Summer Fun - American Style

What a great way to come home and enjoy summer - SNOW CONES AND A POOL PARTY:

Two days after we got home our recreation association held a family pool and movie party, we were tired but we couldn't resist joining the fun.

In fact, it has been pretty hot here in Chicago.  We were expecting a little relief after Thailand but Chicago has consistently given us 90 degree temps with humidity.  Hence, we are frequenting the pool and movie theater to keep cool.

SWIMMING IS ALWAYS MORE FUN WITH FRIENDS

WE HAD A BLAST CHECKING OUT THE NEW COMMUNITY SPLASH PAD

We missed most of the summer movie season while in Thailand, so we have had a lot catching up to do in the last two weeks I have seen Inception, Karate Kid, Sorceror's Apprentice, Eclipse and Despicable Me.  No wonder, I can't seem to catch up on housework!

Another one of our summer traditions is blueberry picking.  I love it and I love having big juicy blueberries in my freezer year round.  I'm not sure if the girls like picking blueberries or they just like hanging out with friends.  This year we picked 12 lbs.

Cucumbers Gone Wild

What happens when you leave your garden unattended for a month?  You come back to a jungle.  Fortunately, we had someone water the garden but in terms of weeding and maintenance it was a free for all.  Particularly, wily were the cucumbers.  This was a surprise to me because I have never had much success with cucumbers in the Midwest, every year they just do okay.  Not this year, however.  The cucumbers were growing and climbing all over the place, even up onto the tomato cages.  I had to pick well over a dozen, a number of which were intertwined on the tomato plants.  At least I didn't need to run to the store for fresh veggies, I picked three plastic grocery bags full of vegetables.   

The day after we got back from Thailand, my dad and I went out to work in the garden.  We were still off on time and I figured that if I was going to be wide awake at 5am, I might as well do something productive.  I pulled weeds and pruned monstrous tomato plants as my dad pruned my lilac bushes and brought the pumpkin plants that had jumped the fence into the neighbors' yard back into ours.  It has taken a few more early mornings of yard work, but things are pretty much back under control and we are already enjoying zucchini bread and lots, and lots, and lots of cucumbers.

Southern Thailand - Krabi and the Andaman Sea

The last major leg of our trip was south to Thailand's famous beaches on the Andaman Sea.  Instead of the uber-touristy city of Phuket, we went across the bay to the city of Krabi.  The beaches here are breathtaking and beautiful, this is very near the location where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. 

Our original plan had been to drive to Krabi.  It is about a 10 hour drive from Bangkok and we would have done it over the course of two days in a passenger van with three of my dad' sisters, Aunt Acharee and my two Aunt Eats.  However, on the day we were supposed to leave Ashley got sick and started throwing up, so we felt like a road trip would not be a good idea.  Instead, my dad and his sisters drove down without us and we bought tickets to fly down and meet them once Ashley was feeling better.  In the end, Ashley ended up being okay, but later on, I was the one who got sick.  I must have picked up some kind of bacteria that I had been fighting off the last few days in Bangkok.  By the time we got to Krabi it had gotten worse so on day two I couldn't eat much and was up all night vomiting.  I ended up having to go to a medical clinic/hospital and get some antibiotics.  Fortunately, they did the trick and I started feeling better by the next day.  Unfortunately, because the photographer (me) was a not feeling too well during this leg of the trip and we were in the water a lot, so we didn't get as many pictures as usual.

Anyways, when we arrived in Krabi, the owner of the resort we were staying in and a friend of the family came to pick us up at the airport.  We then went to the FV Garden Resort, which has been open for less than a year and is absolutely beautiful.  This particular resort is not near the beach but it was still very nice and the owners were so kind and helpful.  The owners had a daughter who had just returned from a year in the USA as a high school exchange student.  She came along with us, translated, and was a good friend to the girls.  We also had some really good food here.  The owner's wife did all the cooking and she was amazing.  One memorable experience is that when we arrived at the resort, we were asked if we would like a fresh coconut drink.  We said sure and were told that the owner had gone to get them for us.  This was a little more literal than we realized because not a few minutes later, the owner came walking up, machete in hand with branch of a coconut tree that he had just cut down in hand.  He then proceeded to pull the coconuts from the tree, slice them open using his machete, splashing juice everywhere.  They then stuck straws in the coconuts and handed them to us to drink.  Now that is fresh.

Here are the two rooms we stayed in while at the FV Garden Resort.  The first night we stayed in the biggest bungalow available.  It was really cool but it was like camping in a fancy log cabin.  We were all scared of the gecko hiding in our shower and even though I was up sick, the BIG UNKNOWN CRITTER that clambered across our roof in the middle of the night was just too scary for me (and Dave.) 

The next night, we moved to the modern bungalows and were as happy as could be.

View from modern bungalow

Girls playing mancala in the outdoor lobby

On our first day, we visited the Emerald Pool, a natural fresh water pool in the nearby forest.  We had to hike a about 1km to the pool and then jumped into the beautiful, warm green water.  The biggest challenge of this adventure was getting out of the pool as it is all-natural without any man-made improvements.  It also has no bank to ease you into the water, you basically just jump into five feet of water and have to claw your way up VERY slippery rocks to get out.  I was worried that maybe we wouldn't all be able to get out safely, but it worked out and was a fun way to cool off.  After our swim, on the way back down, we took a scenic trail and basically ended up on a very primitive hike through a jungle.  There were a couple of times I wasn't sure we were going to make it out, but since we all survived, I can now look back fondly. 

After the Emerald Pool, we met up with the my dad and aunts at the Salty Hot Springs.  There is only one other spring like this in the world and it is in Angola.  Pretty sure that our only salty hot springs experience is going to be in Thailand!

The next day, after securing my antibiotics, we drove to Ao Nang beach.  From there we rented a long-tail boat and went island hopping in one of the most scenic places I have ever been.  We rode the boat from island to island getting out at each one to swim and snorkel.  The water was warm and emerald green and the white-sand was velvety soft.  The girls loved playing in the ocean waves and didn't even mind all the beautiful fish surrounding them as they snorkeled.  In fact, Ashley didn't complain too much when she got stung by a jelly fish and Paige didn't complain about the horrible sunburn she got on her backside (I applied and re-applied sunblock, but we all still got burned, must of been bad block or super strong rays.) 

Later that night we returned to our resort to a big blue crab dinner.  There must have been at least 50 crabs on the table.  It was yummy, but unfortunately, I still had to go easy on my stomach.  I wish I had remembered to take a picture.

Road trip Thai Style---11 passenger van, 13 people, bags and bags of souvenirs, and 4 live trees.

The next day we drove to the city of Trang for a dim sum breakfast and to vist the Khaokab Cave.  This is hands down the scariest thing we did in Thailand.  You enter the cave by boat but in many places the clearance is so low that you and the guide have to lay flat as the rock ceiling passes inches above your face.  I took a couple of pictures in the beginning but had to put the camera down as there eventually wasn't enough room to have my hands up. 

My dad with the dim sum bamboo steamers-he loves dim sum!

Once inside the cave you can get out and walk through some portions.  The clearance is pretty low and I had to crouch most of the time.  Thank goodness Dave decided he was too big to go in, he would have had to crawl as he was pretty much the tallest person in Thailand.  Oh, did I mention there were bats flying around the cave?

After this, we drove back to Krabi and checked into the beachside resort called Krabi Resort. Aunt Acharee made arrangments for us to stay in the luxury family villa.  It was so nice, I loved the bathroom and the English language television was also a big hit.

The next morning we ate breakfast and lunch beachside.  The resort wasn't that busy so it's private beach literally became "The Smith Family Private Beach."  We had the whole place to ourselves and we spent the whole morning playing in the surf.  We even took a swim in the resort pool to wash away the salty ocean water, had lunch and the girls and I got pedicures.  If only we had more days to spend laying on the beach...

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.