Well, as promised, I am going to recount the events of my trip to Thailand. I'm only going to do THIS one out of order. Next Friday, all of my flash backs will pick up where I left off. I'm going to try to stick to my schedule of at least one PRESENT blog post per week and one FLASH BACK post per week, that way, hopefully I'll be all caught up in a couple of months. Being that I spent 3 months in Thailand and I'm trying to put it all in one FBF post, this post is going to be ridiculously long. I apologize in advance for the horrible quality videos that blogger turns my videos into, but I don't think I'm going to wait to upload them all to youtube...
My mom and I went to Thailand and Laos to visit my grandparents because they were sick. It's a good thing we did too, because unfortunately her father passed shortly after we visited, and her mother shortly after that. I am the only child of my mother's that they got to meet. And I was the only one that got to meet them. But I know who lives on in my DNA.
THE TRIP TO DALLAS
Leaving Florida
Do you think there are drugs on that boat? lol
I have arrived, I love you sis! <3
And of course, the first thing we do is....
Presents I got from my dad and my sister. :)
Rabbit (the oldest) took me and Lauren to a sushi restaurant. :)
Obviously SAKE was involved. :)
Leaving Florida
Do you think there are drugs on that boat? lol
I have arrived, I love you sis! <3
And of course, the first thing we do is....
Presents I got from my dad and my sister. :)
Rabbit (the oldest) took me and Lauren to a sushi restaurant. :)
Obviously SAKE was involved. :)
Going to the store, just after getting the GoPro camera (That I wish I still had) I was loving that camera! And then on the way to a birthday party!
Cristi Wygal, my gal pal from like... 1st grade. <3
LOL Lauren got stung by a bee on her head this day. lol and Jaime told her to wet some tobacco and put it on the sting.. apparently it works like a charm!
Naturally, to test out the underwater capabilities of this GoPro, we decided to showcase our awkward mermaid abilities.
Clearly I cannot do a backflip, I'm not a cinematographer, and I don't have an especially great throwing arm, but these were fun. lol
yea, I'm that one.. the goofy one, the crazy one, the baby one.. thats why I'm the one getting dunked. lol
Our last night in Dallas before the trip to Thailand!
Since I was just visiting from Florida and only going to be in Dallas for a short while before I went to Thailand, and briefly on my way back to Florida, my sister came to visit me and my mom before we left. And we all got our nails done together. And then went to eat. :)
You can really tell we are sisters here. You know I'm the little sister. <3
Mom, of course enjoyed seeing us like that. We're all such beautiful ladies. :)
GOODBYE DALLAS!
On the way to Seattle!
Mommy, on plane #1.
The first leg of the trip was from Dallas to Seattle, which wasn't so bad... about 4 or 5 hours... but then came the 14 hr stretch from Seattle to Beijing. That would have been worse if I didn't love reading. But luckily I was thoroughly prepared. I brought three books. All of them by one of my favorite authors: Haruki Murakami. I finished all three during my stay in Thailand, but I almost finished one just during the flight from Seattle to Beijing: Kafka On The Shore.
Mommy on flight #2
The food was not amazing, but the little cup of water was adorable.
And the little tub of butter was also very cute. lol I'm a simple girl.
After eating, I spent my next 14 hrs like this...
Stepping off the plane into Beijing was both what you would expect, and yet... nothing at all what I expected. The only thing that didn't surprise me was the fact that it was extremely crowded, muggy, foggy, and I seriously understood why everyone wears those face masks.
Mommy was tired and cranky, and the bus was full.
And here we were going through customs. My first time, obviously not the last, getting my passport stamped. :)
We still had one more flight to go: Beijing to Bangkok.
We made it! Not that it mattered to me at all, but I thought I would note that the hotel, as nice as it looks, was actually quite cheap. Not price wise (maybe that too) but it seemed like it was made of cheap materials.
I honestly can't remember why mommy took this picture, but since it was weird, I thought I'd post it and show off some of my ink. (My mommy made that shirt for me.)
I went downstairs to check the place out. This was the view from the exterior. (The GoPro doesn't do well at night... so.. sorry if it's all pretty blurry.)
I went and talked to the boys that worked there.. we mostly talked in hand signals and smoked cigarettes. They were pretty cool. I got one of them to accompany me to Pattaya later on during the trip. It was pretty cool. He ended up giving me a gift as I was leaving. His name is Got. Yea, these are terribly blurry, but they're the only pics I got of that night. lol.
Mommy taking a picture of me on the stairs... Don't know if we got one. lol If we did, I can't find it.
Snap chatting from Thailand, now that I had wifi! <3 Trying to figure out a phone situation.
It was a long ass trip, you can definitely tell that I was excited AND exhausted, and we STILL had 9 more hours to go before we got to Laos, and I didn't know that we would end up stopping in one last city before reaching Laos. (Ubon Rachatani)
These were pretty gross. lol
Mommy's cousin(s) came over. (cousins?)
Remember how I told you I read Kafka on the Shore on the plane? Well when I stepped out of the hotel the next morning, I didn't realize that Johnnie Walker was a liquor... and I saw this sign (no spoilers but there is a character in that book that is super creepy named johnnie walker.)
Good morning! We had breakfast, and then another bus ride ahead of us!
BUT FIRST! A taxi ride to the bus stop... They drive on the left side of the road! lol My first time experiencing that!
We had to go through a toll or something. You can see that the workers there wear masks.. I imagine it's because of all of the exhaust and dirt.
Here we were, at the bus stop with more bags than I could carry, and more than I would allow my mama to carry, and none of these bags were mine... These were all bags that my mom packed with hand me downs to give to her family in Laos. Like a garage, the bus stop was inside, but it was also sort of outside...
This is where the title pic came from. :) Mommy on Bus #1 to Ubon
Some neat thing under a bridge.
a quick stop at some outside convenience store/bus stop
On this bus, there was an option to view a camera positioned on the front of the bus. It was pretty boring, but it was kinda neat. lol
they gave us juice and crackers.
A temple in Thailand, sorry about the big thing in the way. lol
The scenery was so green and lush. It was a really nice drive once we got out of the city. Huge Gold Buddha.
Those mountains back there are just amazing.
This is a pretty dope picture in general, but I like the contrast between the natural mountains and the
rusty, old, attempt at industrialization.
The bus' food was the best travel food through the whole trip. Pad Prik Khing, my favorite, and Tod Mon. :)
The houses and small farms are so quaint and cute! You can even see where some of them have built small huts close to the street where they sit and sell the stuff they grow on their land.
At this point, I've lost track. This might be bus 2. The seats look different, but I don't remember switching buses. This cutie came and sat with me and mom let her play with her tablet. :)
Finally made it to Ubon, to stay with family before we crossed the border into Laos, and it was rainy rainy rainy.
Of course I was hungry. When am I ever not hungry?
My mom's sister (my aunt) (left) came to meet us at their aunt's (right) house in Ubon to ride with us to Laos.
I met so many people I can't remember who is who.
I found myself wanting to explore their backyard. I tried, but it was still very wet and I didn't get far. Their bathroom and shower were the first "different" form of shower I had seen yet, and it would only get stranger from here. I love how you can hear all those birds outside that morning.
Time to go! But I had to get one good shot of the outside before we left! 
UNCLE AT!!
Do we all look alike? Me, my mom, and my aunt. :)
I'm such a diva.
The rain from the night before caused the streets to flood. We came during monsoon season, so this would not be the last time we saw this region flooded.
*coming back later to fix the videos below this point.*
We got dropped off at the border, to go through immigration and get stamped, and my uncle At would pick up the driving on the other side where he parked his truck on the way to meet us in Thailand. :)
There is of course a market there.
Dragon Fruit! ( I think )
Cute little one, watching me while her momma settles her paperwork to travel from Thailand to Laos. Evidently I stand out. lol
After leaving the border, a little ways on our trip, we stop for a drink. If you'll notice, the soda was just in a plastic bag, tied around the top with a rubber band, and drunk through a straw.
We eventually stopped for another snack. It was delicious. Grapefruit and salt/sugar/chili powder
More Snacks: This time, it's lotus flower seed thingies. lol I don't know what to call them. but you break apart the part where the flower would normally bloom, and you eat the little pods inside... that are seeds, or even buds, I guess. I couldn't really tell. I'm pretty sure I messed up the chronological order of the ride from Thailand to Laos a bit... but it's okay. it all happened in one car ride... so that's close enough. lol basically where I'm in the backseat, we're driving on the left side of the road, and still in Thailand. Where I'm in the front seat, and driving on the right side of the road, we are in Laos.
More flooding.
The Ocean
I saw a lot of construction in Thailand. It kind of left me with the feeling that they were constantly working on westernizing their country.
What looks to me like some "main street" in a city in Laos.
A cool bridge, The mekong river, a huge golden buddha sits atop the mountain on the right. We're almost home!
getting into the city of Champasak. (I think)
All the kids were waiting for us to arrive! Most of those kids are my family and a few are neighbors from the street. :)
My mom's late older brother's daughter and her son. So... my oldest cousin and her son?
My mother's parents. (r.i.p.) The second my mom walked in, she got on the floor and put her head to her parents feet as a sign of respect, and I followed her lead, because I had no idea whether or not it was expected of me as well. Her mother just cried and mumbled words in thai and was so happy to see her. My grandpa wasn't very responsive, and couldn't speak at this time, but he grabbed my arms and legs and squeezed them as if he couldn't see but could only feel the resemblance of his granddaughter.
Mommy feeding grandpa, and all the rest of the family going through the stuff mom brought them and picking out what they liked. :)
Then we ate. This part of the culture I was familiar with. The table, the family, the floor, the food.. Clearly a staple in the Thai and Laos community.
After we ate, I asked my younger cousin to take me for a walk around the block. This was the result of the heavy rains, but also a result of the littering that takes place there. They are a developing country with little education on the environmental effects of the packaging that has only recently become a part of their culture. Mostly everything is still packaged in all natural packaging like banana leaves and bamboo strings. They also don't have as great of a garbage system there. This is one of the things I would like to help fix in Laos.
a cute little restaurant on the Mekong River
The side they don't want to show you in travel brochures. This should by no means keep you from visiting.. There is much to learn about the culture here.
I literally have no idea why this was laid out so neatly on the floor here, but in Laos it could be for any reason. I kind of assume that it's an offering to a family member who used to live in the house that set it out. (in a similar fashion: a spirit house, like many other houses here have that house the spirits of their ancestors)
The satellite. lol.
