wintersp

Wow - that's impressive - told him to use the meter in Thai? I had to go back and read that the 2nd time!

travelduo

Well my best friend is thai and some of his family speaks no english so I have had a lot of practice. Plus the wife and I are both interpreters so languages come somewhat easier for us last time I got tired of the cabbies taking us for a ride so I decided to talk like some of my expat friends do and it has worked great!
But that thai language is tough! Itis so tonal and sometimes I end up saying I'm very greedy instead I'm very good!

wintersp

I've enjoyed your report so far.
I'm still shaking my head over speaking Thai for the taxi - even if you have a Thai friend. Bet your intrepreting business doesn't get a lot of calls for Thai in Kansas City.
Looking forward to the rest of the report.

travelduo

ok so on to thursday. we woke up really early agin, jet lag still sucks, and went down to breakfast. we decided to go to the flower market, this wasnt on our list that day, but neither was waking up so early! the guys at the front desk told us to take the express boat to the market and showed us which stop to get off at. well we got on the boat just fine and i thought that we had paid to get all the way there, i guessed wrong, this woman comes down the middle of the boat shaking this change tube thing, here is where speaking some elementary thai comes in handy becuase i dont think she spoke a lick of english, i finally figured out that the stop we needed the boat didnt stop at! so we had to get off that boat and onto another one, along with almost every other commuter that morning!!!! april tried to take a picture of the throng of people, but ended up with only a picture of this woman picking her nose right in front of the camera. we finally made it to the right stop and walked to the flower market. im not sure what i expected, but what we saw wasnt it. we did buy some bamboo and a couple other small things. april bought some pineapple like she always does but this time it came with a packet of sugar, salt, chili stuff, i oved it, she hated it. we just walked and walked until we ended up in some other market area. it was mostly clothes and we bought our son an U.S Army outfit( he wants to be a navy seal when he grows up and loves anything army related). as usual none of the clothes fit me at all. there was also a ton of bras hanging around, i told april she would have to buy 2 to wear at the same time becuase she has an american sized chest. she didnt laugh. this place also had a lot of gun stores, again i had no clue where we were. april bought a pepsi in a bag, she always thinks thats funny for some reason. finally took a cab back to the hotel for a nap. then went back to paragon and to the aquarium, it was a little more expensive than i thought it would be, but it was well worth it!!!!! we only spent an hour there but could have spent much longer. all the exhibits were very well done and was great for adults and kids alike. afterwards we took the skytrain to the sheraton grande for our cooking class. it was awesome!! it was just the 2 of us in the class, we(I) cooked 6 dishes and april broke a bowl. i have been trying to cook thai in our home but now really know how to do it the right way!!! it was about 2.5 hours and well worth the $100 for both of us. basil looks like a awesome place to eat, not just to the cooking class. has anyone eaten in the rooms with the closed doors? after that we went across the street and some some beers at this beer bar with our ex pat friend mark. it was very cool to learn about his life now, april liked how they let the dogs lay all over the floor so she took pictures of that!! we left when the "band" started, the lead singer looked like an asian version of the guy from Twisted Sister!! weird. we had to hurry back to see jack at 8 for another fitting we were a few minutes late but then so were they. do cap off the day we had massages in our room. i fell asleep in the middle of mine so april and the 2 massage people had a good laugh at me while i slept. i woke up with my head in the guys lap!!!! it was a great way to end the day. i know that they dont like to come to your room for the massage until they know you a little but it was well worth it and more relaxing i nmy opinon since i can just go to sleep for real after its over!

rhkkmk

loving the report..

bob

glad cooking was a good experience...we did eat in the main dining room which was nice but the service was terrible...maybe we will try the school another trip

travelduo

Bob, i remember you told us that night we met that you didnt like the place so well.

we really had a great time meeting up with you 2. hope to make our way to boston sometime soon and see you!

travelduo

ok so the next day was our best, it was the Tong day. But I am sure that you have read Bobs trip report so you know everything that we did that day. There was a few things that were different. First of all we didnt go to the orphanage, instead we went to the Deaf school. I had sent an email to Tong asking her to find this place for us, but didnt know if she really could or not. it was funny because she was so nervous while we were on the way there! she found if really quick and we went right to the office, it is really weird the first time you meet a person at a deaf school because you are not sure if they are deaf or a hearing teacher, and here in the US we always sign and talk at the same time, in english, but here we had to sign and speak thai at the same time! now that was weird! then we found out that most of the teachers there are hearing, and can speak english!!!!! i knew that their sign language was taken from ASL so we could communicate with the deaf kids. we had a shoer tour of the school and some of the history, then all of the kids started running up to us asking of we were really from america?????? i bet we answered that 25 times! we took a lot of pics and bought some cookies from the bakery in the school. this was one of the best parts of the whole trip!!! Tong is going to start taking people there who want to buy lunch for the kids but dont want to do it at the orphanage. dont be afraid to go, the teachers would love to have visitors and they all speak english great, most went to college here in the US at Gallaudet.

we also went to Tongs husbands optical shop, April bought some awesome glasses for a great price and Tong delivered them to our hotel 2 days later.

from there we went out to the secret place. its a bit of a drive, and Tong didnt stop talking the entire drive!!! if we were quiet for a minute she would ask if we were bored and not having fun? our experience there was the same as bob and andys, but we spent much more time with the monkeys!!!!! that is what April really wanted to do. we also spend a lot of time looking for the white monkey but didnt see him. we saw many"fish with feet" as tong called them, i call them mudskippers. the monkeys climbed in our boat and tried to steal more food, till Reed got them out. he really cares for "his" monkeys!!!! we had the dinner on the house with stilts, by now it was dark!!! we stayed ssssoooooooo late! on the drive back Tong and april were talking about keeping the secret place"secret" she they came up with a code word that you need to have if you want her to take you there

We cant say enough about Tong, she is an awesome guide and now a good friend, that hopefully will visit us this coming october!! plus she is going to save her daughter Pear for our son Parker

we finally got most of our pics up the kodak site, if you want to see them send me an e mail and i will give you the link. i cant figure our how to make the gallery totally public so everone can go there, so for now just email me and i will send you the link. [email protected]

rhkkmk

loved the report and it was different from ours and better...

what does one have to do to learn the secret code?? lets not tell andy/gpanda....it will drive him over the edge...