Our trip to Thailand.......(next eight posts!)

Beautiful! Whitney and Angelina
We just got back from a trip of a lifetime! We feel so blessed to have been able to do this. We went to Thailand for six days! It wasn't quite long enough but we were able to see lots of things. Brad's friend from work, L.D. has a house in Chaing Mai, Thailand. His wife, Pin, lives there with their little girl, Angelina. L.D. flew over with us and we met Pin. It was so wonderful having them with us. They showed us all the sights and we loved every minute of it. The next eight or nine posts are dedicated to our trip. There was just nothing I could leave out. And I still have a few posts. I'll add them soon. And y'all better leave me some comments! This is LD, Pin and Angelina! Our wonderful hosts!

Laos and Burma........

The original plan was to visit Burma and Laos. But by the time we got to the Burmese border it was too late to go in. The border closed at 6:00 pm. We tried again the next morning but were afraid it'd take too long to get back out so we settled for this picture by the gate. You can see the Burmese flag flying on the other side. I'd say we were close enough to add it to our list of countries. What do you think? But Laos, we visited! Right when we got off the boat and inside the country, we made some new friends. Whitney had on her LSU cap and we hear someone say "LSU??" We turn around to some cap-wearing 'Bama fans. We had a fun chat with them about football, etc. (Just for the record, all those beer bottles belong to the 'Bama fans, not the LSU's!)
Some adorable little girls who wanted 5 baht for me to take their picture. So cute. Very humbling.
Evan holding a bottle of something with a cobra in it....or was it a scorpion...both were available.
Whitney with the flag of Laos.
Who would have ever thought the Pogues would be in Laos?? Not me! (by the way, I'm standing downhill. I look shorter than normal in this picture)

The Food........

We were all proud to have stepped out of our comfort zones on the food. I have to admit I was a little worried before we went. I am not a very adventurous eater at all. But most of it was really delicious and we loved it. Here are a few pics:


Well, it was all good until this point! Evan and Brad gave this a try but it was all I could do to look at it and prop it up for the picture. This was at a restaurant near the Burmese border.
Here is Evan giving it a try. Evan, the guy who eats plain hamburgers with ketchup only.......

Buddhist temples........

Most of the Thai people are Buddhists. It was so interesting to see their temples. We ended up touring quite a few of them. This one was totally white and just beautiful. They are very ornate.

I love these next two pictures of Whitney and Pin. Pin is helping her light a candle at the Doi Suthep temple when we were on the Golden Triangle tour. The lotus flowers were so pretty.

I was always under the impression that a monk was a monk for life. Well, not so in all cases. We were taught that almost all young men are monks at one time or another in their lives for varied times- maybe a year, two years, etc..... We saw monks in their orange robes of all ages, all over!

We noticed this sign but didn't really have time to go chat with a monk but I'm sure it would have been interesting!

Elephant tricks..............

We met some pretty talented elephants at the camp. This one was an amazing artist. I've seen this on tv and was sceptical but I saw it with my own eyes. He even cleaned up his own supplies!

Got to watch a few play a game of soccer.

Evan feeding one some sugar cane.....
If an elephant was gonna reach out and touch someone, Whitney didn't want it to be her! She got braver after a few minutes and was feeding them, too.
An elephant put a hat on me.....never had that happen before.
This was a great little park and we really loved it. Elephants look like the happiest animals ever. We all agreed on that.

Foot massages.................

One of the best parts of the trip and we took advantage of this almost every night! I had heard about the awesome Thai foot massages and was not disappointed. Let's do the math....140 Thai baht for one hour-we all got half-hour massages each night so 70 baht. 70 Thai baht=$2.10 in U.S. dollars! Has to be the best bargain in the entire world- HEAVEN! Evan finishing up and gettin on his shoes while Whitney and Pin relax and enjoy!
L.D. seems to be enjoying his, as well!

Anyone heading to Thailand, put the foot massages on the top of your list!

Need a second job......

We stopped at an elephant camp to see some shows. First we fed bananas and sugarcane to them then they all went down into some water to play around for the crowd. We noticed something rather gross, so if you have a weak stomach, skip the rest of this post! It was even nastier than the pictures indicate.... So if you are in Thailand and need a job, maybe you can appy for one like this....first the lady pushed up her pants legs and wandered down into the water with a basket.
Then as the elephants poop in the water and it floats downstream, she catches it in her laundry basket.....oops, you missed some! There is a net to catch any leftovers.
We learned that they collect it to help fertilize the rice fields.
Not on my list of career choices but impressed............. Poor lady!! Can you imagine??