Phuket, Thailand

Our beautiful beach in Phuket

It may seem to some of you that all we do over here in Thailand is take these wonderful mini-vacations to some of the world's most beautiful places.... Well, the simple truth of the matter is that while we do visit some of the world's most beautiful beaches and exotic cities we do other things too. For example Greg regularly works 12+ hour days, we're attempting to learn the local language, and when I go out to get a few things I sweat so much I think I lost 5 pounds. If you're in the US reading this right now, you can maybe relate to the sweating thing, but we've been sweating since arriving 11 months ago. Actually, Happy 11th month anniversary in Thailand to us, today!

Wow, we've been here 11 months already! It took us 11 months to get finally get to Phuket, Thailand, one of Thailand's best known islands (pronounced Poo-ket). Yes, the same island recently visited by the current season of the United States reality show The Bachelorette. My mom told me all about it... Well, we didn't need to find love in Phuket, we brought ours with! We left Bangkok late last Thursday and returned home yesterday afternoon. We stayed on Kata Noi Beach at Katathani Resort. 

It was lovely. We ate good food, swam in 3 of the 6 pools or swam in the Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean while reading our books/magazines in between, got a foot massage on the beach,  had a few hours in a busier area, and called it a vacation. No, we didn't ride elephants or even snorkel, but we did relax and rejuvenate from our busy lives.  Here's some photos...

The waves were quite strong! 

Greg!

We propped up the camera to get a shot of the both of us on the beach.

Sign by the elevator. 

When we arrived around mid-night on Thursday we found out our room was upgraded from a superior to a junior suite. This was our view!

Dinner at a small seafood place across the street from our  resort.

I won a free beer during the frog races. 5 frogs were kept in a basket, you had to guess which order they would get outside the circle, on the 13th round I got it!

At the beach bar happy hour. We went every night. Picture taken by John from New Zealand who we sat with a few times.  We hope he uses Greg's business card to email us because we just may want to take them up on their offer to visit them! 

Previous night at the beach bar. 

I was 2-0 for games of Boccee ball. 

We took the shuttle van into Patong Beach on our last night and had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. 

Good bye beautiful beach! Hopefully we will see you again sometime!

A Morning with Mary

This week is my first week of summer vacation. My school year ended with a great program and it was sad to see the Rabbit Class go.  Monday was spent updating my visa out at immigration. It is a whole day process, but luckily our school secretary helps and gets all the paper work in order. I can now live here for 1 more year and feel free to travel around when I feel necessary!

Today and yesterday morning I started my day with a walk through Lumpini Park. I joined the hundreds of people who go there every morning for their exercise or just to meet with friends. Most of the people look retirement age, although you do see groups of moms with strollers and younger people too. Runners, walkers, groups and individuals practicing martial arts, groups enjoying breakfast, groups chanting, individuals selling lottery tickets to the locals. I've never had the chance to visit Lumpini in the AM, but I love it. Less tourists, more locals. A good sweat to start your day in a peaceful place in the middle of a big city. I'll go again tomorrow.

I'm not great at taking photos but, here are some from my walk today. I took some from a distance, so I'll make them big for you to see.

Group Tai Chi. So Peaceful to watch

I didn't get the name of this statue, but I think the group sitting by it picked a nice spot  to  enjoy the morning.

man by himself doing tai chi

"Unity, Growth, & Peace"

A place to keep out of the sun or rain

of course I saw some giant lizards 

Chinese Pagoda. There were people doing Tai Chi right by where I took this photo, I wanted to get both, but felt a little funny taking their picture so close to them...

"A Mother's Love" This is one of my favorite statues in Lumpini. If  I have a baby (most likely not going to happen) here in Bangkok I want to get my photo take near this statue pregnant.

Guess the name of this statue before you keep reading...... 

"Women in the Next Three Decades"

A view from the rear... No need to enlarge, you get the idea

Pretty ground, so peaceful and on the other side of the fence is 6+ lanes of busy traffic.

"Elderly Center" You could hear laughter from inside.

Group doing what looks like Tai Chi, but with these pretty fans.

Women doing some type of martial art with long pole

Lumpini's Spirit House: Pretty

Small World

Today at school one of the new teachers  who will start in August came in to introduce herself, have a look around, and if she was like me on my first day at Mulberry House, get a bit overwhelmed. When she came by the Rabbit Room I introduced myself and that's when I realized what I small world we live in.... Here's what I found out.

Her name: Mary (same as me!)
Where she grew up: Minnesota (Eden Prairie to be specific which is a suburb of the Twin Cities about an hour from where Greg and I moved)
Her boyfriend who was with her today: She met him at Iowa State University (I attended The University of Iowa, Iowa State's rival!)
He's from Nevada, Iowa ( I do where it is) and is currently in Thailand working for the Peace Corp.
Her previous teaching experience: Lisbon, Iowa while living more towards Mt. Vernon and Marion (I grew up my whole life in Marion)

Talk about a small world...

This last weekend we experienced something new in Thailand for the first time in nine months.

Quiet.

No taxis, no motorbikes, no busses, no trains, no people, no dogs, no blaring music. Even the wind was calm so that there were hardly any waves lapping against the shore. Welcome to the of Koh Chang.

The six hour trip to Koh Chang makes it just far enough away that it is not a popular weekend getaway for folks from Bangkok, but Mary’s four day weekend from school made for the perfect time to travel a bit farther.

Things were looking dreary on the ferry from the mainland.

The roads on the island are like a roller coaster (minus any safety features of course)

Soon the sun would come out and paradise would appear! This is the view from the porch of our private bungalow.

We found amazing seafood for dinner on the pier in the bay. It was also a great spot to watch the sunset. You could even watch the fish swim by below your feet while you ate!

The resort had sea kayaks that you could use to explore the area.

This was a very welcome sight when you’re used to the crowded beaches closer to Bangkok

Bang Ban Bao is a town built entirely along a pier into the bay.

Reading.

This is the view at breakfast.

More time at the beach.

Our friend Tara came with us for the weekend. Greg and Tara are enjoying lunch at the local beach bar.

Before we headed back to Bangkok we explored the other side of the island. Not much for beaches, but there are a few quiet fishing villages and plenty of jungle.

We were sad to leave and already want to go back!

Thank You!

Thank you to Steph and Danny Kimball, Jen and Dave Tiede, Jes and Ryan French, & Karen and Dennis Fenton ( I think I got everyone, but let me know if I missed someone) for sending us one of the best care packages (cards not in photo) we have ever received! It arrived on Memorial Day!

Visakha Bucha Day and Other Recent Festivities

We were surprised not to get any comments on the King Cobra entry. You all must just be getting used to seeing strange things on here. Well this post is not promising to be too exciting, just an update on what we've been up to in the past month. 

Starting today and working backwards.

Today is actually a major Buddhist Holiday called Visakah Bucha Day. I learned all about it in my kindergarten's Thai class yesterday at school. It's a day that recognizes when Buddha was born, enlightened, and died, the full moon of the 6th month (yes this all is believed to have happened on the same day). Click here for more information and about things that will go on today in Thailand. Greg's actually working today (lots of people here from the US right now and he needed to go in although a few of the Thai's said they could not because the important day) and I plan on skyping, doing some report cards, and seeing a movie.


Last weekend we went to the beach again. Jomtien, if you remember when we posted about it a long time ago. We went with a group here from the US for Greg's work. We even took a boat out to an island. It was the most beautiful water I've ever seen!

The beach at Jomtien, a view from the table where my sand-dollars were drying out

The beach at Koh Larn, much more beautiful. The water was at low tide, so it was very far away!!!

Now this is life!

A few weekends ago, we went and saw Muay Thai. Muay Thai is the unique sport of Thai-Boxing. Lots of knees, elbows, and kicks. There is a famous stadium about a 5 minute walk down our road that we went to with large group of people. I was surprised when I loved it! The atmosphere, the people, the cheap beer and fresh peanuts, you can't go wrong. Our friend Melanie also blogged about it, read here for her take. If you come visit, we will take you!

Outside you get a picture of the line-up

We had the bleacher seats!

Some video of the fights! Do you here the band playing in the background? With each round it got louder and faster. The crowded area to our left was filled with locals betting on the fights. Lumpini stadium is one of the only places in Bangkok where gambling is legal.

More video, this was a staged fight, but it was pretty cool!

Easter in Bangkok was nice. Saturday Greg made a roast. We enjoyed it with veggies and a bottle of wine.  I even got out my Easter basket! We were joined by two of my co-workers for church on Sunday evening. It was nice weekend!

Ok! That's the update from Thailand! Hope you are doing well. The next two weekends we'll be on the beach...