Two Continents, Three Countries in Eight Hours!

The Kasbah in Tangiers

Herbs on sale in Tangiers

Two things that made it towards the top of our list for when we traveled to Spain to  visit our niece, Blayne, was to take a day trip to Gibraltar and Morocco.  We had the transportation and Blayne was up for the adventure.  We hopped in the car and headed to Tarifa, Spain.  This is where you can catch the high speed boat to go to Tangiers, Morocco.  If you are unfamiliar with the geography of this area, Tangiers is a city found on the West African coast at the western entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar.  This is where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.  None of us had been to Africa before, so we thought this would be an excellent opportunity to step foot on an unexplored continent (to us) and, in a few short hours, glean as much history/culture as we could.

Blayne and Tammy

Blaynie getting a shot of the sunset while we get a shot of her and the Rock!

When we descended from the boat, we were greeted by about 30 "guides" and drivers offering their services.  One particularly hefty man started to badger David.  He then headed my way and started to berate me for not accepting his services.  To the rescue came Lerbe, the gentleman who would be our guide (and we are sure now a partner in crime with the first "guide" - think good cop, bad cop).   We hopped into a taxi and headed up to the Kasbah.  From there, we walked the narrow routes through the Kasbah area, checking out the number of stalls lining the pathways.  We had an excellent meal at a "friend's" restaurant.  Then we were ushered to a carpet store to try and sell us a rug.  Overall, it was very interesting with great food and company.  Unfortunately, it did not end on a good note.  When we reached the boat terminal, Lerbe insisted that he had done more than the agreed upon rate and made quite a scene.  David held his own while Blayne and I quickly scampered through customs and out of earshot.  Although parts of this quick trip were stressful, we wouldn't have missed the opportunity.

Twilight in Gibraltar - Catalan Bay

When we arrived back at Tarifa, we decided to head to Gibraltar, not far away.  We have seen Uluru in Australia and pictures of Prudential Insurance's logo.  But we have to admit that the sight of the the Rock of Gibraltar was awesome.  To get from the Spanish mainland to Gibraltar, which is a British territory, you have to go through this gate where they check your passports.  Then you cross over an isthmus which connects Spain and Gibraltar.  The interesting thing is that this isthmus is also a runway.  If a plane is coming in, they stop traffic to allow the plane to land and then resume after it has landed.  Very interesting.  Blayne and I were excited to see more of Gibraltar since we had both finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and Lisbeth Salander speaks of Gibraltar being her favorite place.  We traveled around as much of the rock as possible before we got to Catalan Bay which is where I want to vacation next (and I assume was the setting for the books).  


After a very long day of new sights, smells and people, we headed back to Cadiz, Blayne's fall home, to get rest before our next adventure the next day.

I Never Thought These Places Really Existed!

A church in Sintra, Portugal

We landed in Lisboa, Portugal and picked up the little rental car that would end up taking us hundreds of miles throughout Andalucia over the next week.  We then headed to the hotel we booked off of Av Liberdad, in the center of the city.  The hotel was in a lovely part of town where one can find statues, cobbled roads, fountains and plazas.  And yet next door was Prada.  Our room was on the third floor overlooking the Av Liberdad, huge trees with leaves turning red, yellow and orange.  We drifted off to sleep as people strolled down the street, partying the night away.


The next morning as we were checking out, Jorge, the manager, told us all about the history of the region and highly recommended we visit Sintra on our way to Sevilla.  Sintra was a dream - the type of place you see in movies like Under the Tuscan sun (but not in Italy).  We happened upon a quaint little bakery where we partook of their delicious baked goods and their specialty (each bakery has a specialty) was a little custard baked good.  It was amazing!  As we left the bakery, an outdoor weekend market had set up.  We strolled through the tables of fruits, olives (of course), vegetables, breads, more olives, hams, goats milk cheeses and olives.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity to gather picnic items to eat along the way.

Farmers Market in Sintra

The rest of our day consisted of exploring a bit more of Sintra, stopping in Cascais, an updated fishermen's village, cruising down the coast to Lagos until we then headed east to Sevilla.  It was a beautiful drive.  


We arrived in Sevilla as the sun was setting.  This was a mistake.  Sevilla is quite large.  We had booked a room in the Barrios section.  The entire area was made up of a maze of VERY narrow cobble-stoned streets, most which were one way.  If we put our arms out the windows, we could have enjoyed people's entrees, we were that close.  I am serious about the "maze" part.  We drove through these streets, some which were so narrow that we had to pull in our mirrors so as not to knock them off the car, for at least an hour.  At one point, a man on the side of the street motioned to us that we were driving in a circle.  Duh!  Finally David parked the car and set off on foot to locate the hotel, which ended up being right around the corner.

David and Tammy at a beach in Lagos, Portugal

Bloody, Hell! What do you Mean we have Only 8 Hours in London?

A British Taxi

The Tower of London

Kensington Park

David purposely booked our flight into London so that we would have a few hours to see some famous British landmarks.  His original plan was to fly into London, take a train to Bordeaux to buy some wine, and then take another train to Madrid and then possibly fly into Lisboa, Portugal and then rent a car to drive to Cadiz.  Beings this travel would have taken up our entire week, we came to a compromise to spend several hours in London and then fly into Lisboa to spend the weekend and then drive on to Cadiz.

I had never really been interested in traveling to London before – not exactly sure as to why.  However, now it is towards the top of my list of places I NEED to spend time in.  Our 8 hour “layover” in London consisted of a train ride to Paddington, a walk through Kensington Park, and then a tour of the city on one of those site-seeing buses.  It was drizzly (which I hear is quite common in London), so the bus ride was a warm welcome (especially since I left my only pair of close-toed shoes in Bangkok and my tootsies were freezing).  We saw some great sites including St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, The London Eye and the House of Parliament to name a few.  After a very busy day, we boarded a plane and head off to our next destination:  Lisboa, Portugal.

Europe, Here We Come!

For our October break, David and I headed to Spain to visit our niece, Blayne, as she studies abroad in Cadiz.  We had a fabulous trip, with many diversions along the way.  We will be sharing these adventures with you in the next several blogs. 

Top Ten Lists - Our Observations SO FAR

This will be the first of several Top 10 Lists to come in the near future.  Other future Top 10 Lists to include:

*  Top 10 Shopping Experiences

*  Top 10 Yummy Foods to Eat While in Thailand

*  Top 10 Things to Avoid While in Thailand

*  Top 10 Wish List of Places to Go in Thailand (and why they're on our list)

If you would like to see one list before another, please post a comment and we'll try and get that list out first.  :0)

10. There is low suction in the toilets (in the locations that actually have a toilet bowl and not a squat toilet) so when one wipes themselves, they then put the toilet paper in the wastebasket.  Then they use the scooper in the bucket of water on the side of the toilet and put a scoop of water in the toilet bowl to flush naturally.  (This is in the more rural areas.  Generally the airport and nice restaurants have toilet bowls or toilet bowls AND squat toilets.)
9.  They have Amazing Race Asia on TV here.  The prize for the winners is $500,000 and they travel throughout Asia, not the world.  The host is a cute Asian version of Phil.  There is also the Asian version of The Biggest Loser.
8.  Thai guards, police, etc. like their whistles.  They blow them all the time to direct you in traffic, even when you are not moving.
7. If you learn to say in Thai that you don’t speak much Thai, the lovely Thai people will start a conversation in Thai because they assume if you know enough to say you don’t know much, you know Thai.
6. Grow thick skin. It is common for someone to tell you that you look fat today or your hair does not look as beautiful as normal. One day one of the IAs at school was talking about what she was going to wear to this formal dinner that we were all going to. She was telling a friend of mine that she might have a dress for her. She didn’t want me to feel left out so she said, “I’d love to bring you one of my dresses but I don’t think we are the same size.” Yeah honey, I’m twice your width!
5.  We’ve been told that this is the rainiest, mildest rainy seasons ever.  Our take is that someone is trying to give us more time to acclimate to the warm temperatures.  Regardless, it is still HOT.  Going from the bottom floor to the top floor of our apartment feels like we are entering a sauna.  But our skin is doing GREAT!
4. If a man feels the urge to empty his bladder, he just pulls over to the side of the road and pees in a ditch.  It is common to see a man on the side of the road with his back to the road and a stream of pee going into the ditch.
3. It is not uncommon to see an elephant walk down a busy street in a Bangkok suburb.
2. Washington has its spiders.  Australia has its cockroaches.  Thailand has its geckos.  Geckos line the ceiling and walls of the walkways where we live.  We also have a 2 inch gecko that likes the inside of our home.  He's never in the kitchen.  Just on the walls and on the living room floor.  He's cuuutteee - something I wouldn't say about spiders or cockroaches.
1.  Most mornings, I choose to curl my hair with a curling iron.  I do this because I think it smooths out the friz.  The other day I decided to ride my bike to school instead of taking the van.  I have to say that my hair looked FAB!  I got to school and walked by my reflection in the window – FRIZ BALL!  Moral: Why bother?!? 

Momma's Falls

I feel like I need to write this because Amanda and Caryn always seem to get such a kick out of my lack of gracefulness. It all started about 5 years ago when I slipped on a tater tot at Costco.  Where the tater tot came from, I don’t know.  But it WAS a tater tot.  Amanda and Caryn were with me and laughed so hard when I fell that they almost wet their pants.  I went a couple of years without any major mishaps. Then the first day in Bangkok when I decided to try out my new bike, I was riding next to Amanda and Ryan and was approaching a small incline. I didn’t judge the incline well and pretty much just fell off my bike, right as a taxi was going by.  It just so happened that in the taxi were Troy, our new friend, and Anthony, my friend from Kent.   Amanda said that it was the most graceful fall she had ever seen from me.  My latest “falling” incident occurred as we were walking down a path towards the river at Sai Yok.  I managed to slip and fall on the mossy path down to the river.  According to David, it was a graceful fall worth a total score of 9.6.  I did get a squeal out of the woman behind me and then some giggling from the entire group because the Thai people always laugh WITH you so you don’t lose face. So I guess I can be happy that at least in my falling incidents, I am becoming more graceful.  

Nagoya, Japan

The Nagoya Countryside

Professional Development – Stephanie Harvey Workshop:  I was fortunate to be able to use Professional Development funds to travel to Nagoya Japan to see Stephanie Harvey, a pioneer in the field of reading comprehension.  David came along for the ride.  The conference was wonderful – Stephanie was inspirational, dynamic and down to earth.  She validated much of what we are doing at ISB as well as made me start thinking about some things we should consider exploring.

I Can Wear My Jeans!:  In the 2-1/2 months we have lived in Thailand, I have put my jeans on only once to enter a wat in downtown Bangkok. I almost passed out from the heat. Every other day of the 2-1/2 months, I have either worn capris, shorts or my bathing suit.  As we prepared for our trip to Nagoya, I checked the weather and learned that it was quite a bit cooler there than here in Bangkok.  My initial thought was “OMG!  I’m going to get to wear my jeans!” This may seem a bit petty.  Let me explain.  If you come from the pacific northwest, you enjoy wearing a cozy long sleeved shirt or a worn pair of jeans for a good part of the year (much to the chagrin of many PNW residents).  So far here in Bangkok, it has been warm every day, even if it rains.  Some have said that it has been uncharacteristically cool.  I think the powers that be are helping us to acclimate to the weather.  So I enjoyed two days of wearing long sleeved shirts and jeans.  This could end up being the first and last time I do so this year.  :0) 

Inuyama Castle, Nagoya, Japan

Inuyama Castle:  We arrived in Nagoya, Japan in the morning and ended up with half a day to play.  We decided to jump on the JR train line and head for Inuyama Castle, the oldest castle in Japan.  It was beautiful.  David ventured the many flights of stairs to get to the top floor of the castle.  The castle is located on the top of a hill overlooking Inuyama, near Nagoya.  The grounds were gorgeous and the architecture of the castle was beautiful.  We can imagine how gorgeous it is throughout the seasons of the year. 
As our dear friend Jimbo says, “It’s all about the food!” We were anxious to try out some Japanese food on our short visit to Nagoya.  We tried the local burger joint, Mos Burger.  The burgers were good – I’m not exactly sure what they were made of because we couldn’t read the menu, but they were tasty.  One night we ate at a sushi restaurant.  We went in and everyone shouted greetings to us – at least we think they did.  We don’t know Japanese. We had sashimi, sushi, soup, fried fish and a big mug of beer.  It was great.  Our other beautiful meal was on our way to the airport.  We stopped at a Japanese BBQ restaurant.  We BBQ’d a variety of proteins on a BBQ in the center of the table.  Between the grilled veggies and meats, the soup and rice dishes, we were in 7^th heaven.

Japanese BBQ

Exploring the Sai Yok Area

David and I at Phatad Waterfall

We hit the road early the next morning after brekkies and headed north to Phatad Waterfall - it was BEAUTIFUL! Because we are in the middle of the rainy season, there was plenty of water cascading down multiple rocky faces.We hiked around for awhile and then headed for the local hot springs - Hin Dad Hot Springs.  When we arrived, we learned that for 40B each ($1.25) we could gain access to a natural hot spring.  There were four hot pool areas - three were filled with locals mostly in shorts and t-shirts.  The fourth was for monks.  The hot pools were situated right next to the rolling river, so once you became too hot in the pool, you could cool off by sitting on the man-made steps on the edge of the river.It was quite refreshing.  Besides a couple of Germans, we were the only farangs (foreigners) there.  There were a couple of locals running around taking pictures that you could purchase as you exited the hot springs (kind of like a Disneyland ride).When we crossed over the bridge and through the exit, of course we had worked up an appetite and had a delightful time purchasing a variety of edible delicacies from food stalls that lined the exit (what a surprise!).

The beautiful Thai Countryside

   Our last stop of the day was to Sai Yok National Park.  The park is located along the river, which is lined with houseboats – not like the houseboats many of us might be used to.  All sides of the houseboats were open air with no tables or furniture to sit upon.  Everyone sat on the floor. There appeared to be one small, enclosed area/room that we assumed was the toilet. Each houseboat had probably 15 – 20 people on it – families and groups of friends. These groups would hire a long tail boat (long narrow boat with a motor on the end) to tow the houseboat to the location of their choosing. The long tail boat looked so fun that we hired one to take us up and down the river to see the four waterfall, the beautiful riverbank and diverse rock formations.
    We ended our evening back at our floating hotel room.  We booked a couple of massages that came with the room and spent the evening hearing it pour, watching an amazing lightning show and listening to the thunder seemed right outside our room.

Long Tail Boat towing a houseboat

Hin Dad Hot Springs

Herding Brahman cattle on the side of road on the way to Sai Yok

 

Venturing to the River Kwai

   It was our first three-day weekend of the school year and we were set for our trip to Kanchanaburi! This is where the Bridge on the River Kwai is located. David flew in Thursday night and rented a car. For those of you who know David, you know he does not hesitate to take risks. I believe that renting a car in Bangkok is taking a risk (see David’s Indiana Jones post).     We headed out of town Friday morning with a guide book/map in hand (although this doesn’t matter much when there are no real road signs and if there are, they’re in Thai.  I love it when we drive by a sign and David says “What did that say?” “Hello, I speak Thai only nit noi (very little) and don’t read sanskrit!”) Luckily for us, there was a taxi driver out front waiting for someone else and we started talking about our trip. He set us on a route that took us on a much more picturesque drive! David skillfully maneuvered through the Bangkok suburb traffic and before long we were on country roads leading towards Kanchanaburi. We had eaten breakfast before we left but, of course, we started passing carts and you probably know the rest (similar to, “if you give a mouse a cookie,” but instead, “If you pass a cart on the side of the road, then David will have to stop"). We stopped at this cute little place on the side of the road.  No one spoke English and, again, we only new Thai nit noi! We ended up getting THE best duck soup with noodles and veggies. We are still talking about the tastiness of our lunch.
   Next stop was Kanchanaburi to see THE bridge. It was really interesting and in an amazing setting.  Of course there are now so many tourist type activities surrounding the area, but it wasn’t difficult to imagine what it might have looked like in 1943. There was still much vegetation. I started humming the song from the movie as we walked across the bridge.
   Next, we drove to where we would spend the next couple of nights –a lovely room in a lovely hotel built on a raft, floating on the river. If you took 6 steps through the sliding glass window, you would walk right into the River Kwai. We had some snacks and spent the rest of the evening watching the DVD, Bridge On the River Kwai.

Learning the Language

Another lovely perk of being an educator at ISB (International School Bangkok) is that the school wants you to immerse yourself in the culture so they pay for you to attend 10 Thai language lessons. I take my lessons each Monday afternoon from 4:00 – 5:30 with four other new staff to ISB. Two are Canadians and two are Australians so you can imagine the ribbing I take.  Our teacher is Khun Narissa (Khun is the polite way to address a Thai person like Mr. or Mrs). We have a book with words to learn and dialogue to practice each session. Lately we have been working on our numbers. We have also learned how to direct taxi drivers.  I now know how to tell the drivers to turn left, turn right and go straight ahead.  Our group does tend to get a little off task like when we were taking about the word for like (chaup). We went from liking water to liking fruits to liking beer to liking our spouses, and even some movie stars. Probably the most useful phrase I have learned lately and have actually been able to use I learned when we were talking about the wording for “a little” – nit noi. Somehow that day our off-task discussion ended with learning “chuay bow bow nit noi mai?”  This can be translated to “Please lessen the pressure of the massage, okay?” And believe it or not, David and I actually were able to use it when were were in Sai Yok last weekend. I can’t wait to learn how to start bargaining with the vendors.

It's All About Friends!

One of the best things about making this big move from the states has been meeting new people from all around the world.  From the German friends we made while in Australia to our fellow "newbies" in Bangkok, we feel extremely fortunate to have made such wonderful new friends.

The wealth of experiences of our friends who are newbies like us in Thailand is immense.  We are part of the minority of families who do not have much previous experience educating overseas. People are coming from the states, Australia, Canada, South America, Africa, other parts of Asia, etc.  It makes for such rich conversations about the world in general.  

For those of you who know me from Kent School District, you will be happy to see this picture of Anthony Giles and part of his family, as well.  We actually see each other more here in Bangkok than we ever would have in Kent.  Anthony is having a blast with great kids and great opportunities.  I get to see Zach, his 2nd grade son, at the Elementary school.  Jackie, Anthony's wife, is pursuing her own interests.  And baby Cruz is ADORABLE!  Can't get my fill of that little one.  I won't give everything away about the Giles Family as I know Anthony is working at getting his blog up and running.

And we do not want to sound like we are not appreciative of our many friends and family elsewhere whom we have left behind but who have kept in touch with us.  We miss you all and you have no idea how exciting it is to log onto our e-mail or check our blog and have messages from home.  It's like Christmas!!!!!  Please keep those notes coming!  We love and miss you all.

Trying to Wash that Gray Right Out of My Hair!

My friend, Chrissy, who has helped me create this blog, encouraged me to do some posting on day-to-day life since arriving here.  Here is another post that fits into that category:


I've been lucky - hair lucky!  My sister, Sandy, has been doing my hair for about 2 decades now.  I am spoiled, what can I say.  As it got closer to us preparing for our big move, of course, my hair was on my mind.  I had thought about having her teach me how to color my hair myself and then purchase product to do it on my own.  But that could end up worse than other options. 

Before we left Australia, I got my hair colored since I knew I wouldn't have the language barrier there. By the middle of August, my roots were shouting out at me.  Oh, no!  Where to go. One Sunday afternoon, I ventured into a shop that had been recommended.  I had been warned that unless I wanted actual stripes I might want to forego the highlighting. A hair colorist came to me with hair swatches that were all different colors. We agreed on one that appeared close to my current hair color.  Then the process began.

The colorist arrived back at the chair with a bowl of color that looked like chocolate pudding.  Hmm! Seemed a little dark, but what do I know.  She started applying the color and then asked if I wanted my eyebrows colored.  I remembered when Sandy did this for me.  "Sure," I said and so she applied the color to my brows.  By the time she finished applying the goop to my hair, my eyebrows started to burn.  Where was the colorist now?  Reading a magazine in the corner.  I started visualizing myself looking like Groucho Marx.  Still the colorist was reading her magazine.  My hair was beginning to turn very dark. Finally she came over and wiped the color off of my brows.  Were they really going to be that dark?  OMG!  Next we went to rinse the color off of my hair. We went into a room that resembled an operating room.  I needed to climb up onto this bed with florescent lights in the ceiling.  I was seriously expecting the anesthesiologist to appear at any moment.  After my hair was rinsed, the woman asked if I wanted my hair shampooed.  Uh - yeah!  Four shampoos and a lovely head massage later, I was asked if I wanted cream rinse.  Uh - yeah!  Three more applications and another head massage.  I was walked back to my chair and the towel was removed.  Seriously?  This was supposed to be a match to my color before?  Luckily, I had an open mind and had expected that most likely my hair would not look the same, AND IT DIDN'T!  I am now a dark auburn haired woman with dark auburn brows (but I look much better than Groucho Marx).  When I received the bill I found that here, they charge you separately for the color, the brows, the shampoo, the rinse and the blow dry. Luckily my husband said he didn't mind having a "new" auburn wife for a change.  

First Impressions - Our New Home and Community

We were all anxious and excited to see where our new digs were going to be.  Troy, who would become our new friend, coaching colleague, tour guide, spiritual leader and answerer of all bizarre and, let's face it, stupid questions, picked us up at our Bangkok hotel and delivered us to our new home.  I have to say that I almost cried when we arrived.  This was to be the beginning of a new chapter of our lives.  And ready or not, we were here!

We have a lovely apartment on the third floor of teacher housing.  When you enter, you climb about 10 steps to get to the main level where you find the living and dining rooms, the kitchen and a sliding glass door that leads out to the verandah.  Another short flight of steps takes you to the two guest bedrooms (plenty of room for lots of visitors - hint, hint) and a bathroom.  Of course, we have chosen the top floor, another short flight of steps, to be the master bedroom.  This could also be considered the "hottest" floor of the apartment - you can read anything into this that you want to.

We are living in a gated community called Nichada Thani (ni'chitu to'nee).  About 80% of the staff live within Nichada.  There is a lake in the center of the community with a bike path and road surrounding it with several off-shoots of housing developments.  But of course, the school, International School of Bangkok, is the focal point.  Within a block of the school, you can find a little market, a smoothie shop, a dry cleaner, spa, a restaurant, and, believe it or not, a Starbucks (unfortunately they don't have Chai Latte's in Thailand - sniff, sniff).  Right outside the gate, you enter a different world - the Thailand we see in books, movies and on the internet!  There are carts everywhere selling fresh fruit, bbq meats, cold beverages, roti (our new favorite dessert - think nutella and banana pancacke) etc.  People are living in hut-like homes.  There are tons of motor bikes, bicycles, tuk-tuks and taxis (see David's post regarding Indiana Jones Ride).  We are still working at grasping all of the new and different road rules.  If you are a pedestrian, you better run for your life.  It is the hustle and bustle of life right outside of the gates that is truly fascinating.

Food, Food and More Food

We knew we liked Thai food, but had no idea what it would be like to be able to eat Thai every day if we wanted to.  Da cooks dinner for us each Monday/Wednesday/Friday.  She has been cooking yummy curries, soups and salads and supplying us with fresh fruits each day that she comes (see photo from left: pomelo, papaya, jack fruit, dragon fruit, watermelon).  We have been enjoying Dragon fruit, mango, papaya, bananas, rambutans, doku, watermelon, pomelo and pineapple just to name a few.  Da buys our fruits and veggies at the local market.  Quite often she brings home from the market things that we have never seen before - "Try Madam!"  She brought home a couple of desserts yesterday that were wrapped in banana leaves.  One was gelatinous with coconut in the center.  I really like that one. Another was sweet sticky rice with banana in the center.  The Thai definitely know how to make their desserts. 

When Da isn't cooking for us, we can cook ourselves (heaven forbid) or go outside the gates of the community and eat for 20 baht or 30B each (33B = $1.00). Everywhere, you can find carts with food being prepared.  And of course, David likes to try it all.  Today we were at Chattachuk, a HUGE market downtown (20 acres of over 20,000 stalls of whatever you can imagine and a few things you can't image), and David saw something someone was eating and asked where he could get some.  We ended up finding and eating at the same place.  We had some sort of curry with potatoes and chicken, some type of sweet sausage, and some spicy fried up pork and sweet spicy tofu.  Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you that you need to tell the Thai people how spicy you want your food.  Ped means medium spicy.  Of course, this is in Thai terms which could mean very spicy to you.  Ped maak means very spicy which means you might as well just peel off your tongue when you're done eating until you get used to it.  Then mais ped means no spice.  This could mean little spice or no spice depending on the person you are speaking to.


David loves to buy food off the carts.  When he goes downtown on his own, he always stops at the toast cart.  He was walking by one day and the lady said, "Only 6 baht."  He said, "I'll try anything for 6 baht."  Now his travels downtown always include a stop at the BBQ toast cart.

Later at the market, we walked down an aisle/alley and people were getting bowls of shaved ice where some sweetened liquid (we think coconut milk and honey) was poured on it and then you could add something from the 30ish bowls of different items to end up making some slushy, refreshing snack (see the tall guy checking it out?).  Of the 30 bowls, I could only identify the contents of one - lychee.  There was a bowl of black gelatinous clumps, slimy green things that looked like worms and what we think are the bubbles in bubble tea. And of course, David didn't want to put anything on the ice that we already knew what it was.  We still don't know exactly what we ate or how to even ask someone about it again (because the sign was in Thai), but it was yummy.


Another thing to know about the Thai and their eating habits is that they eat six or seven times a day.  That is why there are so many carts everywhere all the time.  You can't go a block without seeing ten carts.  If there is one cart, there is another cart nearby.  And if that isn't enough, there are carts that drive through the neighborhoods (baans) trying to sell their food by speaking through a loudspeaker system.  If you go out and eat family style, the polite thing to do is to put small quantities on your plate, never heaping servings.  The Thai eat with large spoons, using their forks to push the food onto their spoons.  I've rarely seen a knife.


We look forward to the many more "culinary" adventures we will have in Thailand.

Disney's Indiana Jones Ride, Bangkok Style!

(Written by David)  Death, I’m sure, was imminent?  We weaved through traffic only for everything to come to a screeching halt EXCEPT for my scooter taxi guy who sped up.  Yes, sped up.  Bus, taxi and car, side by side, completely covered the two lanes.  How are we going to fit?  I have no idea.  Does he know that I’m a farang (foreigner) and twice his size in heighth and width?  As the distance narrows and we get closer and closer to death, nobody moves - that is, except that people come out of the blue and fill the spaces between the three vehicles on the two lane road.  3, 2, 1 – CRASH!  Oh, yeah, forgot about the sidewalk.  Off we go to the next hurdle.

Let me back up…  Pretty sure I would never write on this blog, but after my first scooter taxi ride, my life changed.  These scooter drivers sit in our little moo baan (neighborhood) waiting for people who need a taxi.  When you come out of the gate, you can see them about a block away. That day, I waved one down and he drove straight to me.  Typically, the scooter drivers go get a taxi and you pay them 20 baht ($.60) for this service.  I’m thinking, “Where is my taxi?”  He’s thinking, “Get on!” 

Anybody needing to ride a rollercoaster, just come to Pakkret.  No helmet, no safety harness, no fluorescent vest, no signing of waivers, etc.  I did, however, put on my sunnies, just to be safe.  Let’s just say that mom would not approve.  He, however, tightened his helmet strap.

Neighborhood streets?  Fine, except for the speed bumps, stray dogs, etc.  First main street – traffic is stopped.  No problem.  We use the coming lane to get to the front of the line to turn right.  The light turns green.  No need for a green arrow, we just turn right in front of 20 scooters coming straight at us.  No problem.  They slow down.  Those making a u-turn do not.  But we slip between the gap of two of the cars.  Open road, three lanes, lots of options. 

Next left is congested, but we are following all of the other scooters, so it seems safe.  I finally like red lights.  The traffic stops, we keep going and nobody is trying to hit us.  Open road until cars stop.  No problem.  We swerve around the bus, except there is a car in the lane.  No problem.  Squeeze between the car and bus.  PROBLEM!  Bus door opens, letting school kids out, from the MIDDLE lane.  Don’t think this would pass in America.  We cruise by just as the last kid steps off of the bus and we are both safe – NEVER a question!  All of the other near misses seemed trivial.  This could be a new Disney ride. 

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Chew - The Last Chapter

Chapter 3:  …David became monkey chew!!!!!  The monkey jumped on him and bit him on the forearm.  It was quite a deep gash, about an inch long.  Several of the workers who were nearby, including a monk, rummaged through their first aid kit to find items to clean out the wound.  They all said we should go to the hospital.  David wasn’t really keen on the idea.  I figured that if the people who worked around these monkeys thought it was a good idea, we’d better go.  What was crossing my mind was, “I think we probably should have had those rabies shots before we came.”  Khun Wow drove us to the hospital.  When we walked in, the greeters asked what happened.  David showed them the monkey bite and was immediately ushered to the emergency room – “Infection Area.”  The staff was lovely.  Long story a little shorter:  It was a nasty bite, David had to start the rabies shot series, he also required a tetanus shot, he had to start 7 days of antibiotics and he needs to return to the hospital each day to have his wound cleansed.

Moral of the story:  Don’t get too close to the monkeys!  (but you can play with the tame and playful monkey, Mong, on the left side of this blog!)

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Chew - The Next Chapter

Chapter 2:  Last weekend, David and I went to Hua Hin, a beach town about 2.5 hrs. south of Nichada Thani (where we live).  The morning after we arrived, we took the shuttle into town to check out the pier and surrounding area.  We hired a tuk-tuk driver (Khun Wow is his name) to take us around to get the lay of the land.  One recommendation of Khun Wow was to visit Monkey Mountain.  I assumed it was a wildlife park – I was wrong.  As we drove to the top of the mountain, we began seeing monkeys everywhere.  The largest were no taller than 1.5 feet tall.  We walked down a street to a nearby wat (temple), as probably 100 monkeys lined the street - monkeys were everywhere!  They were hanging from electrical wires, climbing trees, sitting on rocks, etc.  We reached a place where a woman was selling small buckets of bananas to feed the monkeys.  Khun Wow suggested we buy a bucket.  As the bucket was being filled, a literal MASS of monkeys started moving towards us.  The woman held up the bucket.  Next thing we knew, monkeys were straddling our calves and climbing up our backs. We even had monkeys climb to the top of our heads while others sat on our shoulders. They ALL wanted bananas.  You might think this would freak us out a bit – IT DID!  After about 5 minutes, the woman threw the rest of the bananas on the ground so the monkeys could fight over them (she must have sensed our apprehension).  From there we walked a little farther to a viewpoint of the ocean.  It was beautiful.  Khun Wow took a photo of us while we were standing about 3 feet from a monkey perched on the edge of the railing.  He suggested that we move a little closer to the monkey when all of a sudden…CHAPTER 3! 

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Chew?!?

Chapter I:  During our time in Koh Samui, we went elephant trekking.  At the entrance of the elephant park, there was a caged monkey.  After our elephant ride, we gathered around the cage talking to the monkey.  It was very friendly and liked to wrap its fingers around our finger.  At one point, Ryan (Amanda’s boyfriend) got a little too close and the monkey grabbed his sunglasses and began screeching and jumping around the cage, gnawing on his glasses.  The staff came around, rescued his sunglasses and calmed down the monkey.  From then on, Ryan’s new name for sunglasses has been “monkey chews.”

No Planes This Time - Mostly Trains!

After 9 days on the island paradise of Koh Samui, it was time to head towards our new home near Bangkok.  We thought that instead of traveling by plane again (we had our fill of planes at that point), we would travel by train.  We booked 1st class seats on a train to Bangkok.  The train was scheduled to leave in the late afternoon and arrive early the next morning.  We chose "1st class" because, at night, the cabin turned into bunk beds and this way we could sleep through the dark hours.  We've always wanted to travel on a train and book a sleeper cabin.  This was such a fun experience.
When we boarded the train, our beds were already made up.  A young man came through the car and took orders for food and drink.  We partook in good food and beverages which, including dinner and breakfast the next morning, came to around $30 US.  After eating that night, off to sleep we went.  (We teased Ryan because David and I were booked in one cabin, Amanda and Caryn in another, and then Ryan was to be in a cabin that MIGHT have another passenger.  Luckily, he had it all to himself.)  It was great to travel through the countryside, and SEE the countryside rather than fly over it.

When we arrived at the Bangkok train station, we got a real dose of Thailand and it was only 7:00 a.m. in the morning.  Since Amanda and Ryan joined us, our luggage had grown to an even more unwieldy amount.  We were able to put it all on a flatbed-like cart.  We think we were the entertainment for the Thai at the station that morning as Ryan navigated the cart through throes of people entering and exiting the station.  Even though it was hectic there at the end, it was a great experience and one I see us repeating in the near future.  Again, Note to Self:  Pack light!

An Island Paradise - Koh Samui

All we really knew was that we were ready to leave the wet weather of Australia and head for sunshine and heat.  We didn't really know what to expect of Samui except for the photos we saw on the internet. In our wildest dreams, we couldn't have imagined the beauty of the land, water and people of this lovely island. We booked a fabulous villa overlooking thousands of banana and coconut trees.  Beyond that was a view of the Gulf of Thailand. We rented a little jeep that seated two so Caryn, Amanda and Ryan always rode in the bed of the jeep, standing and holding onto the roll bar.  Because July is the start of rainy season, almost every afternoon we got stuck in a monsoon rainstorm and arrived back at the villa with the three of them drenched.

Our many adventures on the island included driving that same little jeep around the perimeter of the island through different moo baans.  We frequented several beautiful beaches including Chaweng, Maenam, Bophut and Lanai.  It didn't take much arm twisting on David's part to get Caryn and I to agree to massages and pedicures on the beach.  Of course, the food was great and we bought food off of the carts regularly (yes, David had to stop at EVERY one we saw that had something we hadn't tried before).   One of our biggest EATING adventures was stopping to eat at a "bbq" place for dinner.   We were the only farangs in the joint and very little English was spoken.  So we used our powers of observation to guide us through this delectable experience.   Our sight seeing included visiting the Big Buddha, going to Fisherman's Village and negotiating prices for t-shirts and dresses, riding elephants through the rainforest and visiting rock formations that resemble the male and female genitalia (we only went because the story was sweet and romantic - :0).

Our Journey to Thailand - First Stop, Australia

On our journey to Thailand, we took a detour to Swansea Heads, Australia.  While David worked for three weeks, Caryn and I took road trips to pick up/drop off cars at various Thrifty locations, visited numerous beaches including Red Head Beach (love the name), had a few beers and pies and explored nearby towns.  While we were there, we also had the opportunity to get to know Rod and Gisela's (our hosts and owners of the Thrifty franchises) German daughters and granddaughter, Maren, Gabby and Natalie as they were in town for a visit.  The yanks and the Germans had many fun times, especially involving driving on a side of the street none of us were accustomed to.  By the time we left Australia, I felt like I had learned a fair share of German.

Other highlights of our time in Australia included a weekend in Burleigh Heads, on the Gold Coast,  to visit Jan and Bill (Rod's sister and brother-in-law).  The beaches were stunning and although it was the middle of winter, I still managed to get sunburned.  We also spent a weekend in Sydney visiting our old stomping ground (Balmain, where we were on a teaching exchange in 1997), meeting up with friends Peter and Ali and Marg and John at the London Pub in Balmain, running into two former students (now 23 or 24) and making sure we had some tourist time at the Opera House, the Paddington Outdoor Market, the Rocks, Paddy's Market, Manly Beach and Darling Harbour.