Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful day and were able to share it with the ones you love! While nothing could compare to being at home with our families, we managed to have a pretty festive Thanksgiving halfway around the world.


The day started off when Jeff came home from work at about 9:00 am. He got a phone call from the front desk, but wouldn't tell me what it was all about. Then 20 minutes later there was a knock on our door, and a special delivery. Jeff brought in a box, and I knew it was some kind of sweet treat. I had just woken up, but the wheels were spinning and I was trying to figure out what it could be. Immediately I thought pie (based on the shape of the box). It clicked that it was Thanksgiving, and I guessed that it was a pumpkin pie. To my sheer delight, I was right!!! Apparently two other roadies had brought pie into work with them in the morning and Jeff asked them where they got it. They said the hotel, and Jeff ordered on from the front desk as soon as he got home. Without even bothering to get out of bed I devoured the first piece!

It was good, but it wasn't a traditional American pumpkin pie. As you can tell from the color it was more orange than brown. We decided we could make the pie better if we ran to the grocery store and picked up some spices and some whipped cream. We knew it would be asking too much for the store to carry the Pumpkin Pie spice, but we did grab some cinnamon and nutmeg. We got back home and immediately at our second pieces! MUCH BETTER!!!!
After that Jeff headed to bed for the day and I took a little nap with him. I woke up and spent the afternoon at the spa getting a massage! Jeff woke up later in the evening and we headed downstairs to one of the restaurants at our hotel. They were having the traditional Thanksgiving feast, and two of the roadies were nice enough to make reservations for the 16 of us! It may not have been family, but it was great to be at a big table with the people we've lived with for the last 6 months. (thanks to Angela for some of these pictures :))



How many times can you say that you've celebrated Thanksgiving with a Russian, a Brit, a Vietnamese, and two Venezuelans! And how many times can you say you celebrated Thanksgiving outside in a tropical paradise! For being 10,000 miles away from the US, the food was pretty good and pretty traditional! Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, etc. (although no traditional stuffing, but beggars can't be choosers!).


We stuffed ourselves silly and had a great time! It was by far our favorite Thanksgiving away from home yet!

We Met Celebrities!!!!

That's right, we met some of the biggest celebrities in the world at Universal Studios in Orlando. Who did we meet you may ask? Does this answer your question:

Yup, we met the REAL Bart and Lisa Simpson!!! Outside the Kwik-E-Mart!!!! Okay, we aren't really that excited about it, but we thought it was hilarious that they were there, so we had to wait in line to have our picture taken. Marge and Homer were around later, but they were leaving, so we didn't get our picture taken with them!

That was just a small part of our day at Universal Studios when we were in Orlando.

We arrived relatively early, and started meandering. We noticed a line outside the Terminator 2 show, and as luck would have it, the show started in 5 minutes. I had seen the show like 10 years ago at Universal Studios Hollywood, but it was still pretty cool.

We then headed to Krustyland (AKA, the Simpsons Ride). The walk up to the ride was really cute. There was a Kwik-E-Mart (which felt strangely like a gift shop!), a Squishee stand, and all kinds of murals with characters on them.

The ride just opened this spring and we were so excited to ride it. Its Krustyland themed, and as soon as you walk in you feel like you're actually in the Simpsons World.

We waited in line for about 45 minutes, but it seemed like five because there was so much to keep us entertained in the line. The best part was the dozens of flatscreens playing classic Simpsons clips as well as original stuff animated for the ride. When we finally got inside the building, there were all kinds of screens playing different scenes that fit with the Krustyland theme. It was so much fun!

The ride itself was awesome. It was very different than any other ride we'd been on before. You enter a room and sit in a typical roller coaster car. However, instead of plunging forward on tracks, we were raised up into a dome that was one large video screen. From there we were jerked, twisted, and turned to make it feel like we were on a real roller coster. It was totally different, but so much fun!

After that we headed over to the Men in Black ride. It was really fun because it was interactive. We were spinning along the track while trying to shoot at the aliens. I have terrible aim, so its no surprise that Jeff crushed me in the final score!

We then made our way to the Jaws ride.

Again, I had ridden the Universal Studios Hollywood version, and this one was pretty similar, but it was still fun. Our tour guide was a complete ham, which made it fun. Jeff was scared to get wet, so I took one for the team and sat on the outside of the boat. Somehow the water managed to hit only one area of my body. . .

Thankfully it was hot out, so my bum dried quickly! We hit up a few smaller attractions and then made our way over to the Mummy ride. We had heard this ride was awesome and we were expecting a long wait. We didn't see a line when we got there, so we were hopeful, but it turns out the ride temporarily closed for repairs! We were bummed, but hungry, so we grabbed some food and sample size beers a the Irish Pub across the street (where we could still see the Mummy line).

As we were ready for our bill, we saw the line reopen. Jeff quickly ran across the street to put our bag in a locker while I paid the bill. We hauled behind to the ride and basically walked straight on! It was awesome! The ride itself was really cool too! All kinds of special effects, and blazing fires! Plus there were dudes on stilts outside, which is always cool!

A few more rides and we were ready to call it a day! We made a quick stop at the Bubba Gump Shrimp company so I could buy a T-Shirt (my one from Charleston got ruined in the hotel laundry some time ago) and were on our way!

Time of Mourning

November 14th to the 19th were days of mourning to remember Her Royal Highness the Princess Galyani Vadhana. Her Royal Highness, who was the sister of the King, passed away on January 2nd, 2008 at the age of 84 after battling abdominal cancer. When she passed Thailand was in mourning for one hundred days. During that time, and for several months after, Her Royal Highness has laid in state at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. November 14th to the 19th was her royal funeral. It was only the second full royal funeral in the 62 years that King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) has ruled the country, which really shows how important Her Royal Highness was to the King and to this country.

There were countless ceremonies honoring the Princess, all of which were broadcast live on every Thai TV channel. Here is just a rough idea of the different ceremonies performed.

14 November - Evening Rites at the Dusit Maha Prasart Throne Hall
15 November - 7am - The Procession Ceremony, moving the Royal Urn from the Dusit Maha Prasart Throne Hall to the Royal Cremation Ground, Sanam Luang
15 November - 4.30pm - The Royal Cremation Ceremony
16 November - Collection of the Royal Ashes
17 November - Rites for the Royal Ashes
18 November - Moving of part of the Royal Ashes to the Chakri Maha Prasart Throne Hall, where all other Royal Ashes are kept
19 November - Moving of part of the Royal Ashes to the Royal Cemetery at Rajabopit Temple

We were not able to make it to Bangkok to be a part of the ceremonies, but thousands of Thais from all over the country were there. Those that could not make it were watching live on TV.

On Saturday, Her Royal Highness' funeral pyre was lit by the King and she was cremated. In Pattaya, Walking Street, which is filled with go-go bars and working ladies, was basically completely shut down as a gesture of reverence to Her Royal Highness. It may not sound like much, but the hundreds of bars on Walking Street fuel this town's economy. Shutting it down on a weekend really is a feat and is a serious sign of respect. On Wednesday the King and his Queen Consort placed Her Royal Highness' cremation urn in its final resting place, thus ending the royal funeral. The period of mourning is now over, but Thais will never forget the Princess, whom they all loved dearly.

Loy Krathong

On Wednesday, November 12th Thailand celebrated Loy Krathong, the festival of lights. Wikipedia has a good explanation of the history of the holiday, and what it celebrates. While we defer to Wikipedia on the origin, we can talk about how the holiday is celebrate from first hand knowledge!

On Wednesday Beach Road was full of vendors creating elaborate banana leaf boats. Thais purchase the boats, light the candles and incense and place them in the water as an offering. The boats come in all different shapes and sizes, and some are more elaborate than others. They all have some type of flower decoration as well as a candle and incense. Here's a few pictures of some of the stands selling/displaying their boats.

The beach was crowded with tons of people releasing boats into the water. There were so many adorable children running around and having fun!

Of course we had to get in on the boat action, so a few of us purchased boats . . .

. . . attempted to light the incense and the candles in the windy conditions . . .
. . . and placed them in the water.

Since we are on a beach, and not near a river, a lot of the boats were turned over immediately in the tide. Jeff and Sara thought they would roll up their pants and go a little deeper to give their boat a chance. Unfortunately the tide had a different plan for them, and they ended up soaked!

Another part of the celebration of Loy Krathong is launching Khom Fai, which are like miniature hot air balloons. People on the beach were purchasing the balloons, lighting them, and watching them coast into the night. It was really cool when people managed to get a whole string of the balloons lit all at the same time.
However, because of the wind, most of the balloons ended up like this one . . .

There were also fireworks being lit up and down the beach. Police were trying to regulate this, as the country was still in mourning for the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana.

After we watched the fireworks and launched our boats, we headed off to walking street. It was absolutely crazy there! We saw tons of guys and girls dressed up in traditional Thai attire (although many of the men were in the traditional female Thai attire).

Jeff had to work the next day, so we called it an early night, but we had a great time. We love it when we get to experience foreign holidays! This was probably our favorite because there was so much for us to do!

Back in the Swing of Things

I am back in Thailand, and we are back in the swing of things over here. About two weeks ago Jeff received his new assignment here, which meant that I got the green light to fly back out. We are really excited to get to spend some more time in Thailand, as we have really fallen in love with this country! We will miss our families at the holidays, but it looks like we will be staying in Pattaya until the end of January.

I had been out of Thailand for six weeks, and for the most part everything is the same as I left it. However, in the week I've been back I have noticed a few changes. First off, the weather is completely different. When I left it was rainy season. Every day was exactly the same; the morning was sunny, and every afternoon like clockwork the skies would open up to drench us. Since I returned, its been cloudy a few times, but no rain! The absence of rain has been great, but even better has been the drop in humidity! All summer long it was ridiculously humid here. You couldn't walk outside without getting sweaty. Now, I can be outside all day and not break a sweat. It's such a HUGE difference! Case in point: in my difficult daily schedule (note the sarcasm) I try to squeeze in some pool time every day. Before I left, after 15-20 minutes in the sun I would be dripping in sweat and would have to jump in the pool to cool down. All last week I laid at the pool for hours on end without even breaking a sweat! The nights are so much cooler here and all in all the weather's just a lot more pleasant.

Another huge difference is the composition of tourists. Summer is the low season here, so most tourists we encountered fit into one of two categories: 1. Australian families/couples; or 2. Older single white men from the west (US, Germany, Russia mostly). The Australians were on a cheap winter getaway. The single men were taking advantage of what put this town on the map. November to March is high season here, and there is a whole new crowd walking the streets. Everywhere we look there are TONS of older couples on holiday. There are still the single old men, but there are also a lot of single younger men now, and they tend to come in large groups. They do the same things the old single men did, but there's just a lot more of them!

The last difference is probably my favorite. Since it was low season, the hotel here was under construction. Every day we lived with constant pounding, hammering, and drilling. Now that high season is here, the construction is over!!! This is so fantastic considering that Jeff worka night shift and had to try and sleep through the noise!

We have a lot of blog posts to catch up on, so stay tuned!!!