Lantern Lighting

Our last night in Thailand, we saw some people lighting these lanterns on the beach. The first time I ever saw this done was in the movie Tangled and I thought, "You can't do that!" Shows what I know (or don't know). You have to light it, then hold it down for awhile. In the meantime, the people held hands and made wishes, then released it. Very fun!

Project 365 - Days 24-26

Great view for our last night

Food on the street in Bangkok - we went Mexican instead

A quick pic while out with Scout - we're home!

Survival Skills

Our kids have been sharing a bed here in Thailand, which is a recipe for character building for all. Last night Ethan woke up to find that Megan had taken all the covers. He tried to pull some of them back and asked her to give them up. In response, she put her foot on his body to push him away while simultaneously choking him (all in a sleeping state).

I guess it's good to know that our daughter has instinctive survival skills.

Think Positive Thoughts

“Think positive thoughts.” These are the encouraging words of advice from our travel agent when we leave Hua Hin (is encouraging the right word?) as we venture to the train station for our overnight trip to south Thailand.

We aren’t alone – our friends and their three kids accompany us. The kids are already on edge as it’s past their bedtime (heck, it’s past mine!). We thought we’d put ourselves at a disadvantage from the start to make it more interesting.

After a half hour drive, we arrive at the train station and find some friends of ours who should have left an hour before us. Think positive thoughts. Turns out they booked their tickets for the right day but the wrong month. They end up on a hard seat train that arrives soon after we do. We debate which is worse – a ticket snafu that means you have to pay through the nose to take a different flight to Thailand or one that forces you to sit upright for 12 hours through the night? It’s a toss up.

Train hopper

We’re immediately told that our train is delayed 20 minutes. That doesn’t sound so bad, until 20 minutes after the original departure time and there’s still no train. A worker tells us it will be another 20 minutes. When another 20 minutes passes, a bell rings and we gleefully assume this means the train will arrive soon so we move down the track to where we predict our car will be. After another 10 minutes sans train, the same worker comes down to talk to us. I decide that if he tells us it will be another 20 minutes, I am going to push him onto the tracks. (wait, no, think positive thoughts). We can’t really make heads or tails of what he says – something about not the other track – except that he predicts another 10 minutes. Congratulations my friend, you get to live.

The “other track” comment is regarding the slow moving train that arrives on the other track within minutes. It’s a hard seat train. We’re happy to wait for ours, which arrives about an hour after originally scheduled.

A house near a train station

Finally on board, we climb into our beds that are flush against the windows. I can’t say I sleep well, because as I’ve mentioned before I am genetically predisposed to not sleeping well anywhere other than prone in a dark, quiet, comfortable room. The lights, noise, and rocking of the train jolt me many times but I’m happy to say I feel rested in the morning.

I know it’s morning because the people in the next berth loudly disassemble their beds and open their windows. I had no idea that was possible so I’m glad to see it. For the next 5 hours we watch the Thai countryside pass by and stop in various small towns to let people off. At one stop I take a picture of a woman crossing the tracks and then realize she just hopped the train.

When we arrive in Trang, our driver is a little anxious. He’s supposed to pick someone up at our hotel at 3:30. It’s 12 already and it’s a 3 hour drive without stops. He and his companion inform us we can eat at the 7/11. We inform them that we would really rather stop and eat substantially. The two of them chatter in Thai. It sounds nice, but we imagine they are a little annoyed with us. Think positive thoughts.

By the time we find a place to stop, Ethan is green in the gills from our driver trying to make up lost time in the winding hills of south Thailand. The driver keeps trying to offer him food, seeing that he’s not eating. The extent of my Thai is, “hello”, “thank you” and “money” so I can’t find the vocabulary to say, “Your crazy driving has made all food unpalatable to my poor son” which is maybe just as well. I point to my stomach and say “no good.”

Back in the car the driver manages to make more of us sick and not just a little frightened. We debate which is worse – him trying to cross double yellow lines around a curve to pass people, or driving close enough to the people in front of us that we could actually jump into their cars? Think positive thoughts that don’t involve dying on the back roads of Thailand.

Erik buying our lunch

After two short ferry rides which we traverse sitting in the van, and one final terrifying drive through the jungle we arrive at our destination, Koh Lanta, alive and ready to enjoy the tropics. See, that wasn’t so bad! It must have been all those positive thoughts.

Project 365 - Day 20 and 21

The diving game

 

Ethan watching the jungle fly by

Two Battles

I've been trying to think of how to share what we've been doing this week here in Thailand (aside from trying not to get sunburned, reading Kindles by the pool, and searching in vain for Coke Zero). We're at a conference called re-LEAF (LEAF being Leadership Evaluation and Formation). It's a time to revisit the process that God started when we all went through this conference the first time.

So how do I summarize what it is we talk about here? I thought this excerpt from The Magnificent Defeat, by Frederick Beuchner might do it. He's talking about "The Two Battles" Forgive me if it's a little long -  I cut a lot out!:

“The first is a war of conquest . . . All our lives we fight for a place in the sun . . . we feel that we must conquer a territory in time and space that will be ours. And that is true. We must.

"What is the armor to wear in such a war? Not, certainly, the whole armor of God here but, rather the whole armor of man, because this is a man’s war against other men. In such a war, perhaps, you wear something like this: Gird your loin with wisdom . . . put on the breastplate of self-confidence . . . let your feet be shod with the gospel of success . . . above all take the shield of security . . . and the helmet of attractiveness or personality or the sword of wit.

"The other war is not the war to conquer but the war to become whole and at peace inside our skins . . . it is the war to become a human being. This is the goal we are really after and that God is really after. This is the goal that power, success, and security are only forlorn substitutes for.

"(What we must be set free from is) the darkness in ourselves that we never fully see or fully understand or feel fully responsible for, although Heaven knows we are more than a little responsible. (Paul identifies it as,) ‘I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.’ . . . The evil in ourselves as individuals is greater than the evil that we choose, and that is great enough. This is the darkness which we need to be liberated from in order to become human.

"It is for this war, not the other one, that we need the whole armor of God . . . He is the truth about who man really is, about what it means to be really human, and about who God really is . . . In the great war of liberation, it is imperative to keep in touch always with the only one who can liberate.

"Even if we do not find our place in the sun, or not quite the place we want, or a place where the sun is not as bright as we always dreamed that it would be, this is not the end because this is not really the decisive war even though we spend so much of our lives assuming that it is. The decisive war is the other one – to become fully human, which means to become compassionate, honest, brave . . . (this) is the war which every man can win who wills to win because it is the war which God also wills us to win and will arm us to win if only we will accept His armor.”

So I guess we are talking about the battles in our ourselves, and where we are putting our energy - are we still putting into fighting the first battle? Or are we learning more and more to trust in God and His armor to become who we were really meant to be in Him? 

What about you? Which battle are you fighting? 

Project 365 - Day 15 and 16

Day 15 - the view from our room

Day 16 - where Megan has been spending her afternoons

Uh . . . you forgot something

Laundry in a hotel is tricky. The service provided by the hotel is not cheap (unlike most things in Thailand) so we usually go out on the street in search of some local place that will do it. Sometimes they charge per item, some places just charge per load. You can drop your clothes off in the morning and pick them up later or the next day neatly pressed and smelling like an entire factory of soap. It's a good deal, and it's worked for us until now. That's right - until now. Because there's a first for everything.

We dropped our laundry off one morning last week and were told we could pick it up the next day at 8 a.m. Good thing because Megan and I were down to our last pairs of underwear. When Erik went to pick it up, the woman was overloaded and said it wouldn't be dry until 6 p.m. We were headed out for dinner and a movie that evening, so Erik picked up the laundry, threw it in our room, and we were off.

When we got back, I started unpacking our laundry and had a brief thought, "What if she didn't give us our underwear back. That would suck because we don't have any more." Unpack. Unpack . . . hey, wait a second. Is there another bag? Because I don't see much . . . underwear. One pair of mine. One pair of Ethan's. Two of Erik's. None of Megan's. This is not right.

Knowing there was nothing we could do, we went to bed and jokingly said, "Hey, remember that time in Thailand when we lost all our underwear? That was crazy," while trying to imagine staying calm and joyful if we found that the laundry woman gave our clothes to someone else.

The next day Erik went back to check with the woman. She responded with looks of confusion, but no underwear. So we put up a sign in the elevators asking people to keep a watch out for any clothes that weren't theirs. Since most of the people taking laundry to her were our friends, we figured they would show up eventually.

Sure enough, later that morning, my friend Sonya called and said, "Do you have Old Navy underwear?" I do! When she found a bunch of unfamiliar underwear in her laundry, she figured it was mine and told the woman, "I need to call my friend." The woman took this as an invitation to try out other lost items, holding them out and asking, "My friend?" to which Sonya would respond, "No my friend."

So all is well. Our underwear is back safe and sound. And I just wrote a whole post about lost underwear. Lots of firsts happening these days.

The Ph sound in Thai

I don't speak much Thai. In fact, I can only say "Sawadeeka" (hello) "Kapkumka" (thank you) and "baht" (which is what they call their money). Yep, that's it. But I am getting a little better at understanding how to pronounce what I can read. Thai has a different alphabet, but many things are written in Romanized characters. Still, it isn't always pronounced how it looks. The most striking example is the "ph" sound. We would say it like an F. If this were the case, "Phuket island" would be a bit awkward to say. Thankfully, it's just a "P" sound, so Phuket is pronounced "Poo-KET." On the other hand, Phi Phi island, is "Pee Pee island." And up on the mountain on Sunday Erik saw a building called the "PhuPhing Palace." Use your new knowledge of Thai pronunciation and figure that one out.

Interesting Things I've Seen on Morning Runs in Thailand

1. Barefoot monks in bright orange robes, out hunting breakfast
2. Amusingly named bars like "Fine Thanks!" and "How Come!!!" (yes, there were three exclamation points)
3. A man walking a horse along the "highway." I use highway as a loose term, as it was the road I was running on. More like a wide road with few stoplights.
4. Lots of idol buildings. One was quite large and all gold.
5. People selling food on the street.
6. Chiang Mai University. I was going to run on the track, but it was dirt, and there were three dogs already using it. I don't think they were training though - they seemed pretty casual.
7. A couple of really nice houses I wouldn't mind owning, or at least living in for awhile.
8. A family who seems to own a lot of chickens which they feed outside early in the morning.
9. Two dogs who wanted to join me on my run. Go away!! Go!! It took them awhile to understand, I guess because they speak Thai, not English. But angry women shouting translates into most languages.
10. A lavender excavator. I think it was an excavator. Which one is Scoop from Bob the Builder? Anyway, it was a construction truck. It shouldn't be lavender.
11. Lots and lots and lots of motorbikes.
12. Old Thai men running very slowly. I like to pass people like this and pretend I am like the WIND. So fast.

Tiger Kingdom

When a friend suggests that you should take your family to a place where you can pet tigers, you shouldn't think aboaut the potential danger. You should just go, because when are you going to have the chance to pet one again? It's not like you're going to happen upon on in the wild.

We drove about 1/2 hour with eight kids aged 2-8 piled in the back of a rented car, and two dads trailing behind on motor bikes. We took a bit of a detour but finally found the Tiger Kingdom. We happened to have with us the three men in our company arguably most likely to be able to talk their way into a bargain, so they negotiated a better price while the kids talked about how they were going to pet all the tigers. We also looked at pictures they were displaying on a screen of people cuddling tiger cubs and laying casually on reclining tigers. It all looked promising.

We were given 15 minutes in a cage with two young tiger cubs, 3 months old. They were both the size of a small lap dog. Two cages, four sleeping cubs, and eight children. They were hesitant at first, but soon most of the kids were enjoying touching the cubs. We tried to get them to sit in on laps, but that woke them all up and they preferred wandering around their cages and playing with empty water bottles to sitting on laps.

After the kids' time, Erik and Travis got some time in the big boy's cage. Those tigers were obviously adults, but still quite small compared to some breeds I've seen (like the white tigers at the Singapore Zoo). If they ever got fiesty, the handlers were there with small sticks to bop them on the nose.

So now we can say we've petted tigers - who can say that? See our flickr account for pics.

Take Me Back to Thailand

And so, for the umpteenth time in our Asian life, we headed out the door to Thailand on Friday. Our taxi driver gave us a taste of what was to come as he flew down the highway to Singapore Changi Airport, the "Speeding Kills" sign a blur as we passed. Thai taxis are a lesson in trust and faith - trust that your driver doesn't want to die any more than you do, and faith, that you will get to your destination without injury and in record time.

We had to stop through Bangkok on our way to Chiang Mai (oh non-stop flight, where have you gone?). In the immigration line, we were approached by a thin older gentleman with sparse black hair and wire rimmed glasses. He introduced himself as a Catholic priest and offered us prayer cards for our children. He said he is part of "Opus Dei, have you heard of it?" Erik said no, and all I could think of was, "That's the crazy cult from Da Vinci Code!" But I kept smiling. He seemed nice, and not at all muderous.

On the second flight, Ethan came back from the bathroom and said to Erik, "You might think this is amazing, but that was the first time I've ever pooped on an airplane! And it's also the first time I've ever washed my hands on an airplane!" (I swear that's not true - I washed his hands when I took him, but I can't vouch for solo trips.I assumed we'd trained him well enough. Never assume). Erik said, "Why don't you always wash your hands on an airplane?"
"Well, I didn't know how to work it before. But this time I thought, 'my hands are disgusting because I pooped. I should figure out how to wash my hands!' So I did."

It took some time before we could locate the driver sent to fetch us. On the way to the hotel, Ethan observed a gas station. "Mom, if you lived next to a gas station, it would be good, but also bad."
"Alright, tell me why."
"Well, it would be good because if you needed gas, you could just go right next door. But it would be bad for two reasons. First of all, if the gas station blew up, you would die. Second, you would always smell like gas."

That Ethan, always thinking.

We are on the 10th floor of our hotel, where we have a nice view of the foothills lining one side of Chiang Mai. Our two rooms have wood floors that have already provided plenty of fun sliding for the kids, and moments of fear for the parents as we see them careen out of control toward objects in the room.

More Thai adventures to come.

Mae Sa Valley day 2

Our resort offered a variety of handicraft activities, so our three families chose papermaking for the morning. We picked leaves and flowers, flattened a ball of fiber over a screen, and made patterns in it which what we'd picked. They took it from us and set it out to dry. Then we stirred a huge vat of fiber filled water and took turns scooping it up with a screen, which makes thinner paper. We got to take our creations home (yay! Another carry on!). As I watched my kids stirring with wooden paddles I thought, "Yeah, I didn't do this as a kid. We're really blessed in a unique way."

After another painfully slow lunch, we spent the afternoon at the stream. Well, most of the kids did - I spent the afternoon with Megan playing garbage, this new card game we learned. She was surprisingly happy to stay back at the cabin and play. I think she just enjoyed having me or Erik all to herself.

For dinner we thought we'd try something down the road thinking it would be faster. Think again weary travelers! We found a roadside place that looked promising, until we realized that their English was non-existent and so were many of the items on their menu. The first family got their food within a reasonable amount of time, although one person did get a green Fanta when a Sprite was ordered. After more than an hour, I started realizing how people on reality shows like Survivor get so petty and shallow - they're hungry! The kids were going a bit stir crazy, and then the waitress came out and said, "All done?" to which we all protested vehemently. Turns out when they brought the Pad Thai for the first order, they crossed it out on all three, and so on for all subsequent food. Long story somewhat shorter, we got there at 6 and left at 8. So much for fast.

After the kids went to bed, we adults entertained ourselves playing Bang (card game) and watching season 3 of The Office. It's a funny show to begin with, but when you're watching with others, it's even funnier. I'm tempted to launch into a string of quotes from the show, but I'll abstain. Thus ends day 2.

Mae Sa Valley

After weeks of "are we or aren't we?" waffling, based mostly on our inability to contact any resorts near Chiang Mai, and compounded by Megan's accident, we decided to spend our extra four days after the conference in the Mae Sa Valley outside of Chiang Mai with our friends, the Hausmans and Olivers.

We were a little afraid that Megan's foot might slow us down, or limit our activities, but she's been taking her cast in stride. We were a little daunted when we saw that our resort is built into a hill (lots of stairs!) but it's beautiful and fun. A little like being in a hobbit village, with all its cute little bungalow topped with straw. It's a bit primitive, I'll admit, but kids don't seem to notice much and we just pretend we're doing high end camping. The kids were surprised by the temperature - after living in Singapore, they can't conceive of places that are in the 50's in the morning and then warm up later in the day. So we've been somewhat unprepared for that aspect. Funny that the Singaporeans dwellers have to come to a cold place to vacation for a change.

Mae Sa Valley day 1
We spent a little time exploring the grounds, and the kids decided the river was the most appealing fun. Ethan has never met a river he didn't want to cross. Once they'd all taken turns falling in, we went for dinner. There's a nice little restaurant there, but the number of tables was deceiving, as it appeared they only had enough cooking equipment to serve one family at a time. Our six adult, eight child group overwhelmed them, as did our inability to speak Thai. Erik's always mocked my mime background, but it sure does come in handy in those situations. As the temperatures dropped, we retreated to our cabins and were thankful for thick comforters.

Mae Sa Valley day 3

Thailand and elephant rides seem to go hand in hand. So we piled into our rented car and threw some extras on motorbikes and headed down the road to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp. We were late, so we thought, "We'll just ride the elephants now and come back later for the show" which turned out to be a good idea. I knew that the thrill of elephant rides has worn off for me when within a minute of starting I sighed and rested my head in my hand. Really, it does get old.

The show in the afternoon was mildly entertaining, though trying to keep our kids from running out in front of the wandering elephants afterwards proved nervewracking. We thought about going to a nearby waterfall, but realized the kids would be just as happy playing in the stream again. The men even got into it and tried to dam it. I'll give them an A for effort.

We adults had a brilliant idea for dinner. The Hausmans took the early shift for dinner from 4:30-6:30 while we and the Olivers watched all the kids. Then they put a video in for the kids while the rest of us went out to dinner. We ate at a place near a waterfall, with beautiful umbrellas lit by lanterns, and I thought, "I love my job!" We get to live in this amazing place and travel to places I never dreamed I would be. The food was great, although it could have been stale and tasteless and we probably would have been happy just because it came right away. We asked for a dinner menu which was all in Thai aside from "caramel custard" and "homemade ice cream." Erik asked about another one, and all we could make out from the broken English was "beans" and something that sounded a lot like, "raw meat." We passed, but they brought it anyway! No raw meat, but kidney beans and some other questionable items floating in a warm sweet soup. Very common in this part of the world.

Before bed, we spent an hour talking about what we learned at our conference, then, to counteract that depth, we watched a few more episodes of The Office. Oh, and the Hausmans found about 1,000 ants in their bathroom, starting from the corner, running down the wall, across the back of the toilet, and having a hey day all over their toilet seat. That's enough to make you want to hold it for a good long time.

Pictures to come when I find my card reader.

Our Biggest Thai Adventure

As if hot dogs in our waffles weren't enough, Megan decided to make this the ultimate trip to remember by landing herself in the hospital on Monday night with a severe Croc meets escalator injury. Yes, I now know it is common knowledge in the U.S. that Crocs and escalators don't mix, but that news has been slow to reach Asia. Until now.

Here's the situation - I was in the hotel room with a nasty head cold while Erik took the kids to the adjoining mall for dinner. On the way home, the Croc got caught and mangled, and Megan's middle toe was nearly severed. Erik scooped her up, and a friend who happened to be nearby helped him get to a hospital right around the corner. Being there from the beginning has made this a much more traumatic experience for my husband than me. He was gracious, as always, to protect me from the worst, so I had some time to absorb the depth of what happened. Here's the progress of my knowledge:
7:45 Erik calls and says, "Megan cut her foot and she'll need stitches. She'll be fine. You don't need to come."
8:00 Our friend calls and says, "You probably should come."
8:15 I get there and see that Megan's foot is already bandaged, so I'm wondering what the issue is. Erik tells me we have to wait until 11 p.m. to operate. Operate? Oh, there's nerve damage.
I think we probably will have to stay overnight.
10:30 They take her to the operating room. I feel like passing out because I remember I'm still really sick and shouldn't have been standing for the past three hours.
1 a.m. We go to the recovery room where the doctor starts talking about the tendon that couldn't be reattached, the artery that wasn't severed which kept blood flowing and probably saved the toe. And it hits me, "My baby almost lost her toe." Then he tells us we need to stay 3 days, probably 5.

If I'd had all that information at 7:45 p.m. I think I would have lost it. Although it killed me that my little girl had this horrible experience without me there initially to comfort her, I know that it's spared me the worst of it, and it was a lot easier for me to put on a brave smile when I was there (Megan is so sensitive that if I cry about anything, she will cry).

But last night, after two full days in the hospital, we got the great news that we could leave this morning. Since our hotel is right around the corner, the doctor felt it was safe for her to be there. She'll have a cast for five weeks and will always have less movement in that toe, but we have seen God's faithfulness in this situation. He's provided so many friends here who've helped with meals and entertaining Megan, and He's granted her healing that has amazed the doctor. Most of all, I feel like He's given us great peace and sustained us through it all. Thanks to those of you who have prayed for her!

There's a Hot Dog in My Waffle! and other Thai Adventures

It seemed like a good idea. Since I was buying pad thai for my kids for the first time (traditional Thai noodle dish) and so was my friend Martha, we decided that buying the waffles on a stick would be a good alternative if they didn't like it. When they bit into them, they found hot dogs. Not just regular hot dogs, but the nasty flaming red piecemeal hot dogs you can find here in Asia that make Oscar Meyer hot dogs look organic. What a waste of 30 cents. Good thing they liked the pad thai.

We have two adjoining rooms here. The first morning Ethan shut the door between the rooms and said, "Mom, it's ok that I shut the door because I have the key!" A minute later he told me that he'd tried 10 times and the door wouldn't open. I tried. Erik tried. I told the front desk. They frowned at the idea that their keys couldn't work (these are actual keys, not cards). The bellman came with me and he tried the key. I was sincerely hoping that it wouldn't work for him so I wouldn't look like an idiot. He realized that someone must have turned the deadbolt, so he went off for the one master key.

When he returned and opened the door, we discovered that some little person had also thrown the other lock, you know, the one that lets you open the door about three inches? When that happened, the bellman looked at me and threw his hands up in defeat. I set off in search of a leatherman tool.

I was surprised how quickly I found one. Do all guys carry these around? I think I need one. I intended to use the screwdriver and take the piece off the door, but I couldn't maneuver it. The man indicated that I could pry another part off for the same effect. So I pried one off, and he pried off the other, and we were in.

Thailand is not without its own version of crazy English. One day for lunch we had "white baan curd in brown sauce" and "stir fried blocolie." Last night we were blessed with "Mini Stone Soup." Yum.

Did you know that this year the king of Thailand had his 80th birthday? You can't be in Thailand and not know this. To help you celebrate, you can buy a wide variety of clothing and paraphernalia, mostly in pink and yellow, and show your love and support for the sovereign. I might buy one of those little rubber bracelets. I only love the king 100 baht worth.

So that's been our adventure so far.