Thank you that we can feed the kangaroos

Have I ever mentioned how much we love the zoo here? In almost every prayer, Samara says, "Thanks for (to)day. Thanks that we can feed the kangaroos and ride on the elephant".  We met up with friends last week and timed it just right to feed the Giraffes. You donate $5 to the zoo foundation and get a basket of food. Samara loved it. She was in heaven. She was not afraid at all and wanted to feed him 'more' when all her carrots were gone. She started taking carrots from the big basket so they gave her some pellets to feed the giraffe. Giraffes take the food with their tongues, which are insanely long.

Jami, Bam, and Danai came for a visit the weekend after we came back from Thailand and she and I took the kids to the zoo and were able to feed the Elephants. We also watched the polar bear feeding and learned some interesting stuff. They weigh less than a kilogram at birth but the average adult male weighs 900 kg. This amazing growth is aided by the fact that polar bear breastmilk has 48% fat compared to 4% in human milk.

The two little trouble makers at the Chinese Gardens.

Phuket Town

Phuket Town  originally derived its wealth from being on the trading route between China and India.  The French, English, and Dutch all competed for trading with the island.  It was especially known for its rich supply of rubber, and its unique architecture (due to so many cultures intermingling there).  It's especially well-known for it's Sino-Portuguese Architecture. Currently, Phuket is the wealthiest province in Thailand due to all the tourism.

Unfortunately, it was raining while we were there so we didn't get very many pictures...and now all of you can breathe a sigh of relief like when I ran out of film at girls camp and couldn't take pictures of the pot guts anymore.   We wish we could have seen more of it but rain, kids, time, etc. limited what we saw.  Definitely worth a visit for anyone traveling to the Phuket area.

Making the world's best spring rolls.  He had quite a system down.

Bam's friend took us to a great little place for lunch.   We loved trying new things but Samara subsisted mainly on rice and snacks we brought the whole trip.  Just think of the killer immune system she is going to have when we move back home.

The oldest hotel in Phuket.  'The beach' (haven't actually seen or even heard of it) was filmed here.

View of Phuket 

This looks like a quaint little street, doesn't it?  Perhaps a great place to eat dinner our last night on the trip?   I'm glad we are in agreement.   ...that is until the ladies of the evening started making cat calls out to Ben and Jami, who were both walking with their wives and pushing/carrying their kids.  The highlight was the one we saw double dipping--she knitted while she waited for clients.  

 

One of the many street vendors.  Portable and pretty!

Amazing Race here she comes!  Who wants to partner up with her?  

Karon Beach--Phuket

aIt rained both mornings we were in Phuket, but the weather in the afternoons couldn't have been better. We had a glorious time playing on the beach. We are planning a trip back in two years for our 10th anniversary to visit some of those dreamy islands off Phuket with the crystal clear water, white sand beaches, rock climbing, snorkeling, kayaking, etc.

Hard at work

Hard at Play

Passing their skills onto the next generation

Samara can be quite timid when it comes to strangers so you can imagine our surprise when she took her sassy (as they say in NC) little hip-swingin' walk over to make some friends.

'Cousin Danaika' and Samara had a great time together. We miss you guys already! It was so nice to spend time with family.

This was our hotel room, which was quite across the street from the beach.   It was remodeled after the tsunami hit and was quite nice especially considering it only cost $53.99 USD for two nights including breakfast and two bottles of water!!! (I only know the exact amount because our Singapore card would not work, of course.)

Buddhist sites

Spirit house in Phang Nga. These are very common in Thailand. It's apparently a remnant of an older religion, predating Buddhism, that worshipped spirits (and is now intertwined with Buddhism). Among them are the guardian spirits, specific to, for example, the garden or the home. These little houses are built to provide shelter for these spirits, who repay the favor by offering protection on the site. We've seen spirit houses to a limited degree here in Singapore, but they were very prevalent throughout our trip in Thailand. It was neat to learn more about Buddhism and see all the interesting sites and again have someone to ask our questions to.

This is a Buddhist Temple in Phang Nga just up the street from her folks' house.

Wat ("temple") Chalong is in a temple complex just north of Phuket. There are 29 Budhhist monasteries in Phuket and this is the largest and most magnificent. I think there were four wats in this complex.

Lighting a prayer candle. There was a chimney fireplace structure across the street where you can come back and light firecrackers once your prayer is answered. It was built specifically to resonate the sound. Who knew gratitude could be so loud!?!



Seeing food and water placed around religious statues was very common. From what we gathered, it serves to provide sustenance for the spirits.


We spent Monday morning exploring Phuket with Bam's friend who lives there. Our first stop was at the 'Big Buddha', which is built atop Nakkerd hills--Phuket's favorite sunset viewpoint. The builder intends it to be an icon like the statue of Christ in Rio, the Statue of Liberty, and the Colossus of Rhodes. Below are pictures from that site.

(Notice the water)

It is a work in progress and should be completed in another year.

At 45 M tall, Big Buddha will be the tallest Buddha in Thailand. I wonder if that Fox13 newscaster is mad they stole his name (this is a Utah-specific reference).

Here is what it will look like when it is completed.

Thailand--Krabi Emerald Pools

On Saturday morning, all of us set off for the Krabi emerald pool, which is situated in Khao Phra Bang Khram Nature Reserve.  We drove to Krabi, the province north of Phang Nga.  The drive took about 2.5 hours, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but for Ben and Jami who were crammed in the back of the CRV, it was a bit long.  The drive actually reminded us of the drive from Greenville to the outer banks--beautiful scenery with little towns popping up on the way.  After walking up a trail for about fifteen minutes, we reached the emerald pool.   It is also known as 'crystal pool' or 'Sra Morakot' in Thai.  This is an rich-hued natural pool at the center of the forest, filled with glistening clear spring water.  It was so clear and beautiful.  There was also a 'blue pool', waterfall and many other trails.  You could really spend a couple full days exploring the area.

Danai taught Samara how to say 'Swatdee' or hello in Thai.  We got a lot of mileage out of this and I have to admit it was pretty darn cute.   I'm pretty sure this is why they let the extra kilos in our luggage on the way home slide.

Speaking of sliding, we found this little shoot/water slide above the pool.  It was quite slippery on the rocks.  I wish I could have captured the gleeful look of terror on Samara's face as she slid down it. 

We had flashbacks of our hike in Borneo and this is our little makeshift sling.  Although, Samara still has her cute baby chubbiness she only weighs 25 pounds, which makes it pretty easy to tote her around.

As they say in Thailand, 'Bon Vo Yage'!

Thailand--Phang Nga

For those of you who just check the blog to make sure we've survived this worldwide swine flu epidemic, we are still alive and you can go on to your next blog. I think we are going to "blurb" our blog so these posts may start to get quite boring for some of you. That way, since I don't keep a journal or scrapbook, we'll have a way to keep track of our time here.

When I was 20 and trying to decide what to do with my life, I read an article about Thailand in National Geographic. It was about the incredible private beaches from which you could rock climb, snorkel, kayak, etc. and I decided I was going to move there. Unfortunately, when I called the airline (no online booking back then) the ticket price was way more money than I had in savings. Fast forward a few years and I marry Ben who happens to have a fabulous sister-in-law from Thailand and I secretly hope someday I would still make it to Thailand. When we decided we were moving to Singapore we talked to Bam and Jami (Ben's brother) and found out they were planning a visit to Thailand in the Spring so our little trip was planned before we even moved here and we've been looking forward to it ever since. When things were hectic and not so fun in the beginning here, I'd tell myself..."just gotta make it until May then you get to go to Thailand".

Thank goodness even with all those years of anticipation, Thailand did not disappoint. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed every minute of the trip. We flew in Thursday night and they picked us up from the airport. We drove from the Phuket airport to Phang Nga, which is where Bam grew up and her parents live. Phang Nga province is north of Phuket province, which is the southern most one.

The next morning we went to one of the markets in town with Bam and her dad to get breakfast. I love markets--they remind me of my mission. They're so full of color, smells, and people. Bam's family goes most mornings to get breakfast. As an aside, she told us when she first learned about food storage she thought it was the strangest idea because they often get groceries for meals fresh daily. We loved being with her and her parents. It made the trip all the more fabulous being able to experience more than just the normal tourist spots. We loved all the food we tried.

After Breakfast, we took off for Phang Nga National Park on a boat tour of the bay. The boat dock was literally a 10 minute drive from their house.

Elephant Rock

Khao Khian or Writing Hill - A shallow cave that contains colored drawings of people, crocodiles, dolphins and sharks estimated to be about 3,000 years old.

Our fabulous tour guides. Don't they look so James Bond-ish?

James Bond Island, where The man with the golden gun was filmed.

The rock where some chase scene took place in the movie. You'll notice Bam and her parents are always wearing black shorts and white shirts. This is because her grandfather had recently passed away. A Buddhist custom to show respect and remember the loved one who has passed away. I thought it was a really neat tradition.


Can you tell who just woke up? Samara always falls asleep on boat rides. I think she's fallen asleep more on them then in her car seat. Pretty sad since we've been on three boat rides. Samara was such a trooper and slept quite well on the trip. She never used to be able to sleep outside her quite dark room but napped everyday at some point despite us being on the go. It was pretty miraculous. She'd let us know she was tired, snuggle up to us, and we'd pat her back or rub her head and she'd drift off. Truly miraculous.

Another beautiful view

Ko Phanak--A floating pier town where we totally got ripped off buying some little souvenirs because we had the exchange rate wrong.

Samara signing 'Bridge'. The Signing Time videos have been one of her favorite things so I am trying to get pictures for her book of her doing different signs.

We returned home and enjoyed yummy some phad thai at a great little restaurant in town then went to the town park in the evening.

The little explorers. Who is more interested?

Wheeeeeeeeee!

A popular game called "Takraw" that makes use of a hollow, loosely woven rattan ball which is kept aloft as long as possible by a circle of players who can use their feet, knees, elbows, and heads but not their hands.

The physical geography was honestly so beautiful. We both thought it was one the prettiest places we'd ever been too.

I absolutely loved the interesting ways people got around and wished I could to spent a whole day taking pictures of the market and people zipping around. We went out for a walk Sunday morning before leaving for Phuket and I at least got a few fun shots. This happens here as well but you'll often see trucks full of workers often dressed alike heading off to some job site. Below is a picture from the car and then one of a truck I ran after, which they all loved and started waving at me. There was one big truck I saw that-no joke-had 100+ dudes in it, taking the term "HOV" to a whole new level.



Many of the homes have front rooms that open to the outside that they use as store fronts. These rooms have large metal gates that can close off the front entrance and allow the fresh air to come in while keeping people out. Sunday morning around 5:30 I went downstairs to get a drink and saw/heard them opening the gates. I wondered what they were doing and on my way back upstairs saw they were giving food to a Buddhist monk. I wasn't sure if I was just half asleep or not so I asked Bam about it later. (One of the neatest things about the trip was being able to ask all the questions we have when travel to a new place and get a real answer not just the one Ben makes up when I ask him questions he doesn't know.) Bam's family normally prepares food for them once a week. They come and gather food in the mornings and then eat only once a day at 11:00a. Here is what wikipedia said about it since it's past my bedtime.

In Buddhism, all monks and nuns traditionally live by begging for alms, as did the historical Gautama Buddha himself. This is, among other reasons, so that lay people can gain religious merit by giving food, medicines, and other essential items to the monks. The monks seldom need to plead for food; in villages and towns throughout modern Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and other Buddhist countries, householders can often be found at dawn every morning streaming down the road to the local temple to give food to the monks.

It was pretty neat to be able to see it happen in real life even if I thought it was just a dream at first. I suppose it is sort of like us feeding the mormon missionaries at dinner. I have to admit we probably wouldn't be so willing if we had to get up at the crack of dawn.

We saw this monk later on our walk. Monks seems like such nice good people. You have to admire their faith and devotion.

(Although one may have stolen our nephew's toy truck! Another story for another time...but it went something like this, "Hey, Monk! Where's my truck?!") For those of you who know Danai's fabulous raspy voice it's all the funnier.