Rainforest in Khao Sok

We took an overnight sleeper train from Bangkok, which Zac thoroughly enjoyed. 

Now we are in the southern part of Thailand (near Phuket) and staying at a cabin at Nung House, near Khao Sok national park and rain forest. 

The accommodations are very simple (electricity and fans but no AC), however wifi seems to be everywhere!  Zac doesn't seem to mind the heat as long as we aren't too active, but has some lingering "water in the ear" from swimming in Bangkok so we will keep a close eye on him. (Drs Phil and Nancy - any suggestions?). We have started taking Malaria pills (good ones with no nightmare side-effects) but maybe without cause as it is very dry and there are almost no Mosquitos. The spray that I made from essential oils seems to be helping too. 

Today we took a hike in the national park and were very excited to see our first monkeys and also lots of amazing and beautiful plants. 

As for me, I am developing an addiction to green curry, enjoying the nuances of different recipes/flavours at each location, and had my first Thai massage today. :)

HP

P.S. Am living seeing the snowy pictures from Toronto on FB, it is cooling us down. 

PPS: You can also read zac's blog by going to:

diamondcyborg90@blogspot.com. 

If you can, please leave him a message as we are getting him to write a weekly blog entry as part of his "schooling" and it motivates him to know that people are reading. I'm not sure but you might have to log into gmail to leave a message. He also has an email address- if you email or FB me I can send you his email address. 

HP

First Week Abroad - Bangkok

Our first week abroad in Bangkok is coming to a close. We stayed in an apartment in Thon Buri, which is 1 "sky train" stop from the river ferries. Danny did a great job finding this place on AirBNB. It took about 5 days to get over our jet lag so it was great to have our own place so we could have breakfast at 3:00 in the morning. Our apt also had a beautiful pool, ping pong table and work out room - all of which we used extensively. 

Most of our days started with a few hours in the pool and then a few hours seeing some sights and eating (yum!) before returning home. Our first outing was to the Aquarium - while it didn't compare to either Toronto or Vancouver's aquarium, but met our objective of keeping zac awake to overcome jet lag and to enjoy the A/C. 

We are now quite comfortable with getting around the city, using either the train or ferry. We figured out how to use the "local" ferry, which is cheaper and runs more frequently than the tourist ferry. This all seemed overwhelming at first but we quickly figured it out and now feel quite comfortable getting around Bangkok. Zac was initially stressed at the uncertainty of it all but after a few successes he is starting to relish the adventure (sometimes). 

While most tourists spend their time seeing many temples, we only went to see one - Wat Pho with an impressively huge reclining Buddha. However, after one day of temples I knew zac was done with that!  

We also went surfing at the Flow House (fun!), celebrated Chinese New Year in Chinatown, and enjoyed some local parks, especially watching the Thai men play this very cool game like volleyball but using only feet. 

Food was a highlight for Danny and I but is challenging with Zac as he is a pretty picky eater and is hesitant to try Thai food. Luckily he feels right at home eating Japanese and Chinese food which are widely available. Today we had our first big success as he tried, and liked, Pad Thai.  I am hoping this is a harbinger of things to come and he will be more open to trying new food (that or starve!). I've also learned how to order food so that it is not spicy (Mai phet na kha) so that increases zac's confidence level. 

I'm really enjoying learning to speak Thai and try to use a few new words every day. It is a beautiful language, and relatively simple grammatically, but tonal so hard to pronounce. In Bangkok there are a lot of signs in English, and many people speak some English, so a few Thai phrases go a long way!

Tomorrow we are heading to Khao Sok, a national park jungle, and staying at the guest house where Paul (Susan's son) met his wife Lek. While I'm looking forward to seeing some nature, I will miss Bangkok as we have really enjoyed our time here. 

However, we will be back in Bangkok in a couple weeks en route to our next stop. 

First day in Bangkok

After a long, 24+ hour journey, we arrived in Bangkok, tired but happy. Zac was a trooper during the trip - he got some naps on the plane, lying down between Danny and I, but really went almost 24 hours without sleep. I, for a change, had trouble sleeping on the plane and only caught a few hours in the bangkok airport. I think in the future I would break up the journey into 2 legs with at least one night in between. 

We have our own little apartment that we found through AirBNB.com.  Danny did a great job finding this place. We have a little kitchen, bed, couch, bathroom ... and a beautiful pool in the building. We all lay down for a "little nap" this morning and woke up 6 hours later. Zac didn't want to wake up but was enticed by ice cream - some things don't change!

There is a machine in the building where we can buy purified water to fill our water bottles (4 cents/litre).  of course, the directions to operate the machine were written in Thai. I put in my 5 baht coin and was surprised when 5 litres of water came spewing out, while I only had a 1L bottle. Didnt need a shower after that!

We are listening to podcasts to learn some Thai and made our first venture to get food - somewhat successful though so spicy!  Zac stuck to plain rice and boiled eggs. I'm hoping he will tire of that and venture into new food soon, but one step/meal at a time!

Tomorrow we might head to a market or the aquarium, take it slow. Nap. learn a few more words in Thai. and find some of the mango with sweetened condensed milk that is supposed to be very common. 

HP

Ready for lift-off

The bags are packed, all of our belongings have been boxed away and the house is ready for its new inhabitants.  We are ready to set off on our adventure!

Our first stop will be Vancouver where we will  spend 5 days with Danny's family and see some friends.

I am looking forward to the moment where we will leave this house behind (temporarily!) and live with only our limited possessions that we can carry on our backs.  Relishing these last few days of winter, we are lucky to have memorable cold, crisp but clear days to take advantage of the hockey rink down the road one last time. 

Last thing to do is make a music list to put on my phone.

Any last minute advice?