Travelling from Cambodia to Thailand proved the most painful part of our trip. We took a taxi for the first 2+ hours to the Thailand border - a smooth ride if you have your eyes closed, but a terrifying one if they're open and watching the 2 lane road used as 4 lanes as your driver swerves around motorcycles, trucks, water buffalo and bicycles. From the border to Bangkok, we rode in a 19 passenger mini-bus, with the Hackett's and their luggage taking up the little back row. We've never been so happy to see family as we were to see Uncle Gordon waiting for us at the bus station.
Uncle Gordon and Emma took us to Ko Kret, but first we fed the giant catfish who enjoy bread as much as anyone else.
Jane really wanted her picture taken with these sea snakes and Ryan thought these fish looked good enough for a picture, if not to eat.
On the island they made pottery with such speed that if you blinked you would miss the whole process.
Here is the ferry taking us back to the mainland. Our girls loved being on the river, especially yelling out, "There's a super fast boat!" as the longboats sped by.
Here are Madigan and the long suffering cat, Smoky, being loved to death. We didn't see much of him after the first day.
The National Museum of Royal Barges was the neatest thing we saw in Bangkok, although perhaps the hardest to find. Our taxi driver missed it twice and then we had to walk along a small alleyway for 15 minutes to get there. It is much easier to find from the river. I've never seen barges that looked like this before. Perhaps I can incorporate some of these designs when I make my own canoe.
We never actually got to enter the Grand Palace, but we did snap some pictures outside. (The first time we tried to enter they ran out of men's pants to rent, and the second time we only had 30 minutes left until closing time which would give us time to walk about 50 feet in, going a very tired two-year-old speed). I thought it would be fun to get a picture of the girls together (left picture below) and Ryan got all of two exposures before a group of Asian tourists crowded in front of Ryan to take their own pictures.
We went to a floating restaurant on a day excursion in which the girls discovered they love Tom Yum soup. To be totally honest, their favorite parts of the soup were the shrimp that they had to take the legs and tails off in order to eat.
Near the border of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) we visited the bridge made famous in the movie
The Bridge on the River Kwai. During WWII, 16,000 Allied prisoners of war (and possibly as many as 100,000 civilians) died building this bridge and nearby railways for the Japanese. The bridge was bombed in 1944, but the round truss spans are the originals.
Here is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, where 7,000 Allied POWs are buried.
After hearing rave reviews from the Johnson's, we went to the Tiger Temple. It's hard to know who had the most reservations about touching a tiger. You can't really blame the girls for looking nervous, especially since both of them got hit on the head by the resting tiger's tail (note the man's foot keeping the tail in place in Jane's picture).
Weren't we surprised to find there were more animals than tigers at the Tiger Temple. Here's a view of the a napping water buffalo and a herd in their watering hole.
Jane specifically requested this picture with the large mamma boar. Michelle's laughing because the boar seemed to know she was getting her picture taken, as she paused in her walk right just as we got into position. What a ham.
In Bangkok I took another great cooking class. Here we are at the market with all the things we will be using to make our dishes.
I am making a lovely Massaman curry below and you can see all the ingredients we purchased below along with any number of dried spices, rice and chilies.
On another day tour we went to see an elephant and crocodile show. Once the girls saw how big real elephants were up close and personal, they weren't nearly as interested in riding on top of them.
Our girls now play "crocodile show" at home with their little plastic dinosaurs. There's a lot of putting fingers in mouths and running "sticks" along the tops of the dinosaurs head, and jumping in surprise when they almost get bitten.
The elephant show was a real treat- with real cannon-fire.
We'll end this portion of our journey with video clips from the incredible elephant show and from a staged cultural presentation we saw at the Rose Garden. This show had something for everyone: Thai music, Thai boxing, Thai dancing girls, a Thai wedding, Thai sword fighting, and more. It all appeared authentic, except maybe for a few of the dancers in the final number. Look closely and you may see one-and-a-half dancers that seem awfully familiar;)
