A Bit More Bangkok and Pak Chong

These items sort of go along with Bangkok, but the previous post was already pretty long so I decided to use a separate entry to finish up.

I have to start with Tofu, arguably the girls favorite thing in Thailand; not the tofu that you eat, but this kind of Tofu:

Meet Tofu, Aunt Poa and Uncle Mao's poodle.  The girls LUH-VED this dog.  Seriously, they haven't stopped talking about him since we got home.  If Dave wasn't allergic, we would probably have our own version of Tofu by now.  In fact, most of the Thai words they learned were so that they could communicate with Tofu.  Just ask the girls how to say tofu, sit, and no in Thai.

I'm sure Tofu was a little relieved when we went home.  He probably needed a break from the 24 hour attention the girls were showering on him.  The Pongthornphurt family sure are good dog owners; they trained Tofu well.  This little dog was very kid friendly, as he was subjected to tons of holding, picking-up, and cuddling along with lots of playing fetch.

Okay, back to the travelogue.  After all the sightseeing in Bangkok, we met up with my dad's sister, Auntie Acharee.  Auntie had a lot planned for us including taking us down south to enjoy Thailand's beautiful beaches.  Before that however, we drove about 2.5 hours north to Pak Chong to stay in the resort she owns called Phu Hin Suay.  Along with our family, my dad and Aunt Acharee, Aunt Eat-Leyt, and Aunt Eat-K, and Uncle Moo came along. 

Phu Hin Suay Resort

The property includes a number of guest houses and was nestled right up against the mountainside.  We arrived in time for lunch and a quick swim for the girls in the pool.  During their swim a rain shower passed over much to the girls' delight.  After cleaning up, we just visited while my Aunts and Uncle played a Thai card game, I got a Thai foot massage, and Dave took a nap.  Later that evening we had dinner at the resort restaurant.  I only mention this because as the sun went down and we were preparing to leave the restaurant we were attacked by hundreds of moths attracted to the light.  I am not exaggerating when I say hundreds.  Everyone was pretty nonchalant about it, but when the moths started bouncing off her body, poor Paige lost it, she was so scared.  Fortunately, she survived and we got her out of there.

The next day, before we left to return to Bangkok we went for a little drive making a stop at the Greenery Adventure Park where we rode in a hot air balloon, the girls went on a zip line, rode bumper cars and Ashley went on slingshot bungee ride.  It was super hot that day but pretty fun.  

Ashley didn't ride with us, at that moment she wasn't feeling too well because of the heat.

After we left Greenery, we headed over to Khao Yai National Park for a scenic drive into the beautiful outdoors.  Our favorite part were the animal crossing signs---warnings to watch for elephants and cobras...not exactly what we are used to in North America!

Dave on a rickety suspension bridge in Khao Yai National Park

We then had lunch and met up with everyone else for the drive back to Bangkok.  We got stuck in gridlock Bangkok traffic and ended up going straight to a restaurant to meet up with more family (including Aunt Acharee's husband, Uncle Vit, and their daughter & family) for dinner.  The restaurant was a very fancy Chinese place where we were served shark fin and Peking duck.  Unfortunately, we (as in me, Dave and the girls) were all so full from our steak lunch just a few hours before that we really couldn't eat too much.  After a very long day, we finally crashed at Aunt Acharee's house.  She has a beautiful home, here are the girls standing by the lake in her backyard.

At the very end of our trip, the day before we went home, Aunt Acharee took us to dinner at a delicious Japanese seafood buffet---very good, they also served steak so even the girls loved it.  We also got to visit Auntie at the Veloil headquarters.  Here we are on the deck that is attached to Uncle Vit's office, it overlooks the Chao Phraya River.

I should also mention that it was on this portion of trip that our Aunts gave the girls Thai nicknames.  In Thailand, everyone goes by their nickname rather than their official given name, most of the time you don't even know anyone's real name.  Ashley's nickname is "Acharee" after her Aunt and Paige is "Petula" (pet-chew-la) which means pink diamond.  So cute.