Last bit of Thailand

This is the whole vacation group. We had a great time! And now I have new friends:) And yes, I'm enjoying real ice cream. We enjoyed that multiple times on vacation:) And I've never seen a more beautiful beach or sunset in my life.

Snorkeling

My first time to go snorkeling. Everyone else who had been before said it wasn't the best because the water wasn't that clear, but I thought it was great! My favorite thing to see were the sea urchins. Their spikes are so much longer than I had originally thought and they have colors in the middle of them. They're beautiful! And yes, it was so relaxing being out on the water.

Elephants

So obviously there's an elephant theme here. I actually am sitting on the elephant itself. A bit scary! And the hotel made my towels into little elephants! I pretty stoked to see them one morning when I came back from breakfast. I don't even fold my towels, much less make them into animals. :)

Modes of transportation

So many choices. My first time on a motor bike. It lasted about 1 minute. I'm not skilled enough for that! And...the elephant. My first time! It was so much fun! And I rode on his neck as well with no guide up there. That was a bit scary as I thought I was going to fall off! What an experience!

Koh Chang, Thailand

This is Koh Chang, Thailand where I spent vacation for a few days. This is the beach at sunrise, the mountains on the island, and the ferry that we took from the mainland to the island.

Are you excited?

These were the mannicans they had all over Thailand. I thought they were hiliarous! They're pretty excited, huh? It reminds me of this things my family does when we're doing something new or especially when we're on vacation. We all get super excited and ask each other if we're excited and then you're supposed to answer "I'm excited!", whilst you act really excited! A little thing we do that we love! So reminds me of that.

Cute little bird

Oh, and Tuesday I had pigeon for dinner. Lily took me to a place that I had never been to before. It has one dish: a little bit spicy, spicy and really spicy. Lily ordered the really spicy noodles with pigeon as the meat. I thought, "I'm going to eat pigeon?" One, that's just strange because those are the birds Mary Popppins feeds in the park. Two, they're tiny. How much meat could be on there?

The taste wasn't that bad, but it didn't taste like chicken. But there wasn't much meat. I was carefully gnawing on the skin and bone to make it appear to Lily like this was the most delicious bird I'd ever eaten. In total I got about one bite of meat out of all the bones I ate off of. I got a good laugh out of and Lily loved it!

Bridge of Love

I thought it appropriate to show this since we just had Valentine's Day. The Asians are...well they're big into decorations like this. It's hard to explain. Basically this was going on for some sort of ceremony for adults and this was here. I was not the only foreigner to pose next it. :) This is Thailand btw.

Colors of the rainbow

Got to go bowling while in Pattaya! I haven't done that in a long time! I lost, of course, bowling...not real good that. But oh so fun!

End of Laos

The last photos of Laos. There's a picture of Erin and I at Laos' National Monument, at rat that may be eaten eventually, some women in Laos, and...the "vertical runway". The US gave Laos a lot of money way back when so that they could build an international runway to make their airport international. Once Laos received the money they decided they wanted to build a nice thing to look at in the middle of their capital city, Vientienne. They didn't build the runway with the money. So...it's been nicknamed the "vertical runway".

Religion in Laos

All are pictures of Buddhist statues in Laos except for the first one. That's a Hindu statue.

What happened to your face?

Tuesday I had lunch with my friend, Hediah. I opened the door to my apartment to let her in and she just stood there staring at me with a very disturbed look on her face. I asked her if she was going to come in. She said, "What happened to your face?" What do you mean what happened to my face? "It's burnt." she said. "No, it's tan!" She continued to just stand there staring at me. I had to reassure that the sun didn't do anything to me and that I was okay. In America we think tan is beautiful. In Asia, white is beautiful. I can only imagine what my Chinese friends are going to say when they see me!

What happened to your face?

More pics

Pictures of Vang Vieng, Laos. Isn't it beautiful?

Thief!

Yesterday I went to the supermarket to get some stuff for a salad. I was on a bit of a time crunch. I buy my groceries and am walking out of that section of the store. There are what looks like metal detectors, but aren't, right at the exit. I walk through and the thing goes haywire! I decide that I'm just going to ignore it, play the dumb foreigner and keep walking. I do that. Meanwhile, this lady is yelling at me in Chinese. I honestly don't know what she's saying so I keep walking. She catches up with me and keeps repeating what she's been yelling at me while directing me to come back to the little detectors. They know that I'm the one that has made these detectors go nuts.

I walk back through it. It beeps! I give the girl my shopping bags and walk back through again. It's still going off! At this point it now looks like I've stolen something and I'm a thief! This, of course, draws the attention of every Chinese shopped in that vacinity of the store. "Look, the foreigner has stolen something!" (I didn't, don't worry!)

I take off my jacket and walk back through the detectors. It goes off again! so I take off my scarf, hat and gloves. Walk back through. It's still going off! I have no idea what is going on! Meanwhile, this other lady has been on her walky-talky calling the head of the store to come up there to "deal" with this/me. I can't figure out how to communicate what I need to in Chinese. She's talking to me in Chinese and all I can say is "I don't understand what you're saying." I'm motioning to her that I have nothing and as I keep walking back and forth through the detectors the Chinese shoppers are all laughing, thinking this is hilarious.

I finally tell her that I really need to go and that I don't have anything. She, thankfully, lets me go. And as I leave so do all the spectators. Of course they're all talking about what happened to foreigner.

It's funny now. I don't think I'll be forgotten at the supermarket EVER! :)

Pictures of my trip in Laos

There may be a few posts on this, not sure yet. Here we go...

Yinchuan

Well...I'm back in Yinchuan! I'm so glad to be back! I missed it so much!

TIC

My friend and I are staying in a guesthouse called "Mama's Naxi Guesthouse". It's written up and known as the most hospitable one in Lijiang. You don't need to find them, they'll find you. Don't call the airline, they'll call for you. You want special price, Baba can get it for you! And when we came they gave us fruit! They have cats that sound like they're about to die running all over the place.

Yesterday my friend and I were talking to Mama about getting a bus out to Lijiang to see Tiger Leaping Gorge. The whole time we're talking to her she's picking lint and stray hairs off of my friend. I'm laughing the whole time because Mama's doing this like "Of course I'm doing this for you!" Then she starts doing it to me! She's picking off of the front of us and our arms and then is turning us around to get our backs and everything. I just couldn't believe that they were are in public talking about renting vans and she's picking things off of our fleeeces!

This is China!

Oh, and we read yesterday that it's -10 in Yinchuan during the heat of the day! Freezing!