Another Journey... Journal 2009 Thailand/Laos/Vietnam 15 December 2009 (Trip Dates: 12/16/09-1/7/09) As I embark on another journey, this time to Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, I am reminded of how many times I have journeyed somewhere, even within, to achieve or accomplish something. Sometimes the journey has been for the discovery of enlightenment, other times for adventure, sun, or to help others (e.g. the Dancing Bears of India or the Elephants of India and Thailand). Well, this journey really has no felt purpose. Sure there will be sun, which will be much appreciat [View Full Entry]

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Day 10 n 11 - Dec 8/9 Today we leave Cambodia but our flight is not until late afternoon, so we spent most part of the day walking around, there is a Royal Palace here so while walking we think ah would be fun to take a rickshaw out to there, only cost us $2, so we hail one down, the poor man must have been well into his 60's, we both climb in, so funny and scary at the same time, we even had a race with another rickshaw driver, we were all laughing, got some good video footage of [View Full Entry]

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As many of you know, our church has been caught up in planning this year's English Camp. Every year we invite students from Ramkhamhaeng University to join us for a three day camp over a Buddhist holiday. I am pleased to report that this year's camp was a smashing success. We started the day early meeting at 6:00 for prayer before the campers arrived for registration. This is probably the biggest outreach of the whole year for us, so everyone was involved. All of the residents at the church came to camp, so I had to pack my pet fish along, [View Full Entry]

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Some of you have asked where we actually live i.e. home. Here are a few pics of our home and surrounding area. [View Full Entry]

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These past few days have been pretty slow, as we hoped they would be since today we take off for Cambodia and then to Vietnam. We basically spent the week in Rayong swimming with the kids and lying in the sun. One of the days we hired a boat and took it to Ko Mannai and Ko Mannok, two islands so close you can see them from the house. The first is a turtle sanctuary and the second is its neighboring island with some great little reefs for snorkeling. After that relaxing week on the beach we headed back to Bangkok [View Full Entry]

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After arriving safely and sneaking through customs at Bangkok International Airport, we were greeted by Na Gig, Na Dam and Na Ting who escorted us to their apartment just outside Bangkok where we stayed the night. The next morning the whole family packed up and we left for Rayong, to Bettys Mom’s beach house. The next few days consisted of relaxing with family, basking in the sun, bathing in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand, and eating massive amounts of home-made Thai dishes made from the freshest ingredients. And what’s an Asian vacation without karaoke?! Na Dam was th [View Full Entry]

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We are about 2 hours south of Bangkok and about 15 minutes by scooter to the Gulf of Thailand. On a map, this would be about 45 minutes from Rayong, and about 13 kilometers from the small town of Ben Phe, which is the jumping off harbor to the touristy island of Kho Samet. While 13k in Canada is not far to travel, here in rural Thailand there is much to see and experience even in this small distance. We have been volunteering some time to teach English at a local school by the name of BonSongSalung. Basically, we are helping [View Full Entry]

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Thailand 6th of July to the 4th of august. Banphe 12th to the 15th with: Phloie, Craig, Bandith, Poofy and Theo. So we arrived to banphe and to the house 2 find kats old room ready for us. I got to meet Kats and bandiths little sister Phloie, 14 years with a bubbly personality. The little dog poofy and when he arrived their father Craig. Here we went out driving with the mopeds, eating breakfast on the beach from some sort of food wagons attached to a moped, bought fruit from the same. ate ate and ate, sometimes in Rayong, or [View Full Entry]

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Where to start? Got to Heathrow airport only to find out we had been UPGRADED to the executive suite thanks to Graeme's sister. Spent 7 hours in there eating food and drinking beer for about 7 hours FOR FREE! Also found out that we had been upgraded on the plane to the more expensive seats towards the front of the plane (not exactly first class but there was more legroom, your own t.v. etc etc). Got to Bangkok airport and our luck began to run out! The "greeting bloke" that Graeme had booked (shame on you Graeme) was there HOWEVER [View Full Entry]

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Kate For our final teaching practise on the course we taught the monks in the Temple School. This was a different experience because they were older, all teenagers. Also it was different for the girls because women are not allowed to touch monks. So when we wanted to hand out materials or pens or whatever we had to put it on a chair or a table and let them pick it up. It was difficult to remember! Also monks have lots of precepts, which are things they are not allowed to do. For example they are not allowed to clap, [View Full Entry]

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