Thailand!!

We returned from our vacation in Thailand this week and it was amazing. We spent 3 days in Bangkok, the massive capital of 10 million people, followed by 4 days in Chiang Mai, a beautiful city in the mountains up north. It's a great country with very nice people, good food, and beautiful scenery, like the first picture below of us rafting on a river outside Chiang Mai, but the rest of the pictures below follow the chronical order of our trip so we can take you thru it beginning to end.

River rafting on the last day. But going back to the beginning.....

When we first arrived in Bangkok we wanted to explore the massive city and shop their street markets. This mini taxi called a toot-toot is very popular. These guys don't exactly obey all traffic laws, and use their small size to weave between traffic. Who needs amusement park rides when you can live on the edge with these things?

Our first full day there we visited Dream World, sort of Thailand's version of a mini-disneyland.

Pictured here was a really cool (literally) attraction called snow world. Basically they crank the A/C up so it's like 30 degrees, and that's real snow in the background. Obviously it's a huge hit cause many of these southeast asians have never seen snow, but our kids were almost just as foreign to it as it's been since early 2007 that our kids have experienced winter.

These are little speedboats called longboats that took us thru winding canals in Bangkok. They would pull up to a market right on the edge of the river called a floating market. They don't miss out on any opportunity to sell you stuff in Thailand.

These wood carvings/storyboards were incredible. The carving behind us isn't even close the the biggest or most detailed one we saw. The "rookie" carvers use a drawing over top to guide them along, but the experienced ones can just see it in their mind and carve away.

A 2 hr drive out of Bangkok took us to this bridge you've probably heard of: The famous Bridge on the River Kwai. You can see on the far left how the sections are curved, and the ones right over Jordan's head are shaped more square. It was the square section that was bombed by the allies in WWII and repaired later.

Royal Palace in Bangkok. Thailand still has a king, but it's a constitutional monarchy so, like England, the royalty has no real power, but back in the day Thailand was known as Siam, and the movie The King & I is about one of the past kings of Siam. Lots of gold, lots of statues.

More of the palace....

After Bangkok we headed up north to Chiang Mai. It was awesome to feel cool mountain air again...we almost thought we were back in Utah. This pond is part of a nite safari up one of the local canyons. Lots of animals come out at nite so there was plenty to see.

All that touristy walking left the girls needing a pedicure.

The kids favorite part of the vacation: zip lining thru the jungle tree tops. This place was featured on the amazing race apparently. At the beginning when we were harnessing up a few of the other patrons asked if the girls would be too scared to go......they didn't ask for very long.

The girls go together on this run. There were about 18 lines in all.

Tons of markets. This one went on for over a mile.

When riding on an Elephant, you always feel like you're chair is going to slide off. They're sure footed beasts though, and it was fun.

They loved to "reach" up for snacks along the way. Here Jordan feeds it another Banana.

The elephants were amazing, they drew several paintings right in front of us.

Posing with the kids...

Bamboo rafting on a river outside Chiang Mai.

After all this playing we put the kids to work. Here Andie is guiding our raft along.

3 big monkeys playing with 1 little monkey.

This guy moves a little fast, but he's got good taste!

Thailand is famous for their silk, so we visited this factory in Chiang Mai. We thought the kids would be totally bored, but they were actually fascinated, and for good reason. They showed you the whole cylce, from the silk worms all the way to the finished product. Yeah we're easily entertained.

Finally we wrapped up the vacation with a little white water rafting. The river was low so it was safe enough to bring the kids. Not exactly heart pounding adrenaline rush, but we're glad we got to go as a family.

Decent rapids here..

Emma shows her approval of the trip. She speaks for all of us though. The rafting and the whole trip was awesome. Hopefully the kids are old enough to remeber this. But if not, at least we have the pictures to prove it.

PS. Thailand info: Roughly the size of Texas. Population 65 million poeple. Thailand means free land, and it is a free country surrounded by more repressed states such as Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia. People: nice, love kids.