Family Vacation 2005!

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After years of traveling with friends and by myself, my parents figured its about time for us to travel again as a family. I liked the idea. As we are all getting older, it may not be long before a "family" vacation means being with the wife, kids and the inlaws. We ain't getting any younger thats for sure. This time, we selected the exotic country of Thailand.... well, for its cheapness and convinience as my parents can easily hop from there to Shanghai for a nice shopping spree. The iteniary would be the following. My parents, my sister and I would meet at Thailand. We would first join one of the ever so economical chinese tours for 7 days, taking us to Pattaya and around Bangkok, and then we would travel by ourselves to Phucket Island (which recently suffered from the Tsunami) and then end up with a few more days in Bangkok by ourselves to fill in on any areas the tour may have missed. After that, my parents and I would head out to Hong Kong and spend 3 days there where they would then continue on to Shanghai while I head over to Taiwan. My sister would by pass Hong Kong and go directly to Sri Lanka... yeah, shes the daring one in the family.

View the pictures to see some Thai action! (btw, my idol after this trip also happens to be this action star named Tony Jaa... super thai kickboxer guy... soooo whooppp assss)

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Photos

Paradise at 1/2 the cost
Thailand is paradise. In Pataya, it is already very apparent that it has all of the attractions (yes, there are even Luaus there for the real american tourists) at 1/2 the cost. Snorkling, parasaling, all a good deal at a good price. One big negative of our stay in Pataya though is the Chinese tour group, who took us to only terrible chinese restuarants :-P

Night Life
As much as everyone is a Budhist, no one is really anti-drinking, prostiting, partying... I dunno why that is. I guess maybe they are just Budhist for good morals sake... and as long as everyone is making money and having a good time its allll good? Who knows. When you are in Patayya, besure to visit the famous walking street, where theres a bit of fun for everyone.

Only in Thailand
Yup, that girl is probably only 15 or 16 years old. There was a lil boy there too... probably only 14 or so, and each of em stuck their head into the crocodiles mouth. Safe? Hells no... in fact, there was a moment when the croc started to chase the kid and he ran and then slipped and fell. Fortunately the croc decided to stop.

Elephants
When you are in Thailand, you gotta go see at least one elephant show. Why? Because you gotta give them support. In Thailand, there are many elephants that are now out of a job because they are no longer needed by the government, so they turned to the entertainment industry. By going to see these shows, you insure that the elephants can at least be well fed and cared for.