After this extremely long day, our bus pulled up to a --- drum roll please – Chinese restaurant for dinner. Since our group has 14 people, we have to sit at two separate tables. Understandably, the Floridians who came on the trip together always want to sit together so our table has turned out to always be us, Clay and Twila – the older couple from Palo Alto – and Marc and Cathy – the Jewish couple from Augora Hills. Obviously we’re the cool kids… and we all happen to be from California. GO BEARS. We’re very happy with the seating arrangements. Also, it is traditional in China for one person to order for the entire table. Luckily for us, there is a set menu and Ming, our tour guide, makes sure all the food arrives promptly and explains what everything is – which is key since we’d have no chance in hell of figuring it out otherwise. They eat weird things here… mostly pork and Lotus Flower. What the fuck is a lotus flower? Also, how is there so much pork to eat but no pigs anywhere. We haven’t seen one pig. But we’ve been served a hundred of them. Sketchball. Most of our meals have been really good…. Some have even been excellent… but a few have been what Ming told us Chinese people call “MA MA HOO HOO”. To be frank, this means “fair at best” but literally it means “Tiger Tiger Horse Horse”. Long story short: a man looked in the distance and saw what he thought was a tiger, another man looked at the same animal and thought it was a horse… they deflected their question of what they animal in the distance actually was to a wise man who said it was something between a horse and a tiger… therefore, MA MA HOO HOO. Get it?
Random announcement: During dinner Josh went to the bathroom and saw a cook leave without washing his hands. Thankfully, he decided to withhold this information from Lindsey for about a week…
After dinner we were given the option of attending a Kung Fu musical show called the Legend of Kung Fu. Obviously we were totally down. As we had learned in Thailand, it’s always better to go for the optional activity if possible. Luckily for us, the show was awesome. It had an English translation, so we could follow along and the acrobatics and Kung Fu elements of it were pretty stunning. Also, we got to sit in the third row. Not bad, China Spree, not bad. Haha.
we're so behind in our blogging... but we've decided this is a good thing....
-- lindsey and josh
Friday, April 11, 2008
Shirley You Can’t Be Serious
The next morning (Monday the 31st) we met our tour group in the lobby at 9 am. To be frank – which is a favorite expression of our national Tour Guide whose name is Ming (she’s fab, but more on her later) – we are not the typical demographic of people who go on the China Spree tours… we are 30 years younger than everyone else in our tour group. Literally. There are 8 people in our group from Florida. They have all been friends for 20 years and have traveled together many times before. They also all go camping in Florida together about once a month. The sum it up, we think they all voted for GW. (One of the guys tried to tell us that Al Gore was only interested in Global Warming because of all the money he was making by promoting his film… RIIIIIGGGHHHTTTT. Josh had to bite his tongue in order to avoid getting into a heated argument about that one. Another one of them, who in all fairness had a son who served in Iraq, which is obviously extremely Nobel and admirable, tried to Josh that there were many good reasons for the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy… Yeah. But, as long as we don’t talk politics or religion, they are very nice folks.) There are two other couples on the trip, both from California. Twila and Clayton are Josh’s favorites. They are an older couple from Palo Alto, and he went to Stanford, and she is on the board of Meals on Wheels (yeah Mom/Shana). But they are very fun and enjoy their bottle of wine at dinner every night. (We even found out that they have gone on the “Sideways” wine tour near Santa Barbara. In other words, they went to all the restaurants and wineries and hotels that were used in the movie… haha. The last couple is Marc and Cathy. They are from Augora Hills and the only other members of the tribe. We also share a love for the Dodgers and Lakers and have been updating each other on the sports scores. They are a lot of fun and at times have joined us in laughing at the other members of the group… sometimes you just have to laugh, right?
Overall… we’ve definitely been laughing our way through this country… the Chinese people have weird habits and do ridiculous things and there has been a lot of laughter, which is definitely the way to go. Even though it’s a little funny to be so much younger than the rest of our group, we feel really fortunate to be taking this trip at this time in our life. China’s influence on the world is increasing rapidly and it’s really eye opening to see what’s going on here first hand – both currently in the ever developing modern sections of China and also the inspiring show of history in this country. Also, when all the members of our tour were our age, no one was even being allowed to enter the country… not that anyone wanted to at the time…
As we mentioned before, Ming is our national tour guide – this means that she is our leader for the entire trip, traveling with us wherever we go. But, unlike our tour in Thailand where we had one guide the whole time, YAY SU, ChinaSpree always has a national guide, a local guide, a bus driver and many times a specific activity guide to lead us along. Shirley, our local tour guide in Beijing, was Lindsey’s age (they were both born in 1985, the year of the Ox, haha). FYI, Yosh was born in the year of the Dog. Go Roosters… (long story). Shirley was awesome and really informative… the first thing we did in Beijing with our group was go to Hutong – a Hutong is the Chinese name for the old fashioned Chinese neighborhood that sort of look like tenements… the Hutong we went to is still being lived in – as we mentioned before, many of them are being bulldozed – however it was rather touristy and set up for large groups to come visit. We were each given our own Rickshaw driver to take us around. The rickshaw is basically a tuk tuk without a motor… a poor guy on a bike has to ride with us sitting in a seat behind him… Like central park, but without the horse. We even had a blanket to put over our knees… it’s chilly in Beijing this time of year… In the Hutong we visited a Kindergarten and a Drum Tower with a panoramic view of the city. Then we had lunch at a local family’s home… this meant we ate around a little table in a bedroom. Even though a local woman was really cooking us all the food in her tiny kitchen, they were shuttling people in and out of there like nobody’s business… we’re realizing more and more how lucky we are to only have 14 people in our group… some tour groups have 40 or 50.. craziness. Also, Lindsey joined some elderly women in doing a little Hutong Dance and Josh was mesmerized by some of the retirees who were fiercely betting on their Mah Jong games… we still need to learn how to play.
After the Hutong, we went to Tiananmen Square where a ceremony for the Olympic torch had just been held, so we couldn’t actually walk on the square, but we walked around it… As many of you know, the square has a rather marred history because of the student uprisings that took place there… it’s the largest public square in the world and can hold 1 million people. (A small fraction of Beijing’s city population.) Everything in China seems to be the biggest, the longest or the largest… Then we entered the Forbidden City, walking through a gate with a huge picture of Chairman Mao hanging over us.
When we told Grandma Helen that we would be going to the Forbidden City (she was there with Grandpa Sidney in 1988) her response was that it was “very big”. After being there, we agree… “very big” is the best way to describe it. (“Repetitive” and “excessive” are also a close second and third.) It’s something like 110 acres and had over 8000 rooms. For many hundreds of years the only people that could go inside of it were the Emperor, the Empress, the concubines and their 30,000 servants. WTF. Honestly, it was cool, but some of the other attractions have been far more impressive. The coolest part of the Forbidden City was the garden, which was gorgeous. There was even a man made mountain that was made with gigantic rocks from the bottom of a lake. WHY? WHY? Regardless, if you’re ever in Beijing, the Forbidden City is a must…
Also, at the Forbidden City Lindsey found a Four Star public bathroom. Yes, sometimes they rate bathrooms here the same way we usually rate hotels. But since it’s unclear who actually assigns these stars it’s hard to really judge what they mean. The four star bathroom wasn’t much better quality than most of the other public ones… which is piss poor. Literally. Lindsey has decided that even though it’s undeniable that China’s stake is rising in the world, especially in terms of the economy, this country will never really be able to claim superiority over anyone until they get rid of all their fucking squat toilets. It’s one thing to have to squat while going to the bathroom in the woods on a camping trip of something, but there is no reason that nice hotels and restaurants should make you go squat in a bathroom. And we understand after being in Thailand that some developing countries just don’t have the means to put in western bathrooms everywhere… but Lindsey was actually in a bathroom that had an AUTOMATIC FLUSH SQUAT TOILET. What? WHAT? If they can take the time and energy to put in a sophisticated flushing system, we find it hard to believe they couldn’t’ve just upped the ante and got a western toilet. Apparently, Chinese people seem to think that squat toilets are a good thing… something about having your knees above your waist while you’re peeing is better for your circulation or that the squatting movement strengthens your back… honestly we have no clue what the benefits are except that it makes you want to get in and out of the bathroom as quickly as possible. Overall, the toilets are nasty and for better or worse Lindsey has gotten really good at never having to pee.
Ch Ch Ch China (think Chia Pet)
We landed in Beijing late Saturday night (March 29th) after flying in from Bangkok. Our flight was pretty uneventful… we watched Wet Hot American summer on the plane – great movie, but even greater moment when the gay sex scene occurred right as the stewardess was trying to give Josh some apple juice. A W K W. Also, an Asian couple across the aisle from us was also watching their own home movies at full volume – we of course use our headphones – but they gave us the death stare when Josh asked them to turn the sound down… there are certain common courtesies that Chinese people seem to be lacking. For example, the concept of person space doesn’t seem to exist in this country. Maybe it’s cause there are 1.3 BILLION people here, but no one seems to mind jamming up against each other – especially in the public buses which literally drive down the street looking so full it seems like if just one more person tried to step on, someone would have to fall out of the window in order to accommodate them. (Speaking of which, we did see a Chinese man literally hanging out the window of a bus and eating corn on the cob while at a truck stop somewhere between Wuhan and Yichang – pictures to come.) Also, no one waits in line in this country… everyone just runs and cuts each other … especially in the bathroom. Well, the girls bathroom anyway. Lindsey will be waiting in line to use a stall and Chinese women will just swoop in front of her and steal the newly opened stall. (But that certainly isn’t the worst part of the public restrooms here… more on the nastiness of Chinese toilets later…)
Anyway, we land in Beijing – and unlike the last time we tried to take a cab to our Beijing Hotel we arrived without complication. Our hotel was in the heart of downtown Bejing – which doesn’t mean it’s close to anything since Beijing is so fucking huge – yes, that big – that it is impossible to walk anywhere. We tried… and failed miserably because at certain parts of the city the blocks are literally a ten minute walk apart (which makes the street maps very deceiving, because something can look like it’s only 3 blocks away, but you might end up walking for 35 minutes to get there) . This enormity makes sense though, seeing as how there are 17 million people in the city… if Beijing wasn’t huge there wouldn’t be room for everyone. Beijing is the capital of capital of China and in case you’ve been living under a rock, we should mention that it is also the host of 2008 summer Olympic Games. China could not be more excited about this. You can’t talk to anyone here without them bringing it up…
So our first full day was Sunday the 30th. The rest of our tour group wasn’t scheduled to arrive until that afternoon, so we had a free day to explore on our own. The first thing we did was ask the concierge where to get our digital pictures put onto a CD – he nicely drew a map for us, it was only 3 blocks away. 35 minutes later we ended up at the camera store, which was well disguised, if it weren’t for the oversized pictures of young children posed awkwardly hanging outside we might never have found it. Also, on the way there we were approached by some students who told us that they wanted to practice their English on us. The young boy and girl seemed very nice so we obliged and began talking. Soon thereafter, they invited us to look at their art exhibit, which was conveniently located near-by. (Has your red light gone off yet? Because ours certainly hadn’t… actually, in hindsight, Josh’s had but Lindsey was clueless). The students took us around the corner, into an apartment building and down four flights in an elevator (yes, we were on floor negative 4) and into a small room where their pictures were hanging. Everything started out innocently enough, they were showing us the work and explaining the meaning to us – EVERYTHING in China has a meaning: when in doubt it usually means either longevity, double happiness or good luck. Then, after making it clear that they wouldn’t pressure us into buying anything they asked us if we’d like to purchase something. (At this point, we knew it was sketch, but the art was honestly pretty good and so Lindsey was still intrigued – Josh was also playing along and trying to be nice, which confused Lindsey because she thoughts Josh actually liked the art as well.) It wasn’t until an older couple from New York City – who were also being shown the art exhibit but another pair of young students – leaned over to us and said “you don’t really believe they’re art students do you?” that our real red lights finally went off. Even though our art students quickly agreed to cut the price of their artwork in half and then in half again, we walked out without buying anything – in hindsight a very smart move.
Then we went to go have lunch at a Peking Duck restaurant – but unfortunately we showed up at 1:40 and the restaurant was taking a Spanish fiesta and closed for lunch at 1:30. Who knew? So we ventured around the corner and found a clean looking restaurant in a nice looking hotel. We ordered – Josh was thrilled to get some Kung Pow Chicken and the dumplings that Lindsey ordered are still the best she’s had (even after a week of Chinese meals). After eating, we took off to see the Bird’s Nest – which is the place where the opening ceremonies for the Olympics will be held, as well as other Olympic venues that were supposedly nearby (keep in mind, that in Beijing, nearby could mean 40 minutes away). After walking past the metro station a few times, we finally found it and successfully navigated our way to the proper station. Unfortunately for everyone who will be attending the Olympic games, the venues are a good 30 to 40 minute walk away from the nearest subway station. This is because the location of the games used to be very low income housing – or, more accurately non-income housing – but the government of China kicked those people out of their houses and bulldozed the site in order to build the venues for the games. The Chinese government seems to have a habit of kicking people out of their houses without asking. This is mostly due to the fact that in China people are unable to actually own any land. All of the land here belongs to the government, but people can buy the houses on top of the land to live in but only for a maximum of 70 years and they don’t have any right to protest if the government suddenly decides to kick them out – which is what happened in Beijing for the good of the Olympics: remember that as you watch the gymnastic competition this summer.
Since the metro was so far from the venues, we took a cab to see the Bird’s Nest… the driver dropped us off the middle of the construction site. The venue is certainly impressive, but they are nowhere near being done readying the surround area for the games. Knowing even the little that we do about the Chinese government we are certain that they will get their shit together in time – they don’t want to be embarrassed on the world’s stage. As if the situation in Tibet weren’t enough… BUT it might be interesting to explain that even though CNN and the rest of the world is reporting that there is still unrest in Tibet, the Chinese people are under the impression that everything is fine there and back to normal… if it weren’t for the “evil” Dali Lama who is urging on the protesters. However, CNN is reporting that the Dali Lama has said numerous times that the Olympic games should be held and that Tibet wants peaceful autonomy not independence from China… unfortunately Chinese people don’t get to watch CNN.
After seeing the Olympic venues – from a walking bridge that goes over the freeway since this is the closest we lay people could get to – we tried to walk back to our original metro stop – we swear it looked close on the map – but after about an hour of walking, we still hadn’t found it. We got in a cab and tried to get back there, but we found out that without the actual address written in Chinese it is impossible to get anywhere… we ended up being taken to the school of Economics. WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHY. After switching cabs, we finally made it back to our hotel – and Lindsey promptly ordered a banana split.
It was a long day after all… Good times.
Anyway, we land in Beijing – and unlike the last time we tried to take a cab to our Beijing Hotel we arrived without complication. Our hotel was in the heart of downtown Bejing – which doesn’t mean it’s close to anything since Beijing is so fucking huge – yes, that big – that it is impossible to walk anywhere. We tried… and failed miserably because at certain parts of the city the blocks are literally a ten minute walk apart (which makes the street maps very deceiving, because something can look like it’s only 3 blocks away, but you might end up walking for 35 minutes to get there) . This enormity makes sense though, seeing as how there are 17 million people in the city… if Beijing wasn’t huge there wouldn’t be room for everyone. Beijing is the capital of capital of China and in case you’ve been living under a rock, we should mention that it is also the host of 2008 summer Olympic Games. China could not be more excited about this. You can’t talk to anyone here without them bringing it up…
So our first full day was Sunday the 30th. The rest of our tour group wasn’t scheduled to arrive until that afternoon, so we had a free day to explore on our own. The first thing we did was ask the concierge where to get our digital pictures put onto a CD – he nicely drew a map for us, it was only 3 blocks away. 35 minutes later we ended up at the camera store, which was well disguised, if it weren’t for the oversized pictures of young children posed awkwardly hanging outside we might never have found it. Also, on the way there we were approached by some students who told us that they wanted to practice their English on us. The young boy and girl seemed very nice so we obliged and began talking. Soon thereafter, they invited us to look at their art exhibit, which was conveniently located near-by. (Has your red light gone off yet? Because ours certainly hadn’t… actually, in hindsight, Josh’s had but Lindsey was clueless). The students took us around the corner, into an apartment building and down four flights in an elevator (yes, we were on floor negative 4) and into a small room where their pictures were hanging. Everything started out innocently enough, they were showing us the work and explaining the meaning to us – EVERYTHING in China has a meaning: when in doubt it usually means either longevity, double happiness or good luck. Then, after making it clear that they wouldn’t pressure us into buying anything they asked us if we’d like to purchase something. (At this point, we knew it was sketch, but the art was honestly pretty good and so Lindsey was still intrigued – Josh was also playing along and trying to be nice, which confused Lindsey because she thoughts Josh actually liked the art as well.) It wasn’t until an older couple from New York City – who were also being shown the art exhibit but another pair of young students – leaned over to us and said “you don’t really believe they’re art students do you?” that our real red lights finally went off. Even though our art students quickly agreed to cut the price of their artwork in half and then in half again, we walked out without buying anything – in hindsight a very smart move.
Then we went to go have lunch at a Peking Duck restaurant – but unfortunately we showed up at 1:40 and the restaurant was taking a Spanish fiesta and closed for lunch at 1:30. Who knew? So we ventured around the corner and found a clean looking restaurant in a nice looking hotel. We ordered – Josh was thrilled to get some Kung Pow Chicken and the dumplings that Lindsey ordered are still the best she’s had (even after a week of Chinese meals). After eating, we took off to see the Bird’s Nest – which is the place where the opening ceremonies for the Olympics will be held, as well as other Olympic venues that were supposedly nearby (keep in mind, that in Beijing, nearby could mean 40 minutes away). After walking past the metro station a few times, we finally found it and successfully navigated our way to the proper station. Unfortunately for everyone who will be attending the Olympic games, the venues are a good 30 to 40 minute walk away from the nearest subway station. This is because the location of the games used to be very low income housing – or, more accurately non-income housing – but the government of China kicked those people out of their houses and bulldozed the site in order to build the venues for the games. The Chinese government seems to have a habit of kicking people out of their houses without asking. This is mostly due to the fact that in China people are unable to actually own any land. All of the land here belongs to the government, but people can buy the houses on top of the land to live in but only for a maximum of 70 years and they don’t have any right to protest if the government suddenly decides to kick them out – which is what happened in Beijing for the good of the Olympics: remember that as you watch the gymnastic competition this summer.
Since the metro was so far from the venues, we took a cab to see the Bird’s Nest… the driver dropped us off the middle of the construction site. The venue is certainly impressive, but they are nowhere near being done readying the surround area for the games. Knowing even the little that we do about the Chinese government we are certain that they will get their shit together in time – they don’t want to be embarrassed on the world’s stage. As if the situation in Tibet weren’t enough… BUT it might be interesting to explain that even though CNN and the rest of the world is reporting that there is still unrest in Tibet, the Chinese people are under the impression that everything is fine there and back to normal… if it weren’t for the “evil” Dali Lama who is urging on the protesters. However, CNN is reporting that the Dali Lama has said numerous times that the Olympic games should be held and that Tibet wants peaceful autonomy not independence from China… unfortunately Chinese people don’t get to watch CNN.
After seeing the Olympic venues – from a walking bridge that goes over the freeway since this is the closest we lay people could get to – we tried to walk back to our original metro stop – we swear it looked close on the map – but after about an hour of walking, we still hadn’t found it. We got in a cab and tried to get back there, but we found out that without the actual address written in Chinese it is impossible to get anywhere… we ended up being taken to the school of Economics. WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHY. After switching cabs, we finally made it back to our hotel – and Lindsey promptly ordered a banana split.
It was a long day after all… Good times.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
on a scale of one to perfect...
If we’ve learned one thing on this trip so far, it’s that if we have the chance to do something cool it’s always better to go out and do it no matter how tired we are. This lesson was once again re-enforced to us when we decided to go to see a show called “Phuket Fantasea” . The entire experience is billed as a “cultural theme park” and this it was. After taking a 45 minute cab ride we were dropped off at the Fantasea location which was a cross between the Dumbo ride at Disneyland, Ringling Brother’s Circus and the Orange County Fair. There were carnival games, street vendors, crazy stores with oversized things to take pictures with, a Wild Animal Exhibition including very sleepy Tigers, a chance to ride on elephants – which we passed on because it was too cheesy and we had the authentic experience already -- and the largest “International” Buffet room we’ve ever seen. Dinner was included with our tickets, Lindsey was happy to see Sushi and Josh ate too much Curry.
The show itself was about an hour and fifteen minutes long and consisted of a Magic show, crazy acrobats flying from the ceiling, traditional Thai dancing and fighting and a love scene which we thought would be boring but then in the middle of the song a bunch of roosters and then later goats took turns running across the stage in unison and it was amazing. The coolest part was the final number that consisted of at least 20 elephants dancing on the stage at the same time. Poor elephants, but great entertainment. Also, it should be noted that the people whose job it was too pick up the elephant shit while they were performing did an excellent job – however there was some elephant pee on the stage during the current call -- we couldn’t help but worrying for the safety of the cast.
The next morning we left our second hotel in Phuket and headed to our third and final destination: the JW Marriot Resort and Spa.
On a scale of one to perfect the JW Marriot would be somewhere above perfect. After three weeks of semi roughing it we were thrilled at the site of a kingsize bed and bathtub. The hotel itself was gorgeous and breathtaking. There were three pools (we only made it two) that overlooked the beach, rivaling and perhaps surpassing the luxury and awesomeness of any hotel we’ve ever stayed at. (Sorry Kea Lani) The coolest feature had to be the fact that there were two pet elephants that hung out through out the day with the guests. Dumbo, aged 2 is the baby elephant and Yum Yum is 6 and a newer addition to the resort. Not only could we feed the elephants and take pictures with them but we even had the rare opportunity to ride them IN THE OCEAN! One of the all time highlights of our trip so far – we know China will be pretty cool but we don’t see ourselves getting the chance to ride panda’s in the ocean. . .
The food at the JW Marriot was pricey, but amazing. Not only did Yosh get to eat at a Steak House but there was a 24 hour deli that had Bagels and Cream Cheese. There was some romance involved on the resort. On our last night in Thailand we arranged to have a romantic dinner for two in a hut on the beach overlooking the beautiful ocean and incredible sunset. Not only were our surroundings phenomenal but our four course menu entitled Passionately Grilled was superb with such favorites as grilled prawns with papaya, grilled Salmon over salad and a trio of grilled lamb chops, lobster and chicken. Potentially the best part was the fresh fruit plate for dessert – note: even though Josh was worried, during our 48 hours at the resort we gave up our strict “no raw fruits or vegetables or anything that could have touched water and not been cooked fully policy” since Lindsey figured it was too nice of hotel not to purify the contaminated Thai water. This even resulted in us being allowed to drink a pitcher of ice blended margaritas… with ice! Ahhh never underestimate how important ice is…
So our last night in Thailand couldn’t have been more wonderful… and it pretty much summed up how we’ve felt about our entire three weeks: we’ll never forget this vacation and we’ve had an absolute blast…. Anndd the best part is we’re only halfway done with our trip.
The first three weeks have just flown by… but we’ve done so much in such a short time that it’s rather exhausting to look back on it all – and we have over 700 pictures to prove it.
We’ve ridden planes, trains, buses, taxis, bicycles, jet skis, songtaews, tuk tuks, go carts, bamboo rafts and, of course, elephants – both in and out of the ocean… despite any bug bites or missteps along the way we've really been able to soak up the culture and open our eyes to whole new part of the world. There have certainly been moments of crabbiness or frustration but mostly there's been fun and there's been laughter and there's been a lot of amazing moments to write home about... which is all we could really ever ask for -- and more. So now that we’ve sweated our way through the beautiful country of Thailand and we are ready to head off to China…
(truth be told: we’ve already spent four nights in Beijing and are heading off to Xi’an tomorrow… the cliff notes version of our time here is that we’ve visited the forbidden city, ti’annmen square, the summer palace, the temple of heaven and the place where the Olympic games will be held in August. We’ve climbed the great wall – which was spectacular – and we saw an incredible kung fu show… also, we’ve almost already exhausted our ability to eat any more Chinese food – which might be problematic in the very near future… but mostly we’ve just been having a great time and laughing our way through this awesome and puzzling country – there will be much more in-depth blog posts to follow… but we’ve just been having too much fun to sit and write it all down… )
Glad the Dodgers won their opener… go blue!!
-- Lindsey and Josh
The show itself was about an hour and fifteen minutes long and consisted of a Magic show, crazy acrobats flying from the ceiling, traditional Thai dancing and fighting and a love scene which we thought would be boring but then in the middle of the song a bunch of roosters and then later goats took turns running across the stage in unison and it was amazing. The coolest part was the final number that consisted of at least 20 elephants dancing on the stage at the same time. Poor elephants, but great entertainment. Also, it should be noted that the people whose job it was too pick up the elephant shit while they were performing did an excellent job – however there was some elephant pee on the stage during the current call -- we couldn’t help but worrying for the safety of the cast.
The next morning we left our second hotel in Phuket and headed to our third and final destination: the JW Marriot Resort and Spa.
On a scale of one to perfect the JW Marriot would be somewhere above perfect. After three weeks of semi roughing it we were thrilled at the site of a kingsize bed and bathtub. The hotel itself was gorgeous and breathtaking. There were three pools (we only made it two) that overlooked the beach, rivaling and perhaps surpassing the luxury and awesomeness of any hotel we’ve ever stayed at. (Sorry Kea Lani) The coolest feature had to be the fact that there were two pet elephants that hung out through out the day with the guests. Dumbo, aged 2 is the baby elephant and Yum Yum is 6 and a newer addition to the resort. Not only could we feed the elephants and take pictures with them but we even had the rare opportunity to ride them IN THE OCEAN! One of the all time highlights of our trip so far – we know China will be pretty cool but we don’t see ourselves getting the chance to ride panda’s in the ocean. . .
The food at the JW Marriot was pricey, but amazing. Not only did Yosh get to eat at a Steak House but there was a 24 hour deli that had Bagels and Cream Cheese. There was some romance involved on the resort. On our last night in Thailand we arranged to have a romantic dinner for two in a hut on the beach overlooking the beautiful ocean and incredible sunset. Not only were our surroundings phenomenal but our four course menu entitled Passionately Grilled was superb with such favorites as grilled prawns with papaya, grilled Salmon over salad and a trio of grilled lamb chops, lobster and chicken. Potentially the best part was the fresh fruit plate for dessert – note: even though Josh was worried, during our 48 hours at the resort we gave up our strict “no raw fruits or vegetables or anything that could have touched water and not been cooked fully policy” since Lindsey figured it was too nice of hotel not to purify the contaminated Thai water. This even resulted in us being allowed to drink a pitcher of ice blended margaritas… with ice! Ahhh never underestimate how important ice is…
So our last night in Thailand couldn’t have been more wonderful… and it pretty much summed up how we’ve felt about our entire three weeks: we’ll never forget this vacation and we’ve had an absolute blast…. Anndd the best part is we’re only halfway done with our trip.
The first three weeks have just flown by… but we’ve done so much in such a short time that it’s rather exhausting to look back on it all – and we have over 700 pictures to prove it.
We’ve ridden planes, trains, buses, taxis, bicycles, jet skis, songtaews, tuk tuks, go carts, bamboo rafts and, of course, elephants – both in and out of the ocean… despite any bug bites or missteps along the way we've really been able to soak up the culture and open our eyes to whole new part of the world. There have certainly been moments of crabbiness or frustration but mostly there's been fun and there's been laughter and there's been a lot of amazing moments to write home about... which is all we could really ever ask for -- and more. So now that we’ve sweated our way through the beautiful country of Thailand and we are ready to head off to China…
(truth be told: we’ve already spent four nights in Beijing and are heading off to Xi’an tomorrow… the cliff notes version of our time here is that we’ve visited the forbidden city, ti’annmen square, the summer palace, the temple of heaven and the place where the Olympic games will be held in August. We’ve climbed the great wall – which was spectacular – and we saw an incredible kung fu show… also, we’ve almost already exhausted our ability to eat any more Chinese food – which might be problematic in the very near future… but mostly we’ve just been having a great time and laughing our way through this awesome and puzzling country – there will be much more in-depth blog posts to follow… but we’ve just been having too much fun to sit and write it all down… )
Glad the Dodgers won their opener… go blue!!
-- Lindsey and Josh
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