Thailand

The Eid al Adha holiday was celebrated here in the Philippines last week. Yep, I don’t know what it means either. We took advantage of it, though, by joining several other families in Thailand. When we were first asked to tag along on this trip, I was a bit worried for two reasons: 1. the school holiday was on Thursday and I didn’t feel (as a tenth grader) Hannah Grace should miss school on the Friday. 2. I had visions from the movie The Impossible about the family that survived a tsunami in Thailand. So, I contacted Hannah Grace's teachers and they all said “go for it”! Okay, I can check number one off. Number 2? Well, tsunamis can happen here, so I may as well be on holiday. A week before leaving, it was announced that the children would have both Thursday and Friday off…WOOHOO! I was thrilled that our decision to play “hooky” from school ended up being a free day!  Thailand, here we come!

The airport attendants had us go to the front of the line. Do you think they were worried with this large crew?

The view flying in was amazing!

One of the first things I saw when leaving the airport. (Deep Breaths)

 

The resort was nice with plenty of activities for the children.

 

It isn't everyday that you see an elephant walking on the beach...

...or dried fish in your peanuts. These were served at your table when you ordered drinks. We had eaten them the night before at the pool area where it was quite dark. Imagine my surprise the next day! EEEWWW!

 

Back to the elephants: The children were so excited!

Hannah Grace included!

 

The boys had fun in the waves...

...while the girls relaxed at the pool

Hannah Grace tried her hand at archery.

Ellis thought it was so cool to be on vacation with his best bud!

 

That night, we went to a market that wisely had shops for the ladies and bars for the men. The bars (again wisely) had games to play. Here Hannah Grace was challenged by Emile to hammer a nail into a slab of wood. 

The younger children were not forgotten! Connect 4 and nail painting entertained them!

 

Their drinking glasses, however, were not as child appropriate.

 

The entertainment for the children was never ending!

 

After all the fun and games, it was time to grab a bite to eat.

 

Oh, yes, and the children!

 

The next day, we went on an elephant trekking experience. There were supposed to be 20 in our group, but with the downpours 16 of them cancelled. I wonder how disappointed they were when these four crazies showed up?

This picture cracks me up! If you could zoom in, you would see my eyes as big as saucers. If you could "hear" this picture, you would be listening to Hannah Grace and me squealing through our smiles. The trunk of the elephant kept swaying too much in my direction!

Because we were the only four on the adventure, we didn't have to fight the others to feed the elephants. Here is Ellis telling the elephant, "No, No, No..it is not your turn."

Here we go on our elephant ride. Again, I am sure the workers were thrilled we didn't cancel.

Here are Tony and Ellis checking out the spectacular view. I am certain it is gorgeous on a sunny day.

I was afraid the elephants were going to be swimming in the end. All in all, it was totally worth it! We got a good laugh AND we didn't have to fight the crowds!

One last selfie of the crew (minus two) before heading out the next day. It was so much fun and can't wait for our next adventure. Johnathan, I hope you are already planning it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Blogs In One

I went on my first day trip since returning from summer holiday. Remember hearing about Imelda Marcos and her many pairs of shoes? It made quite an impression on me when I was a teen. Well, they have several museums dedicated to displaying her shoes. That’s right; I went to a shoe museum. The Marikina Shoe Museum holds 800 of the 3,000 pairs of Imelda Marcos’s shoes.  Along with her shoes, the museum also has on display shoes from many Filipino dignitaries. I found it a bit odd (and smelly), but kind of fascinating. Eight hundred shoes on display was mind blowing. I can’t even imagine why someone would want 800, much less 3,000 pairs of shoes! They were worn, too. I would see a nasty pair and think, “You have 100 pairs of red shoes, couldn’t those have gone to Goodwill?”

Along with the shoe museum, we toured a hat factory, soap factory, shoe factory, and purse store (there may have been a factory along with this one, but I didn’t see it). I bought something from each place, except for the soap factory. Yeah, gross. They wouldn’t let us take pictures inside, and I know why. It WAS amazing to see how they filled each soap mold by hand. It WASN’T amazing to see the workers wipe them down by hand in the finishing room with what looked like an old t-shirt.

Let the fun begin!

First stop...Lucban Hat Factory

 

She made this hat faster than my mind could comprehend what she was doing! It was like a magic trick: Let me see that ONE more time!

 

She started with this...

 

...and in no time had this!

 

Then we shopped!

 

And shopped!

 

This photo of a crate of beer was taken inside the purse shop. I am pretty sure they needed it after we all went through!

 

Of course, we had to squeeze in a lunch!

 

First floor of Imelda's shoe display

 

Check out the crusty pink slippers on the top shelf. Why would she even admit to having that pair?

 

I mean, really, she couldn't have donated these?

 

It's not like she didn't have another pair to choose from!

 

I titled this “two blogs in one” because I just had to include some photos from last Thursday. The HR department at FLUOR Manila doesn’t mess around. Currently there is a competition going on to help raise money for charity. On Thursday night, we went to a local venue to watch several bands compete. Money is raised by purchasing tickets to vote for your favorite band. The bands are completely made up of FLUOR workers. Thursday night, five bands performed, but this is an ongoing competition. I believe there are two more weeks of competition. A favorite band is chosen from each week to then perform in the finals later in October. I was impressed that they could get five bands together that actually sounded pretty good.  I can’t wait to see the performances in the coming weeks!

They had quite the turnout to listen and vote.

Emile, Angus and Tony: Front and center! Check out the "paparazzi" in front of the stage.

 

The acts were quite entertaining!