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Wat Arun

This is the last set of pictures from the Bangkok trip.  On our last day the confererence ended early afternoon and so we had a long-tail boat already reserved and waiting for us.  We took the klong (canal) tour through Bangkok and included a stop a Wat Arun – The Temple of the Dawn.   The boat dropped us at a heaving crowded pier and went back out in the river to wait for us.

This time the upper reaches of the Temple were open to tourists.  There were two upper levels – the first was reached by a very steep set of steps – the second even steeper (almost a ladder).   Ben took Kai and Nora up and the views were spectacular.   Going up was easy, of course, coming down was another story.   Kai just went down with no problem but Nora froze up a bit and needed a spotter for the way down.    Adventure.

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Wat Pho – The Reclining Buddha

On our free afternoon we took the kids out to explore Bangkok a little bit.   Crystal and I have seen many of the sights but for Kai and Nora the last time they went through these places was in a baby sling.   It turned out the day was hot – temps climbed over 100 and the humidity was thick.

Our goal was to visit Wat Pho – the Temple of the Reclining Buddha and maybe the Grand Palace as well.   The traffic in Bangkok has not improved and much of the afternoon was spend in a cab traveling just a few miles though being air conditioned it was not that bad a place to spend time.  Also, slow ride through Bangkok – including Chinatown was in a way its own tourist attraction.    It turned out that the Grand Palace let in the last tour group at 3:30 so we didn’t make it in time for that one but we did reach Wat Pho.

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More Bangkok

Here is the second round of pictures from Bangkok.  Enjoy!

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Bangkok

Here is the first set of pictures from Bangkok now that I’ve got them all downloaded off the phone.   I didn’t take along our big camera on this trip in the interest of traveling light – all images were take with an iPhone.

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Koh Samui 2012

The Eid Holidays are our major chance for travel during the school year and because they align with the Hijra lunar calendar they move up about 11 days each year.   This year the break fell at the end of October which made the time right for a tropical island trip to Koh Samui, Thailand.   We stayed at Rocky’s Boutique Resort which was just perfect – small and private with a great staff and a wonderful beach.   For the most part we simply alternated between beach, pool, massage and food in various combinations each day.   One interesting side trip was dinner at the Tree Tops restaurant – only 7 tables and nestled in the branches of a huge tree and overlooking Chaewing Bay.   Amazing dining experience complete with a “salt guru” who visited our table to recommend the correct type of salt to use with the various dishes.   The other highlight was hiring a boat for the day to take us out for some “snorgling” as Nora calls it, fishing and some time on a tiny island that was all beach.

Enjoy the pictures ((Some of these pictures were also posted on facebook during the trip itself but I’m didn’t take the time to weed out duplicates))! Note that I’m still fiddling around with the new gallery format on the site since I upgraded – hopefully everything is working.  Drop me a line if things don’t seem to work or you have a suggestion for improvement.  I’m keeping my web photos on Flickr now and just linking a gallery onto the blog.   You can use the “view in Flickr” link to just to my photostream and view even more images.