Port Visit to Thailand

Chris has been gone from Sasebo for about a month and his first port stop was in Thailand. I was fortunate enough to be able to go visit while he was there and we had a wonderful time!  Just a warning... this blog is long and there are a lot of pictures, so you might be here for awhile!

Our (I traveled with some other wives) first stop after we arrived was at McDonalds... we were starving, and this was the first place we saw.  I loved the Ronald McDonald that was there to welcome us!

On our first full day there we took a day trip to Bangkok to tour the Grand Palace.  After being involved in "Perspectives" (a class on worldwide missions) in Hawaii, Chris and I were really interested to see and experience what we studied in the class.  Even though the palace was beautiful, elaborate, and so meticulous,  it was so sad to see.  It just broke our hearts to see so many beautiful people worshipping the buddha.  We just pray that soon the truth that is only found in Jesus Christ will be revealed to them.

In front of the Reclining Buddha, it is gold plated and 46 meters long.

At the other end... notice the footprints on the toes!

These were all mosaics, decorated by using broken pottery.

A close up of the mosaics

Chris being silly

And again, he just can't help himself!

After the Grand Palace we took a boat ride along the river to eat lunch at a Thai buffet.  I had my first taste of real Pad Thai, and it was delicious!

The river was crowded with boats that had huge motors.

Floating Market... they would come up to the boat to sell their wares.

Something that Thailand is famous for is having fabulous suits and other articles of clothing tailor-made. It is quite inexpensive and they finish in about two days.  The tailor also came to our hotel for a fitting.  It  was a pretty amazing process.  Chris had a suit and shirt made and I had a coat. 

Chris' measurements and fabric choices.

Chris getting measured for his coat and shirt.

Our finished products!

One of our favorite things we did in Thailand was our elephant ride.  When we first arrived at the village we were able to feed some elephants (they ate whole bananas, who knew?) and we saw a four month old baby elephant.  To get onto our elephant, we climbed onto a tall platform and stepped onto the chair that was on the elephant's back.  The driver of the elephant was sitting on his head.  

Feeding the elephant

We also saw wild monkeys in the tree!

We were fascinated to learn how our driver "steered" the elephant... by lightly tapping his  ear with his foot!

I love that our elephant's trunk is up in this picture, it's like she's smiling!

That night (after we cleaned up) we went to a fancy restaurant for a delicious meal.  We just kept raving the whole time! Everything was perfect!

My crunchy shrimp and avocado salad with passion fruit dressing.

Chris' lamb (cooked three different ways)

Chris' crab and parmesan salad

I know this doesn't look appetizing, but it was the most delicious soup ever,  smoked artichoke.

 My rock lobster skewers

 The next day we did something so fun... this is going to sound crazy, but we had our feet nibbled at by small fish.  This was all around Thailand.  The fish actually eat the dead skin off your feet and after twenty minutes your feet are incredibly smooth.  The only down fall is that it was incredibly ticklish. We were laughing so hard!

It was SO ticklish and such a weird feeling!

The fish nibbling at our feet.

Then after our "fish pedicure" I was thrilled to find my favorite treat, mochi ice cream!  I found this yummy snack in Hawaii and I have missed.  When I realized what it was, I practically ran to the vendor.  We tried the mocha chip, blueberry, and vanilla lime.  I felt like I was back a Bubbie's in Hawaii Kai!

On our last night together we took a Thai cooking class.  It was so fun.  We cooked prawn soup and two chicken dishes.  I was nervous to touch raw chicken for the first time, but to my surprise, the chef provided me with plastic gloves, yay! After we cooked our meals, we had dinner!  We thought we did a great job!

All the spices we used for our meals.

Chris stirring the soup and adding ingredients.

Our finished products!

After a sad good-bye, Chris went back to his ship and I went with some of the wives to Bangkok for the weekend.  We did a ton of shopping at the night markets, which were very exciting to say the least. On our last night there we ate at the tallest building in Thailand, Baiyoke Tower.  It is 85 stories high.  The top is revolving and they had an international buffet on the 75th floor.  

A view of the Grand Palace from Baiyoke Tower.

After a week in Thailand, it was time to head back to Sasebo.  I had a wonderful time visiting a new country, but my most favorite part was being able to spend a few days with Chris, who I miss like crazy!  Hopefully, there will be more port stops in the next few years that I will be able to meet him at.  

The airport did provide me with one more picture... the ceiling in the terminal was lined with umbrellas that were decorated by Thai students, they were spectacular!