Family and Friends in the Land of Smiles

Thailand – Bangkok – Wat Pho

This week was a major shift. We flew to Thailand and met up with Sam, Pat’s cousin who’s living and working in India, Megan, Lindsey’s sister from Denver, and Kelci, a friend of Lindsey and Megan’s from Colorado. Other than organized tours, this is the first time that we have traveled with other people on this adventure. We all need to make decisions together and decide if we want to do the same things or not. Since everyone in the group is a seasoned traveler and knows what they want to see, we are are able to share the burdens of planning and decision making. Since Pat still wasn’t feeling well, he stayed behind a few times while the rest of us went out to sightsee.

1. Go

Thailand has some pretty interesting and intense forms of transportation. It is usually faster, dirtier, and more chaotic than you would like.

Thailand – Phuket – Long Boats at low tide

Plane – 3,333 km. Taipei to Bangkok and Bangkok to Phuket.
Metro – 14 km. Around Bangkok
Taxi – 109 km. To and from hotel in Bangkok, to hostel in Phuket, and sightseeing in Phuket.
Boat – 13 km. We took some canal boats in Bangkok that were packed full of passengers. They would briefly stop at the dock were you would have to jump (literally) on or off before it left. Once we were onboard we were joking that the roof was at a height not meant for western tourists, when suddenly the roof began to lower. It turns out they have to lower the roof to fit under some bridges so we were left hunched over for portions of the trip.

Thailand – Bangkok – Canal Boat

Foot – 62,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 31 miles)

2. See

We technically had four whole days in Bangkok, but we didn’t get to see much. Pat was needing the rest and since we are planning to come back and spend at least a week in Bangkok, we figured we could just stay in. Lindsey was able to get out for a full day of sightseeing with the rest of the group. We started the day by hiking up Golden Mount, which has great views of the entire city. From there we went to Wat Pho and viewed the largest reclining buddha at 150 feet long. After walking all morning we indulged in Thai foot massages (which to be honest was slightly painful). Just getting around the city is nearly as interesting as seeing the official sights. To get from point A to point B, we could take the Skytrain, taxi, tuktuk, canal boat, or bus.

Thailand – Bangkok – Canal Life

Thailand – Bangkok – Kelci on the way up Golden Mount

Thailand – Bangkok – Wat pho Reclining Buddha

Thailand – Bangkok – Wat Pho Reclining Buddha

Thailand – Bangkok – Wat Pho Roofs

Thailand – Bangkok – Wat Pho

Thailand – Bangkok – Boats on the River

For the second half of the week we made our way to Phuket. With only a few days, we definitely did not see it all, but we got a good taste. Lindsey, Megan, and Kelci took a cooking class (read more about it in the EAT section), while Sam and Pat wandered town. The next day we all ventured out to Ko Rang Yai via a series of taxis and long boats. The weather wasn’t perfect, but it meant that we had the beach almost to ourselves until early afternoon when lots of Russian tourists showed up.

Thailand – Phuket – Thalang Rd

Thailand – Phuket – Thalang Sunday night market

Thailand – Phuket – Long Boats at low tide

Thailand – Phuket – View from Cooking School

3. Eat

Thai food is pretty great. We’ve had lots of delicious noodles (pad thai, pad see eew, etc.), soup (mostly tom yom), and various curries. We eat a lot of thai food at home, so most of it is pretty familiar, but still tasty. We particularly enjoyed the Sunday night market on Thalang Rd in Phuket. We drank beer while it rained, then wandered through the stalls trying a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

While in Phuket, Lindsey, Megan, and Kelci took a cooking class. We made four dishes over the course of five hours: spring rolls, tom yom, pad thai, and green curry. They demonstrated how to make mango with sticky rice, but we did not do it ourselves. First they would demonstrate the dish in the demo room, then we would move to our stations and assistants would help us make it. Next came the best part, we would eat it! The instructor was full of all kinds of interesting and useful information. She would tell us what Thai families typically make at home (curry) or buy out (pad thai). She also told us how we would find these ingredients in our home countries or what we could use instead.

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Graduated with Certificates! (with our instructor)

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Station

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Eating our creations

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Megan with her pad thai

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Tom Yom soup and Spring Rolls

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Pad Thai (complete with tomato rose)

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Green Curry

Thailand – Phuket – Cooking Class – Mango with Sitcky Rice

4. Drink

Celebrating with family and friends always involves a few beers. The local Thai beers are nothing special, but they are drinkable and refreshing in the heat. Phuket is a tourist hot spot, so we had to partake in the tower o’ beer being offered at the night market for a low price. Good thing we had five people to finish it off!

Thailand – Phuket – Tower o’ Beer

5. Sleep

In Bangkok we stayed at the quirky Atlanta hotel, which is frozen in time, specifically 1952. The furnishings, the uniforms, the music, the lighting, and the general feel is straight out of the 50’s. It’s not fancy and not expensive, and just right for our needs. They had signs everywhere saying that they did not tolerate any tomfoolery, calamities, miscreants, or troublemakers (maybe we shouldn’t have stayed there). I was taking a photo of the lobby during the day when a staff member walked by and said, “It’s much prettier at night – magical even. It’s like an old woman, it needs soft lighting.” Well, he was right, it was better at night.

Thailand – Bangkok – The Atlanta Hotel

6. Move

We were incredibly lazy this week partially due to Pat’s illness, but also due to more time spent socializing. Before everyone arrived, Lindsey fit in some circuits in the room with the AC cranked up. As Pat heals, we hope to get in some good swims and maybe some beach runs. Also, it’s really hot, like REALLY hot. We thought Taiwan was hot and had a hard time getting out, but Thailand is ridiculous. It seems that our only option may be swimming.

Check out Pat’s CADENCE Week 25 post (coming soon) for details about this week.

7. Etcetera

We have an exciting week ahead of us and it’s the perfect time to have American company. Thanksgiving is on Thursday and Lindsey’s birthday is on Saturday, so we will be sure to do something – not sure if we will be able to find pumpkin pie or chocolate cake, but maybe pumpkin curry and red bean cake!

Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.