Thailand Archives - The Jacobs Family Website

April 19, 2013

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.

Crystal and Nora on the long-tail boat ride.

Ben and Kai on the long-tail boat.

Our hotel seen from the river.

Wat Arun

The Temple of the Dawn

Up at the top

Kai, Nora and Ben climbed to the top level of Wat Arun. The last set of stairs was more of a ladder with 24 inch steps. Pretty crazy going up. Crazier going back down.

Climbing Wat Arun

Crystal waiting at the bottom and questioning the wisdom of the climb.

Looking down from the upper level

It is too bad I had a death grip on my phone and got my finger in front of the lens. The whole thing is higher than it looks in the camera. Crystal is down at the bottom just below my finger.

A panorama of the Chao Phraya

Taken from the top tier of Wat Arun.

Climbing Wat Arun

If you look closely you can see Kai peeking over the wall on the lower level.

Wat Arun

You an see Ben, Nora, and Kai on the lower level.

Climbing Wat Arun

Ben, Kai and Nora climb up the ladder-like stairs to the top level. It was much easier going up than coming down.

A view up Wat Arun from the base.

Crystal and the kids on the pier waiting for our boat

Again, Kai looks troubled.

Ben and the kids on the pier outside Wat Arun

Kai's on the look out--he looks paranoid in a lot of these pictures.

Wat Arun

This turned out pretty interesting for being taken with a cell phone. This is the Temple of the Dawn in late afternoon.

April 15, 2013

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.

Wat Pho

Kai took this picture of Crystal, Ben and Nora outside Wat Pho.

Inside the temple of the reclining Buddha.

Kai poses with the reclining Buddha.

The bottom of the Reclining Buddha's feet

Kai and Nora make a ritual donation

The entire wall of the reclining Buddha shrine has tiny donation bowls. You can purchase a cup of coins and walk along dropping a coin in each one - each tiny clink sending a prayer. Our taxi driver assured this would bring long life.

Nora taking a water break after the reclining Budhha.

Not too impressed.

A 41m long reclining Buddha statue just isn't that interesting I guess...

Heading back to the taxi

It was humid and hotter than the normal Bangkok hot so each minute meant another small increase in discomfort. Here we had reached our limit and started heading back to the taxi.

April 14, 2013

More Bangkok

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

Panorama of the Choa Phraya

Our living room

During the cultural show at the Gala dinner Kai and Nora had front row seats.

Of the pictures Kai took, this was his favorite.

Crystal and Kai and the Gala Dinner.

Ben, Nora, and Kai and the Gala Dinner.

The puppet show at the Gala.

Kai and Nora with a baby tiger

Visiting the Tiger Zoo was one of the kids' daytime activities during the conference.

Trying on a new dress

Nora picked up a dress in her new favorite color - black. Here she is modeling it is our wall-sized mirror.

Across the River at Night

This is a view of the other side of the Chao Phraya at night.

April 13, 2013

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.

The Chao Phraya river as seen from our room

Swim up bar

Kai and Nora hit the swim up bar for milkshakes.

Goofy

Kai gets goofy with his napkin on our first night out in Bangkok.

Nora and her team

When Nora sat down for a foot massage a team descended on her to do her nails as well. She loved it!

Kai had a bed with a view.

Kai in the tuk tuk jump seat.

Nora finally got her tuk tuk ride.

Kai and Nora pose with Elvis at the Silom Village restaurant.

Dinner.

Dawn on the river

It is hard to take pictures in low-light with an iphone camera but this one turned interesting after I ran it through some filters.

November 1, 2012

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.