Konnichiwa Adventures: January 2014

Annnnd the trend continues. We're about to leave on a trip and so suddenly, the fire is lit under my おしり (looks like an expletive, but it's not, I promise) to post the blog from our previous trip. We leave in 1 hour to fly to LA for Dan and Lisa's wedding so this will be a super-speedy-style blog post.

So, we continued our tradition of going someplace warm for the Winter Break. We also continued our tradition of letting the kids play hooky from school on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; we explain to the kids' teachers that it is an important American holiday yada yada yada, but really we just want to get our vacation started early. I'm pretty sure they're onto us...

So, we had our "Christmas in Japan"on Saturday, December 21. Santa left "certificates" for a snorkeling trip and an elephant jungle trek, to be redeemed in Thailand, so that gave us all something to look forward to...

Another highlight was that Ryan learned he could get a pet lizard for his birthday - he got the cage, heater, shelter, etc for Christmas and the promise that he would get a spotted leopard gecko for a pet for his birthday on January 4. This is another one of those scenarios that make me laugh when I have to do it in Japan. In the US, it would mean going to a pet store and buying one for about $20. Here it required me learning lots of new vocabulary (Hyoumon tokage modoki, anyone?), asking lots and lots of people for advice (many of whom look at me like I'm crazy), and calling the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if this species can be imported from Japan to the US. These geckos can live up to TWENTY years, and though we don't know how long we'll be here, I'm pretty sure we will return to the US within 20 years, so ..... I had to be prepared to make sure our new family member could move back with us. All's well on that front.

So, we headed to Thailand on Monday, the 23rd. We spent the first 3 nights at a small hotel right on the waterway, then headed by van (think SuperShuttle) to Trat, where we would then take a ferry to the island of Koh Chang (means Elephant Island in Thai).

Here are the highlights:

Temples and Markets and Political Protests(?) in Bangkok

Wat Pho, aka The Temple of the Reclining Buddha

In Kevin's words, "of all the Buddhas I'd like to see, a reclining one tops the list." And even Kevin thought it was quite spectacular. In addition to the actual Reclining Buddha, there were tons of other buildings, Buddhas, and temples in the same complex...

I was quite taken by the Buddha's feet...

And the bottom of her feet...

The Palace

Ahhh, the tourist scams. So sneaky that it's almost funny. Almost. And only because we didn't fall for it. Had we fallen for it, it would not have been funny at all. Basically, three different people (all of whom seemed to be "teachers") chatted with us on the street, and very kindly informed us that the Palace didn't open until 1 pm and instead, we should do X or Y or Z. We declined the offers, though we were tempted and quite convinced that it surely couldn't be possible that all 3 people, in 3 different areas, would have the exact same story.

But, as we walk into the Palace grounds, we see a sign that reads, "The palace is open everyday 8 AM - 3:30 pm. Beware of wily strangers." Even funnier was the large Thai man clearly standing directly in front of the sign so as to block it from view.

Back to the palace. Incredibly ornate. A little overwhelming.

I honestly have nooo idea what these rascals are doing!

Wat Arun

Took a cross-river ferry (after going to the wrong pier at first) and climbed the VERY steep ladder-stairs to the top of Wat Arun!

We got blessed by a monk, which I must say, was very cool. He tied a small rope around each of our wrists
for good luck, and I still have mine on a month later!

Thai Markets

Markets and more markets. I love markets. But not as many pictures as I would have liked. We explored Kho San Road and the flower market and lots of food stalls. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Thai takeout ... in plastic bags on the table on the side of the road.

Apparently Ethan knew what this was - he said it was soap, which was confirmed by the guy...

Oh yeah.... Thai chili peppers

There are cats EVERYWHERE in Thailand

Our first of many, many sticky rice with mango - Koh San Rd

The Flower Market

The flower market - a favorite for Ryan and me!

Rows and rows of tables of women making these ornate flower decorations - price about 30 cents.

Rose petals threaded on a wire stick

Ryan's custom made flower decoration for Baby Lion

The Bangkok Protests looked a lot like a street fair...

Seriously. It was blocks from our hotel and we ended up walking right through the "protests" on our way to dinner on our first night in Bangkok. You be the judge. This is what we saw:

Live band on a big stage
Big screen TVs
Tons of food stalls
1000's of people sitting calmly on mats on the ground
More food stalls
Lots of Thai gear for sale - flags, T-shirts
Glow in the dark bracelet things
And a monkey on a leash...

See - sounds like a street fair to me.

Warm Weather and Fun Transport

The weather was grand - sunny and in the 80's every day. And lots of fun on tuk tuks in Bangkok and in "truck taxis" on Koh Chang - basically pickup trucks with benches on the sides that you wave down from the side of the road. We tried walking our first night and quickly discovered that a) we were the ONLY ones walking on the side of the road, and B) it really wasn't very safe at all, even though we were only going 300 meters down the road.

Modes of transport on this trip:

Upper deck of our airplane
Hot pink taxi (many, many hot pink taxis in Bangkok)
Tuk tuks
Small ferry to cross the river to Wat Arun (cost, 3 Thai Baht, approx 10 cents)
Van
Big car ferry from the mainland to Koh Chang
Pick-up truck "taxi"
Old wooden boat
Speedboat
Elephant
Old wooden canoe (to check out the fireflies up the river)

Our big wooden boat to Koh Wai for snorkeling

Snorkeling on Koh Wai

Great fun. I love snorkeling and was eager to share it with the kids. We basically left from Bang Bao Fisherman's Village, got on a big boat, they dropped us off on a beach on the island of Koh Wai, and picked us up at the end of the day. It was a little piece of paradise... the coral was only a few feet down and was perfect for the kids. We saw parrot fish (my favorite!), sea urchins, zebra fish (at least that's what we called them) and lots of other random little guys. Including the stinging of lots of little jellyfish that eluded our detection, but we sure did feel them. And the boys did great!

Ryan practicing in the pool

And Ethan too...

Elephant trekking on Koh Chang

So incredible and TONS of pictures, but I have about 10 minutes before we head to the airport so I'll just include a few ...

The FOOD

At least, this was the highlight for Kevin and me. But we didn't really bother taking too many pictures - we were too eager to just start eating! Sooooo incredibly delicious! Our favorite, of course, was sticky rice with mango, but we also were huge fans of the laab "salad." Also lots of Thai yellow curry, stir-fried morning glory, chicken with basil, seafood, fresh pomegranate juice from the street stands, coconut ice cream, durian (a fruit with a very strong odor - in fact, I literally thought there was a gas leak but turns out it was the durian in our mini-frig in the hotel room) and much, much more.