Our last night in Thailand we went to dinner with J's aunt and uncle at our favorite Thai restaurant, Baan Khanitha with some of the best food we've ever had. Starting with miang kam and following with dishes including spicy shredded catfish, the only reason this meal was not perfect was that the ice chips in the ice kachang were not quite small enough for J's tastes :-) Afterwards, the four of us went for a two hour Thai massage [View Full Entry]

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Koh Kred is a small, carless island in the middle of the Chao Phraya river known for its beautiful pottery. We enjoyed visiting the island on our last trip and so decided to return for our last afternoon in Thailand. Shortly after arriving on the island by ferry, J stopped to take a picture of a passing long-tail boat. The driver slowed down, then stopped in front of us. He wanted to take us for a ride around the island, that much was clear even though he spoke no English. He ended up calling someone on his cell phone that spoke [View Full Entry]

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Today we took a long-tail boat over to Koh Tao for the afternoon to do some shopping. The village of Mae Haad is very small and rustic but has an abundance of shops, restaurants, massage parlors, internet cafes, and dive shops. J was overdue for another haircut at this point in the trip so we stopped into a local beauty shop. The lady there didn't speak much English, but did a very nice job on J's hair (see the photo). Afterwards we found a massage shop where I had a 1 hour Thai massage and J opted for the 1 hour [View Full Entry]

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J took advantage of the low prices for scuba diving in Thailand and got his Advanced Open Water Diver certification while we were on Koh Nangyuan. He did 8 dives in 4 days and had a blast with Attilla, his Hungarian instructor, and his Australian dive buddy, Greg. They did two 30 meter (100 foot) deep dives, a night dive, and several others. The deep dives were around a pinnacle far from land, so large schools of barracuda, tuna and trevally were passing by, intermittently being picked off by eight 1.5 meter grey reef sharks. One of t [View Full Entry]

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We spent Christmas of 1997 on Koh Nangyuan, a small resort of 3 islands connected by sandbars. It was time to return after 9 years. We were astonished to find a dock large enough to support the Lomprayah catamaran from Samui. On our first visit, we took a speedboat to Koh Tao, an intermediate sized boat from there to just outside of Koh Nangyuan, and then a long-tailed boat onto the beach of Koh Nangyuan. J's Grandma was a real trooper through all of the boat transfers on that trip! The rooms are in their own huts dotting the hillsides of [View Full Entry]

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We hadn't planned on going to Koh Samui, as we had heard it was quite built up like Phuket (the Waikiki of Thailand) but it is the jumping off point for some of the smaller islands. We loved the tiny, outdoor airport terminal. We booked a room online at one of the Koh Samui Chaweng Beach resorts with a beautiful pool for one night. In town we had a nice dinner, had a massage, and did a bit of shopping on the main drag but found prices higher and the atmosphere not quite as nice as other Thai towns we've visited. [View Full Entry]

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Today we left Bangkok for trip around Thailand, first stop: Chiang Mai, in the north. We visited Chiang Mai on our last trip to Thailand 2 years ago and really enjoyed it. On that trip, we took a bus from there up to Chiang Rai (even further north) which was wonderful. This time around we only had a day to spend in Chiang Mai though, so we made the most of it. J and CM met at the bagel shop where J worked in the summer of 1992. The owners of the shop have two children, a son who was in [View Full Entry]

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On our first visit to Bangkok 9 years ago, we took a klong tour on a long-tail boat at sunset. Klongs are the waterways through Bangkok, sprouting from the Chao-Phraya river. We were almost out of film that day, so quickly bought a roll of Konica near the dock. Well, the film was lousy and our pictures did not turn out well at all. Luckily, today we were able to take another klong tour this time using the latest in digital technology! We capped off the evening with a 2 hour Thai massage....ahhh!!! [View Full Entry]

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J's uncle races cars in Bangkok. He is very well known in the drag racing community here and has won many titles with his truck, consistently under 12 seconds on the quarter mile. On the way back from Ayutthaya, we stopped at the racetrack to check out the action. Jeff's truck was under heavy modification this day, so we were not able to watch it race. [View Full Entry]

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Today J, CM, and J's uncle drove about an hour outside of Bangkok to Ayutthaya, the old capital city of Thailand. There we visited several wats, or Buddhist temples. Many times you will see cheddis inside the wat complex. A cheddi is a large conical structure containing a relic of the Buddha. At one of the wats, we were blessed with water by a monk. Buddhist monks have no money or earthly possessions and depend on the generosity of the community for their survival. We contributed by purchasing a special kit for one of the monks - a bucket containing soap, [View Full Entry]

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