Days 61-??: Thailand

we've totally lost track of the days, but we've got about two weeks remaning on this adventure!

Thailand is the greatest. we highly recommend visiting here.

when we arrived in Bangkok, the Johnson family (who hosted Jared's brother Matt, and friends, earlier) welcomed us with warm southern hospitality. their house was a wonderful refuge, as we slept the strangest hours and watched a lot of Glee as we recovered from some jet lag. we did manage to make it out one afternoon for a visit to the Jim Thompson house, a traditional Thai architecture place made by a guy who got super rich on Thai silk and then disappeared.

because Southern Thailand was suffering from floods, we headed North first, hoping the rains would subside. after a long busride with Thai karaoke videos blasting through the night, we made it to Thailand's "second city" Chiang Mai. we dove into Thai culture...thai food, thai massages, thai animals, thai markets. true to our nature, we went to food first and took a full day Thai cooking class, learning to make 7 dishes each. they all tasted amazing! (although we had a lot of help with the preparation). still, we were very proud of our own pad thai, spring rolls, coconut milk soup, and lots of other delicious food.  we have the cookbook, and hope to recreate some dishes when we get home. (hey family, we want a wok for Christmas! thanks!)

since Chiang Mai is famous for its night bazaar, we wandered street after street of vendors. we got hassled for a lot of knock off goods, tank tops, silk pillowcases, grilled street food, jewelry, and the croaking wooden frogs. by the end of the week we had gotten really good at bargaining, and stuffed our bags with some Christmas presents : ) (don't expect much, our bags are small!)

we also got the chance to ride, feed, and bathe elephants! this was a true highlight. because the tour was full, we basically got a private tour with the owner and his favorite elephant. he really cared about his animals, and it was fantastic to be with them up close. he also took a TON of photos of us, so we were happy. our elephant was super sweet, and pregnant too!

as recommended by the Johnson family, we took traditional Thai portraits. it's pretty much the Thai version of Glamour Shots. they dress you up and airbrush, airbrush, airbrush. Sophie has fake hair and Jared has no freckles. they are hilarious.

we decided to trust a travel agent, despite the gloomy online forecast, and head to the South. we are SO glad we did. the South was absolutely beautiful. it's full of the white sand and blue water you imagine. we stayed on the island of Koh Lanta, relaxing, which we really needed. we rode a scooter around the island for a day and visited the different beaches. unfortunately, the next day Jared came down with dengue fever...a nasty bug transmitted by mosquitos :( we watched a lot of music videos, European soccer, and any English movie we could find on TV. luckily this happened at the one point in the trip where we had planned to stay in the same place for a while, doing nothing. so we still enjoyed the beach, massages, and smoothies offered all around us. we celebrated Loy Kathrong, one of their major festivals. after a few days we moved to Ko Phi Phi Don, another island in the area. we only got one day there but it was beautiful. pretty much our entire time in Thailand we've been plotting ways to come back. we could island hop for weeks here! anyone want to join?

we came back for one day to Bangkok to repack and see Harry Potter 7. It's technically Thanksgiving here, but it's hard to tell. we hope everyone stateside is having a wonderful holiday. we're grateful for this trip!

we're headed to Sydney, Australia tonight. we hope to post at least one more time before we get back to San Diego.

Happy Thanksgiving!

the callahans.