April 18

We are writing today from Nakom Pathom, west of Bangkok.  We are now travelling with dad Kipp and Meng, our friend and former exchange student from Thailand. He has shown us great things and taken really good care of us, not to mention being extremely generous as he says is the Thai custom...(?) Thanks Meng! The place we just left (Koh Samet) deserves a photo as we have never seen so many people fit onto a stretch of beach for a BBQ.

The overnight train to Chiang Mai was lots of fun, sleeping in bunk beds and travelling for 14 hours north. We were meant to have a cabin for 4 but arrived and found our beds had been double booked. Apparently this happens frequently in Thailand, the other couple had the previous date written on their tickets without realizing and the train guy wanted them to get off the train telling them through hand gestures that it was their own mistake. We all sat tight and insisted we share the space together knowing the couple would never find another seat due to the Thai New Year. After 15 minutes of this trying to communicate and refusing to get off the train, the train guy gave in with frustration and the 6 of us shared the four beds to the north. As a result we have 2 new German friends and the train worker returned all jovial a few hours and a few whiskeys later!

The water festival was incredible. It lasted all week in various parts of the country, we celebrated first in Chiang Mai then here in Nakom Pathom. It is to celebrate the New Year of 2555. To summarize, we put our money in plastic, got the waterproof camera out, carried buckets and water guns and headed onto the street. For hours and hours, day after day all the people in the street have garbage bins full of water,  hoses running to fill vessels and trucks loaded full in the back of people with their water, driving the speed of the walkers through the traffic jams. The driving vehicles and the people walking all take part in dumping containers of water on each other, spraying each other and spreading clay/flour onto each others faces. Silas and Orrin engaged fully taking every possible chance to retaliate and spray water. Eventually Orrin was being swarmed by locals touching his face and needed to get onto Meng's shoulders for a break from the insanity!

We were taken to see elephants and tigers, very interactive to be able to ride the elephants and pet the lazy tigers. I thought the tigers must be drugged but the man working with them said they were not, just in the day are less active and well trained. There were signs everywhere warning of the dangers and not to approach from the front or touch their faces or front paws. The workers were very careful to keep everyone safe. Dad and Meng were brave to pet the biggest tiger and Silas was disappointed to only be allowed with the babies!

The elephants were a highlight for Orrin, he was so happy to be able to feed them sugar cane and bananas and the elephants looked so proud of themselves when they showed us their tricks.

Our other big splurge was the jungle zipline. Here we flew from station to station and had a few drops through the trees, the largest drop was 40m. This was a favorite for me and Martin! This was all Chiang Mai, a holiday within a holiday and a great way to celebrate the New Year and joining together our travels with dad and Meng. I only hope when I am almost 70 I can still do what my dad can do, he is amazing and as adventurous as always!

Now in Nakom Pathom (Meng's hometown) we are spending time meeting his family, eating delicious foods and wandering through markets. Another very interesting aspect of Thailand is the floating market, a series of boats and stalls along the canal with most of the shoppers travelling by longboat throughout. A tropical Venice I suppose... Here we bought mango, coconut and roseapple then stopped along the side to watch coconut sugar being made and to have a taste.

Soon we head to the Islands in the south, wish us well and hope for the earthquake and tsunami events to quiet down please!!! It's all pretty minor and random says dad...

April 9 2012

We left Bali and headed to Malaysia to stay with an old friend of Martin's in Penang. Christian, Ni and baby Jenesta showed us around and gave us lots of good advice and ideas before we headed to Kuala Lumpur for a few days. While we were there we also noticed a world music festival was happening so spent an evening listening to great music from Asia, Ireland and Indonesia. Being at a music festival felt like being at home and made us excited for summer and good friends!

Malaysia was a big change from Bali and we were suddenly immersed in city life, huge buildings and bustling streets. Also came a change from Hinduism to Islamic and we had the opportunity to visit the central mosque dressed in full gear! We were so hot I started to feel a bit dizzy and stood mostly by the fan. The twin towers were a highlight for Silas and looked especially impressive at night.

We left for Bangkok after only 5 days in Malaysia and stayed for 3 nights on Khao San Road, a crazy street full of vendors and tourists that doesn't quiet down till 4:30am. We had a nice quiet room when the air conditioning was on to help the kids sleep but on the night that we let them stay up later they had a blast, making dogs and swords from the long modelling balloons and giving them out to people on the street. Silas just wants to go back there and do that again.

We also treated the boys to a fish foot spa for only two dollars each for 5 minutes. They laughed so hard while the tiny fish ate all the dead skin off their toes and tickled their feet! The prices here are unbelievable. We ate most of our food from street vendors as was often suggested to us by other travellers and usually spent only two dollars each for most meals.

We travelled around the city by either tuk tuk ( a little cart driven by a man) or a boat for just dollars a trip while we saw the giant reclining buddha, china town and an amazing procession of 1500 monks walking the city street on rose petals. We were given petals to throw as they walked the 10km through the streets toward their gathering place.

Now we spend a few days on the island of Koh Samet before heading to meet dad and Meng in Chaing Mai for the water festival. We are so excited to see grandpa and have a local Thai friend show us the ropes!  The water festival will be nice to cool off as the sea water here is like bath water and we are hot again by the time we dry off... It is the peak of the hot season now in Thailand and holiday season too so it is hard to find somewhere to stay without spending too much. Thanks for the advice Meng to book the transport and accommodation ahead of time for our stay with you. A funny little thing...Orrin has learned how to say no in Thai since he is stopped many many times a day to have his cheeks pinched or photo taken by locals amazed at his blonde hair. He is getting tired of this and will now be seen in albums across the continent!

We are all well, missing friends and family of course and look forward to seeing you soon!