Believe it or not, the reason this blog is a little late in the coming is that this is the first free weekend we’ve had since we wrote our last blog! Considering we wrote it about 7 weeks ago, that’s a lot of packed-to-the-max weekends….which we LOVE!
During these past two months we’ve kayaked through limestone caves, night-swam with phosphorescent plankton, ridden elephants (both real and made of ice ;), seen the most amazing fireworks displays ever (even better than Disneyland’s shows…if you can even imagine that!), climbed magical ice castles in -24 degree Fahrenheit, painted our apartment, coached a basketball tournament, started teaching classes again, and most recently, toured our current home-city of Shanghai with Madre and Sean (including a trapeze acrobat show, a ride on the river under the city lights, and seeing pandas eat bamboo :).
I never thought I’d ever put that combination of adventures together in one sentence! I’m amazed and astonished at the creative travel combinations that life abroad can construct. Thanks to our Creator for all he has blessed us with!
This blog will be devoted to our Thailand trip, but here are some teaser pics of what's to come :)
During these past two months we’ve kayaked through limestone caves, night-swam with phosphorescent plankton, ridden elephants (both real and made of ice ;), seen the most amazing fireworks displays ever (even better than Disneyland’s shows…if you can even imagine that!), climbed magical ice castles in -24 degree Fahrenheit, painted our apartment, coached a basketball tournament, started teaching classes again, and most recently, toured our current home-city of Shanghai with Madre and Sean (including a trapeze acrobat show, a ride on the river under the city lights, and seeing pandas eat bamboo :).
I never thought I’d ever put that combination of adventures together in one sentence! I’m amazed and astonished at the creative travel combinations that life abroad can construct. Thanks to our Creator for all he has blessed us with!
This blog will be devoted to our Thailand trip, but here are some teaser pics of what's to come :)
And here's exactly what we've been up to:
- 1 adventurous week in Thailand
- 1 relaxing week in Sanya with the Limkemans, (on the island of Hainan, in China)
- 3 torturously cold/amazingly magical days in Harbin, China (near Russia)
- 1 day painting our apartment: Yellow Rose, Cinnabar, and Leap Frog (yellow, orange and green) :)
- 1 day coaching JV Girls basketball at the end of season tournament
- 4½ days of school before Madre and Sean arrived
- 10 awesome days of exploration (when we weren’t working) with Madre and Sean
- 1 adventurous week in Thailand
- 1 relaxing week in Sanya with the Limkemans, (on the island of Hainan, in China)
- 3 torturously cold/amazingly magical days in Harbin, China (near Russia)
- 1 day painting our apartment: Yellow Rose, Cinnabar, and Leap Frog (yellow, orange and green) :)
- 1 day coaching JV Girls basketball at the end of season tournament
- 4½ days of school before Madre and Sean arrived
- 10 awesome days of exploration (when we weren’t working) with Madre and Sean
Tai Tai zai Tai Guo
The title is in Mandarin, and technically means: Wife in Thailand. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it was only me who went to Thailand (I mean, what would be the point of that?), but “tai tai zai tai guo” flows a lot better than “Steve he Steve de tai tai zai tai guo”, which means: Steve and his wife in Thailand. The title is up there as a tribute of our time there, since one of Steve’s favorite expressions while we were there was to say, “wo de tai tai zai tai guo.” (my wife is in Thailand).
Anyway, our time on Railay Beach in Krabi Thailand was one of the best tropical trips we’ve ever had, which is saying a lot (check out our Costa Rica links :). If you are itching to find a new paradise vacation, please let me know and I can give you the details :)
Anyway, our time on Railay Beach in Krabi Thailand was one of the best tropical trips we’ve ever had, which is saying a lot (check out our Costa Rica links :). If you are itching to find a new paradise vacation, please let me know and I can give you the details :)
To set the scene, our hotel was located on a peninsula that is only accessible by a long-tail boat, which is a long, wooden boat with a small motor at the end and a driver that guides the boat into shore with a long wooden paddle. Our room was a short walk through a leafy tropical garden, which gave us the opportunity to count the number of frogs we could spot hanging out around the lights along the walkway every night. The absolute best part about the beach is the enormous limestone cliffs that frame the cove. Honestly, the only way I can describe them is to say that they are truly awesome. Awesome not as in, “wow that was awesome,” but awesome as in similar to “Our God is an Awesome God” awesome. Standing under those cliffs reminded me of how Awesome our God is and how great it is that His creation reflects it. To top it off, the water is the type of turquoise blue that doesn’t look real, the local food is incredible, and the weather is warm!!
Here are some of our absolute favorite highlights, or “thai-lights” ;)
Here are some of our absolute favorite highlights, or “thai-lights” ;)
- Seeing “Viking Cave,” where they climb up rickety ladders to collect nests for the delicacy “Birds Nest Soup” (sidenote: in in Beijing we ate crispy birds nest, which comes from the same type of cave!!! We learned all about it from Planet Earth)
- Snorkeling highlights:
o Finding Nemo!!!! Literally, we found him. It was so fun to see the nemo fish in his home of the sea anemone!
o Seeing how big Angel Fish are up close!
o Holding a poisonous black sea urchin! It was rather prickly, which for some reason surprised me?
o Spotting a Sea Cucumber! I was really excited about this until we saw the ULTIMATE!
o The ULTIMATE: watching an octopus swimming from rock to rock, and then seeing it cleverly camouflaging itself into the cracks!!!!!
- Snorkeling highlights:
o Finding Nemo!!!! Literally, we found him. It was so fun to see the nemo fish in his home of the sea anemone!
o Seeing how big Angel Fish are up close!
o Holding a poisonous black sea urchin! It was rather prickly, which for some reason surprised me?
o Spotting a Sea Cucumber! I was really excited about this until we saw the ULTIMATE!
o The ULTIMATE: watching an octopus swimming from rock to rock, and then seeing it cleverly camouflaging itself into the cracks!!!!!
- Kayaking through Bor Thor limestone caves:
o Navigating around stalactites and stalagmites in the dark
o Discovering “mud keepers,” (or “mud-bloods,” as we like to call them….any Harry Potter fans out there?) and colorful colorful mud crabs.
o Looking at ancient drawings in “The Big-Headed Ghost Cave”
o Navigating around stalactites and stalagmites in the dark
o Discovering “mud keepers,” (or “mud-bloods,” as we like to call them….any Harry Potter fans out there?) and colorful colorful mud crabs.
o Looking at ancient drawings in “The Big-Headed Ghost Cave”
- Elephant Trekking!!!!! Honestly, this was one of the biggest factors of our going to Thailand- my love for elephants!! We got to ride on the neck bareback and it was amaaaaaaaazing!
- Climbing 2000 steps to reach the top of Tiger Temple (this was great to fill the aching hiking holes in our hearts from living living in a flat city). The temple part itself was pretty sad, but the climb up there was beautiful.
- Night snorkeling:
o Watching the migration of the biggest bats on earth! They looked like pelicans flying in the sky, but their wingspan can can honestly be as big as mine! So not ok…..
o Swimming with phosphorescent plankton! It was really fun! Imagine Avatar, but underwater. Everywhere we moved neon green lights would sparkle around us in the pitch black water. It was very magical :)
- Night snorkeling:
o Watching the migration of the biggest bats on earth! They looked like pelicans flying in the sky, but their wingspan can can honestly be as big as mine! So not ok…..
o Swimming with phosphorescent plankton! It was really fun! Imagine Avatar, but underwater. Everywhere we moved neon green lights would sparkle around us in the pitch black water. It was very magical :)
- Thai FOOD! We ate it everyday and couldn’t get enough! Our faves:
o Tom Kha soup!
o Cashew chicken
o Pad Thai
o Thai Iced Tea
o Banana Pancakes
o Tom Kha soup!
o Cashew chicken
o Pad Thai
o Thai Iced Tea
o Banana Pancakes
So that was our week in a coconut shell. Thanks for reading!
Coming up next: Hainan and Harbin- from Steve’s perspective.