Day 1

Day 1
We have always wanted to go to Thailand and knew we’d be sad if we didn’t get to go while we are in Guam. We began planning the trip several times, but stopped and decided not to spend the money. Finally, the week before Thanksgiving we decided to go ahead and spend our Thanksgiving in Thailand. Luckily, things came together and we were able to finalize our travel plans for Bangkok.

We started our trip very early in the morning. Our flight left at 6am, so we had to get up at 3:00am! We left Guam and flew about 3.5 hours to Manilla in the Philippines. We didn’t see much there other than the airport, but just being there was exciting as we know many people in Guam from the Philippines. We had about a 2 hour layover and then flew another 3 hours and arrived in Bangkok. After standing in a REALLY long customs line, we found the representative from our hotel and took a van to the hotel. The van driver was so cute – he was obviously still working on his English and he could communicate basically, but made us laugh with his pronunciations of some things.

After an interesting drive through downtown Bangok, we arrived at the Amari Watergate Hotel. We were amazed at the beauty of it. It’s in the midst of the busy, dirty city, but it feels like a fancy resort inside. The people who work here are just so nice and helpful – the service is amazing! Our room was beautiful and the pool was just gorgeous! It was on the 8th floor, so it felt like a roof top pool – they had tons of white lights on the trees and bushes which was really pretty.

There is a 3 hour time difference here, so at 5:00pm, we were all starving since it was 8:00pm our time. We went to the Promenade for our Thanksgiving dinner. There are several other specialty restaurants in the hotel, but they didn’t open until 6:00 and we didn’t want to wait! They do not celebrate Thanksgiving here – we have mentioned it to several people who have no idea what we are talking about. So…. there was no turkey and dressing for us! Kelsey and Jason had Asian dishes, I had a cheeseburger and Adysen and Allie had chicken strips and French fries…. Definitely not the usual Thanksgiving dinner!  We all did share things that we are thankful for, though!!

After dinner, Jason took the girls the pool while Kelsey and I used the internet connection in the lobby. We all were exhausted and were sound asleep in bed by 8:45. The bad news is that the girls got up at 5:30am, though, as it was 8:30am to them!! Hopefully we’ll get our selves more oriented to the time difference tomorrow.

Day 2

Day 2
Our activity of the day today was shopping!! After breakfast, we all headed out to the area outside of our hotel. We had no idea what to expect and were amazed by the tons and tons of shopping opportunities that are right outside our hotel! The area is called the Pratunum shopping district….. there are vendors and little markets set up all along the streets for miles and there are many malls and inside places to shop as well. We made a major dent in our Christmas shopping list today and also had fun doing a little shopping for ourselves. The prices are just incredible and the people are very respectful for the most part. We did encounter a few pushy ones, but most of them were very nice. After lunch, Jason, Adysen and Allie had reached their shopping limit and headed back to the hotel for a swim while Kelsey and I shopped some more. We found a Starbucks down the road and enjoyed some flavored coffees that we have missed so much since living in Guam where there is no Starbucks!

I had a sad moment when I dropped my camera on a bridge and the (brand new) rechargeable battery flew below into the street. Amazingly, Jason was able to retrieve it and it had not been run over, but it was damaged from the fall and wouldn’t work. I had hopes that some regular AA batteries would do the trick, but they didn’t either – apparently the camera was broken in the fall. Kelsey forgot her battery charger for her camera, so unless I bought a new one, we were facing some days of our trip with no pictures and that just wouldn’t be good!! We were able to locate a camera store with a decent price on a similar, but better model than the one I had, so hopefully that one will last a long time. We just bought a new camera in July while we were on our cruise and Jason dropped my other one. Hopefully this is the last of the camera accidents!!

Tonight we had dinner in the hotel at a wonderful Italian place. It was strange to eat great Italian food in Thailand, but it was very good!! Tomorrow we are hoping to see some more sights of the city.

Day 3

Day 3 –
Today was another wonderful day! First we took a taxi to the Grand Palace to see where the King of Thailand lives. Actually the king who is in power now doesn’t live there, but Kings in the past have. We thought taking a taxi there would be cheaper and better than paying for a tour, but we were a little overwhelmed when we arrived and saw how huge the place was. It was also the last day of the season which is a big day in Thailand, so the Palace area was very crowded. We had no idea where to go or what to do, so we decided to pay for a guide to show us around and we found a really nice and helpful young guy. He took us around the palace grounds and we were amazed at the ornate buildings and beauty of it all. We were able to enter the temple and see the Emerald Buddah who was dressed in his “rainy season costume”. The next day, his outfit was changed in a big ceremony for the next season. There are 3 seasons in Thailand and the Buddah has an outfit for each one. The King will be celebrating his 80th birthday on Dec. 5th, so we saw many signs and people wearing yellow shirts in honor of him. We saw the balcony where he will address the crowd on his birthday.

After we spent a couple of hours at the palace, our tour guide walked us through a crazy and busy marketplace to the canal area. Here, we boarded a long tail boat and went on a tour of the canal for over an hour. It wasn’t exactly the clear and peaceful waters that we are used to, but it was really interesting to see how the Thai people live on the edge of the river. We were dropped off near the What Phao temple, but Allie wasn’t feeling great and was more than ready for a nap, so we decided to find a taxi and head back to the hotel. We tried out the Thai restaurant in the hotel for lunch and then went up to the room for a rest break. Kelsey and I did some more shopping and then returned to the hotel to get the girls and Jason. We went to a very Americanized mall down the street where they had a HUGE Christmas tree and some pretty decorations. We ate at a Japanese place there and then walked back to the hotel. It had just gotten dark and this was our first experience in the street in the dark. It made us a little nervous, but we made it back to the hotel safely. We were all tired and ready to go to bed again!!

Day 4

Day 4 -
Today we went on a tour starting at 6:30am. We got on a bus with about 8 other people and headed to the Floating Market. The tour guide was very funny – he had the most interesting accent we had ever heard!! We drove for about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the market and enjoyed seeing the huge city along the way. We got on a boat and rode for about 20 minutes down some canals where we could see more of the traditional Thai homes. When we arrived at the floating market, they let us off the boat and we walked around and shopped for a while. It was a very fun experience. We were finally able to taste a few of the snacks from the vendors . We had been warned not to eat food from the vendors in Bangkok as their booths and food are not clean. After some shopping time, we got back on the bus and went to a wood working village. We were able to see the workers making the most detailed and incredible wood carvings that we had ever seen. If we’d had more time, we might have been tempted to order some of the beautiful furniture. The prices were expensive, but reasonable considering the detailed work that went into the pieces.

The next stop was supposed to be a temple, however, as there was a festival of some sort going on that day, we were unable to find a place to park the bus. The traffic on the street was unbelievable!! We drove on next to the Rose Garden. It’s a place that actually used to be a garden with roses, but is now a resort. The big attraction here was the buffet lunch, elephant show, and Thai cultural show. We enjoyed all of these things and the girls were even able to ride on an elephant which was fun for them.

We headed back to the hotel and arrived about 5:30. Kelsey and I went out to pick up a few last shopping items. We came back and enjoyed a wonderful massage at the spa in the hotel. There were massage places everywhere in the malls that were tons cheaper, but we were too nervous to do those there not knowing for sure how they’d be, so we decided to spend the extra money. We definitely enjoyed ourselves. We went to the bakery in the hotel to get dinner and saw the staff rolling out the red carpet for a wedding that we had seen in the pool area. We waited for a while to see who was coming, but got tired of waiting. We later found out that the King’s daughter was attending the wedding and we were sad that we hadn’t waited to see her!! We went upstairs to eat our bakery food and then went to bed.

Day 5

Day 5 –
Now that it is almost time to leave, we are adjusting a little more to the 3 hour time difference between here and Guam. We finally slept a little later this morning – 7:00 was better than 5:30!  We enjoyed our last day of breakfast at the hotel buffet, then went to the pool for one last swim. The pool was very cold, but Adysen and Allie enjoyed themselves anyway. After baths and packing, we walked to Starbucks and enjoyed one last coffee! Then, it was time to go. We were sad to see our vacation end, but we have lots of wonderful memories that we will keep forever!!

We're going to Thailand!!!!

I am SO excited!! We starting planning this trip many times over the last few months, but stopped as we were unsure if we wanted to spend the money right now. Anywhere we go from here is SO expensive as flights fromm an island in the middle of nowhere for 5 people are costly! Last week we decided that we will be greatly disappointed if we don't get to go to Thailand while we are here, so we scrambled around to get it planned at the last minute. It all fell into place today and we will head out to Bangkok early next Thursday morning for 4 days!!! I think it will be a trip we will all remember - I'm sure plenty of pictures will show up on the blog soon! :)

Thank you Veterans!

Living on a military base has definitely given us a new view on people who serve in the military. The sacrifices that they and their families make for our country is just amazing! Adysen had an assignment last week to make some signs honoring some Veterans in our family and I wanted to share them. She chose her Great Grandpa Bill and her Great Uncle Bubba. The signs are now hanging on the "wall of honor" in our school. We don't take enough time to honor and thank the people who have fought for the freedoms of our country. THANK YOU!!!!!