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      There are a lot of memories that are fresh in my mind about Phuket. The trip to Phuket was sunny and filled with adventure. Let’s begin with the greetings and customs. When saying “hello,” people will often bow placing their hand together in a prayer position in front of their face.

It’s a way of showing respect. Hello is pronounced, “saw-wah-di-kah”. Thank you is said, “ka-poo-n-kah.” How are you is pronounced as “saw-bah-di-mine”.

I caught on quick, but my mom had some trouble figuring out the correct way to say it. When walking down the streets for the last time, I noticed some unique fruit. One day while eating breakfast, I decided to try a new fruit. Mom had brought “Dragon Fruit” back to the table. It had a bright pink coating, and the inside looked like poppy seed cake. The fruit was red on the outside and inside was white with the little black edible seeds. It didn’t have much of a taste. It was dull but the look of it was very pretty.

We also saw an unusual style of a massage. It’s called a “Fish Massage.” There’s a lit tank of small fish. There are a lot of them. You place your feet inside and some of the fish swarm around our feet, nipping off the dead skin. I’m not sure if it hurt, because I didn’t try it.

FISH MASSAGE

But I did get a nice pedicure today, while mom got a back and shoulder massage. “It’s the best massage I’ve ever had. And it cost about ten dollars,” she says. Yesterday we took a speed boat to several different islands. Ever seen “Man with the Golden Gun?”

We went to the spot where one of the scenes was shot, now universally known as “James Bond Island.”

ME AT JAMES BOND ISLAND

The place was pretty crowded and touristy, but it was packed with pretty assortments of jewelry. In fact, I bought a pretty shell necklace for my friend. We then headed for another island, “Tham Lod Yai” (Grotto Cave) and a nice oarsman took us around the island where we took lots of pictures and explored a cave. For lunch we visited Gypsy Village in Koh Panyee Island. Lunch was good. The village was built on stilts, over the water and has been a fishing village for over two-hundred years. We went for more shopping and I found a pretty shawl that’s black and imprinted with pretty purple butterflies, and a touch of glitter. I bought a pretty hair clip made out of white shell that was carved in a gorgeous design. Just  behind

CHILDREN'S SCHOOL

all the shopping stand was a school. The classrooms contained an English class, music and dance class, and art class. Hand-made cloths by the students were on sale to raise money for their school.

We tutted our way back to the dock and from there, drove back to our hotel.

Adjusting to a new environment can definitely be tough when you’re just starting. But once things begin to soak in, you realize it isn’t so bad after all. People and countries will be different all around the world no matter what. We just have to accept that and learn to adapt to a diverse culture – even if it means that you have to acknowledge changes, like new smells and conversions. Once you’ve mastered that skill you can enjoy a world-wide trip like that. It’s simple!

We spent our first afternoon at Joy’s House in Chiang Mai learning Thai Cooking.  Our meal included green curry chicken, stir fried vegetables in oyster sauce, and spring rolls. Before we could get busy in the kitchen we rode bikes to the local farmer’s market with our guide Lek.

 We were treated to the sights and smells of fresh fruit, vegetables and meats.  Of course there was a wide selection of chilies.  We gathered Thai eggplant, Thai basil, green chili, cauliflower, broccoli, bean sprouts, carrots, and chicken.  Lek treated us to fried sweet potato and fried bananas.

We rode back to the guesthouse, spread out and washed the ingredients, and started chopping.  We made the chili paste from scratch, using a mortar and pestle. The secret ingredients are coriander, lemongrass, a tuber similar to ginger root, garlic, shallots, and green chili.  We were whipy and used seven chilies, but Thai spicy uses twenty!  Lek told us that in a traditional Thai village, a young man would walk by a home and listen to the sound of the pestle.  A loud sound indicated vigorous crushing and meant that the girl was a good potential spouse.  Everybody agreed that I was good spouse material.  After what seemed like an hour of crushing we roasted the paste in oil and added coconut milk  and chicken.  After the chicken was cooked we added the Thai eggplant and then the basil.

Ginger, Jenna and , Nok, and Lek prepared the vegetables for the stir fry and spring rolls.

Here’s the final product.  Everybody agreed that all of the dishes tasted great.

Getting to the airport in time was no problem at all. Our kind neighbor Lisa drove us to the airport in no time. We caught a plane to Tokyo, Japan. For eleven long hours, we watched movies, slept, read, and I worked on my math a little bit. Dad slept most of time and when he wasn’t, his head was stuck in a book. Mom was reading a guide book about Phuket, and she was focused on safety.  We stopped in Japan to take the last eight hours to Bangkok, our final destination. The moment we stepped off the plane I was already hot. It felt good to have sun for awhile though. As we transferred from one plane to another it was hard to keep on our feet because of the time change. All of us were super tired! We stayed one night in a beautiful hotel and caught a short one hour flight to Phuket, Thailand in the early afternoon. Now I am sitting inside a comfy hotel room while mom reads a book by Dan Brown and Dad is enjoying the view of the big pool. We went out for a swim today. The pool is very fun, with two slides and a covered cave with water gushing out from one side. I kicked my feet up on a nice hammock by the pool and knocked out a huge part of my book “Lock and Key,” by Sarah Dessen. The beach here is spectacular. The water is a pretty aqua blue and your feet buried into the soft sand with each step.  Last night we took a nice walk down the streets of Phuket. There were tons of cute little shops and about a dozen places to get a massage.  After dinner we walked over to the Night Market.  The market contained several stands selling unique local fruits, clothes, jewelry, pop music and bootleg DVD movies to buy. It was fun to see the different things they had to offer. The streets are filled with stands of all sorts of merchandise that the people want to sell you. So far I’m really enjoying my time in Thailand and I cannot wait until I see the rest of Thailand. More up next, after these messages. Just kidding, stay tuned! 🙂

Hey all! It getting super close to our trip. I’m pretty excited for it. There’s going to be a lot going on tonight and tomorrow. Especially in the morning when were all tired and trying to get out the door and onto the bus. Packing wasn’t too stressful because I had a list that I could just check off as I packed. Hopefully once were on the plane we’ll all clam down. This is such an adventure. A once in a life time experience. I am definitely going to miss all my friends at school, but I’m able to keep in touch with them on Facebook. At least I have that. Here’s Bear B that’s coming on the trip with us. At least he doesn’t need to pay for his ticket and haul around a big heavy bag all day.

We’re making our (packing) lists, and checking them twice (at least).  Limiting ourselves to one carry-on bag each makes us focus on what is really necessary.

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