Greetings from Bali, where we arrived safely yesterday. We'll have a separate blog for what will hopefully be some excellent Bali adventures, but this one will be all about the two weeks we spent in Thailand.
Thailand is actually the only stop on our trip where we have both been before, but since we both loved it the first time around and since our great friends, The Hickeys, are now living in Bangkok we decided to spend a few weeks there.
It was really great staying with Brendan, Kendall and seven month old Houston. They have an awesome apartment on the 51st floor which provided excellent views of Bangkok. We even lucked out and got fireworks the first two nights we were there. It was a great place to explore Bangkok from and they took us to a ton of great restaurants. We went on a longtail boat cruise of the Chao Priaya, saw the Golden Buddha and went to a Muy Thai fight. Really great to spend so much time with our friends, who we don't see nearly as much as we are accustomed to on account of them living in Thailand.
View from Brendan and Kendall's place
Canal boat tour on the Chao Priaya
The Golden Buddha (made of solid gold)
Muy Thai!
Chilling in the pool- teaching Houston early that beer is good
Relaxing time!
We also took a quick two day trip up to Ayutthaya, which is the ancient capital of Thailand, and also where my cousin Nick has been living for the last six years. We got to experience riding third class on a Thai train, which was not as bad as expected and only $1 for the round trip ticket. It was quite hot though and with no AC on the train I think the Thai people were amused watching how much the white people were sweating.
Train to Ayutthaya- even the Thai people were fanning themselves
We found our hotel no problem and wandered around the city for a little bit (mostly due to some poor directions from google maps) before meeting up with Nick at a bar that he used to own. We all got on Nick's motorcycle, which was no small feat for three big butted Italians and he gave us a tour around the city with all of the ancient ruins lit up. We spent the night drinking beers and eating some delicious pork noodle soup.
The next day we spent some time walking around the ancient city and the ruins and walked around the park as well before jumping back on our third class train to Bangkok.
Ayutthaya ruins
Let's see, what else....
I (Bryce) got the interesting experience of having someone try to give me a massage while I was peeing. Apparently it is a thing in Thailand, where these bathroom attendants will come up while you are peeing, place a hot towel on your neck and start rubbing your shoulders. I'm all for hot towels and I like a good massage, but there is a time and a place. One time a guy even came up behind me while I was washing my hands and cracked my back. Gina didn't receive such treatment in the ladies room. She said she was relieved, but I think she's a tad jealous.
We went river prawn fishing at a restaurant near Brendan and Kendall's place. It had a large pool of water of where you use a fishing poll to hook these giant river prawns and once you catch them, the restaurant will grill them up for you. Yum!
We had a ton of fun playing with Houston and I started to teach him how to dribble a basketball. Gina worked with him a lot on different crawling techniques.
We had a ton of fun playing with Houston and I started to teach him how to dribble a basketball. Gina worked with him a lot on different crawling techniques.
We got to Skype with Gina's family for Dom's first birthday, where we saw everyone, but Dom who was napping after partying too hard.
Overall a really great time in Thailand. We'll be in Bali until Friday and then heading to New Zealand. Hope everyone is well!
B and G
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