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.

Borneo

We took our first little trip a couple weeks ago.  We found tickets for $60 SGD per person so we couldn't pass up the chance to get away.  The place where we stayed was right on the beach and was very affordable too--$275 SGD for accommodations, food and the shuttle there and back.  We went on the trip with some friends who moved here the same time as us--they are mac, canon, and chaco people so we knew we'd get along very well.  We had a fabulous time!  They have 3 little kids who were all so sweet to Samara and included her in everything.  In fact, the highlight of the trip according to Samara was "riding the shuttle bus with my friends at Borneo".

In was a sort of a last minute trip but we did some research before going.  We wanted to go on a snorkeling trip and the following sounded great:

Satang Island consisting of two islands Pulau Satang Besar and Pulau Satang Kecil is located in the South China Sea and its surrounding pristine waters are protected as a sanctuary for the turtles. Take time to visit the turtle conservation and hatchery area and learn about the conservation programme on the island. Then proceed to Satang Island's beautiful white sand beach for snorkeling amidst the wide variety of soft corals, spotting an abundance of colourful marine life.  You should be able to spot the elusive and rare schools of Irawaddy dolphins which are quite common in this area.  

This was the view from the beach of Satang Island so we thought how could we go wrong? Well, I should have known there was something fishy about the trip when the crook travel agent initially told me kids were free but when he found out we had four said he'd give me a deal four kids for the price of one adult.  A boat did come and get us.  We did look for the dolphins.  There was a turtle conservation program but we didn't stop because according to the quacks guides the turtles only come out at night and you have to pay the workers on the island to see the hatchery.  We did stop to snorkel amid the wide variety of soft corals.

The coral was pretty and the murky clear water was just like the travel agent promised. It hasn't rained for days, he said.  The guides said the water was somewhat murky because of the rain they'd received the day before.  We did see nine fish an abundance of colorful marine life.

Even Samara who is quite timid about wanting to do new things jumped right in to 'see the fishies'.  We made sure she wore a life boat vest.


We even got an extra that wasn't in the trip description--Jelly Fish!  This is one washed up on the beach of our hotel.  The ones on the snorkeling trip were quite small.  We all kept feeling little stings but no one said anything until Deborah saw one and got a sting on her leg. Thankfully, we were all fine and even though the snorkel trip wasn't exactly on par with the description we still had a great time. 


The boat ride there and back was beautiful and the company fabulous!  The guides almost made us believe we'd see those Irawaddy dolphins on the way back.


Can we really complain though when this was the view where we ate lunch...
and this is how we spent our evening?

Never trust a map in a jungle

On day two of the trip, we went on a jungle hike that Ben's boss had been on with his family.  The guidebook said it was a moderate 2 KM hike passing a pretty waterfall on the way and ending at the cultural village.

It started out beautiful.  It is fascinating how much life there is in a rainforest. 

We kept marching along with the ants but then we got to a fork in the trail--one way to the jungle trek (our planned hike) and one way to the summit.  The map had a lovely depiction of a waterfall but it was on the summit trail (the mountain in the view where we ate lunch in the Borneo post).  We all wanted to see the waterfall so we wisely decided to follow the map.  After all, we only had to make it to Marker E.  The top of the summit was about Marker V so we thought it couldn't be that far.  Why would some old map be less accurate than someone who had just been there and a guidebook?  


WRONG!  After about 45 minutes, some frustration, some serious steepness, and much loss of bodily fluids (ewww--I meant sweat!)  we determined that since we'd only made it to "B", we'd better turn back.

I wish I would have taken more pictures just to show how "summit like" it was in places.  I'm not sure why the summit trail didn't throw us off having seen the summit.  Neither of us had backpacks for the kids.  The Smiths forever gained our respect.  We traded off carrying Samara during the hike.  They each carried one of their kids, who are both older than Samara and their 6-year did the whole hike herself.  Impressive!

When we got back to the map, we saw a guide taking others on the hike so we asked if there was a waterfall the trek way (the easier path).  He confirmed there was and that it was in fact bigger than the one on the summit trail.  You know the one actually pictured on the map?

We reached the waterfall about 5 minutes later.  Notice how Ben did not break a sweat on the hike?  And the...uh...wetness on his bottom half, well that was just an accident.


After the waterfall, we got to walk along this fabulous tree-top bridge.  And that is the story of why we will never trust a map in a jungle again.

Samarak Cultural Village

The first afternoon we went to the Samarak Cultural Village , which is a living museum that depicts the heritage of the major racial groups in Saramak (the state we visited in Borneo) and portrays their way of life.  I believe there were 10 different longhouses to visit each depicting a different group from the area.

The Entrance

The bridge of death.  Notice how my hair is always looking a lot like Hermione's?  If I had an outlet in my bathroom maybe I would use my flat iron and do my hair.

A demonstration in one of the houses showing how to make dart guns.

An individual family's apartment

The common area

They also have performances twice a day.

Wowee!

Observing

Performing

Mad she can't go up this wacky latter by herself

Playing music with the girls

Doing the sign for scared

Kuching

We were glad we had a couple hours to spend in Kuching before flying out.  It was fun to see another place so different from Singapore.  The teenagers on the street were dressed so trendy.  In some ways it seemed so old but modern and hip at the same time.   

Kuching means "cat" in Malay.  Word on the street is that James Brooke, an early settler, pointed towards the settlement across the river and asked what it was called.  Whoever he asked, mistakenly thought he was pointing to a cat, and that's how it got it's name.  There are several cat statues around the city.  Meow.....now this is my kind of city. 

Ben pulls off the serious sexy look so well

Bourne hiding is Borneo

The river walk.  Samara slept on the way from the resort to the city.  Can you tell she just woke up? 

We had seen intricate woodworking when we went to the cultural village and wanted to get a souveneir.  We found this great shop right before we needed to head to the airport.  We got quite a bit of stuff for 120 ringgits, which is like $30 USD.

"I am from Russian"

The past few weeks a woman and her son have been visiting from Russia.  They come here and to China to get medical treatment for Sasha.  They are LDS and have been here before so we were put in touch with them by other members of the ward who got to know them the last time they were here.   We've really missed Russia since coming here so it was such a treat to be able to speak Russian again and get to know them.  Sasha is such a sweet little guy and quite a miracle. He got a staph infection as a newborn and was pronounced clinically dead several times.  He wasn't supposed to come out of the coma and certainly was never expected to function on any level.  He is making great progress.  Tanya, like so many Russian women, is very resilient and faces challenges and difficulties without asking "why me?" or feeling bad for herself.  Tanya wanted to keep busy and see as much as possible while Sasha wasn't at doctors' appointments so we had a fabulous time going all around Singapore together.  Apparently, we told people often about them and that they were Russian or from Russia because Samara said to someone the other day, "nice to meet you, I am from Russian".

Bonsai Garden.  You can see how thrilled Samara is to be in the picture.  Tanya loved taking pictures every where we went.  She put me and the stereotype of a camera-happy Japanese tourist to shame.

 

We visited the turtle museum again.  We went there when April and George were visiting and Samara has been asking to go back ever since.  This place boasts the world's largest collection of turtles and holds the Guinness Book of World Records for it.

We feel it is important to build a child's self esteem and boy does Samara ever feel good when she is up against a turtle.  She wins every time.

I had no idea turtles could be so freaky.  This is only one of the many bizarre turtle species they had there.

4 Months Along already....

…nope no announcement, unfortunately.  We’ve just been in Singapore four months now and thought we’d make a post about some of our favorite things and some of the things we are still adjusting to.   Like most things in life, it seems like we just got here but also feels like we’ve lived here forever.    We are loving....

Fresh-squeezed juices.  We go and get one every Monday for FHE after swimming.  You even get a punch-card— a ½ price after 6 juices and a free one after 12.  Love those punch-cards and, unlike Elaine, (subtle reference--who gets it?) we actually LIKE the product we are buying to get the punch.

Wearing Chacos everyday!

Having a trash shoot (the silver thing).  It's the best invention ever.   Frees the husband up to do other chores.  This is off our kitchen looking into the laundry area.  The door does not completely shut out the apartment to the outside.   It's so strange.  Good thing it's a safe country, we live on the 11th floor, and global cooling isn't supposed to peak until 2020 when we are long gone. The bad thing is we smell what our neighbors are having for dinner, which can be both good and bad. We occasionally get a nasty smoke smell, which isn't so pleasant. 

Our pools & facilities.  Honestly, I don’t think we’d be half as happy here without having a pool.  It’s so muggy and is often just too hot to do anything else outside.  We really like where we live.  We may move closer in to the city after our lease runs out but for now we are very content here.  

As way of advice for those who are planning a move here and reading the blog, we often hear from others that they don't like where they live and are stuck in a 2-year lease because their companies' realtor only showed them a few places and pushed them into a particular place.  Do research on your own and engage other realtors if you need to.  Once you get here the paper has tons of listings and that's how we found our place.  Also, we'd totally recommend doing a year lease because you can always renew it.  Most people who didn't tell us they wish they would have.  Also, get a local bank account once you get here.  There are five non-local banks and we chose HSBC because we have online accounts with them and thought we'd be able to transfer money back and forth but that's not the case.  A good amount of places won't even take our card and it's hard to get money from ATM because you can only use it at the 5 non-local banks.  It has been quite inconveniet.  It's so strange.  We can use our debit cards from our bank accounts back home to get money out of any ATM but they won't take the HSBC.  Citibank is also a non-local bank but seems to have more ATMs and you can transfer online to citibank accounts in the states so if you are going to go with a non-local bank pick them.

We do get this nighty little device we have to use when logging into our bank account online.   You push it and it gives you a code that you type in after your password.  It makes us feel important.

Some things we don't love:

These darned lizards!  People claim they eat all the bugs in your house but really they just leave poops all over the walls.  Because of the aforementioned inability to close ourselves off to the outside we can do nothing to keep them out.  Not to mention they are fast and make me jump whenever they dart out in front of me.

We wouldn't mind a little bigger kitchen.  Counter space would be nice.  Electrical outlets in the bathrooms would be great.  Kitchens and bathrooms just don't get the attention they do in the states.

Being asked 4-5 times a week what school Samara goes to.  To which I reply, "She's not in school.  She just turned two".  Then they say, "Oh, so which school's waiting list is she on?"  I was out waiting for someone and this was at 7:00 at night folks.  That's what time some of these kids get home from school.  We'd heard local school are so competitive and that's why expats don't send their kids to them.  It sure seems to stifle creativity--one thing we've definitely noticed is that there is an order and way of doing everything and you don't mess with it.  They just memorize a lot of stuff, take tests, and then move on to more material, memorize, test, repeat.

A friend told me in Beijing some people send their 2-year olds off to boarding school.  Yikes!  I can't imagine sending Samara away like that.

Transportation.  We never thought we’d miss not having a car  so much.  The MRT really is clean and safe.   Taxis are pretty affordable except when you really need them like in the evening or when we are downtown and then there are surcharges and they cost 35% more, etc.  A few weeks ago, we went downtown to meet up with Tanya and Sasha at their hospital.  We opted for the hour plus train ride home because we didn't have$30 to fork out for the taxi.  I hadn’t had a chance to change Samara’s diaper all afternoon.  So you can imagine my delight when I saw a puddle forming on the floor between her legs and she announced to all aboard, “Mom, I go potty.  I’m leaking out of my diaper”.  Thankfully, our stop was only two away and we were able to get home without the authorities finding us.  I’m not sure how many strikes of the cane you get for urinating on public transport, but I’m sure glad we didn’t find out.  It thrills Ben when she grabs the poll on the train and announces "I'm dancing!"

It is so hard to get used to driving being on the left side of the road.  I still look the wrong way when I cross the street.  Anytime I get a ride with someone I go to get in the driver’s spot.

People everywhere!  Even at 8:30 in the morning when the grocery store opens there is a decent crowd of people.  Weekends and evening are like shopping black-friday.  I wish they made the aisles just a little bit bigger then maybe I wouldn't run over people's toes so often.

In the end, there are challenges anywhere you live.  We are grateful that we can live in a such a neat place and are trying to make the most of our time here.  Being able to travel around the area so cheaply and see places we never imagined we'd see makes any of the hassles well worth it.  Now if we could just get a travel grant for when our current one (2008 US tax return) runs out, we'd really be set.