All our company in the past week and a half has distracted us from blog writing, so you can blame them. ;) Just kidding, it was fantastic to see some familiar faces and we had a great time. Miah's mom arrived first, followed a couple days later by Michelle and Jaime. We decided to celebrate Thanksgiving once they all arrived since we'd be back on our own for the official celebration. (Actually, that's today, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!) We made a pretty impressive spread if we do say so ourselves, so each of you should tell us yours so we can compare. We managed to make chicken and sweet potato coconut curry, glass noodle salad, spring rolls, pork with holy basil, pad thai, coconut rice, and a "birthday cake" to celebrate the ones we'd missed. Our cooking class apparently paid off.
Once leaving the resort, we all headed down to Phuket Town and took a boat trip out to Phi Phi Island which was destroyed by the tsunami a few years ago. Thanks (kindof) to big tourist dollars, the island bounced back almost immediately. At least this time around there's a little more thought about sustainability. There was a coral reef along the island which was great for snorkeling, and otherwise we just enjoyed the sunshine and blue seas. Our last night in Phuket, we had one of our best meals of the trip, at this out of the way seafood place right on the water. Everyone was a bit taken aback when the food arrived (lots of animal eyes staring back up at us), but it was delicious! Even better, Michelle was almost scared to death by a lobster the size of your torso (she'll have to post the picture).
After Phuket, we headed north to Phang Nga, to a sleepy town surrounded by cliffs and mountains. What seemed like a relaxing night turned quite interesting when we returned to the guesthouse to find muddy footprints on Jaime's bed and up the wall. The guesthouse owners (who didn't speak English) came to the same conclusion we did that someone had broken in to the room, but they did not seem concerned at all. It seemed as if the guy next door had crawled into the ceiling, over the wall, and down through their drop ceiling to get into the room, but was scared off before he could take anything. Finally (after much hand waving and arguing), we were able to convince them we did not want to stay there and moved to another hotel down the street.
Strange things continued the next morning when we decided to visit a nearby cave. When the tuk-tuk dropped us off though, it looked like we had stepped into the Thai version of South of the Border. The place was deserted but there were odd animal statues all over. We wandered farther back and were greeted by dozens and dozens of monkeys climbing over these animal statues and up the rock cliff behind them. We were dumbfounded watching them all and then a monk showed up with food and they quickly surrounded him and were trying to tear the bag from his hands. The larger ones would run in screaming trying to scare the others off and it was complete mayhem. If this monkey colony wasn't strange enough, we then entered this giant dragon's mouth and started following a dark, creepy passage through his body to reach the cave we were trying to find. Reaching the other side, there is a garden of statues that are portraying hell, tortured in any variety of ways. The cave itself was beautiful though - huge with a wandering stream down the middle. The monks had constructed bridges back and forth across the stream until you reached a shrine in the back. The whole experience was just bizarre, no description can do it justice. We'll try to get some photos up next time we get to an internet cafe with our camera.
No sooner did we finish this, that we started on another - though slightly less awesome at the outset - adventure. We took a boat tour of the bays around Phang Nga. This included going around the mangrove forests as well as out in to the bay and to see the illustrious James Bond island (from "The Man With The Golden Gun" for those of you watching along at home). Turns out the "boat" was barely big enough for the six of us and putzed around at just under snail pace and James Bond island paled in comparison to the limestone monsters that filled the rest of the bay, but all things considered, once the rain stopped we had a blast. The last part of the trip was really the most notable. We spent the night in a Muslim fishing village at the mouth of the bay. Established (officially) about 15 years ago the village is basically a random collection of huts that all sit up on stilts at the base of a big limestone rock that pops up out of the sea. The centerpoint of our time in this village was dinner. It was amazing. Plate after plate of yummy thai seafood dishes came out from the kitchen and the 12 people at the table (all of us were part of the same tour) ate every scrap of the food on the table.
We've just come across a small mosquito emergency here in the computer lab, so we're going to disappear for now. Hope everything is wonderful and don't forget, we want to hear your thanksgiving stories!
Eat up!
TeamWander
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3 comments:
Sounds like awesome fun guys! Daniel and I had alternative T-Giving dinner last night and it was delicious. I even made it look gormet. Here's the gist: A bed of bamboo rice topped with a mango and Asian pear chutney with a swordfish steak on top. This tower of food was decorated with more chutney and a fresh pear and mango wedge. Delicious and pretty...nice! Oh, and some great wine. We went all out and got a $20 bottle for the holiday! We get 2 more T-Givings this weekend, but our families never celebrate on the right day!
Co-opped with two other families in the RXQL group. Started with a lamb and barley soup spiked with a hint of vindaloo paste, then the classical turkey, real mashed potatos, stuffing done both in and out, a gravy you could just about stand on when it cooled (my last-minute effort), two heimgemacht cranberry chutneys, a cherry pie, an apple crisp and brownies. Went through half a liter of red wines each to wash it all down, then watched Juno.
Minor excitment going in---the hosts' almost-three boy (Sebastian---he appears several times on the Flickr! site) found a roll of toilet paper, spooled in into the can, which he then flushed several times 15 minutes before we arrived. The lake was intercepted before it hit any carpets but there were "watch your step" signs in the hall and powder room. z6 was about the same age when he vacuumed the coals out of the basement fireplace, killed the vacuum and scorched a big yellow shag rub. Same thing tipped both of us---too quiet. Infertility is a blessing that those who have take much too lightly.
Wow! Sounds like two quite impressive feasts...I'm glad we're not the only ones having an alternative Thanksgiving. Love to all!
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