Thailand

We didn't know much about Thailand before planning our trip to Phuket (say Poo-ket), but here are some fun facts:

• The region known as Thailand has been inhabited by people since at least the Paleolithic period (about 40,000 years).

• Thailand's official name was Siam until 1939.

• Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonized by a European power.

• The Kingdom of Thailand operates under a constitutional monarchy with a Prime Minister serving as head of government and a King who is head of state. We watched a very entertaining propaganda video about the wonders of the King on one of our flights.

• The official language of Thailand is Thai. 

• Buddhism is the predominant religion in Thailand.

• The traditional Thai greeting, the wai, consists of pressing ones palms together with fingertips pointed upward and giving a slight bow.

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Our trip to Thailand started out a bit stressful. After spending 28 hours in the Tokyo airport waiting for our flight, a six hour plane ride from Tokyo to Bangkok and a short flight from Bangkok to Phuket, we were greeted by a crowd of motivated (if not aggressive) cab drivers vying for our business, which is always a bit unnerving. Eventually we made it to Dewa Beach Resort where we stayed for six glorious nights. We ate breakfast at the resort and ordered groceries for our lunches and snacks, which consisted of fresh pineapple, watermelon, mangoes, jam, bread, salami, cheese, and peanuts.

Our room...

View of the family pool area from our balcony...

Elephant fountains next to the baby pool...

The main pool...

Our resort was located just across this road from Nai Yang beach and nature reserve. Notice that there are FOUR people riding on the moped in the picture below.

The tree lined beach was clean and not at all busy. The water was warm, calm, and crystal clear. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend a lot of time at the beach because it was too hot to keep Hazel outdoors for an extended period of time, but what time we did spend there was very enjoyable.

 

Various fishing boats on the beach and in the water...

 

We ate several of our meals at the resort, but did venture out for dinner a few times. All of the food was excellent, inexpensive, and beautifully presented.

This blue truck was parked in Octopus restaurant where we dined one night.

Walking to dinner also provided an opportunity to take in some of the sights, sounds, and smells of Thailand. As shown above, we saw up to four people riding on a moped, and many more riding in the back of trucks.

We saw vendors selling fish right on the street, using large, brightly colored scales (like the orange one shown below) to weigh their products. We liked the scales so much that one night, Matt took a taxi to a giant Walmart-like store to find one of our favorite souvenirs ever. We use it to store produce in the kitchen.

After a few days of relaxing on the beach, at the pool, and in our hotel room, we hired a driver to take us around for the day. Our first stop was an elephant trekking camp where we witnessed this baby elephant performing quite the dance routine.

Matt went on a 30-minute elephant trek through a rubber tree farm while I stayed back with Hazel napping in her stroller.

Next, we entered the Khao Phra Thaeo Wildlife Park where we were immediately greeted by the alarm-like sounds of screaming gibbons in the gibbon rehabilitation center.

 

 

We continued further into the park, and Matt headed out in search of the Bang Pae waterfall. He ended up hiking about 20 minutes past the poorly marked waterfall in a 90+ degree rainforest before turning around. He stumbled across it by accident on his way back. Apparently it wasn't even that impressive as it was the dry season.

The pool at the base of the waterfall...

Later that day, Matt took a short walk from our resort to take photos of an eye-catching Buddhist temple.

With all that went on before and after we were in Thailand, the trip now feels like a blur, but we really enjoyed our first big trip with Hazel!

Earthquake, Tsunami, and Aftermath

On the afternoon of Friday, March 11, 2011, our house was rocked by an 9.0 earthquake originating off the coast of northeastern Japan; the world's fifth largest earthquake since 1900 and the worst in Japan's history. Hazel and I were home alone when the earthquake began. It became immediately apparent that it wasn't like the other earthquakes we had experienced since arriving in Japan, even the 7.2 earthquake we experienced just two days before.

Not knowing what to do, but being born and raised in tornado country, I moved us into our innermost guest bathroom shower room and had to sit down so as not to lose our footing. We promptly lost power. I did not close the two doors between us and the hallway to avoid getting trapped, but the pocket door to our bathroom was sliding open and closed on its own with the quaking. The shaking was audible, and eventually the sound of breaking glass overpowered our house. Having no frame of reference for this experience, it felt like the house was in the middle of a twister a la The Wizard of Oz, or was being ransacked by intruders with us still in it. The first wave of shaking partially emptied the contents of the book shelves in our dining room, leaving DVDs, CDs, and broken wine glasses and vases strewn on the floor. A few minutes later, a second wave of shaking knocked a large apothecary jar, filled with river rocks signed by guests at our wedding, onto the floor directly across from our bathroom refuge. The sound of rocks and glass crashing to the ground was nothing short of horrific. Surprisingly, Hazel remained mostly oblivious.

Matt was driving home from work when the earthquake started.  It felt like the wheels were going to come off his car. It was such a relief when he finally got home. We continued to experience aftershocks for the next couple of hours as we began to assess and clean up the damage.

Hazel and I took cover through the open door to the right.

In a fortunate twist of fate, we had previously planned a vacation to Thailand, and were due to leave on a flight to Tokyo that night. As we finished packing our bags by candlelight, I couldn't help but feel like a member of the Van Trapp family escaping under the cover of night. Our flight out of Misawa was canceled, but we were able to leave on a different flight about forty minutes after our original departure time.  The power was still not restored to our house by the time we left for the airport. As a result, we had no idea that as we flew to Tokyo, tens of thousands of people had already lost their lives to the massive tsunami that wiped out the coastline just south of us.

When we arrived in Tokyo, we began to realize that things were probably a bit worse than we originally thought. Our original flight to Bangkok was cancelled, so we found an rare open patch of floor and set up camp. Hazel slept in her stroller covered with blankets and towels, and we slept on the hard floor with nothing but beach towels, a baby changing pad, and a stray cardboard box to cushion us and block out the 24-hour glow of florescent airport lights. Eventually, some kind Japanese women gave us two blankets that were distributed prior to our arrival. We "slept" that night with Hazel between us and hoped that our flight would leave in the morning. It did not. The next morning, free rice balls were distributed to the stranded travelers. We took two, one for each of us, and another kind Japanese man used pantomime to insist that we take more. Crisis bonds people, even foreigners, together. Eventually, flights began to start up again, late the next evening (some 28 hours after arriving in Tokyo) we flew to Bangkok and eventually to Phuket.

Our "camp" in the Tokyo airport.

In Thailand, we finally had access to television and internet, and learned exactly what had happened following the earthquake. We were saddened by the loss of so much and so many in northeastern Japan, but were very thankful for our safety. Additionally, we began to deliberate over whether or not Hazel and I should return to Japan in the light of the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant. After much deliberation, we decided it would be prudent for Hazel and I to wait it out in Iowa for a couple of weeks. And so we parted ways in Tokyo, with Matt returning to Misawa and Hazel and I flying to Chicago. Hazel and I spent six weeks in Iowa (five long weeks apart from Matt; he was able to join us for a week), and finally returned safe and sound as a family to our home in Misawa on May 2, 2011. It was the longest week-long vacation ever.

Return to Appi

This weekend we returned to Appi for what was probably our last ski trip of the season. The drive took less than two hours and Hazel slept the entire time. Conditions were great. We had blue skies, some light snow, and no slush. We took one turn with our friends watching the kiddos, so Matt and I were able to do a little bit of skiing together and it gave me the opportunity to film Matt doing some of the jumps he had been perfecting here at Appi.

 

If you watch this video closely, you will see Matt doing three consecutive jumps. They may not look big, but trust me, they are...

Virtual skiing...

We certainly miss our week-long ski trips to Austria, but all in all, this was a fun first ski season in Japan.

Kappa Sushi

Last week we dined at Kappa Sushi, a chain sushi restaurant serving up decent, inexpensive, single-serving sushi with a twist. While patient diners may opt to select pre-made items (sushi, juice boxes, dessert) from a conveyor belt that passes by each table, those who know exactly what they want and prefer to have it delivered right to them have the option of using a touch screen to order up items. And those items aren't delivered by a waiter or waitress, but rather by a mini shinkansen bullet train, reminiscent of Mr.Rogers's trolley (see the video below).We did a little of both. The most difficult part about it making a quick decision about whether or not you want the item rolling by and then communicating that to the person sitting closest to the belt. For example, this is the banter that inevitably took place several times during the meal between me (sitting next to the belt) and Matt (sitting opposite of the belt):

Me: Do you want it?
Matt: I don't know.

Me: Do you want it?!
Matt: Um, maybe.

Me: Yes or no...You have to decide!

In the meantime, the item gets further and further from reach. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. But that's ok, because it will most likely be around again in less than 10 minutes or you can have it delivered by train. It really is an entertaining way to eat out. At the end of the meal, a member of the wait staff counts the stacked plates (they each cost the same thing- around 100 yen, a little more than 1 USD), and the bill is calculated.

 

 

Hazel started out the dinner snoozing, woke up to witness the conveyor belt fun, but in the end, was much more interested in her own toys. Give it another year, and I'm sure we'll have our hands full preventing her from grabbing things off the belt and reaching for the train.

 

Finally, there are a series of strange instructions on the front door to Kappa Sushi. Of course we didn't see these until we were leaving, the most relevant of which being "No photos in (t)his restaurant". Whoops.