the Wat we went to the wax museum (which was very cool - I've never been to a wax museum before). It's quite an art form to do such realistic sculptures.


(Matt and Lincoln. Lincoln was significant for the obvious reasons. Also, The King Rama V really respected Lincoln, and did similar things - and more! - for his country)

There was also a whole mess of young monks who were having a day at the wax museum, too. Heh. We got a picture of them resting by the ornamental pool, too.



wed 4/11:

Today is for resting, relaxing and doing laundry. ^_^ Oh, and a quick trip to the open market.


We do have the internet while we're here. At least until the 15th, when we're heading up to Chiang Mai, one of the northern provinces. It's painfully slow, but it's present, so if anyone needs to contact us, please shoot either Matt or I an email to our gmail addresses.