This Made My Day

Parent's Visit!

I am FINALLY! putting up some pictures from when my parents came to visit me!  I hope these photos and descriptions give you a glimpse of our time together :)

My parents arrived on a Sunday night, October 14.   I picked them up at the airport and we went to a hotel near my school for the night.  Monday and Tuesday were the last two days of my first semester and then I had two weeks off before my next semester would start.  

On Monday I only teach in the afternoon so in the morning my parents and I took a taxi to the school and I showed them around my school, my classroom, and my apartment and they watched me teach a couple classes.

On Tuesday, I have very full days of teaching so I sent my parents off on their own adventure.  They took a water taxi into Bangkok and went to see the reclining Buddha and some other temples and  Buddhist structures.  They met a woman who travels all the time and she hung out with them for day (she is the one my mom is talking to in the water taxi picture).  My parents got back in the afternoon and freshened up while I finished teaching.  I was pretty impressed at all they had done and how successful they had been traveling around Thailand on their second day here!  I have never been to the reclining Buddha and I had not been on the water taxi until they came, but they figured it out all on their own!

Tuesday night I took my parents to their first eat-on-the-side-of-the-road, hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  Down the soi (street) there are lots of "restaurants" and places to buy food just lined up on the side of the road. I took them to one I really like.  I think they enjoyed the unique experience and the food was pretty good!  I get my dinner there about once a week, although I usually just bring it home to eat, but thought they would like to have the full experience.

The last two pictures are my parents having their first tuk tuk experience the next day!

Wednesday was my first day of vacation!!  We took the water taxi into Bangkok.  Here are some pictures of our ride (my first water taxi experience!).

We got off the water taxi and went to the Grand Palace.  We had to rent skirts and pants before we could enter to cover our shorts.  We walked around and saw all the detailed, elaborate, and huge architecture.  We also went into a temple, saw the coronation room, and went into a museum that talked about textiles and clothes in Thailand, and had lots of the queens dresses on display.  It was a pretty hot day but it was nice to walk around and see the Grand Palace.  After that we took a taxi to one of the main roads in Bangkok where we had some really good pizza.  On the way home we took the BTS (sky train) so my parents could experience that... and back to our hotel room to crash.

Thursday was our day to leave for Koh Samui, the island we were going to for a week.  Our train didn't leave until the evening so we just took the day easy, did laundry, played games, and hung out at my apartment.  Around 6:30 we left for the train station.  We got to the train station and tried to figure out where our train would be coming so we could get right on.  Seeing as most people don't speak English, it was a challenge just to figure out where to wait for our train.  Finally we sat and waited, but the train was pretty late.  After a lot of waiting and stress trying to figure out what train to get on we were told to get on a train that had just come (and was on the other side of the tracks).  Since these trains only stop for a minute or two we quickly grabbed our luggage, raced to the other tracks, showed them our tickets to make sure we were getting on the right train, found our train car, and got on.  Whew!  The train started moving and we sat on our train beds still not even sure we were on the right train going in the right direction.  We soon found out we were on the right train and heading south so that was good.  So we slept on this train overnight and in the morning we got to our train stop.  We thought the train would drop us off right at the ferry, which would take us to the island.  When we got off the train we were quickly told to get on a bus that would take us to the ferry.  So we got on the bus, not even sure if we really believed that we needed to, but that's what everyone else was doing so we joined the herd.  We found ourselves on a two hour bus ride heading to the ferry.  We finally got to the ferry and got on.  The ferry ride was nice and we were able to take in our first sights of the Gulf of Thailand.  When we arrived at Koh Samui and hour and a half later we took a 40 minute taxi ride and a total of 18 hours later arrived at our hotel.  Whew!  What a trip!

The pictures below are us arriving at our resort.  It was drizzling so the hotel guy greeted us with umbrellas and juice and showed us our island bungalow, complete with freshly picked flowers on the bed.  That night we went to the restaurant at our resort, which was right on the ocean and really peaceful.  I got masaman (a creamy red curry soup) and my parents got cashew chicken and lasagna, which was all delicious.  We ate there most nights and since it's not a popular time to vacation we almost always had the place to ourselves.  We spent the next day just exploring the island a bit, walking down the beach near our resort, walking down the street to see what restaurants were near by, and ended up having lunch at a little cafe where we got pizza and milkshakes.  We also did some research about what we wanted to do while we were there and we booked two tours for later on in the week.

On Sunday we took a songthaew (where you are basically sitting in the back of a pick up truck) and we went to a beach further north that was supposed to be really nice.  We walked on the beach a bit, went swimming (I found a coconut in the water) and then it started to rain.  We found some shelter nearby so we sat in there watching the rain and eating goldfish.  Then we walked a bit more and decided to go back.  We soon discovered that it rains almost every day in Koh Samui around 1:00 pm (at least when we were there) so most of our beach days were cut a bit short, but it was still nice.

That night we went to an Italian restaurant called Olivio's near our resort, right on the ocean.  It was a beautiful setting with delicious food.  Definitely a good end to the day :)

Monday was our first day of adventure.  We had booked a tour for the day so right after breakfast they came and picked us up at our resort and took us to to a boat where we joined a group of about twenty other people.  It was a bit of a cloudy windy day and we weren't sure if the weather was going to hold up but it actually turned out to be a good day (cloudy but not too hot, which was nice!).  We took an hour and a half boat ride (a very windy and bumpy one at that!) to the Angthong National Marine park, which is a group of forty-some small rocky islands which are absolutely beautiful.  Our first stop was snorkeling!  We got on our snorkeling gear, got off the boat and looked into the water.  It was incredible!!  What I saw under the water was probably the coolest thing I had ever seen - like being in a tank at the aquarium.  Fish were swimming inches from my face, there was incredible coral, and I even saw some large Rainbow fish.  It was so cool!  (Oh, and in the last picture on the left, you can see the profile of a gorilla n the rock!)

After snorkeling we made our way to the Green Lagoon, which is supposedly in a famous movie.  It is an island with a big green lake in the middle.  We "hiked" (a.k.a. climbed up really steep narrow stairs) to the top of this island to get a good view of the lagoon.  Then we climbed down the other side of the island to see the lake up close.  It was definitely beautiful up there!

After the Green Lagoon we took the boat to a deserted island where we had a delicious lunch (how they had that nice of a lunch on a beach in the middle of nowhere was pretty impressive!).  So we sat on picnic tables on the island and had lunch with our fellow tour friends.  Then we went kayaking around another island, which was a huge rock formation.  As we were kayaking around the rock it started to get really windy and rain (yep, it was around 1:00!) so kayaking became pretty intense!  But we made it back and the weather cleared up.  We walked down the beach, collected coral and shells and went for a bit of a swim.  After that we took the boat an hour and a half back to Koh Samui (and the weather got really bad again and we rode through pouring down rain, bouncing all the way back!).  Kind of crazy!

We got off the boat and they drove us to the last part of the tour - elephant riding!!!  I have always wanted to ride an elephant, so I was excited.  My parents and I all got on an elephant, with a guy sitting on the elephants head directing it and we rode the elephant around dirt paths.  It was a little sad because the area was really poor and run down and the elephants looked a little sickly, but it was still a cool experience.  While we were riding, the man on the elephant with us made us jewelry out of palm leaves - my mom got a ring, I got a bracelet and my dad got a necklace - they were all really neat!  After the elephant ride there was an elephant show where the elephant did different tricks, and that was really neat too.  After that we got to see the elephant up close and pet it.  The last picture is my parents and I riding the elephant :)

Tuesday we had a relaxing day where we went to Lamai beach further south.  It was a really nice beach and we went swimming and laid on the sand.  Soon it started to rain so we found a nice restaurant on the beach and ate lunch.  Later we went back to our resort and played games and just relaxed.

Wednesday we also had a relaxing day.  It rained most of the day so we just played games and relaxed at our resort.  Our big adventure of the day was going out for lunch.  We went to a hotel located on the top of a mountain, overlooking the water - it was a really neat view.  I got a pineapple fried rice dish that came in half a pineapple - pretty cool!  And I found a really cool chair :)

Thursday was our last full day in Koh Samui.  We had booked another tour so after breakfast we got picked up in a jeep and went to the southern end of the island.  Our tour guide (who was a little wild) had us sit on the top of the jeep as he drove up part of a mountain, which was kind of cool, kind of scary, since there was nothing really holding you on!  But we made it to a place where we went zip lining!  We zip lined through the jungle, had to climb up a bridge and then zip line some more.  My dad even went upside down!  It was really fun!  

After zip lining our tour guide took us to a beautiful waterfall.  Then we rode some water slides that were near the waterfall and then we had a delicious Thai lunch.  After that we were taken to another beautiful waterfall.  It was only a half day tour and not quite as exciting as we were hoping but it was still fun and nice to see more of the island and see the waterfalls.  It was actually the most beautiful day we had had there (no rain!) so we were glad to be back early so we could have a little more beach time before having to leave.

So after our jungle tour we came back to our resort and spent some time on the beach, swimming in the ocean, playing games and swimming in the pool at our resort, which we hadn't done yet.  It was a really nice day and really relaxing.  

Friday morning we were scheduled to leave Koh Samui (we were supposed to leave on Thursday, taking the taxi, ferry, bus, and train all the way back to Bangkok but it was just too much so we opted to take a one hour plane ride the next day!).  We got on our plane and flew back to Bangkok (and saw some really cool views out the window)!  We went back to the hotel we were staying at before near my school.  The last four pictures are views from our hotel room (and a sign welcoming us!).

Friday afternoon I took my parents to the park that I had explored earlier (and shared in an earlier post).  We walked through the parks and then got bikes and rode them around.  We didn't happen to see the water monitor lizard, but we had fun anyway.  And we got some ice cream :)

Saturday was our last day together.  I took them to JJ's market so they could experience a large Thailand market and get some souvenirs for friends (and get mango popsicles (see last picture)).  After that we came back to my apartment, hung out, played games and then left for the airport.

It was so great to have my parents here, to show them around my school and apartment, and to vacation with them.  It was really hard to say goodbye and have them leave but I am grateful for the time that we had together and that they got a taste of my life here and can picture where I am.  Hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of our time together :)