Thailand

As we mentioned a few times, Seagate was shut down for a few days last week and we took advantage of the time off to travel to Thailand.  After much research, we decided to visit Phuket, a popular tourist destination ~1 hour away from Penang.  The hotel we stayed at was right on the beach and the water, waves, and sand were absolutely beautiful.  We had such a great time and find it very hard to return to life in Penang.

Unlike past vacations, I got to be in charge of the agenda, which meant plenty of R&R!  The typical day started with breakfast and a dip in the hotel pool.  After Evelyn woke up from her morning nap, it was time for lunch and a dip in the ocean before Evelyn went down for her afternoon nap.  Then we would find a place for dinner, do a little shopping, and head back to hotel to tuck Evie in for the night.  Once in a while we would mix things up by reading beside the pool or playing in the sand (Glenn would spend all this time building elaborate sand castles and then Evelyn would destroy his work in a matter of seconds).  Needless to say, it was wonderful!

The food definitely deserves its own paragraph.  Not only did we try tons of Thai food (pad thai, curry soup, fried chicken with cashews, etc), but we had our choice of Indian, Italian, and Western food.  We even found one bar/restaurant that had American football on the TV; needless to say Glenn made us stop and watch for a while.  Glenn took a Thai cooking class at the hotel and has promised to continue cooking food for me when we get back to Minnesota (now I just have to get him to learn how to make naan and I am set).

We are already making plans to go back when Glenn's family comes to visit in December.  Next time, I think we are going to have to take advantage of some of the other things Thailand has to offer.  Gary, Glenn's co-worker, took one of the speedboat tours of the surrounding islands and came back raving about how wonderful the snorkeling and sights were.  There were also tour packages for Elephant rides and snake and monkey shows.  We also will have to take advantage of the massages (~$10 for 1 hour), something we didn't get around to on this trip.

I'll wrap this entry up by telling a quick story about Evelyn and an elephant.  Every night a Thai couple brought their pet elephant and set up shop at a restaurant near our hotel.  For 20 Baht (~70 cents) you could get some bananas and cucumbers and feed the elephant.  Evelyn loved pointing and looking at the elephant for a distance, but got very scared as soon as we got next to him.  We tried getting her to feed the animal on 3 different nights, but didn't have any success.  We would try to get her psyched up to feed the elephant during the day, but no matter how excited she was, the end result was always the same.  Who know, maybe she'll change her mind in a few months.

As hard as it was to leave, we are excited to get back to the apartment and return to a 'normal' schedule.  That being said, I can't wait to plan the next trip!