Thailand

I'm a week a two days back from my latest excursion. This time my adventures led me to a new continent - Asia! Bryan and I found a great deal going with a tour group and we couldn't pass up the chance to see someplace new and exotic.

We had quite a journey to get there: Houston to LA (3.5 hours), LA to Taipei (14 hours) and then Taipei to Bangkok (4 hours). Our time in LA was different. We had a 14 hour layover due to some flight scheduling changes on the part of China Airways. Not wanting to spend that much time in LAX (who would?) we decided to get a little bit of the Cali sun and go to the Venice boardwalk. We ended up having to drag our luggage around with us (thank terrorism for not letting us leave our luggage at the airport) and between the throngs of tourists and some questionably lifeless homeless people, we got out of there pretty quickly.

Who knows how many hours of restless sleep later, we ended up in Bangkok! Our first day we met up with our tour group and headed out to the river for a boat ride. We made a stop at a Wat (temple) and had a yummy dinner of traditional Thai food with traditional Thai dancing. It was a little difficult to stay awake : /

Getting onto our little boat

I take pictures of cats - it's my thing. Especially when said cats are riding horse statues.

You can't really see but Bryan is up there. Good job for making that climb!
Most of the Wats in Bangkok were built in the Chinese style because King Rama IV was a big fan of it.

The biggest Buddha EVER! Maybe, I think?

The next day we got up to go to some more Wats and also went to a flower market and a fruit market. So much culture!

Coconut water...not as refreshing as it may sound

This fruit is beautiful!

This guy is solid gold!

He lives here

A few of the thousands of flowers at the market.

A monk! I should have done a little more research. Women aren't supposed to look them in the eye or stand next to them. And I did both. Oops!

Well then a funny little thing happened. We didn't have any tours planned for the afternoon so we decided to do a little shopping (did I mention that everything in Thailand is CHEAP??) so we got an address of a place to go, hopped in a cab and prayed as hard as we could as the driver wove through the streets. He kicked us out and pointed toward the sidewalk to what we assumed was our destination. Wrong! Thailand was actually celebrating its New Year for the 3 days that we were in town. And the way they celebrate is to have a huge city wide water/clay street festival. Before we walked one block, we were soaked from head to toe and covered in clay. We managed to find an alternate route (thanks to my superb map reading skills per Europe) that got us there alive and semi-clean. And the shopping was a success! Happy New Year!

Semi clean

Water pandemonium from inside the cab

More pandemonium

That night we bought tickets to go see a Muay Thai boxing match. We got front row seats to see these little guys duke it out. Literally, little. The weight range was 88 lbs-135lbs (talk about heavyweights). But there was no blood, no knockouts and it was actually very ritualistic and interesting. Normally I would be watching a boxing match from behind my hands that cover my eyes but this wasn't bad!

The next day we went to a floating market, a coconut sugar farm, a gemstone store, and an orchid farm. And that afternoon we got a Thai massage. I loved it but Bryan wasn't so sure. It was very concentrated on stretching and bending so they did a little number on his knee that has had a few surgeries, and it made him walk funny the next few days.

The floating market is just like it sounds - you take a little canoe type boat down the canals and can do shopping from the stores that line it.

It was a nice boat ride to get us there. Very tropical scenery.

Orchids

This is when it started to get HOT!

The next day we headed out of the city and up to Auytthaya, which was the ancient capital of Siam. We saw some beautiful Wat ruins and also the Summer Palace of the ancient kings. This is when it continued to get REALLY HOT!

I thought the Buddhas dressed in their sashes were too cute!

The whole trip, they handed us chilled wipies when we got back on the bus but this was the day that they changed our life. Bryan = bliss

Cute topiaries at the palace

The property of the palace. It was beautiful! Some of the houses were in the Chinese style and some were in the European style. The different Kings would build them based on whichever style they happened to prefer.

The next day we packed up our bags again and hit the road to Kanchubari, home of the River Kwai. On the way we stopped in a rice field. Thailand claims to be the number one exporter of rice. But so does Vietnam. Then we went quickly through the memorial to the POW's who lost their lives building the railroad through Thailand before we rode the last remaining functional part of the railroad.

Rice field

Walking over the bridge over River Kwai

We stayed in a gorgeous spa resort where we got to rest, relax, swim, get another massage and eat chocolate cake for dinner :)

The next day was one of the highlights! ELEPHANTS!!! We went to an elephant camp where they raise and train elephants. First we watched a little "show" where they did tricks like play basketball, hoola hoop with their trunks and throw darts. I got to feed some baby elephants and then we went on an elephant ride and bathed them!

We stopped at a little waterfall on the way

Bryan "bathing" the elephant. We rode them down into the river where they dunked us and sprayed us with their trunks. The elephants were so sweet!

We got to ride the awesome Daddy elephant - Pat. He put on quite a show for us and Bryan got to ride him like a horse while I sat safe and securely strapped to the bench :)

Baby!

Daddy!!

Then we rode down the river on a bamboo raft and ended the day going to the Hellfire Pass Museum. It was so interesting and something I knew NOTHING about. The POW camps during WWII were astonishingly similar to concentration camps in that terrible living conditions, meager diets and harsh labor took thousands of lives. This particular strip of railroad was called Hellfire Pass because it was particularly treacherous.

Taken from the museum

Hellfire Pass - the Japanese and Korean guards would stand at the top to supervise (torture) the workers below. And they worked 24 hours a day, lighting their work by torch at night, making it look like Hell.

The next morning we packed up again, said goodbye to our group and wonderful guide, Ling, and headed off to Phuket.

And THIS IS WHAT WE ARRIVED TO IN PHUKET. Be still, my heart. It was truly one of the most gorgeous and serene places I've ever been. We signed up to go on a James Bond all day boat tour the next day. We got to cruise around the Andaman Sea, visit the infamous "James Bond Island" from the Man with the Golden Gun, visit some caves, go canoeing and lay on a deserted beach. We also met some really interesting Aussies. Phuket is a popular vacation destination for them but they said they also can't wait to go to America to Disney World.

VIP seats on the boat

Boarding our speedboat

Ahhhh...paradise

Canoeing!
Oh yah, we stopped for lunch in an Islamic fishing village where we found some ladyboy gypsys with monkeys. It IS as strange as it sounds. Cute monkeys though!
Here it is folks: James Bond Island
Like a mischievous little boy climbing through the caves.
We went to a "fish spa" where we put our feet in tanks with these little "doctor fish" that came and nibble off all of our dead skin (supposedly). Me and my ticklishness almost couldn't take it but 20 minutes later I got used to it. You can also do full body :)

Beautiful sunset from our hotel

Andddd...our last night in Thailand.

Overall, our trip to Thailand couldn't have gone better. It was a perfect mix of history, culture, adventure and relaxation. We met some really great people, ate some good food, saw some good places and most importantly, made some good memories that we will cherish forever.