Flights, Grand Market and Floating Market

December 18^th

While at the Eugene Airport Sun and Malcolm met a Sock Monkey relative and his human.

Our flights have been easy and smooth. We spent the morning at the Seattle airport with breakfast, chair massages for 30 minutes, Lin did some yoga while Vince surfed the net. We picked up some snacks and water to get us started on our long leg from Seattle to Seoul.

Breakfast and chair massage while we wait for our flight.

Chair Massage by Peggy.........

We saw Crazy Eyes Rudolph ............

This is the first time on Korean Air and I must say it is lovely. The efficiency of the crew is amazing as I (Lin) can attest to because shortly after we were settled and the seat belt sign was turned off I decided to play with the personal video screen in the seat back in front of me. They have movies, music, games, maps and much more. I pulled out the handset from my arm rest and started to push all the buttons. I am known for pushing all the buttons when I find something I want to figure out and usually end up re-programming car stereo systems, microwave clocks and the like. Just 10 minutes in to the flight one of the very lovely attendants leaned over to ask me what I needed. I looked at her with confusion as she gently, and politely pointed to the controller I was holding and told me that the button with a person on it was to summon her if I needed something. I felt very silly, apologized profusely, we both smiled and off she went. Vince just gave me a look............and said, “ You pressed all the buttons?” Yep!

December 20,

Update from the first couple of days. The Hotel we stayed in at the airport in Bangkok was the Novotel Hotel and it was a nice night stay. Breakfast was a lovely buffet and the things that made me smile the most were the honey I scraped off straight from the comb for my toast! Glass noodles with chicken, Miso soup, and very tiny Mandarin oranges.

We were picked up by our driver from Oriental Escape to drive us to Ruenkanok Thai House for our 8 night stay. This place is amazing! Once we got settled we walked to the beach, the tide was in so we could not access the sand.  We had a light snack at the resort before going to the market and what has become our favorite drink....blended Lime Mint Mojito without the alcohol.

We decided to go into Hua Hin to the Market Village Mall to get our Thai phone numbers and internet access for the month. It was a piece of cake. We also found a bank to exchange our baht to smaller bills so it will be easier to buy things at the market. We flagged a ride to the Grand Market and wandered slowly as it was early enough and most of the vendors were getting set up for the night. This was our first Songtheaw ride....which is a mini truck with two bench seats and railings attached to the interior roof if you need to stand.  The truck was full so Steve and Lisa were on the extension platform off the back of the truck bed.  Yes that is the expressway behind us and cars were driving very fast!  Cost 10 Baht each... 33 cents each!  

The food smells assaulted my senses like I have never experienced before. Grilling meats, chicken, fish, and seafood. Spicy curries and lovely things I had no idea what they were made me smile from my toes and I grinned for hours after. I have been dreaming of fresh coconut water straight out of the young Thai coconut and when I spotted a Grandma whacking coconuts with her well used cleaver I knew I had found my vendor. I am in love!!!

For dinner we ordered grilled chicken and sticky rice, papaya salad, barbecued pork shoulder , long beans and cucumber. 2 cokes, one beer and my coconut water was for the 4 of us $8.00 US. The food was delicious. We browsed some more and Lisa picked up a cupcake and two brownies, Steve found fresh spring rolls and I bought some jackfruit. For those of you that do not know what jackfruit is, it is the essence of it that they put into juicy fruit gum. First the taste is watermelon, then pear, then fruit loops and finally juicy fruit gum! It was terrific fun!

By the time we were ready to go back to the house it was dark and the streets were jammed with all types of traffic. We found a songtheaw and rode for a while when Lisa said, this is the place, so we rang the buzzer and hopped off only to realize we were 1 mile away from our house. Let me explain.......There are NO 7-11's in Japan so when Lisa saw one she automatically thought it was the one next to our house.....only to realize 7-11's are like Starbucks in Seattle! She was so cute and we all had a good laugh as we waited for another ride to show up not more than 10 minutes later.

December 21

Breakfast at the house was delicious.  Rice and Chicken and Rice Soup.......sounds boring but is was far from it as we are finding that EVERYTHING we are eating is more delicious than we could have imagined.

Then we went to the Floating Market which was well worth the ride out to it. The area all around it is being build with subdivisions, condos, resorts and hotels. We arrived at the market about 9 am and wandered the shops at our leisure when there were not many people. At first we thought it was a place that did not get much business, but that was not the case once it was late morning. The people came with families to feed the koi, ride in boats around the lake, or take the train around the market, shop and eat.

 

This is small sweet Pineapple that is fresh, cold and cut for snacking!

This is the 25 Baht Store.....like the dollar stores in the US

Lin's new silk scarf for her hat!

This is the Ha Ha Ha Train.....the number 5 in Thai is pronounced Ha.

Current exchange rate is approx. 32 Baht to the US dollar.

Fruit salad with corn, peanuts and a delicious sauce

Chicken Satay with peanut sauce

Rice with crab

We were able to pick up gifts, have lunch and be picked up by the driver that dropped us off. He took us up to the door of our resort where we promptly took a nap! We stayed home, worked on the blog, caught up on the internet, took another nap and are planning on watching the International Fireworks Festival to celebrate the King's Birthday. More on that next time. As you can tell.........we are having a wonderful time. Thank you to everyone who have commented to our FB pages. It is fun to have you along.