On Monday, May 21 we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. Our first two nights we stayed at the Lebua
Tower, made famous in the Hangover II movie.
What an amazing hotel! I never
wanted to leave!! We had access to free
food and drinks from 6-6 each day and took full advantage of everything the
hotel had to offer. On Wednesday we left
Bangkok for 2 days on a private tour to Kanchanaburi – hands down our favorite
two days of the whole trip! First up was the Railway Market – local
farmers and fisherman have booths right on the tracks with canopies overhead to
keep products fresh. With a 5 minute
warning bell, all vendors move all things off the tracks, hold up their
canopies and stand very still as a commuter train rolls in inches from where we
stood bringing new customers (this happens five times a day). Within a minute of the train going past all
booths are ready to sell again. Amazing!
After the Railway Market we headed to a Floating market,
where we boarded a boat and shopped along canals with other customers and
vendors. We enjoyed yummy mini coconut
pancakes and Jake drank from his first coconut.
We left the floating market via the Coconut Sugar Plant, where we were
able to taste the sap and have our turn at making cookies. We had lunch on the River Kwai and then
headed to the Tiger Temple. We
each had a chance to touch and walk a tiger.
We got tons of photos and had a blast watching them exercise in the
water. We then headed to Hellfire Pass – and learned the history of how
the Japanese forced the POW to cut through mountains to build a rail line
during WWII where about half of the laborers lost their lives due to harsh
conditions.
We then traveled to Sai Yok Yai National Park, where we
hiked with our overnight packs and boarded a wooden raft along with several
other groups. The raft was pulled by a
smaller boat with a big car engine that took us to a waterfall. We had a chance to stand under it and get
photos. Then our guide told us we could
jump off the raft and swim down river to the Raft House. About 30 minutes swim downstream (we were
wearing life vests) we arrived at our accommodations for the evening. We were quite surprised at how nice it was
for a Raft House! We enjoyed fresh fruit
that our guide had picked up at the railway market, had Thai Massages, ate
dinner and relaxed for the evening.
Day two of our private tour, we traveled by boat to a Hot
Spring where we changed into traditional Thai bathing suits and relaxed in
seven springs of different temperatures and one had tea and one had herbs in
it. We also did Dr. Fish, where tiny
fish eat the dry skin off of your feet – I could not stop giggling! We had lunch at Nam Tok Rail Station, the current
last stop of the original railway. Then off
to see the Elephants! We stopped
along a roadside stand and bought bunches and bunches of bananas for 15 Baht
(about $0.50) and had a chance to feed them to several elephants. Then our guide asked if I wanted to hug the
elephant trunk and little did I know that the elephant was going to wrap the
trunk around me and pick me up over its head!
I squealed as Jake took photos! We
took a bamboo raft ride down a scenic river and at the end hopped in the back
of a pickup truck to return to the elephant farm. (This reminded of me of all the rides we took
as kids in the back of pickup trucks) After an elephant ride, we took turns
bathing the elephant who kept going under the water and upon command “Pa Soong”
the elephant would raise its trunk and spray us.
We then visited the Bridge over the River Kwai, did a
little shopping, visited a war cemetery and then headed back to Bangkok. Several times on the trip our driver was
pulled over to verify his credentials – our guide explained that many people
try to come from Burma to make money in Thailand and the road check points are
to enforce restrictions on those in the country illegally. Throughout our trip, our guide took extra
care to make sure we tried the best local foods and fruits we had never
seen/heard of before.
“Bangkok Has Us Now” – back to the sometimes scary,
impossible to cross the street city where people are constantly trying to sell
you something and scam you if they can.
We spent Friday touring all the major tourist attractions in the city,
the Grand Palace, What Po and Flower Market are the highlights. Saturday
we took the skytrain to Jak to Jak weekend market. I can’t even begin to explain how huge this
market is but to say that after 6 hours straight of shopping we think we may
have only seen about one quarter of it!
We learned how to ask “how much” and say “too expensive” in Thai which surprised
many vendors who then allowed us to bargain better prices for our items.
Sunday we left for our final four days of our trip in Phuket. After being on the go our whole trip and
being out of bed most mornings by 5am, we decided it was time to relax! Our hotel knew we were on honeymoon: gave us
an upgraded room, a fruit basket and had the bed decorated with rose petals and
swan towel art. We spent two days
relaxing on the beach, Jake tried surfing, and we had two couple massages with
coconut oil. We spent one day on a boat
tour to James Bond Island and kayaked in through caves and lagoons. The highlight of Phuket was seeing our good
friends from South Africa that we had met in China. They were in a neighboring town and we had
the pleasure of spending one of our evenings with them, getting home late in
the morning after 6 hours of visiting with each other.
We are so blessed to have such an amazing trip where all
flight connections were met, no lost luggage, experiences and adventures galore,
tigers & elephants and the list goes on (I was tired of fried rice every day
for breakfast for two weeks, but hey this is trivial). As many of you know our perfect trip ended not
so perfectly. We left our hotel around
midnight, flight left Phuket for Shanghai around 3:30am. Upon arriving in Shanghai we were both hungry
and stopped at Burger King for breakfast – even though only burgers were
served. Shortly thereafter Jake started
not feeling well. Once we reached safe
flying altitude, Jake headed for the back of the plane where I did not see him
until we landed in Okinawa. He was the
last person off the plane and could barely walk into customs. We were the last people through customs after
several more times of being sick, sick on the car ride home and begged me to
take him to the ER once we got home. Our
phone was dead, so I decided to drive him there myself even though I don’t have
a license. As we arrived at the Navy
base, the guards asked me for my license, Jake had a trash can on his lap and I
explained how sick he was and that I’m trying to get him to the ER. Thankfully
they didn’t push the need to see a license and allowed us to pass through the
gate! After two bags of fluids Jake
finally starts to look a little better, then I start feeling sick as well. Diagnosis:
Food Poisoning! They gave us meds
and sent us home with orders to rest and drink plenty of fluids. It took several days for Jake to get back to
his normal self. We want to thank
everyone for your prayers and emails during this time.
I apologize for the long blog but we had such a great trip
and wanted to share as many details as we could without boring you too
much! I have posted additional photos on
Facebook, but below are highlights. I
leave Sunday, June 10th for Thailand for a mission trip, and ask for
prayers for our team.
Until next time,
Natasha and Jake
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