Sorry for not updating sooner, but life has been pretty crazy in these parts, and looks to remain so for the next little while.
My first week of holidays remained uneventful as I had to stay in the apartment for three frustrating days waiting for our air-conditioners to get fixed. If there was ever motivation to become perfectly fluent in another language, let me tell you I was ready!
I finally started to feel like I was on holidays and got a couple of well deserved days of rest before heading to the airport to pick up my folks. What I didn't know at the time was that I should have enjoyed my days of rest as they would be the only ones I got for the next two weeks of whirlwind activity!!
Mom and Dad were very excited to be here, although a little put-off by the flight. Surprisingly Mom made it with less pain than I did, and they both appeared to be dealing well with the jet-lag. We got right to it, and started our week of sight-seeing straight off the bat. I won't go into the details, as it would just be a re-hash of the details of Ry and I's first few months here, but here are some pics to tide you over:
Here we are with one of the many elephant bushes in the park nearby our home.
Our trip to the Floating Market.
Mom and Dad on their elephant trek. It was pretty neat, but I was gagging when we went through the lagoon - stagnant water and elephant poop does not a pretty smell make!
Here are some crazy monitor lizards we happened upon during our trip to Lumphini Park. They were fighting over a giant catfish the larger one had caught. It was really quite neat - the Nature Channel right before our eyes - these two put up quite a fight until the big one finally conquered. Poor thing though - the fish was so big he couldn't get it down, so he had to fend off attack while he tried to manage his oversized meal. Pretty cool to watch.
On the weekend, Ryan was able to join us for a trip to Chinatown where we managed once again to get lost, and once again to find a little known temple. We entered this one and on of the monks ushered us in and walked us through the steps of making offerings. It was a really unique experience that most tourists would not get to experience. There is definitly something to be said for stepping off the beaten track.
After a week of touring my parents around, I headed back to work for summer school and Mom and Dad were on their own. They arranged a number of really neat tours, and took in lots of shopping opportunities to keep them occupied while I was at work. We tried to meet up for lunch on the days that I finished up early, and then caught up with Ryan for dinner.
Their last weekend here, Ryan was able to take a day off work and we headed off to the beach. It was a long weekend here, so our original plans fell through as hotels were quickly booking up; but we managed to get some great deals on two excellent hotels at a beach resort-town nearby.
Our first night was at the Botany Beach Resort in Jomtien Beach, Pattaya. It was perfect, a gorgeous, quiet resort on the ocean - just what everone needed after two weeks of sightseeing.
Here's Ry and I from our balcony. If we had taken the pic you would have seen the ocean in the background.
Ahhhh, here we are. Our panaramic ocean view just before sunset. It was truly perfect.
Here is the view of the pool (and the ocean is the blackness in the background) in one of Ryan's patented night-time pool shots.
The next morning Ryan and I switched between sitting in the sun, poolside, and sitting in the shade by the ocean. I managed to squeeze in just enough time to finish the last Harry Potter book before we headed off to our next hotel.
Our next stop was the All Seasons Hotel in the heart of Pattaya City. We stepped into yet another gorgeous hotel and continued to be spoiled the rest of our stay.
Another day of cruising the beach and taking full advantage of the hotels facilities we were finally feeling a bit rested.
On our last night in Pattaya we took Mom and Dad to the famed Tiffany's Show. This show boasts the largest and longest running transvestite show in Asia, and we were not disappointed! The sets and costumes were amazing, and if you didn't know any better you would never have known you were watching a bunch of lady-boys strutting their stuff! It was really a fantastic show:
After all that excitement we headed back to Bangkok and went out for one last dinner before my parents headed back to the airport. I hope they enjoyed their trip as much as we enjoyed having them here, but I hope they aren't as exhausted as Ryan and I are! Being tourists again is hard work!!
Well, just a few more days of summer school and Ryan and I will be off once again. We will be headed for the airport Friday night for our 12:45 am flight to Sydney. So don't be alarmed if I haven't updated this for a while. We are on holidays!!!
Don't worry, there will be lots more pics and stories when we get back, and you only have to wait 2 short weeks!!
