Seven Months in Siam

When I think of a cave , it’s dark and gloomy , there’s wet rock overhead and my claustrophobia kicks in , heart starts beating a little faster , and my breathing is almost a pant. So when a visit to a cave in Thailand was mentioned , I immediately went there and further , thinking of the poor Thai soccer team of young boys being drugged and pulled to safety underwater after spending over a week stuck in a very small cave.

Phraya Nakhon Cave in the Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park is not this. It is easily accessible to an able bodied person , not myself at present , but J and the 3 kids managed the 430m hike up to it. There were two sets of fairly steep steps and some rocks to climb over , but once there , the main cave is as big as a football field with the most glorious shaft of light that shines on a Royal pavilion from an opening in the cave roof. Best viewed between 10 and 11am.

The pavilion was built at the end of the 19th century for the visit of King Chulalongkorn the Great (Rama V). Later, King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) and the former King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) also visited the cave.

Dad and I were not in the best of health and so chose to stay at one of the cafes at the base of the hill and partake of some freshly made pineapple pancakes and lattes. Chatting away for the best part of the two hour trip the others were taking. There were little souvenir shops to see and a small, but unfortunately a very trash laden , beach to walk along. It was a windy day and the waves were crashing which may have made some of the trash mess. Either way the Trash Heroes could do with a visit here one day.

There was a large poster of the inside of the cave and I took photos of Dad to try to fool the kids that we took a different way up and beat them there , we saw a cage where your pets are allowed to be left whilst you do the climb up to the cave and heard a poor wee monkey being attacked by dogs on the beach. A fairly rare occurrence as the monkeys are usually smarter than coming down onto the beach. Thailand is the land of the stray dog.

Justin and the kids came back within the 2 hour predicted time and we sat by the beach for lunch of chicken and rice , chatting about what they saw etc. Reports of monkeys , stalactites and stalagmites, steep stairs and the pavilion came flowing out of the kids.

We took some more photos and made our way home. This cave is about 50kms from the house so easily reached.

It is well worth a visit if ever in the Hua Hin area. Bring sturdy shoes , no plastic bottles or bags are allowed , so a refillable water container and your camera. There is an option of getting a boat to the first stage but it’s weather dependent. Guides are generally available at a small cost should you like the full tour experience.

School for us isn’t just in books and on iPads , it’s in these adventures and field trips. How the kids will ever sit still in a classroom setting ever again is beyond me!

I still don’t like the idea of caves…but this one is special.

~Arlene

We had been planning a snorkeling trip in an area to the south of us , Bangsaphan, but were scuppered when we realised due to the rainy season, ocean visibility would be poor and therefore a waste of a trip. My dad suggested going north to Kanchanaburi and to the River Kwai. Off we went driving 225km northwest.

We had been up there probably 8 years ago but didn’t want to stay in town this time, preferring something more rural. We used the incredible internet and found ( after reading hundreds of reviews ) the Tree Tara Resort about 45 minutes from Kanchanaburi in Sai Yok District , a very small community mostly made of hotel resorts and is on the railway line and river.

It turned out to be the prettiest resort we have ever stayed on and only $50 per night per bungalow including a very hearty breakfast. The grounds are groomed and it has an infinity pool on the banks of the River Kwai.

The biggest draw for us to this hotel is that there is an elephant rescue across the river and each morning the elephants wander freely down to the river bank to bathe , drink and exercise. We kept this piece of information from the children and used it as an Elf surprise ( yes , we love Elf on the Shelf and packed them with us this trip).

After that astonishing and unforgettable breakfast, we packed our thrilled children into the car and headed to the Erawan National Park about 80km northwest.

We made obligatory stops at the 7/11 for snacks and for gas , stopped four times for the bathroom , and finally arrived after climbing elevation into the Sai Yok National Park area. On our route we saw wild monkeys , herds of cattle and goats being shepherded along the road and signs warning of wild elephants ( none seen since breakfast unfortunately).

The entry fee for the park was 300 Baht ($10) for adults and 200 Baht for children (for foreign visitors). Thailand has an odd policy whereby non Thai nationals pay at least 3 times the fees for entry to museums, palaces, parks, caves ,etc. Not complaining as it is still a reasonable amount , just an observation.

The park was beautifully maintained and organized, with signage and directions in English. We parked our car , changed into our swimming suits and started the easy hike to the first 2 levels of a 7 tiered waterfall. Walking on an easy path under a jungle canopy , listening to birds chatter and the tall bamboo creaking was very pleasant.

The pools had been described as emerald green and that was no lie ! Absolutely breathtaking when we arrived and saw the waterfalls and the pools teaming with fish.

The little one and I stayed at level 2 to play whilst the menfolk climbed up to the highest waterfall level which entailed some steep ladder climbing. My knees would never have made it!

This particular pool was busy with visitors swimming and allowing the fish to nibble at the skin on the soles of their feet , I tried but it was too creepy for me when the big fish came close.

The lads came back and we spent another good while playing and jumping in. Such fun !

On the way out of the park we saw wild boar and their piglets running around the parking lot.

There was a dam close by and we took half an hour to visit. It was very much worth the trip.

The drive home was easy and everyone was happy but exhausted. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and there must have been a lost in translation moment because I asked for the children’s meals to have no chilies but were loaded with them. Poor wee boys had eyes streaming with tears after two bites , gulping down glasses of water.

Luckily I brought fixings for PB&J so they didn’t go to bed hungry.

The next morning we had another breakfast with the elephants , still as thrilling, and checked out of the hotel.

Only 3km away from the hotel is the Krasae Cave which is in a cliff by the side of the Burma Railway , also more ominously known as the ‘Death Railway’ due to the Prisoners of War and local people taken as slaves by the Japanese to build it. Tens of thousands of people died during the years taken to build it due to the harsh conditions , the malnourishment, the beatings from their captors and disease. The cave was used as a makeshift shelter.

The Thais have placed a beautiful Buddhist statue inside the cave since and we left flowers and lit incense in memory of those lost.

The view was stunning but as my dad stated , the poor souls working on the railroad with no modern equipment and such awful conditions never got to sit and enjoy it.

We piled back into the car and head to Kanchanaburi, about an hours drive. This is the area of which the 1957 Oscar winning movie Bridge over the River Kwai was based. Unfortunately full of historical inaccuracies but a great film. Sir Alex Guinness and American heartthrob William Holden leading the cast.

This is a link to an article article I enjoyed:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14519705-400-real-bridge-on-the-river-kwai/

The town sits on the site of a POW camp.

We had a wander around the town , crossed the bridge before the train came by and had a delicious local coffee.

The boys stood on the bridge as the train crossed slowly , braver than me !

Our last stop was the saddest of the day. We visited the War Cemetery which has nearly 5000 Australian, British and Dutch soldiers buried there. According to a plaque we read , the Americans took their soldier’s bodies back to the USA. The graves inscriptions showed ages ranging from 19-42 years old. It was heartbreaking reading the headstones and seeing small mementoes that families had left their loved ones. One had a photo attached , another a Jewish one , had a rock left to signify a visitor , some had poppies , some flowers.

The graves that finished me emotionally, were the unknown soldier ones. To think that a man had fought and died under such awful conditions, and his family never knew his end or have a grave to visit, is heart wrenching.

It took us about 3 hours to drive home with a couple of stops for provisions and we took it slower as it was a dark Thai highway.

Our trip was informative, exciting , emotional , educational , and one not to be forgotten anytime soon. Memories have been made.

~Arlene

When we first came to Thailand we tasted this dish of ground meat in seasoned Thai basil and it became a favorite. It is available in street food carts to high end restaurants.

It’s name sounds like KaPow! Superhero good. ( it’s really Ka Prao or Ga Pao)

The best part is that it is the simplest of dishes to make on a budget , in a pinch , both satisfying and economical.

Recipe for Ka Prao ( Thai basil stir fry )

•200g ground pork (or chicken)

•Tablespoon of oil

•1/2 of an onion

•3 garlic pieces

•60 mls water

•1 tablespoon seasoning powder (shown in photo)

Method :

Stir garlic , onion and oil until soft on low heat , add ground meat , increase heat, and stir until cooked.

Add 1 tablespoon of seasoning and 60ml of water

Add fresh Thai basil (or holy basil ) mix well for a minute and serve. Generally eaten with steamed rice.

*The seasoning packet costs about 50¢ here and lasts for about a kilo of meat. I have bought it in an Asian food store in San Bernardino before our trip , and I’m sure most big cities with a Thai town will have a supermarket to buy it from. Just a heads up , there is a paste in a white packet for the same dish but it is blow your ears out spicy !! This one has no spice and so some chopped bird chillis at the end kick up the heat for the more adventurous.

Just something we found funny about the name for pork in Thai , it’s moo. You’d think that would be beef , right ?!

Bon Appetite Thai style.

This is about halfway through our Edventure and we have all had time to find things that we like or dislike about being here.

A quick fire interview with the Morgans.

Q: What do you like about living in Thailand ?

Justin: No appointments to keep , no alarm clocks ( only in the very rare instance of an early flight) and that flip flops are acceptable everywhere.

Arlene: no pressure , relaxed , no real schedule other than fitting in homeschool mornings , watching the kids thrive , and the beaches

Alexander: the song thiews and the tuk tuks

Andrew: I like that we are so close to the beach and that we can walk to the 7/11

Emmalynn: I like the ocean and Opa’s big house and my friends here

Q: What is your favorite food?

Justin: Tom kha gai soup

Arlene : chicken green curry

Alexander: BBQ pork sticks and sticky rice

Andrew: BBQ pork sticks and sticky rice

Emmalynn: rice and chicken , ‘cola cola’ and Fanta red

Q: What is your favorite place ?

Justin: Sai Noi Beach

Arlene: Dolphin Bay and the markets

Alexander: Opa’s house

Andrew : Black Mountain Water Park

Emmalynn: the beach, Opa’s house and our house

Q: What do you dislike about living here ?

Justin : the streets are so disorganised ; dead ends with no warning

Arlene: jellyfish, mosquitoes and homeschool , not being able to flush toilet paper

Alexander: the mosquitoes and the jellyfish and murky water because you can’t snorkel

Andrew: so many mosquitoes

Emmalynn : I don’t like the wires that hang down or tomatoes or to sleep in my bedroom by myself.

On the whole , we are a happy family of 5 , having an amazing time traveling and living in Thailand and South East Asia.

No complaints here!

If you have been following us from our beginning and planning stages , you will be aware that for our 6 month , multiple entry visa for Thailand , we have to leave the country every 60 days. This is to validate the visa in some way , and for them to keep a track of us.

Where to go was such a hard decision as it adds considerable expense and another trip to coordinate for the 5 of us , not including Justin’s trips back to the USA. We also want to make the most of wherever we go.

We decided on Vietnam and because of the weather and ‘the diverse and varied culinary experiences and charm’ ( thanks internet liars ) we chose to go to the southern area, Ho Chi Minh City ( formerly known as Saigon).

I had been very ill the week before we were to leave and so Justin and I let everything else slide on the run up to the trip , including forgetting to apply for our visas! Doh , rookie mistake.

The process is usually completed online , 3 full business days in advance of arrival , and it is free. We had to do an expedited service costing $150 to get it the same day. This isn’t the visa, just a pre-clearance.

We took the train to Bangkok from Hua Hin and having paid the most expensive ticket price ( cheapest is 44 Baht and we paid 294 Baht ). I expected the same quality of train we had ridden two years ago , but were sadly faced with a train almost 2 hours late and the dirtiest , most dishevelled carriage that I have ever seen ( except an abandoned one ). Justin said “just get on and the conductor will show us to our real seats ” No , the conductor pointed to the ripped vinyl seats and took our tickets. To say I was upset was an understatement. The window was down and wouldn’t go up , the fans were on , but useless, I was scared to put my bag onto the train floor and no , I didn’t pee the whole journey. The kids did and it was a hole in the floor and the tracks rushed by underneath.

Settling in for our 6 hour plus journey , we watched the vendors walk by every 10 minutes or so , one with pork and sticky rice , another with drinks , one with a thermos of hot coffee and other sweet treats. In the stations people bought food through the windows from trays held high. We only bought some young mango which is served with a chilli sugar dip. So good. We made the most of the experience and chalked it up to another adventure.

On arrival in Bangkok we took a taxi from the central train station to the hotel. I was delighted to find the hotel had a bathtub !! I haven’t enjoyed a bath for months. That was my evening made. A hot bubbly bath with my book. I was still exhausted after my virus so after dinner , bath then bed.

Early morning and onto the airport via the skytrain then the airport link. We arrived at the airport and went through immigration after checking in. The immigration officer looked at us and stated we had overstayed our 60 days by one day !! Whaaat ? Not possible…surely ? Checking the passport , he was right. Oops. No idea how we made that mistake as it was only 58 days since our original entry , but there it was in blue stamped ink. Happily , and thankfully, he restamped all of our passports to extend us by one day and off we ran to our plane. Because of course now we were running late.

Only 70 minutes later we touched down in Ho Chi Minh City. We had to fill in visa forms for all 5 of us , ( 2 pages each including all of our personal information, travel plans , family members , etc.) This took ages and then once completed we stood in a long line to hand the forms in along with two passport photos per applicant. Once we handed them over , we sat and waited. About an hour into the process, they called us forward and asked for $125 for the visas. Immigration took us over another hour and by then we were so fed up and tired.

A taxi was easily found, and a very crazy , wild ride to the apartment , (which also had been switched on arrival to another building without our knowledge or consent , oh well ).

It was on the 23rd floor and what a view !

Ho Chi Minh City in our opinion after our 3 days there is a dirty , chaotic , non planned city , with no rhyme nor reason to its design , we found one or two French styled streets but other than that it had filthy alleys and rats that ran out to greet us from them. The shopkeepers threw their trash directly onto the streets , motorcycles rode speedily past us on the sidewalks we were walking on , and crossing the street was a death defying feat in itself.

We walked around and found a couple of prominent buildings to tour including the Independence palace , the main post office and the War Remnants Museum, which by the way, the exhibits are so graphic I had to cover the kids eyes and lead them out of the museum. We were caught in a heavy downpour but happily Trip Advisor directed us to the best Ban Mi sandwich shop (a baguette with pâté, salad and meat). The French left their bakery legacy in Vietnam , and for that I am very grateful.

We moved on to DaLat in the central Highlands by sleeper bus on our 4th day. It took 7 hours and was surprisingly comfortable for someone of my height (5’5″). Justin , I don’t think was quite as comfortable but he never complained. We climbed up to 5000ft elevation and found ourselves in an alpine town full of charm and cooler weather. One stop, half way for a delicious bowl of beef Pho ($1.75).

An alpine coaster down to waterfalls and a cable car ride over to a monastery were a couple of the fun activities we engaged in whilst in DaLat.

It was a great place. The town has man made lakes and a night market that families get together in the evening to visit.

In hindsight , we should have spent our whole week there.

Our last rainy afternoon took us to a coffee shop and roastery ( they called it that ) called LaViet which was delightful. A really good lunch , fantastic coffee and a tour of their roasting area. Well worth going out of town a little. 

Our VietJet flight was cancelled on us , and so we had to reschedule and leave DaLat a day early. We taxi’d again to the regional airport ( about 13 miles out of town down a windy, wet mountain road ) only to get there and the flight be cancelled due to an incoming typhoon ! All the passengers rushed the customer service desk and I slipped off to find us a car. I procured a driver and a very nice SUV and negotiated the huge sum of $150 for him to drive us to HCMC. By now it was 9:30pm , dark , wet and the kids were tired. I’d have paid double. We had to have him drive us to 4 ATMs before we found one that took an American debit card. He looked worried , we were worried ! Finally got the money and off we went. Thankfully , he drove safely , although honking the horn and flashing the lights , passing blindly on mountain roads and FaceTiming his wife the entire journey.

We arrived at our airport hotel by 2:30am and up again at 7:30 for a quick breakfast and back to the airport. No hiccups this time and back to Bangkok , through immigration easily.

A 4 hour bus later and we arrived back in Hua Hin. My dad was nowhere to be seen. A frantic call from him stating he was late because the horn on the car was stuck and he was driving around town with people jumping out of his way ! Haha. He left his wife, at her insistence , to deal with it ( some guy opened the hood and cut the cable ) and he came in his other vehicle to pick us up.

So happy to be home in Thailand.

This trip to Vietnam was not our favorite destination, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t be someone else’s. We understand that.

We are a family full of silly nonsense , highs and lows , drama and laughter. We are the Morgans and we are having an adventure.

~Arlene

I woke up on the Saturday morning with an ache in my body and my legs strangely weak whilst staying at the parents home. I needed an Advil so I had to crawl on my hands and knees to the bathroom to get one from my toiletrty bag. This should have been a huge red flag that something was really amiss, but because I have sore feet every morning suffering from plantar fasciitis, I thought it was only a nasty flare up.

By the afternoon I was feeling weaker with every hour , a strange dizziness and nausea creeping in. I had taken the kids to the mall for an ice cream but I hurried them along as I thought I was going to fall over in the mall. We made it home and by 8pm I was having chills , dripping with sweat from fever and my joints were aching like I’d never felt before. A few episodes of vomiting and my night was complete.

Ahh , probably just a 24 hour bug. I had to go to the airport on the bus to pick up my husband. My dad looked at me with pure fear in his eyes , asking me not to get on the bus on the Sunday morning . I shook my head at him , I just need some sleep and I’ll be fine. I got on the bus with some difficulty ( the joints and weakness) and promptly fell asleep for the next 3 1/2 hours. I don’t sleep much at any other time. I hobbled off at Bangkok airport and got a taxi to my hotel using a cart to hold me up.

I checked into the hotel and then fell asleep for another 8 hours. I awoke from fever with parched , dry lips but arms too sore to reach for the water bottle. It was a living nightmare.

Justin arrived at 3am off his flight to find this sniveling crying wreck of a wife , unable to get out of bed on her own , needing to be showered and almost carried to the bathroom. I was miserable.

We got back to Hua Hin on the morning bus and my dad drove us straight to the local hospital, all the while muttering about how he told me not to go. Yes Dad , you were right.

They wheelchaired me to reception , hastily checked me in and to the emergency room. I looked like a wild person , sunken eyes , red faced , hair crazy and frizzy , ready to vomit into a bucket when the beautiful white angelic nurse in her starched uniform , said ‘smile please ‘ for my hospital photo. I heard my dad stifle a laugh behind me knowing I knew how bad I looked and that I was mortified.

An examination , blood tests , pain shot and an anti emetic later , I didn’t feel any better. Trying my best to look around and take notes on how this ER worked for my personal satisfaction ( I am an RN having spent many years working in the ER) but feeling like crap , just couldn’t. I had Justin look around for me. The staff were incredible.

We were discharged within a couple of hours and a diagnosis of either Chikungunya or Dengue fever from an infected mosquito. Both very similar viruses that had recently had local outbreaks, but the Dengue attacks the liver.

I stayed in bed for quite a few days but then an odd swelling of my face , rashes on my arms and legs developed and I was still so weak. Back to the hospital. My liver labs were crazy high. Viral hepatitis.

Again , for anyone fearful of a visit to the Emergency room in a hospital in Thailand , my ‘visit’ cost $300 including meds labs and the doctor. I would have benefited from IV fluids and perhaps a steroid shot ( in my opinion) but wasn’t offered. The follow up appointment was $80-$100 , I think.

It’s been just over 2 weeks now since all of this occurred and I am still tiring easily. My joints are sore at the end of the day , and haven’t quite got my hand strength or grip back yet, but I am just so thankful that it was me that was bitten by that tiny blood sucker and not one of the children. I wouldn’t wish feeling so poorly on my worst enemy.

For those that wondered , we do have mosquito nets , insect repellent and spray out rooms. It’s just one of those things that you cannot 100% protect yourself from. The biggest issue was if a mosquito bit me then one of my family immediately after , it could be transferred that way.

If only my odds of winning the lottery were as high as me being the one to contract this virus. We’d be traveling next year too!

~Arlene

We are trying new experiences every day here in Thailand. The language and the writing however, are not easy. They have many different pronunciations of one word which changes meaning depending on the tone ( I have mentioned this before ) and so we have only learned a few greetings , some numbers (I stress , only some) and the essentials for eating , drinking and shopping, and finding the toilets. The usual touristy phrases as most people do on vacation.

Happily , many Thais have made the effort to learn English or have been lucky enough to attend a school (many don’t go to school at all) that teaches English.

Our kids have made friends with two sets of Thai siblings and we hear them playing happily in the small street outside our house. They don’t have language barriers , it’s all non verbal , pointing , sharing , and laughing. A bike is offered and the kid gets on, just as a bag of candy is shared with sticky hands and glee. No interpreter needed. They even left a small note in the mailbox tempting the children to go and meet them.

The adults ,however , are more at a loss. For instance, I stood looking sheepish in the more rural shops , this time looking for a bamboo steamer for dumplings I wanted to make. I pointed , made drawings in the air , handed my phone over with a photo , and all I get is either a straight ‘no’ and a head shake or a blank stare. I thank them and leave frustrated. It’s not their fault of course , I’m the foreigner.

Sometimes I’m made uneasy by the laughs I know are directed at me for my stumbling with words and being a ridiculous looking , perspiring Farang saying the wrong Thai word, waving my hands in the air to describe my item. The thing is that I am trying.

My translator has mostly been the internet. Google translate is a hit or miss as to whether it gets it right sadly . There is a clever option of image translate but it rarely has worked for us with signage or packaging here. Yai has been our go to phone call to interpret or ask the shopkeeper for what we want.

Sometimes I find out the Thai word for an item I want ie; taro is puak in Thai. I go to the stall , ask for Cha Puak and they stare back at me as if I’m speaking Swahili. My dad reckons they think I’m speaking in English ( despite the fact it is correct Thai) and they are trying to find the Thai meaning. Must be my pronunciation. Again , back to the frantic pointing , saying taro 15 different ways and then the A-ha moment and we all smile nodding in agreement that it is indeed taro that is required!!

Road signs are in English and Thai for the most part but there are markings on the road that I have no idea what they say as I am driving over them. I assume due to road markings and familiar highway signage that they are to slow down , the speed limits , school zone , etc. There are no real road rules it seems other than driving defensively , have patience and move for the faster traffic whilst avoiding the motorbikes. If someone wants you out of the fast lane they come as close as they can to you , flashing their lights and the occasional honk of the horn. I haven’t seen or heard any real road rage as you just let other vehicles into your lane or they will go anyways, usually with 3 inches of clearance.

I stopped a few days ago at a roadside plant nursery to enquire about some pretty bushes I wanted to put into the garden here. I spoke to the first man but he shook his head and yelled on an older lady to come out, this behaviour typically means the second person can speak English of some sort. Not this time.

I walked over to the plant with her and asked her how much. She said ‘neung roi ‘ and I repeated it back to her , she nodded. In my head I knew the first word was ‘one’ and roi vaguely sounded like it was a thousand, so 1000 Baht. I did the mental math and that turns out to be approximately $35 US. Whaaaat ? For a plant ? No thanks, I looked at her as if she was crazy , I made a kind of a no way gesture , scowled and walked back to my car , mumbling about how just because I’m a foreigner no need to inflate the price , that’s the equivalent of 2 days pay for a Thai worker , they grow on the side of the road , etc , etc.

This irked me so much I kept yapping about the cost of plants and being taken for a fool for the rest of the evening. Poor kids.

I took my dad for coffee the next day and asked him what roi meant. He quickly said one HUNDRED. Aaaargh , I had been rude to the plant lady and made myself look like an idiot , again. I have no way to apologise to the lady but to go back and buy plants from her. I hope she doesn’t remember me!

Their shop signs are bright and garish but certainly eye catching.

We have had some odd meals due to our inability to describe what we want to eat. Our kids have been instructed not to make a face at what is served and just taste it first before making a judgement. Who knows what delights we have eaten? We don’t.

Often in the restaurants there are picture menus that they have laminated and that makes it all so much easier for both parties. Just a point and four fingers for four portions. We don’t go out expecting to find fish and chips or a taco ( actually we haven’t seen any Mexican food here). We are eating what they serve , which for the most part has been incredibly delicious.

This was noodles with pork balls ( we think ).

The purple drink on the right. is a taro milk tea with sweetened bread , condensed milk , 2 kinds of cereal and chocolate sauce drizzled. ($1 and 2 pounds gained)! The cups they serve have great sayings on them, sometimes it doesn’t make sense in translation. To purchase this it was pointing to a photo on the poster and one finger held up with a smile and a nod.

Needless to say we are not starving , able to get around and headed to Vietnam next week which will open up yet another language and it’s difficulties to us.

Bring it on !!

Traveling is exciting and can be challenging, but we feel so privileged to be a part of ‘somewhere else’ for this time. No complaints from this side of the world.

~Arlene

Saying Hello 

Our ‘Seven Months in Siam’ has been made possible thanks to the support of two very special people , Opa and Yai (one Dutch sounding Grandparent , although he is Scottish, the other a gorgeous Thai lady ). Had they not opened their homes and been so accommodating, literally, our journey and life here would not have been made so easy.

We moved into their home in Khao Takieb on arrival which was furnished , a fully stocked kitchen , all bed linens , towels and sundries. The fridge was full of fruit , bread , milk and cheese. There was good coffee and British teabags , a car was in the driveway for our use (full tank of diesel ) and nothing had been overlooked!

Each weekend that Justin is away working in California , the kids and I close up the beach house in Khao Takieb and make our way down south , 24km to Pranburi to their beautiful and welcoming estate. Their home sits on 5 rai ( about 2 acres) with a Thai style house , a clothing boutique, pool, and a pond.

The kids had that glint of mischief in their eyes about jumping into the pond when we first arrived , until we scared the life out of them by telling them a large Komodo dragon lives in it ( the truth…for once )! Not one kid has been brave enough to venture to the back of the property to the pond which suits us all just fine. There is no fishing in the pond either as Yai is a lovely Buddhist and doesn’t like the idea of sport fishing. Dad thinks the big lizard has eaten all of the fish that lived in there anyways.

We arrive early afternoon Friday , unpack , and settle into the lower floor of their home. It has been built with 2 bedrooms , 2 bathroom and kitchen downstairs which becomes a completely self contained apartment for our use whilst we are here. Opa and Yai live upstairs for which I’m sure they are happy for it not being the reverse ,as the kids running around on wooden floors would most definitely cause some lost sleep. This is perfect for us and we have direct access to the outside and pool. Very comfortable indeed.

Emmalynn (7) being the little fashion diva of the family , jumps out of the car the moment we come through their gate and runs to Yai’s shop. She delights in dressing up in the fashion and wigs , dancing around in sparkly high heels all provided to her by her Yai who happily tolerates her incessant questions and song renditions.

The boys have the space they need here to run and play. They swim

, explore , play with their newly bought from pocket money , RC cars , and generally annoy Opa. Rubber band gun fights on the deck , and Uncle Zack made them a tetherball pole for the ball we brought with us. Sourcing the old tire from downtown Pranburi was easy , something like, “I’ll give you a dollar for that old tire outside your shop” and the deal was done, tire in the back of the truck back to the house for the project.

Yai is the most wonderful cook making us curries with rice , platters of fruit , etc. There are sodas and kettle corn bought from a roadside stand by them , ready for the kids arrival each week, hamburgers and French fries for lunch and a movie in the evening on the big TV upstairs. Last night it was Spider-Man , way too loud but all tolerated by the elders.

Sometimes when we are here there is a domino tournament at the dining table and that is fun for all ! The kids and ourselves use this as a way of learning the Thai numbers as well as socialising with non English speaking relatives , numbers are numbers and having a laugh is universal.

Birdie comes with us and is becoming familiar with Namchock ,the alpha male of the property. She is learning her place as this will be home for her in March onwards. Opa is bonding with her also .

We went last weekend to their temple to attend a special ceremony where the congregation fed and shared the monks breakfast. Yai showed us the way to offer the plates of food. Monks are not allowed to touch a female and so he lays down a gold cloth for the bowl to be placed , then pull that towards them.

Grandparents are wonderful and this period of time is never to be repeated and cannot be taken away from us. Bedtime stories and tales from 65 years ago that Opa recalls are a delight to hear.

For me personally , having this time with my dad is what I will treasure forever. Seeing him for coffee in the morning and hanging out , and the occasional cocktail in the evening on his veranda, but most of all , watching him and Yai with the kids is heartwarming and a special time.

The kids are exhausted when we drive home but I bet not as tired as the grandparents !

Thank you Andy and Naphat Marr , with all of our hearts, we love you xx.

~Arlene

We arrived here on September 6th , 5 white bodied , slightly anxious Californians , with just a glimmer of fear (or hope depending who you were looking at) in their eyes as to how the next 6 months would pan out.

Happily just one month in we are settled in as if we have always lived here. There have been some major differences to tackle and it has been a real learning curve but the real answer to it all was just to relax and let it happen , don’t fight it. It’s new and different, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Some of the differences have been in the house. The lack of hot water coming out of the faucets was awkward at first but because there is a tankless water heater shower , that can provide hot water for dishes and hand washing clothes (that just happened to be splattered with hot oil from a wok , whilst the cook was frying spring rolls with wild abandon!)

The water from the faucets are not potable water and so we take water from a filter unit on the wall and boil it in large kettles each morning to dispense into plastic 2L containers.

We make this a routine as we don’t want to buy bottled water ( less for the landfills).

We hang the washing outside on a clothesline and it dries in less than an hour. Showers can be hot or cold water as it’s a relief to have a cool shower in this heat. We have air conditioning in the bedrooms that are used at night and fans throughout the house. Electricity is somewhat expensive here ( no solar yet) so we have made ourselves very aware of turning off lights and AC when not using those rooms. Lots of cool sitting areas outside in the shade , or we go to the mall where the AC is free and the Dairy Queen ice creams are only 25c each. McDonalds does a lovely coffee float ( afogato style) again only $1.

Currency confused us as it does most travellers. We stood in the grocery store aisles calculating just exactly how much was that block of cheese at 250Bt ,even pulling out our smartphone calculators to check. One month in and we are now determining whether it’s cheap enough, based on grocery experiences , not based on the exchange rate.

Getting used to kilos and kilometres is also new for us here.

There are so many similar shopfronts and chains in Thailand and the USA but the offerings are so fantastically different.

Starbucks offers Thai tea along with the PSL.

KFC has a delicious spicy fish bowl with rice.

Burger King burgers are generally made of pork and chicken. Their coffee is freshly ground and $1 per cup.

Cinnabon Thailand has their own spin on their products also.

The different menu choices are fabulous but the Western chains tend to be pricey and costs are the same with the currency exchange. A burger can set us back as much as 3 of us eating Thai food in the food court across the mall. Once in a while for a treat though !

It doesn’t seem odd now to order food and ask for ‘no ice , not spicy, no seafood, no fat, etc’. Most are very accommodating in the restaurants and we’ve learned a few names of the dishes we like and that is always a source of amusement to the waitresses when we say it in Thai. Wish we knew more but it’s a very tonal , many more vowels and consonants than English, and some words to our ears sound the same but because of a rise or drop in pitch means 4 or 5 different words. My favorite example is that the word khao means ‘rice , nine , snow and white’ dependant on the way it is pronounced. We have no hope.

The toilets were a source of amusement for the kids. Toilet paper isn’t to be thrown into the toilet to be flushed but instead placed into a small trash can in each cubicle. The sewage system here is ancient , poorly constructed and probably flows directly to the sea. The crazy part of the small trash can for me is that it is always behind the door of the cubicle hindering my way into it. Why they don’t put it at the side of the commode , I cannot fathom. Try squeezing a curvy foreigner like me carrying my bags into a toilet cubicle is never that easy but cutting that entrance in half is irritating. I move the can each time and I’m sure it’s back in behind the door with the next ‘customer ‘.

Emmalynn needed a wee at a rest stop and so Alex being a good big brother took her. He came back upset telling me that the toilet was weird and Emmalynn got all wet from sitting on it.

A quick tutorial on how to use these and not wet your feet was our next lesson ( as well as always having a tissue in your pocket) ! The feminine hose at the side is staying right there and all I use ours in the house for is cleaning the toilet.

We enjoy a cocktail of an evening and the alcohol here is 2-3 times the price of the USA. We have bought local vodka , gin and tequila and after a taste test , concluded that it’s all the same white spirit with a different label and a dash of color added.

Happy hour on the upstairs balcony.

Nowhere on the label does it say tequila , to be fair , and we didn’t go blind…yet.

We joined the Hua Hin Trash Heroes and go out with them on a Sunday afternoon to clean up the local beaches.

We very much had hoped to find something constructive to do as a family and this fits us perfectly. It’s a fifteen minute walk to this beach and just over an hour of our time. The energy was good and lots of cheering at the end as we weighed and sorted through large sacks of trash that would have polluted the sea and beach for years to come. People came up to us and took selfies and asked us what we were doing. No one complained once , not even little Lala who made a game out of finding plastic bottle tops. Dinner is at a market stall afterwards.

The house has a small stove that uses gas tanks. We ordered one on the Main Street using my step mom for translation as to directions and within the hour this little motorbike with side car turned up and delivered and installed it.

We all enjoyed that experience !

We are not so timid now , embracing the way of life and the differences that have suddenly become our norm. The bodies are tanning and freckling , we are not heat exhausted as much and the food isn’t an irritant to our tummies anymore ( except too much coconut milk for some ..).

Thailand , we love you , your differences and happy smiling people , your own Thai time, way of doing things , the opportunities and adventures you still have in store for us , thank you for letting us be a part of your country.

We have been here for 3 weeks now and I am pleased to report that we have settled in and found our way around town. Both Justin and I have driven the car , but our main mode of transport is the song thiew up to the modern malls of Market Village or Bluport. Each have lovely glass fronted stores and delicious cheap ‘street food’ in their basements. A lunch can be bought for 40-55 baht ( about $1.30 to $1.80) and it’s a plate of rice , pork or fish , vegetables and an omelette!

We eat like this at least 3 times per week.

Hua Hin is our largest city next to the village of Khao Takiab (where our home is) and it has a population of about 65,000 people including thousands of Europeans and Scandinavians who have chosen to retire here ,either for the weather or the cost of living. One must be 50 years old to apply for a retirement visa and have proof of $25,000 in a bank account. No one but Thais can own a house on land but can certainly purchase a condo , and many have. The current economy , like all over the world , is slow and property values have dropped. This makes reselling difficult and doesn’t seem to deter the thousands of condos being built along the shore near here in Cha am. It’s beginning to resemble Daytona Beach in Florida ! Sad really as it takes away from the natural , quiet serenity that the beaches had.

The large population of foreign residents have brought with them a variety of French , German and English bakeries and stores. It’s not difficult to buy a flaky, buttery croissant and a freshly ground espresso anywhere in town. Coffee shops are plentiful as are Boba tea stalls.

Golf courses are one of the reasons that Hua Hin is so popular with visitors. It had one of the first courses in Thailand and has continued to build more resorts with them since. We bumped into two men from Scotland who told us that they come for 16 days per year , every year, and play golf for 12 of those days. They seemed very pleased with the course standards here.

We have been tending to my parents home , making small adjustments to meet our needs. We visited a large home improvement store and were very impressed ! Most of all Justin of course !

We have a puppy called Birdie from a local temple ( they are teeming with stray dogs whom are all fed and allowed shelter unconditionally) and she has been happily chewing our flip flops and has settled into our family pack very quickly.

We got up early the other morning and I cooked food to gift to the local monks as it was a special day to honor family. I naively thought I could cook it the night before and hand it to them in the morning . My parents said of course not , they eat it when they get back to the temple , there’s no way to heat it up. Oops my bad. So up I got and cooked rice and a spicy pork dish with holy basil at 5:45 am , we brought small cartons of water and juice and walked into the village by the 7/11. Many others had gathered here and a table was set out by a vendor to buy pre made hot food for the monks

Next time perhaps , although there was a pride in cooking it myself and putting it into little plastic bags as they do here.

The monks were quiet and gracious , allowing us to fumble with our offerings and non verbally guided us as to how to hand them the food. We each had something in a pot to give , and each monk lined up in front of us and opened his metal pot which he carried in a sash type bag. We placed the rice , etc directly into his pot. Then we stood as they chanted a blessing over us. What an experience !

As we were at the 7/11 ( ours has a large selection of food and coffees available) , we bought food and walked down to the beach to eat breakfast as the sun came up. The temple the monks walked from into town is at the end of our beach so we were delighted when we could watch them against the sunrise walking along back to also enjoy their breakfast , and possibly only meal of the day.

Khao Takiab is a fishing village and the small harbor has many colorful wooden boats which catch fish and squid with large nets. At night the boats go out and shine odd green lights onto the water which apparently attracts squid. My father told me that for a while they were overfishing the coast of Thailand and the green lights could be seen outlining the coast from space !

There is also a passenger ferry that for 1200 baht will take you across the gulf of Thailand to Pattaya ( an adult type place not really suitable for kids )

We have been to a wildlife conservation park where we saw elephants being taken for a walk , threw bananas to whooping acrobatic gibbons and saw species of birds and animals that I thought only was in ones imagination !

Our kids are getting an education that no school in the land could offer. We do school 3 days per week , focusing on math and English but all of nature and science , culture and art is right here , where we are .

There is so much here to see and learn about.

We worried for a brief moment that this might not have been a good idea , not anymore !