Friday, August 5, 2011
Flight home
2.5 hour flight + 10 hour flight +12 hour flight = some sleep, lot of movies, some seriously interesting smells, and lost luggage :( and writing this blog post at 3 in the morning because I haven't gotten over the jet lag. Well I guess I couldn't have expected everything to turn out perfectly. In all the trip was well worth it. I got a whole lot of new experiences, stories, and friends. I'm glad I was able to do it with one of my best friends.
Last couple days
On Sunday we went to church at the international branch. Afterwards we found the Cambodian members that were living in Thailand. They were soo happy to see us and we had a blast talking and laughing with them. Cambodians will always have a special place in my heart, no matter where they are. Afterwards we had the necessary Sunday nap and then had really good ribs for dinner.
The last couple days we saw some pretty cool stuff. We went to the King's summer palace where we drove a golf cart around this super nice area.
We also went to their dad's factory. He is the CEO of a very large food exporter. I'm not gonna lie. We looked pretty darn good too.
I forgot to say earlier, but Thailand was very different then what we had expected. It is much more modern than Cambodia. We spent a little bit of time in the malls. We even saw Captain America. We also saw a couple things that made us laugh.
Then we came across something that is very rare.
Yeah I don't know how this works but it's gotta be super rare. I mean how many original secondhands can there be?
The girls were busy getting a haircut so Kory and I explored. We found ourselves at the arcade and as a goodbye to Thailand we beat Terminator!
The last couple days we saw some pretty cool stuff. We went to the King's summer palace where we drove a golf cart around this super nice area.
I forgot to say earlier, but Thailand was very different then what we had expected. It is much more modern than Cambodia. We spent a little bit of time in the malls. We even saw Captain America. We also saw a couple things that made us laugh.
Then we came across something that is very rare.
The girls were busy getting a haircut so Kory and I explored. We found ourselves at the arcade and as a goodbye to Thailand we beat Terminator!
Thailand mixed with a little piece of home
To start of this post of our adventures in Thailand, it's important to know how lucky we were to stay with the Pinvises famliy. Not only had it been quite a long time since we had a nice bed and a/c, but also our meals hadn't exactly been gourmet. They took us in like family, and it was soo nice to get to know them and count them as friends. Everyday they would take us to a new place to see, and after a nice dinner we would relax at the house and usually watch a movie in their sweet movie room. I never could stay awake...They had this sweet massage chair and Kory and I were used to going to bed around 9. The night life in Cambodia and Vietnam didn't really fit our personalities.
We went out to this island and biked around for a bit. We found this pottery making place. The people were sooo good at making pottery. They were super fast. They even let us try it out. As you can see, a masterpiece in the making
Another day we took a trip out to a place called Ayutthaya. It had a bunch of old temple ruins. We took a nice bike ride around and got a couple pics. When the Burmese invaded Thailand, they destroyed the temples by taking off the heads of the buddhas. Which is very disrespectful in Southeast Asia.
One of the heads was forgotten about and it through the years a tree grew around it. pretty cool though.
We also saw these cool baby elephants that would do tricks and dance. I'm thinking about learning to be an elephant trainer in Thailand. Unfortunately it takes longer than a week so I'll have to find another time.
On Saturday we went to this super cool 7 step waterfall. Here are some pics.
It was super cool to swim in; however, there were a lot of fish and they would start nibbling on our feet if we stayed still too long. Afterwards we went to a tiger farm. Check out these.
We went out to this island and biked around for a bit. We found this pottery making place. The people were sooo good at making pottery. They were super fast. They even let us try it out. As you can see, a masterpiece in the making
Another day we took a trip out to a place called Ayutthaya. It had a bunch of old temple ruins. We took a nice bike ride around and got a couple pics. When the Burmese invaded Thailand, they destroyed the temples by taking off the heads of the buddhas. Which is very disrespectful in Southeast Asia.
One of the heads was forgotten about and it through the years a tree grew around it. pretty cool though.
On Saturday we went to this super cool 7 step waterfall. Here are some pics.
It was super cool to swim in; however, there were a lot of fish and they would start nibbling on our feet if we stayed still too long. Afterwards we went to a tiger farm. Check out these.
Bye Cambodia
After a day long bus ride to Siem Reap, we spent a couple days to visit some friends and then caught the night bus to Kampong Saom (Same beach as before). The night bus was pretty crazy. Unfortunately I fogot to take a picture, but the beds were flat for about 4 feet and then inclined for about 2 feet. They weren't the most comfortable beds, but we gotta a little shut eye. They also made everyone take off their shoes after they got on the front of the bus. That made for some interesting smells.
Kampong Saom was as relaxing as the first time. We even found a new favorite thing. At nights, they put all the tables and chairs on the sand and had 3 dollar barbeques. They were sweet! Also, we couldn't eat without a fruit shake :)
Wednesday we decided to end our stay in Cambodia and head over to Thailand. We caught the bus and made it to the Thai border around 2. Once again we got a couple laughs and smiles out of the custom officers, Then we crossed the border and our communication ability declined dramatically. We were told that another bus would pick us up across the border, but there were no buses. We were put in a van and then changed vans about 4 times every 10 minutes. The final van was to take us all the way to Bangkok where we were gonna meet up with the Pinvises family. We served with their son in Cambodia. On the way over, I asked Kory if we wrote down their number. (We didn't have a phone, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it.) Turns out that we forgot to write down their number as well.......this was gonna be interesting. We stopped to get gas and there was a little cafe near by which had wi-fi! We also had just enough juice on my itouch to pull the numbers off our email before it died.
Now time to figure out the phone situation. We were gonna ask the driver to borrow his phone but he spoke no english and we were in the back seat. Luckily the person in front of us pulled out a phone and called someone. He was nice enough to let us borrow his phone. Then we called Ariel and her dad talked with the driver and we were dropped off on the side of the road and took a taxi. It was now around 10 at night and we had been on the road for about 15 hours. We final stopped and we looked at the meter. it was 200 baht. about 7.50. We only had about 140 baht on us, but we werent too worried. we had dollars on us as well. Well we quickly found out they don't take dollars in Thai like they do in Vietnam and Cambodia. Ariel pulled up behind us and we embarrassingly asked her if she had 40 baht. She searched in her car for a couple minutes and came up with just enough. Long day.........but it was nice to sleep in Air Conditioning and comfortable beds that night. They even had Thai curry waiting for us when we got there!
Kampong Saom was as relaxing as the first time. We even found a new favorite thing. At nights, they put all the tables and chairs on the sand and had 3 dollar barbeques. They were sweet! Also, we couldn't eat without a fruit shake :)
Wednesday we decided to end our stay in Cambodia and head over to Thailand. We caught the bus and made it to the Thai border around 2. Once again we got a couple laughs and smiles out of the custom officers, Then we crossed the border and our communication ability declined dramatically. We were told that another bus would pick us up across the border, but there were no buses. We were put in a van and then changed vans about 4 times every 10 minutes. The final van was to take us all the way to Bangkok where we were gonna meet up with the Pinvises family. We served with their son in Cambodia. On the way over, I asked Kory if we wrote down their number. (We didn't have a phone, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it.) Turns out that we forgot to write down their number as well.......this was gonna be interesting. We stopped to get gas and there was a little cafe near by which had wi-fi! We also had just enough juice on my itouch to pull the numbers off our email before it died.
Now time to figure out the phone situation. We were gonna ask the driver to borrow his phone but he spoke no english and we were in the back seat. Luckily the person in front of us pulled out a phone and called someone. He was nice enough to let us borrow his phone. Then we called Ariel and her dad talked with the driver and we were dropped off on the side of the road and took a taxi. It was now around 10 at night and we had been on the road for about 15 hours. We final stopped and we looked at the meter. it was 200 baht. about 7.50. We only had about 140 baht on us, but we werent too worried. we had dollars on us as well. Well we quickly found out they don't take dollars in Thai like they do in Vietnam and Cambodia. Ariel pulled up behind us and we embarrassingly asked her if she had 40 baht. She searched in her car for a couple minutes and came up with just enough. Long day.........but it was nice to sleep in Air Conditioning and comfortable beds that night. They even had Thai curry waiting for us when we got there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)