The Summer Adventure and Vid/Photo Dump

It was a helluva trip and I meant to write and blog while traveling, but I got caught up in the fun of hanging with Kiddo and J. I thought that there would, for sure, be down time; however, it turned out to be a lot of time with family and fun and beaches and museums and good times. We saw and experienced a ton, not that anything was groundbreaking or life changing, but it was a bunch of little things and good times.

The pictures are going to be scattered, J did most of our photo work and they got mixed up and unsorted in the transfer to me. So, sorry about that, but we have about 500 pics and I’m not sorting and organizing that more than a cursory type once over. If you’re reading this and following us, I’m sure you’ll get the overall gist of it.

We landed in BKK and that was, strangely, like coming home. We got through passport and all that with ease and then collected the luggage and got a car and off we went. We stayed in Silom. That’s where the library we used to visit is located. It is also the area that Doc J and Mr E stayed in when they visited. In fact, we saw the hotel they stayed in one day when we walked to an Indian place for lunch. It was about 500m away. As was the library.

One thing to mention is that we traveled to SEA in July, specifically Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Krabi, and Kuala Lumpur, during the rainy season. Even Beer mentioned that it was not a great time to visit because of the rain and weather to be expected, but we’ve done Thailand and know the rain, so all is fine. We know how to cope.

It NEVER rained. I mean, it did. Just at 3am. Oh, and one night in Chiang Rai, it rained as we got to where we were having dinner and we got to sit and have hotpot and watch it rain. The rain ended about 5 minutes before we got the cheque and left. We walked home in a very light sprinkle. We spent 3 years in BKK and loved the hard rains and thunder and lightening and were looking forward to seeing it again and we never did. Not one lightening storm while we traveled.

The closest we got was one night when we were seeing Beer and we went to a night market that she knew and liked and all was great. Nice breeze. Cool market with a chill vibe. Hanging with Beer. Then, out of nowhere, RAIN! It even shocked Beer and she mentioned that a lot of the other people around us didn’t think it would rain. All the shops scrambled to get themselves rain ready it came on so quick. We hung with Beer and tried to stay dry under the tent we were in, but the winds were kicking as well. 15 minutes in and we got a car as we were in an area that could get a car to come as close as about 3 steps from us. We still got soaked getting to the car. By the time we got back to where we were staying, it was all done. Seriously, it was about 30 minutes of torrential rain and then done. That was our “rainy season.”

We enjoyed all our time. Since I don’t want to write a 10 page blog, nor do I think many folks will read it all, I will let the pics and vids do the talking. Vids are coming part here and part next. Also, with 240ish of our best 1000 photos, I think it says a lot.

The highlights were BKK. We loved it and missed it and loved seeing Beer a few evenings. We miss Beer and wish she would fit into the luggage so she could just come with us everywhere. Dear Musk or Bezos…. If you got about $10m laying around the sofa cushions; send it my way and I will just hire Beer to come travel the world being awesome with us. LOL. Of course we got to NH Library. And Rama 2. And a night market. Otherwise, we just bumped around, explored Silom and had some good times and good fruit and juice.

Chiang Rai was the highlight in a lot of ways. The Blue Temple was awesome and really cool. The elephants however. WOW! Just stunning. Fun and dirty as we trekked thru a muddy jungle, but so worth it. Kiddo met a girl during that and they were fast friends and spent the day playing and chatting 9 year old stuff. Other than that, it was a chill town and a chill pace of life. The food near us was GOOD! The food we traveled by car for was so so. Again, we took it easy.

The one mention I will give CR is that the house was split. Upstairs was a bed and bath, with a kitchen, living room, and patio. Downstairs was just a bed and bath. But, it wasn’t connected. You needed to leave one and go outside to get to the other. No that it was a problem. Kiddo is 9 now. One night, the power went out and Kiddo had a flashlight and came down to knock. We got her back upstairs and settled and the power clicked back about 45 minutes later. Easy peasy. Nothing got too hot in that time and everyone went back to sleep.

Krabi was beachy. We rented scooters to putz around on and just lived a SLOW life there. Beach and chill. We popped over to the other side of town for a market one night. We popped out for dinner in a car a few times. Mostly, it was beach, lunch, beach, dinner, wind down and watch a show with Kiddo, bed and repeat. We did take a long boat out to the islands and saw that. Cool, but very cultivated; not that it’s bad, but it was busy and we got the option to snorkel… Only problem was, so did 500 other people, boats, tours, etc, so it was rather dull and lifeless. It was a great day, however, in a long boat, on the water, nice breeze, and lots of time to dip into the water to keep cool. Plus, fruit on the boat. And icy cold waters. We brought snacks and little things to eat as well. Mostly, the good times were beach, lunch, beach days.

After that was a few days in Kuala Lumpur. It was cool. Back to city life. Lots of English speakers, so that was a shock. We went to a super awesome science and tech museum. Otherwise, we just kind of saw the city and got the vibe of it.

Enjoy the pics and more to come soonish.

We are off in a few days to jump up to Beijing on the high speed and see the Great Wall. So, pics of that as well to come soon. We figured, we had a week until J goes back and the cost is about $500 all-in for train, food, lodging, bus to Great Wall, and the day tour, so why not!?! And that is not per person. That’s ALL IN! For the week we’ll be gone. Yeah, the three of us will go see a world wonder for that price. Why not.

Let’s go, Kiddo…. School and life resume soon, but we’ve got some time left so lets remember to fun we had and look forward to the coolness to come. We can’t wait to explore and just keep seeing cool things with you. So much more is coming in the next year and then next summer and we can’t wait to share it with you and the blog readers.

PS. One of our flights was on NOK Airlines. Kiddo liked the logo and drew it up on her iPad while flying. It’s damned good too!