Keep Smilin'

Saturday morning we took a taxi to Putong beach and went to Pum’s Restaurant and Cooking School where we learned to cook some traditional Thai dishes and sauces (we of course got to eat it all as well).

Our instructor was amazing; she was full of life and a wonderful teacher.

The owner of the restaurant and all the staff would cheer for us after each dish and they taught us a song to sing as we make curry paste. 

Adam and I with the restaurant owner

I of course ate it all up and Adam of course thought it was corny.  We made red and green curry paste, a couple soups, a couple chicken dishes and a couple fish dishes.

We also took a tour of the wet market where Nom (our teacher) showed us how to pick the best ingredients.  The most important ingredient according to Pum and Nom is to smile!  After our class we stopped for a couple of cold drinks as we walked the whole area before stopping at an Australian restaurant for dinner.  We took our first Tuk Tuk ride back to the hotel. One of my favorite things in Thailand is the Taxi’s are like pickup trucks with a roof and they are called Tuk Tuk’s. 

A Day At The Beach

Friday we spent the morning sitting by the pool, at lunch at the poolside bar and spent the afternoon on the beach (after getting a Thai massage of course).

Before our trip I researched and researched for hours until I planned our trip activities.  We had dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant. 

Then I couldn’t have picked a better activity for our first evening in Thailand.  We played mini golf at Dino World.  I know it sounds strange for anyone to spend the time they have in Thailand playing mini golf, but it is one of the little things we miss from living in the states. 

Not necessarily mini golf, but the little dates we used to have with some healthy competition.  I won of course…

however I can’t brag because one of Adam’s shots were ruined by a girl running through our course.  You can’t leave dino world without stopping at the dino bar for some dinosaur themed frozen drinks.

The Journey

We left on the Airport bus from Huizhou at 12:20 on Thursday and got to the airport around 3:30 for our 6:30 flight.  Since we left from the Hong Kong airport mid trip we have to get off at the China border get on a different bus and get off 30 seconds later at the Hong Kong border where we go through immigration again.  At the Hong Kong Airport we had real western food from a sports bar for dinner and left on Shrilankin Airlines to Bangkok.  The service on the airport was wonderful but there was a Chinese tour group that made me feel like we were on a plane with middle schoolers on an unsupervised field trip.
 I have to admit that I was a little nervous with the recent news that the Bangkok airport would be crazy with protestors.  It was exactly the opposite.  Security was extremely tight but other than that it was full of smiling Thai people and tourists.  Our flight from Bangkok to Phuket was simple and quick.

We got to Phuket at midnight and took a airport shuttle to our hotel.  It took us about 2 hours since we were the last ones dropped off.  In the end for a short plane ride we ended up spending a lot of time traveling.

We Packed Our Red Shirts And Headed to Thailand!

Just kidding about the red shirts, we weren’t anywhere near the dangerous area.  We also made sure not to pack any red or yellow shirts.  We didn’t want anyone to worry.  We had a wonderful time!  I have a lot of pictures to post as well as details about what we did and what we saw.  All in all Thailand is my new favorite place and Thai people are my new favorite people. 

Our Anniversary Trip

We leave this afternoon for our top secret anniversary trip!  We will tell you all about it when we come back.  I will tell you this it is tropical and Asian.  We will be back Tuesday at about 9:00 pm (our time…so am your time) and will post all our pictures Wednesday!  We are very excited and will not be able to top this anniversary EVER!  

Lovin' Retirement

Lots of people ask me “So…what do you DO all day?” I like to say I am retired (and after watching my grandparents in retirement to me that means you love life and tend to be more busy then when you worked).  I wake up every morning at 7:30 – 8:00 and have breakfast while I watch a TV episode of something (on the many DVD’s we have collected since we have been here).  I do some exercise we have a beautiful park behind our apartment or I pull out my yoga DVD as I wait for my wii fit.  I do housework (when you have a small washer and do dryer it means doing laundry daily, dishes pile up quickly and when you don’t have hot water in the kitchen you have to boil water to wash).  I make myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch most days and have a bowl of fresh fruit.  After lunch I run errands to the food stores, the wet market and wherever else the day takes me.

I come back and clean fruits and veggies and start prep for dinner (if I am cooking) or I spend time on the computer catching up on  my pictures and blog while I wait to meet Adam for dinner or for him to come home.  Two mornings a week I have Chinese Class for 2 hours and I usually go to Shenzhen with the girls 1 day a week.  I have made friends with some women that live about 45 min away but I spend most of my girl time with my friend Jodie and her baby.  Jodie and I like to wonder Huizhou and have afternoon tea.  We are planning on starting to work at a local orphanage 1 day a week or so, but we have to wait for clearance (when the H1N1 virus was big they stopped letting outside people in).  I also like to spend my time planning trips for us to take while we are here.

Around the worlld in about 2 hours

Today is another Chinese Holiday…so that means the majority of people here will have Monday off where they will travel back to their home town to spend time with their families.  It also means everything is even more crowded then it is on a normal weekend.  On our way back from Macau we stopped in Shenzhen and decided to take the metro to Ikea (I had never done it but I heard it took us right there and it was labeled).  Well the map wasn’t labeled but thanks to a customer service rep that spoke English we figured out the stop while Adam searched on his blackberry to double check.  We got out of the Metro at the Window to the World exit and didn’t see Ikea and didn’t feel like getting lost just to find it so we took a cab (we later found out it was across the highway behind the building).  Our metro adventure took us to an interesting site…behind us was a Europeon Style village with tables outside and lots on English signs and next to us was the Window to the World Theme Park.  This takes us to our Saturday date.  After stopping at Ikea to pick up the last piece of furniture that we couldn’t fit the week before, we went to Window to the World.  It was described as having famous landmarks from all over, with international shops and international food.  It was given 4 stars as a tourist area and was given wonderful reviews. 

The monuments were OK but were unlabeled, the Eifel Tower had Chinese characters written all over it, and the dino park had sound effects that were awfully hilarious. 

All the food stands sold nasty looking hot dogs, corn on the cob, Chinese noodles and coconut juice.

The shops each sold jade, Chinese fans, and Chinese figurines.  I think Adam and I were the most insight to anything foreign than anything else at the park…and I say that because we posed for many pictures and even took pictures with locals as if we were Mickey Mouse at Disney World.  We went to the European village at 7:30 (STARVING…and I was getting cranky) for a good meal and they didn’t sell food at any of the places…they were all bars.  We ended up going across the street to the mall to eat at KFC and have Gelato for dissert (how is the mall more international then the park?).   It’s one of those funny stories we will talk about forever and that no one else will understand.