June 27 - Something I would've never found at the house in Maryland...

At the house, the brown pleather couch has piping that leaves a matching brown line on the wall. The homeowners have tried to remedy that by covering the piping in scotch tape. Well, it doesn't stick too well... to the couch at least. Today I found a dead baby lizard stuck to part of the tape that wasn't sticky enough to stick to the couch. It was sticky enough to trap a baby lizard. Ugh.

June 26 - Back home...

Everyone's soooo tired but back to the old routine...

- Geoff's at work at the plant.

- I'm doing laundry.

- Felicia's being a chick.

- The boys are pretending they're puppies and eating cereal off the floor.

June 25 - Back to Bangkok

I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up in the middle of the night, freezing. Looks like we went a bit overboard with the AC setting so I got out of bed to adjust the thermostat. Later (or earlier, depending on how you look at it), I wake up to the sound of DRIPPING. My investigation in the dark reveals a puddle under the AC and wetness in one of the suitcases. DANGIT! So I grab a towel to make a quieter landing area and move the suitcases. All this on top of the LOUD screaches of a particularly freaky looking lizard.

In the morning we're trying to get it together before we head out to do more touring. I discover that last night I actually turned the AC dial the wrong way and only made it colder... hence, the dripping. NICE... Geoff takes a quick shower and heads for the office to look for Internet access. Work is busy for him. While he's gone I get the kids dressed. Nui and the crew show up asking if we're ready to head out. I need Geoff to get back so I can take MY shower. Nui offers to wach the kids so I can get it together. YIPPEE! I get cleaned up; Geoff gets back; Nui's been trying to keep the kids from wrecking the arrangement of carved wood tulips.

Before we head off... we take a couple of pictures of the house and go check-out. At checkout Geoff discovers that Nui's family's connections has gotten us an AMAZING rate at this resort. WOW! Wish we could've stayed longer... next time :o)


Today, we'll go get breakfast in town and visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep before separating. Nui's group will drive back to Bangkok and we'll tour a little more before going to the airport to fly back to Bangkok. At breakfast Geoff spends a lot of the time on a conference call. Our driver, Nui, and her driver pitch in to manage kids. Yippee! I get to eat with both hands! Good food as usual :o)

We have a beautiful visit at Wat Phra Doi Suthep. We take a diagonal elevator to get to it up on the mountain. One if the first things we notice is this beautiful tree of one of my favorite fruits, langka(jackfruit).


After we remove our shoes we head up and pray... Holding flowers, incense, and candles we walk around 3 times, stop to burn the incense and pray, then light the candles.

Next we are welcomed/blessed by a monk who showers holy water and ties sua sin around the wrists of the boys/men. His sidekick takes care of the women/girls.



Next... more picture taking and ringing bells. This first picture is of Nui's parents. They've been extremely generous hosts.




Now, the vans go their separate ways. They'll drive back to Bangkok and we'll take in a couple more sights before catching our flight to Bangkok. On our route we visit a HUGE waterfall that was made up of about a dozen falls like steps. After that we try to go to a wood carving part of town but instead end up at a furniture market... still ok. Geoff spends most of his time on a conference call anyway so it's not a real good shopping opportunity.


Finally, it's time to end the adventure and head home to the Bangkok burbs. K. Supachai drives us to the airport and we have a smooth check in. Guess what... you can enjoy your beer AT the gate while you're waiting to board.





At Suvarnabhumi we're all pooped. Cam's especially tired. We EVENTUALLY make our way to our driver's van. Given the restrictions put on hired-non-taxi vans, it's an excruciating walk and wait in the heat before we can get IN the van that will take us home. Next time we'll take a taxi. We can't wait to do this all over again... :o)

June 24 - Off to Chiang Mai

Before we check out and get out Geoff takes this picture of Lake Phayao from our hotel.


I've gotten up VERY early to get things packed before we need to deal with the kids. I also intend on getting a HOT shower before the rest of the hotel wakes up :o) We get downstairs to try and rush through the hotel breakfast... turns out that Nui and their van of 5 plus driver are running late. Cool.

First, drive through town and by the beautiful lake. Next, we go see Nui's family's property. HUGE! They're having a house built. Next time we visit we'll stay at the house instead of Thaksin's room.



Next we check out a beautiful waterfall.


After stopping for lunch at a great restaurant(also featuring a waterfall) we go for elephant rides! Geoff's elephant spends lots of time eating... which leads to other elephant activity. The kids were amused. It wasn't long before Cam would be squeeling, "e-fant POOP! e-fant POOP!". The waterfall of pee just stunned everyone into silence...



The elephant ride rocks both Cam and Ronan to sleep...


Next we got to the hot springs for a mineral bath.


Then the icing on the cake... Nui's parents treat us to a show at Khum Kantoke. It was a sort of cultural dinner theater on steroids. Outside the theater are beautiful young ladies in traditional costume playing traditional instruments, making garlands of jasmine, and carving fruit into ornate shapes. Inside we sit down to an all-u-can-eat, northern style, kantoke meal (which again was not good for my waistline). Then the show! It featured daces from all the different regions of Thailand. Cam was entranced by the whole thing.










After the indoor show we all head over to the shoe racks to get our shoes and go out front of the theater to watch the "balloon" release. Nui tells us that with prayer, the balloons will take our problems away as they float away. We ask Nui if they can get more balloons.

So we have a LATE night check in at BaanKlangDoi. It's dark so we can't see the outside. But inside it's a beautiful traditional Thai house. All wood, high ceilings... 3 bedrooms and a main center room. The bedrooms are air conditioned! But, we notice that the showers utilize the same water heater units we encountered at Tita Oyen's place in Sorsogon. We hope that once morning comes, we have better luck figuring out how to work the water heaters at this house. :o)

June 23 - We go to make merit in Phayao

So we have our final morning at the beautiful PhuChaisai Resort and hit the road to the temple in Phayao. On our way we'll make a tourist stop or two.

First, we stop by a town whose name I can't remember and do a little shopping. Cars and motorbikes drive up and down the narrow roads lined with shopping stalls. We try to keep an extra close eye on kids.

Second, we make a quick stop at the Golden Triangle to get our obligatory photos of our family in Thailand with Laos and Bhurma in the background. There's a school field trip of squeeky, teenage girls who are determined to take photos of the kids... the boys are less than cooperative. Again, we were a tourist attraction at the tourist attraction. Before we get back in the van... some important business. It's 3 THB to go to the bathroom. What a deal! It was the cleanest pay toilet I've seen! And I've paid more for more foul toilets... They were squat toilets. I'd learned from previous squat toilet experiences with Felicia that it's just easier to have her take OFF her bottoms and underpants.

Third, we stop by a very striking wat whose name I don't remember. While we're there we get the call from Geoff's friend Nui that we need to head straight for the wat for the ceremony. We won't have time to get cleaned up. We hit the food stalls and buy Pringles and sodas for everyone... our lunch on the road. Nui calls again, they're going to delay the ceremony an hour to accommodate our late arrival.

We arrive at the Gateway Hotel in Phayao and are frantically trying to get cleaned up for the ceremony and town festival at the wat. At the hotel, I'm so tickled to see we have a bug-free room with super strength air conditioning. It's a BIG room with a huge window that overlooks the town. We'd also learned that this room was also once occupied by former PM Thaksin... it's the only hotel in town.

So we arrive at the wat. We'd been coaching the kids in the van: We'll take off our shoes, Sit on your feet and don't point them at people, Girls don't touch the Thai monks, When we're at the wat do we yell, jump, push or spin? etc, etc... I'd decided to wear my dressy heels for this occasion... I only wore them for the 5 foot walk from the van to the wat. (I should've left them in Maryland.) So, it turns out that by being an hour late we were still one of the first ones there... the ceremony didn't start for at least another 1.5 hours. In that time we'd decided it was better that I sit in the van with the kids while they watched a Garfield VCD. Geoff would represent the family. He was blessed with lots of water by the monks. He was given "bracelets" for the family, a poster of a famous monk and a bottle of wild bee honey that the monks collected from the forest.


After the ceremony in the wat everyone goes outside to eat and watch traditional Thai dances. Nui tells us that the kids and folks in the town have been preparing for over a month. The dinner was a northern style kantoke meal. Very delicious! And the dances where very entertaining. Especially one that involved "fire breathing". We had to leave before they released the balloons but we all had a FABULOUS time.




Once we get back to the hotel we get the kids laid out on the blankets and pillow on the floor.

Geoff and I contemplate the next day. We're suppose to be ready to head out at 7am. I'm going to need more caffeine.

June 22 - Jules gets a day off!

Today, Geoff makes a fabulous suggestion! He'll take the kids out while I enjoy some ALOOOOONE time at this killer resort:o) Geoff begins his day with the kids by taking the kids to breakfast so I can shower in peace.



After breakfast Geoff will take the kids fishing and to the free clay play area at the resort. When Geoff inquires about fishing, the resort staff's response, "Fishing? That's not very popular." The kids love fishing. Geoff gets a real workout. It's non-stop... "Watch the hook!" "Don't foul the lines!" Untangle the line... "You'll break the lure!" "You broke the lure!" For the first time it looks like the driver, K.Supachai is enjoying himself. The kids have fried rice for lunch and drink them out of Sprite. At the clay area Geoff spends lots of time trying to keep Cam from destroying the artists works that are not yet hardened. Geoff gives the guy 100THB tip... Cam has taken a stick to a piece that it looked liked it WAS almost done.




Now as for ME! I've parked my rear on the couch on the back porch with a pitcher of water, a couple of apples, some magazines(although mostly in Thai), a book and a couple of smokes. I'm killing time in the beautiful mountain air and views while I wait for my 1pm appointment for a PhuChaisai massage and O2 facial. I'm also trying to ignore all the mountain insect critters. I can deal. The spa was wonderful. Afterwards I park it in the outdoor lounge area and read the Bangkok Post.


Once G and the kids return we have dinner at the resort and get the kids in bed. G annd I enjoy a beautiful, cool, breezy mountain evening on the back patio with some wine and grown up talk.

June 21 - We fly to Chiang Rai

We're going to northern Thailand!

So, today we fly to Chiang Rai. After 2 nights we'll drive south to Phayao to make merit and spend the night in Phayao. Finally, we'll drive to Chiang Mai, stay the night, and fly out of Chiang Mai back to Bangkok late in the evening. Geoff's friend Nui has made arrangements for a van to drive us around northern Thailand and for the hotels in Phayao and Chiang Mai. Geoff's friend Jack has gotten us a killer rate at the Phu Chaisai resort in Chiang Rai where we'll spend the first 2 nights.

But back in Bangkok... we've got K. Rhin's van scheduled to pick us up at 4:30 am this morning. By 4am I'm the only one awake. That's fine kid-wise because I can get them dressed in 1/2 hour while they're in that sleep-daze... but I'm not sure if Geoff's going to make it... he just got into bed from being up late working. We roll out at about 5am... not too bad. On the plane we're second guessing our get-there-early-and-leave-late-to-maximize-the-time plan. Getting up this early really hurts.

We get to Chiang Rai, find the driver, and make it to the Phu Chai Sai resort up in the mountains. GOOD GOLLY! It was sooo worth waking up early to get to the resort earlier. It's beautiful, peaceful(when the 4 kids aren't around) and relaxing. We're greeted with refreshments and ice cold towels.

A view from our balcony/back-porch.


After an early lunch at the resort we have the driver take us to a village of long neck women. We drive through mountain areas where there have been mud slides... I'm a little concerned at this point. We also drive past many Chinese villages. This far north there are more ethnic Chinese. It seems that quite a few people up north speak Thai AND Mandarin (like our driver). So, the village we're going to is actually 3 tribes of Bhurmese refugees. They are not Thai citizens. That explained why speaking Thai wasn't working. There's a man who's learned English from the missionaries and offers to accompany Geoff to the village to help translate. Geoff goes it alone on the trail hike to the Bhurmese village. The hike's too scary for Felicia. Turner's also fallen asleep in the van. So, I stay with the kids in the van. We watch the chicks and hens jump in and out of a trash basket searching for food. It's actually pretty amusing.




Finally, we have dinner in Chiang Rai, swing by the Mini-Mart(this town's so small that there's no 7-11) to pick up snack supplies for the kids, and head back to the resort to turn in for the night. At the resort, Geoff tried to let the AC continue to run by disconnecting the "we're in the room" card from the key and leaving the card in the slot by the door. The resort folks found us out and turned the AC units off so we weren't lucky enough to come back to ICY rooms with dead mosquitos and other bugs. But, the kids are were tickled by the mosquito nets that they didn't fight bedtime too bad. However, Cam's another story.



Geoff and I are SOOO tired. I can't wait to see a beautiful mountain morning.