Entry #10 Thailand: June 5 - June 16, 2019

Until Next Time, Goodbye Thailand!

It’s been 4 months.  6 countries.  12 flights.  Thousands of miles.  And already, a lifetime of memories.  But we’re still going!

We spent a fantastic week on the small island of Koh Tao. 

We don’t travel with high tech cameras, Go Pros or the latest iPhone.  If we did, we’d be able to create a more complete picture of how we spent our days… which, in Koh Tao, was mainly underwater.  The island had some fantastic snorkelling spots right off the shore.  We would spend hours and hours spying on the colourful tropical fish, skimming over vibrant coral, and watching the slow motion ballet of the anemones.

Jamie might as well have gills.  He is completely at home in the water.  Jessie trusts pools, but has a more cautious attitude about the ocean.  We can’t really blame her though.  She’s made a fairly rational assessment of its dangers.  She’s been stung by a jellyfish, swam in the shallows with stingrays, and now in Kho Tao, she saw a shark!

We were having lunch at a restaurant that looks out over the gorgeous Tanote Bay.  We were in the middle of celebrating that Jessie had just lost another tooth.

Then suddenly we spotted a shadow in the sea with the unmistakable curvy glide of a shark!  Jamie RAN - grabbed his mask, and dove into the water!  Lee and I followed.  Jessie... did not.  We were so lucky to swim with a small black tip reef shark several times that day, just meters from the shore.  However, after seeing the shark’s shadow so close to the beach, Jessie needed a lot of convincing to dip her toes in again.  Finally, the lure of hanging out with parrot fish helped her to give it another go.  We are so proud when she snorkels with us despite her fear.

Keeping with the underwater theme, Lee and I each went on diving trips.  We’ve been searching for the elusive whale shark all over the world.  Kho Tao is another spot that claims to host the biggest fish in the sea, but alas, we were evaded again.  We still love any opportunity to explore beneath the waves and experience those meditative moments of being weightlessly suspended in water, exhaling long bubbly breaths, listening to the crackling white noise of the ocean pressing in on our ears, all while being encircle by a solid wall of glittering fish. 

On one of the rare occasions we were away from the water, we stumbled on a fish spa!  Since arriving in Asia we had been telling the kids all about this weird, slightly gross, wonderfully ticklish way to get a pedicure.  Upon passing a bar advertising their fish spa, we jumped at the chance to sink our feet into tanks with these tiny and voracious cleaner fish!

We also went for more traditional styles of being pampered when all four of us went for a massage.  

Sadly, Jamie’s eye issues - the problem that had resulted in surgery back in Sri Lanka - flared up again.  We didn’t waste any time and got him on antibiotics right away.  We’ve learned to keep him out of the sun, sand, surf and heat, and on a regular routine of hot compresses.  Thankfully, he’s doing fine now.

With only a few days left to go before our visa ran out, we made our way back to the mainland and spent a night in Chumphon.  The best part was borrowing bikes from our guesthouse in order to grab dinner at the night market.

From Chumphon we flew to Bangkok.

The morning we were travelling to Bangkok coincided with Game 6 of the NBA championships.  We had been keeping up with all the games and there was no way we were going to miss this one.  We huddled around the phone for tip off at the Chumphon airport.  The flight attendant had to tell us to turn off our mobile device several times before take off.  We missed about 40 minutes in the middle during our flight, but we were instantly glued to screen the moment we touched down at BKK.

Lee and I couldn’t take our eyes off the action as we made our way towards baggage claim.  We weren’t exactly keeping the closest watch on our children, who love nothing more than to race through the corridors of the airport.  While we concentrated on the score, we didn’t see that Jessie was sliding her foot along the edge of the escalator.  That’s when her flip flop got caught in the teeth of stair and caused the escalator to come to a grinding halt.  Her flip flop was stuck.

We had officially broken the escalator of an international airport!  Jessie was shoeless and in tears, (thank goodness for backup sandals), aaaaaaaand we were missing the game!  We gave them a condensed version of the lecture they should’ve had for running amok and dragging shoes on the edge of escalators (after being told not to for the millionth time), and then watched the incredible ending of the game!!!!!

We were cheering and celebrating and shamelessly making a scene just steps away from the escalator we had just busted.  We were elated, and at that moment we felt completed connected to home!



Riding the high from the Raptors’ win, we set out to rediscover Bangkok.  Lee and I had spent time in this city on two separate previous trips.  Our last visit was 10 years ago.  While the city has built more mega malls and the gridlocked traffic is now next level insanity, there are features about Bangkok that have a wonderfully immutable resistance to time.  Specifically the backpacker’s strip: Khao San Road.

Returning to this area was like experiencing a time warp.  In 10 years, this stretch of bars, hotels, massage stands, noodle carts, and souvenir stalls have not altered in colour, content, volume, or style.  It was like stepping back into a living memory.  We loved it!

Jamie snagged a pretty epic souvenir; nunchucks!  (Foam covered nunchucks).  He is confident that after 3 lessons in Kali, the stick fighting martial art, that he can pick up any weapon and wield it with masterful skill.  We may be inclined to agree with him.  It took him only a few moments to figure out his moves and since then he could basically apply to be the next Ninja Turtle.

The most insane part of our visit happened when Jamie asked us to have dinner at a specific bar where he had noticed they were showing Muay Thai on the big screen.  He ushered us back to his desired pub and we took a seat.  We quickly realized that this bar was the very same place that we had spent a fantastic night 10 years prior!  We even pulled up old pictures to prove it!

Then...

Now...

Bangkok was a fun trip down memory lane, but it was also like kryptonite for our kids.  They are helpless against such a concentrated recipie of heat + city.  It is an oppressive cocktail that makes our children turn into sweaty, immobile, glossy-eyed zombies.  We had to limit our time outdoors, but it made for a great excuse to linger in restaurants, get extra icy treats, and even go to the movies.

On our final walk back to our hotel we found ourselves meandering through the Red Light District.
Questionable parenting choice?  Maybe.  Long talks about how poverty and gender inequalities result in the lack of opportunity for education and alternative career options for women?  Absolutely.  (Besides, seeing tourists in their barely-there-itty-bitty bikinis, and the occasional surprise nude beach was far more scandalous than the display under the neon lights.)

Thailand has blown our minds in many ways!  From the paradise of its islands to the intensity of its capital, we have so appreciated the variety and contrast we found in our travels here.  It’s been a true gift to spend an entire month roaming this land, stuffing ourselves with the ambrosia that is Thai food, and creating the kind of memories that we will savour forever.

We have indulged.  Now it's time to get back to being more rugged explorers.  The next chapter awaits.

Sending lots of love ~ The Zwaigens