Ron, Barb, and Joel Larson arrived in Thailand in the middle of the night on Thursday, October 12th. It was quite the adventure getting them to our apartment, but the good that came out of it is that I realized that I speak more Thai than I thought I did, especially considering it was 2 am and I was talking to the taxi driver on a bad phone connection. Friday was our last day of school before a two week holiday, so after sleeping in, the Larsons joined us for lunch at our favorite restaurant by school. We ordered 7 dishes and all walked away in a food coma, but it was their favorite meal of the whole trip, so we were happy. They came back to school with us in the afternoon and met a few of my Kindergarteners, and then we were off to Wendy's for dinner and to spend the night.
Our favorite restaurant, where we go every day for lunch.
Coconut ice cream. Yum!
Joel and John on our bike, riding home from school.
On Saturday, we caught a taxi over to our neighborhood from last year, where we went to a great coffee shop (my folks had no idea they would be drinking so much coffee here), walked around a while, and went to an awesome restaurant. Joel was so great at trying all kinds of new food. He never turned his nose up at anything, and was always willing to take at least one bite. It was so fun to think of new things for him to try! In the afternoon, we got on a bus and headed into downtown Bangkok. We went to the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the tallest building in Thailand, where John and I spent our anniversary. I don't know if the tower is supposed to be free or not, but we just pretended that we knew what we were doing, and waltzed right up to the top. We happened to be there during some kind of Rubics Cube competition, so we admired that for a while, before heading on to dinner at Crepes and Company. Yum!! If you're starting to think that we ate our way through vacation, then you would be totally right. Looking back, I'm really impressed that they were able to do so much in a day, especially with jet lag and all...
We went to church at CCC on Sunday and went out to lunch with our friends from small group, and then it was time to go to the airport. When we were going through security, one of the lady officers asked my brother Joel how old he was. He was working on his Thai numbers, so he answered in Thai that he was 13. The ladies all ooed and aaed and giggled, and then she asked him hopefully, "Girlfriend?" This became our joke for the rest of the week, anytime there was silence in the room... "Joel, girlfriend?"
For the rest of the trip, we basically retraced our steps from our previous two vacations in the North of Thailand. People keep asking us why we don't try something new, but we figure, when there's so much we don't like here, if we find something we love, we should stick to it. So some of these places may look familiar to you, but it was so amazingly fun to show my family all our favorite places. We started in Chiang Rai. We stayed at a nice guesthouse a little ways outside of town called Ben's Guesthouse. We rented motorbikes and took an amazing ride out to the Khun Khon Waterfall in the mountains. After hiking in to the waterfall, Joel and I put on our swim suits and climbed down to swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Because of the monsoon rains, the water pressure was so high that it blinded us and we had to crawl forward with our eyes shut and take refuge behind a big rock. It was awesome!! We were "collecting" Thai experiences for Joel, and this ranked pretty high up on his list, along with swinging on real jungle vines on the side of the trail.
Playing in the bamboo.
After our swim.
Look! Mom and Dad in a picture together at the white temple.
In Chiang Rai, we walked around town quite a bit, went to the Tribal Museum, frequented some awesome coffee shops, and found a great new restaurant the serves Thai foods on a pizza. Green curry chicken pizza, pongari curry with onions and veggies. Delicious!
John and Mom on the motorbike. We went for some awesome rides around Chiang Rai.
We got caught in a monsoon rain shower.
Joel and John went to a fish spa called "Doctor Fish." Basically, you stick your feet in an aquarium and these tiny fish eat the dead skin off your feet and calves. Just looking at the picture makes me want to vomit, but Joel loved it for some reason...
After a couple of days, it was time to get on the bus to Chiang Mai. We stayed at the AWANA guesthouse again, of course, but this time my family stayed on the top level, where there is a big open space on the roof with tables, couches, a bed, and some great views. We kind of claimed this communal area as our own, and really enjoyed the space for eating and playing lots of games.
Eating at a great outdoor BBQ in the University district. It's a really fun meal, and it was delicious... at least until that night when several of us got sick.
Squeezing us all into a tuktuk.
Trying durian for the first time, at Joel's request. It really wasn't as bad as some people say, but then again, it wasn't good either. After we tried it, we threw it away in a garbage can near the hotel. Two days later, it still smelled like our durian. No wonder they don't allow it on public transportation!
It was a spectacular trip for everyone, and we were sad to say goodbye to them so soon. They went on to India, and John and I stayed here, but just for a little while.
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