Babs and Face arrive in THAILAND!!!!!!!!!! And so the family adventure begins...
First, we started off in Bangkok for a few days so they could recover from the flight and we could see some sights. I am not the biggest fan of the grand palace but it is the first thing that most people want to do when they come to Thailand. So i took them there but instead of paying the 300 baht fee to enter we just roamed around the outside, saw the laying down Buddha instead (much cooler) and i introduced them to various street foods (squid on a stick, coconut juice, and satay among some others). Then, we headed to Chinatown to roam around a bit before heading back. The next day we got up wicked early (that's right, I'm from Jersey but I can say wicked too!) like, 5am, to go to the OTHER floating market, Damnoen Saduak. It was cool and had a lot more going on in the water it seemed but much less on the outside. There were much fewer boats than I expected too... basically, Ampawa was a lot better but I am glad I did it nonetheless.
Saturday morning we flew up to Chiang Mai. This is where my ambition really kicked into high gear...
Day 1: Elephant Trekking and White Water Rafting
Day 2: Thai Cooking School
Day 3: Flight of the Gibbon (zip-lining through the jungle canopy)
All totally amazing. The white water rafting was the thing that terrified me the more (we almost backed out at breakfast the morning of) but i am soooo happy that I went through with it. Our guide was great and I felt (mostly) safe. I would totally do it again in Thailand or on vacation elsewhere. 2 teenage girls fell off their raft but the Leonaggeo's stayed in tact, even though Face decided to jump off the raft on his own.. twice.
The last morning in Chiang Mai (before we got on a plane to Phuket) Babs and I went on a walking temple tour of Chiang Mai, however, it was pouring and pretty miserable. Finally we ducked into Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Facility. Yup, real great place to find some shelter. They train the inmates there so that they can get work when they get out. Some of them sew, some of them cook, and some of them do massage. And better yet, the public can eat at the restaurant, buy hand-sewn items, and even get massages from these inmates! Guess which one I went for? Yupppp. I got an hour foot massage by a Thai inmate. Her name was Ying and she was 24 and had graduated from University. That's about all I could get out of her without being rude but totally cool. The money goes to the women once they get out of prison too! It's a good cause overall and a really unique experience... thanks Lonely Planet!
Last stop: Phuket. I have to admit, as much of a 'do all you can in the shortest amount of time possible' person i am, once i got to the MomTri Villa Royale I was more than satisfied sitting on my ass for 4 days. The resort was amazing. We got our own villa, splash pool, veranda, and another sitting area too. There were 3 swimming pools and it was right on the beach. The food was delicious. Honestly, we never left. One day we took a boat trip to do an island hop and saw Ko Phi Phi, Maya Bay (where the movie 'The Beach' with Leo was filmed, and Monkey island which had a lot of... you guessed it, monkeys! We got back to Bangkok Sunday afternoon and met up with one of mom's old bosses who is also teaching in Thailand. Up to this moment things were going surprisingly smoothly until... Babs and Face came to Chonburi.
Chonburi, where I live in Thailand, is about 1.25 hrs Southwest of Bangkok heading towards Pattaya. It is a small city that is pretty spread out and does not have the best public transportation system in the world. I live almost 2 miles away from where any bus, van, or songtaew travel to so I have only 1 other option: motorbike. I really like the motorbike drivers and trust them with my life regularly (it is there job to drive them after all), however, they are not the most well-educated bunch and know very little if any English. I never find this too much of a problem, however, when you are a 19 year old college sophomore on a motorbike with a driver that doesn't speak English, have no idea where you are going or have an address, or telephone number, or any Thai money, it can be an issue... especially when that motorbike driver decided to deviate from the other 2 (mine and mom's) and get lost. He dropped Matty off at some random street corner in Chonburi. Matty, having no money, gave him a $10 US bill. The guy just looked at it. Matty took it back, handed him 2 1$ bills, and the guy accepted them and drove off (wtf Thailand?!) Meanwhile, Babs is standing in the middle of the highway in Chonburi because her baby is lost and I am holding my motorbike driver hostage while he tries to call Matty's driver to find out where he had dropped him off. We then went searching through Chonburi and finally found Face standing at the corner of a 7-11, hands in pocket, looking very calm but awkward as hell as a 200 bearded white man in the middle of Asia... whatever, phew, anther Thai crisis averted! After a quit and fairly silent dinner in Chonburi (Babs was still pretty rattled) it was back to Bangkok and the states for them and back to teaching for me!
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