Thailand - Part II

I'll pick up where my brother left off...we headed south. THIS was my kind of vacation - sun, beach, giant pools, and monkeys....yes, monkeys. We flew to Krabi for some rest and relaxation. And thanks to a reservation mix-up, we scored the Honeymoon Suite at the resort - a palatial pad with a tub the size of our home bathroom and a view for miles. My parents laughed and said we were probably the only kids who had ever stayed there. Here's a picture my mom took of us in one of the pools. And here's me - my mom says my swimsuit physique is impressive.

We adventured every day and found some really cool shells on the beach. We also discovered the tiny, opaque moving shells weren't actually shells - they were crabs! So we filled their homes/holes up with sand and chased after them. We never caught any but we did accidentally catch a hermit crab (in one of the shells). My mom discovered him in our room after he'd headed back to the big crab heaven in the sky. By the way, dead crabs stink.

We followed a locals' path onto a rock mountain to see if we could check out a different beach on the other side - we'd heard it was only reachable by boat. While I'm only one, I believe a "path" implies a safe route for passage. If so, this was definitely not a path. The steepest parts had make-shift stairs that were put in place before the invention of the television. (My mom tried to capture the intensity of the climb/drop, but this picture doesn't do it justice.)
The best part of the hike were definitely the HUNDREDS of wild monkeys. They were above us in the trees and everywhere on the path. You could touch them if you were crazy enough to do so. One even ran directly at me thinking I was his afternoon snack. My mom chased it away by waving her arms wildly in the air - come to think of it, she kind of looked like a wild monkey too! We did reach the other beach, which was nice, but the adventure getting there is a lasting memory.
My parents indulged while we were at the resort - each choosing their form of relaxation. My dad had more Thai massages than there were days on the trip and my mom...she choose to kick this guy. I guess kicking locals is allowed as long as you are in a class called muy Thai boxing. We watched some of her class and wow, she sure likes to kick stuff. Here are some photos of my dad relaxing...

Once we were thoroughly relaxed, we headed back north to Bangkok to celebrate Easter with our awesome friends the Nelsons. We dyed eggs - I did more watching than dying because everyone was worried I would do a slam dunk on an egg.

And, by some miracle, when we woke Easter morning, that big fluffy (kinda creepy) Easter bunny had found us in Thailand and left us our baskets - score! We even did an egg hunt in the Nelson's house and found TONS of treats hidden in some pretty crazy places.

While we were eating endless treats and playing with the Nelson girls, my parents and their parents headed out for a bike ride before we caught our flight home. Apparently the ride was a real highlight for them. They rented bikes for just over a dollar and rode around a super cool island community. I don't understand money yet, but I know that Bodie has more than a dollar in his piggy bank, so the bike rental sounds like a real deal. The path they rode on was about four feet wide and elevated throughout the community because of the surrounding water. Apparently dollar rental bikes don't have the best (or any) brakes, making the downslopes on the path pretty exciting - if you didn't stop in time your reward was to fly off the path and into the watery marsh below!

The trip was a blast. We got to visit our friends, see new stuff, try new stuff, and eat new stuff. What more could anyone want.

Thailand - Part I

Yes, my parents voluntarily chose to take two small children on two twenty hour plane rides - crazy, I know. Lucky for them, Gates and I were pro travelers and both flights went smoothly.

I've seen Thailand on my world globe; I have to spin it to the other side to find it because it's pretty far from America. It's much closer to China and India. It's on my list of places I wanted to go, and so we went. (Mom note: He really has a list and it includes - and no, I'm not making this up - North Dakota, South Dakota, Hawaii, Thailand, New Guinea, Senegal, South Korea, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Mali, Chad, India, Algeria, and Greenland.)
We started in Bangkok. While it's a big city, it has so many unique things to the Thai culture. There are tons of huge temples with gigantic Buddha inside. They have canals running throughout the city with homes on the canal. People were doing dishes, washing clothes, swimming, bathing, and selling goods. And the Thais have endless types of transportation.
Speaking of transportation, here's a list of ways we traveled during this trip - by car, plane, elephant, taxi, long tail boat, airport people mover, bus, tuk tuk, foot, shuttle, and by the side car of a motorcycle (just don't tell my Nana we did any of these because none of them had seatbelts!).

We visited the city of Ayutthaya. It has a lot of history and was founded in 1350. They had several battles with the Burmese and eventually the city was destroyed in 1767. While the fighting left many things damaged, the ruins that remain are pretty cool including a Buddha head inside of a bunch of tree roots. You can tell this city was very important, even 800 years later. Of course my parents were respectful of these ancient ruins and only did jumpers when no one was looking - good grief!

While in Bangkok, we also got to visit The Red Cross Snake Farm - seems a bit ironic, huh? The people saving lives own some of the most deadly snakes on the planet. I guess a doctor wanted them for the venom so he could help people who had been bit. I sat in the front row, about three feet from the snakes, (again, don't tell my Nana). Gates sat a few rows back and didn't find the demonstration as interesting (notice the snake in the background).

 

We went to the coolest kid place on the planet, Kidzania (http://bangkok.kidzania.com/en-us/). My mom says someone could make a zillion dollars if they opened these across the U.S. It's a giant indoor city for kids. Kids can try out 50+ occupations (really, anything you can think of). We got uniforms for that job, they trained us in the skills, and then we did the job - SO COOL! Parents aren't even allowed into the shops, they just sit on park benches in the pretend town and wait for the kids. Some of the jobs I did included working at a radio station, McDonalds, a gas station, a construction site, 7-eleven, a bank, a photography studio, a barber shop, and a disco tech. Kids could be firefighters, dentists, Coca-Cola bottlers, designers, dancers, juice makers, car mechanics - it was awesome. 



 We then headed south to the city of Krabi and the Ao Nang beaches. LOTS of fun there too. We'll post more about that shortly so stay tuned...