Thailand Vacation

Our week long family vacation to Thailand was wonderful! Here's a brief recap.

FRIENDS

The best part of the trip was visiting dear friends. 

For most of the week, we stayed with the sweet family that we met in Macau last year. Much of our sanity and success in adapting to life in Macau was due to their kindness and friendship. They moved back to Thailand last summer so we haven't seen them in almost a year. 

For most of our trip we stayed with them at their beautiful home just north of Bangkok.

We loved playing (and being goofy), talking, eating, relaxing, and sightseeing with them.

In Macau, Abby and their daughter became instant friends and are true BFFs. 

Even though it's been a year since they last saw each other, their friendship hasn't dwindled one bit. They acted like they hadn't missed a single day of seeing each other. They're always so cute and happy together.

We also spent a few days with my college roommate, who just moved to Thailand a few weeks ago with her family. It doesn't seem that long ago that a girl from California and a girl from Michigan were writing letters to get to know each other before moving to our BYU freshman dorm.

Who would have guessed almost 20 years later we'd reunite in Thailand?!

Although they're still living out of suitcases, using borrowed furniture and housewares, and adjusting to their new surroundings, they let us crash at their place for a few days. It was so much fun to visit with them.

FOOD

Staying with a native Thai, we had authentic Thai food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was fantastic!

Plus we went to good places to eat like this traditional

sit-on-the-floor restaurant.

This beach front restaurant also came highly recommended by a local. All the seafood eaters in our group said the seafood was amazing but I wouldn't know - I'm not one of them.

Kyle and I also got a tour of one of the local markets. It was gigantic! There were a number of large warehouses filled with hundreds and hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables. 

Kyle's drooling over all the mangoes while my friend and I are loving all the different chillies.

Plus there were mounds and mounds of curry paste.

This market was amazing!

ELEPHANTS

The elephant is the icon of Thailand and has been for centuries symbolizing tradition, history, royalty, and good fortune. There's even a National Elephant Day in Thailand dedicated to honoring this sacred and beloved creature.

We didn't ride these enormous animals but we got to touch them

and feed them.

WATER FUN

Our friend's home backs up to a large, beautiful pond.

One morning, we took turns canoeing around the pond. 

The weather in Thailand was HOT! To cool off at the end of the day, we often went to the local swimming pool. The water felt so refreshing.

MUSEUM

We went to a museum with traditional Thai homes, similar to the one my friend grew up in. The homes were built on stilts for safety from floods and predators and also provided storage room and a nice shaded area during the day from the intense sun.

This was a typical kitchen.

A cute and friendly Thai lady demonstrated how to properly secure a pretty hair accessory in Abby's "so soft hair".

The museum also had more modern buildings showcasing

many forms of Thai artwork.

There was also places to learn and practice the different art forms.

We were mesmerized by the loom and thread dying process as well as the intricate metal work.

AYUTTHAYA

The Ayutthaya Historical Park preserves ancient ruins

 of the kingdom and former capital city. 

Ayutthaya existed from 1350 until 1767

when Burma destroyed it.

During it's 400+ year existence, 35 different kings ruled.

Notice the tree growing out of the top of the structure below.

SAFARI WORLD

We squeezed 10 people into a 7-8 seater SUV for a cool drive through Safari World. We watched hundreds of birds swarm the feeding truck while the zebras munched the grass.

A herd of camels strolled down the road right past our car. One paused to turn his head and look through the open back side window. Thank goodness he didn't spit!

There were dozens of giraffes - the largest group I've ever seen.

Our favorite part of the drive was stopping to watch the lions. When we arrived they were sleeping peacefully in the shade. One lion groggily stood up then stumbled back landing on the big male lion. The male lion was not happy to be woken up and growled at the half-asleep lion. A little fight ensued with growling and gnawing at each other. It was totally awesome!

KO SAMET

We spent a nice day at Ko Samet, an island with beautiful beaches located in the Gulf of Thailand. 

We took a speed boat to the island.

We've been on lots of ferries but this was the first speed boat ride for many.

On the island, we played on the beach,

cooled off in the water,

built sand castles,

searched for seashells,

and watched a little fire performance.

It was a fun, relaxing day at the beach.

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

Driving in foreign countries can be challenging but Kyle really enjoys it. Thailand drives on the left side of the road with the driver on the right side of the car, most of the freeway exits and entrances we used were a merging lane on and off of the frontage road, and on many roads, the motorcyclists and scooters drive in the opposite direction of traffic. Plus, there's never enough seat belts for everyone in the car. I was a stress ball every time we got in the car but Kyle adjusted well and we made it to and from all our destinations safely.

We saw lots of interesting, makeshift vehicles like this one.

We saw these bright, colorful tree everywhere - I loved them!

Public bathrooms are not free so make sure you always have some change and tissue. This bathroom was a bit on the nicer side. Not only do you pay to enter but you're also required to remove your shoes and clean flip flops are available to wear in the bathroom. Plus, when you pay you get a few squares of hand rolled toilet paper. Can you believe someone really gets paid to roll toilet paper?

Attending church in Thai was very interesting. A good brother translated the meeting to English for us and we sang the hymns in English as the rest of the congregation sang in Thai. It was a very nice, uplifting meeting. We all felt the spirit very strongly and were reminded that God understands all our different languages, even the language of our hearts which is not often spoken.

Lo Kei Wan Beach

During the Easter holiday break, we spent a beautiful day at Lo Kei Wan Beach.

Our friends camped the night before near the beach and we joined them the next day to enjoy the sunshine, sand, and water. We're tempted to invest in some camping gear so we can camp too. There are many nice camping areas relatively close to us.

The sunshine felt wonderfully warm. I loved basking on the rocks as I watched the kids play in the sand. They dug holes, coated rocks with sand,

and built sandcastles.

Ian spent most of the day building dams to divert a small flowing stream.

He's efforts contributed to these cool looking patterns down stream.

Abby and her friends played some games, including Farkle (our latest family favorite).

Plus, we played in the waves and water. Our friends brought their inflatable canoes, which are super light, compact, and fill easily by just catching the air around you in a bag and pushing it into the canoe (Kyle totally wants these). Leah floated around where the waves were breaking and loved getting wet.

Cade and Abby ventured out a little further, even rowing to the next beach.

But, Abby was glad to be back on land.

We had such a great time at the beach and look forward to more beach days this year.

Easter Holiday

Hong Kong (as well as Macau) seem to have an abundance of public holidays giving students and professionals days off of school and work. We've repeatedly been surprised by many no-school or no-work days since living here. Learning about holidays relating to Chinese culture has been interesting and fun. Chinese New Year is especially important and elaborate, Ching Ming Festival and Chung Yeung Festival are dedicated to honoring deceased ancestors, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival have unique food traditions (we haven't acquired a taste for moon cakes yet), and coming up next week is a holiday celebrating Buddha's birthday. With the European influence of Britain (for Hong Kong) and Portugal (for Macau), there are also many western and Christian holidays observed including Labor Day, Christmas, and Easter. Ironically, there are more work days off (Friday-Monday) for the Easter holiday here than in the US. 

This year, we had a fun, activity filled Easter holiday. 

One day, we attended an Easter activity hosted by a neighboring church with face painting (notice the red Easter egg on Leah's left check),

a large egg hunt,

lots of prizes, and even a short, kid-friendly sermon.

Another day, our church hosted an Easter activity with egg decorating,

sugar cookie decorating

and eating,

and a few games.

That afternoon we stumbled upon a community Easter festival with lots of carnival type games. The kids won a handful of rulers, pens, and stickers. There was also an Easter Bunny walking around and posing for pictures but it looked more like Bugs Bunny and my kids didn't want to get anywhere near it. They did feel sorry for the guy in the bunny suit because it was such a hot day and they were sweating like crazy in just shorts and t-shirts.

We also gathered with some friends to dye Easter eggs.

I was so glad someone found (and saved from last year) Easter egg dye, stickers, and decorations because stores don't carry a lot of Easter stuff and sell out quickly. I was among the late shoppers and missed out on the egg dying kits and decorations.

During the Easter holiday, with Kyle off of work for Friday and Monday, we also had some fun family activities.

Kyle and Cade started out on a nice hike just behind our building

that turned into a long adventure hike as they climbed higher

 

and higher

until they reached Sunset Peak,

the third highest peak in Hong Kong.

 During their descent, they had an up close view of a helicopter rescue of an injured hiker. They were close enough to see and feel the prop wash.

We also spent a beautiful day at the beach. I'll share pictures and more details of that activity in the next post.

During the Easter holiday break, Cade participated in a week long soccer camp. It was a more playful, less serious atmosphere than typical practices. They even held a mini World Cup tournament. Cade's team was England and they finished with the most points but lost in the championship game. Cade received the Star Player Award!

For Easter Sunday, we had some wonderful family time and uplifting Church meetings to help us remember the miraculous resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm in charge of our newly formed church choir (Kyle conducted, I played the piano, and there are about 15 people including Cade, Abby, and 3 other kids). We had our first performance singing a beautiful Easter song, He Is Risen. The choir did fantastic and really added to the sweet spirit of the meeting.

It was a great Easter holiday!