Thailand Treasures

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we spent time in relaxation mode. Craig and Sarah (fellow teachers) left on Wednesday, so we were all alone…just the two of us. Wednesday, Kevin rented a motor bike and rode all over the island. We had rented a bike another day, and rode together, and I knew my “behind” wasn’t “up” for a long, arduous ride.

So, I sent Kevin off on his merry way and I went to the beach and sat in a lounge chair. I spent time in the ocean, reading on the lounge chair, and ate lunch at our favorite roadside stand. We really liked the place right across from where we stayed overnight. It was all covered with a roof, but open on all sides, and the kitchen was outside as well. The food was beyond amazing, and it was pretty inexpensive, as well. Everything we had was under $4 each.

Here's our cook at the roadside stand.  After our first meal, she said, "You come back tomorrow, I cook you more food," with a cute Thai accent.  We ate over half our meals there over 6 days, at $1.60-$4 each for really great food.

Then, on Thursday and Friday Kevin and I spent time on the beach, swimming, reading, playing games, going for walks. I don’t know how people do this all of their retirement years. It would get old. It’s nice right now, but I couldn’t do this for months!



Be sure to read the bottom line of this English menu.  We had a good laugh over this one.




Another shared laugh as we walked along the beach. 



One of the pretty resort fronts for Nai Thon Beach.  We didn't stay here, but we loved the flowers above the rooftop.

Then, Saturday, we were picked up at our condo and took two ferries to the next island we were headed to: Kho Lanta. While on the ferry, we were close to amazing rocks—huge monster rocks jutting up out of the water. It was like something out of a movie.

More to come in days to come!

Coffee and Fruit

Breakfast: A lukewarm cup of coffee, a delicious fruit-chunked yogurt, and jack fruit.  Okay, mom, here's the cute little cup of coffee!



Mangosteen fruit in the foreground...it has a hard shell which you puncture with your thumb, then peel back, and slurp the delicious white fruit out of the center.  Jack fruit is in the background.  This tastes like a mixture of pineapple, banana, and mango!  Yum!




And, here's an even closer look at the mangosteen.  The peeling is off to the right.  It is not tasty at all...sort of gives your mouth the feeling of raw rhubarb.



They Do Not Pay Attention to His Deeds

I have been awed by the creativeness of our Father!  The trees, flowers, fruit, fish...all have a beauty and uniqueness that we must stop to acknowledge.  I was reading Isaiah 5:12, and was impressed with this thought: "They do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, nor do they consider the work of His hands."  His creative hand is everywhere we look, but when in a new place, I seem to notice it more readily, because I'm looking at new things.  Just look at an apple with its skin and seeds and flavor...all of it is creative.  But here's some of the creativity I've enjoyed these past few days:



Mangosteen fruit...I will post more on this little fruit in a day or two!






This is the outdoor fruit stand/restaurant, right across from the place we are staying.  We've eaten at least four meals there, and we've had a couple fruit smoothies there.  Here, our new-found friend is peeling a mango for the banana/mango smoothie he's making for us. 





While riding on the moped, we stopped to take this picture.  This is a busier beach than the one we are at. 





Here's Kevin relaxing at our quiet beach.  This was the day we hung out with Craig and Sarah, fellow teachers from Mongolia, hence, the four lounge chairs all lined up together.





Here's a view from our lounge chair.  There are 4-6 Thai boats out in the ocean in front of the area we are staying, at any given time during the day. 



We walk past this water buffalo every day when walking to the beach.  Another sign of our Father's creativity!



Trying to be thankful for this little creative creature who is an uninvited roommate!  So far, he hasn't joined us in bed!




 

Thawing Out Until February 21!

Well, we've officially been in Thailand for five days now.  We're spending some time on Phuket island until our mandatory organizational conference in early February.  It's so nice that our organization doesn't have this conference in Mongolia where it's freezing cold...instead, in this climate that is 70's and 80's day and night.  There are five countries represented in our organization, and some will be coming from cooler climates such as ours (Mongolia) and portions of China.  Right now our time is devoted to rest, relaxation, and reflection.  Here's some pictures to illustrate our time thus far:


We rented a moped for $8 for 24 hours.  I share this awesome price, because Danielle told me how much 3 hours in Europe was...something like $30; so she was quite impressed with the price.  Kevin has ridden for many more hours than I.  I get off the bike and feel like a cowboy getting off a horse...and walk that way for a few minutes!



Yep, that's me....Motorcycle Mama.




One of my first meals on Phuket island.  This is shrimp, chili peppers, and other veggies placed in a hollowed-out pineapple with pineapple chunks and rice.  Oh, so yummy!  And, amazingly inexpensive...around $4.



Morning Q.T. at the Beach

Random Thoughts on Cold and Language

You know it's cold when....

you and your husband are walking to a friend's house and it's -24 degrees F and you say, "What a beautiful evening," and then you realize the temperature and how positive 24 degrees even feels cold...but you'd take that right now! (This happened a couple hours ago!)

the sun shines, but we don't see any sign of melting on sidewalks or streets.
your eyelashes freeze together (top and bottom) with frozen tears after a 10 minute walk. (Really fun when mixed with mascara and you get chunks of black ice!)

you are riding a city bus and you can't see out the windows because they're totally frosted over. Fortunately, we've memorized the bus stops, so we pay attention to how many stops and then we know when to get off.

you take your hand out of your mitten to answer your cell phone and your fingers hurt within 5 seconds.

Today, I was standing at a bus stop for 15 minutes waiting for the correct bus while I was thinking about these things. Brrrrrr!

And, now a random celebration: I was riding the bus and it stopped to get gas about 1/4 mile from my destination bus stop, so I walked to the front and asked the bus driver "Be Boey", meaning "I want to get off".  He let me off.  Ahhh! Language works! I was so happy to have learned that phrase last week!  I didn't want to wait for the gas...it could take 2 min or 10 min...and I wanted to get home.  So, I walked 1/3 to 1/2 mile home, and never saw the bus pass me.  Anyway, I just thought I'd share my happiness over learning a little more language!

A Mongolian Music Video

I think this Mongolian music video is a great example of the dramatic effect that most Mongolian music videos present.  What's cool about this one is that the words are printed at the bottom of the screen, so you can see the alphabet and words which we have learned/are learning.  Also, the family (mother, father, son) in the Christmas tree scene are our friends.  She was one of our Mongolian language teachers, and we had their son, Orgil, at our house all day last week while his parents were working and at a conference. 

Click Here to see and hear the music video!





Here is Orgil at our home last week, checking into our game and craft drawer.  He's in the music video with his parents. 



Thailand Begins Next Weekend!

On Saturday afternoon, we are scheduled to fly out of shivvering Mongolia and land in cozy Thailand for three weeks of warmth as we do a little travelling and also attend our organization's mandatory yearly conference.  I decided to peruse around Youtube for some information about Thailand.  Here's some of the best videos I found (click to view on youtube):

Thai Food

A little corny at times, but good shots of natural sites, culture, dance, and art!

A short, quick tour (1 minute)

Smoke Gets In My Eyes




The smoke in the air is from the ger smoke...gers being heated by burning coal and wood.  When the temperature, cloud cover, and wind is "just wrong"....here's what we get.  It smells like a campfire outside. This photo was taken out our apartment window.

 


Here's the same location shot at the same time of day, but on a day when things were much more "right".  It's so nice when the air is more on the clean side!  Some day I will post an even better picture where you'll be able to see the mountains off in the distance. 

   Life is a lot like these pictures!  Sometimes smoke gets in our eyes and we just don't know the direction to take.  Other times, everything seems very clear.  I spoke with a young Mongolian woman tonight who is facing ridicule from her peers at work because she is "like the Virgin Mary".  The men brag about their sexual prowess and the women sometimes chime in.  It is very acceptable to have affairs and trysts here.  However, those who have a clear view of life, understand that giving a piece of yourself to many people only amounts to a broken person with broken relationships.  Just because a person has a clear understanding, doesn't mean that it's easy to go forward.  So, we must encourage one another daily to run the race set before each one of us!

Chinggis Khaan Monument

We enjoyed our second visit out to the Chinggis Khaan Monument (in America, he's known as Genghis Khan, but the cyrillic alphabet is spelled Чингис Хаан, which is pronounced, Chinggis Khaan--the Kh, being a back-of-the-throat "hay" sound with a bit of "clearing of the throat" sound).

Here's some photos from our January 1 trip out to the monument. It was a very cold day, so the ice sculptures weren't having any problems keeping their shape!  However, our relationship with Saraa and her family was warm!



Here's (l to r): Saraa, me, and Munktuya (Saraa's mom) in front of beautiful ice sculptures.  Notice the monument in the background and see the face of Chinggis Khaan up close in a later photo.




Saraa and her family, minus her older brother who studies in China.




An up-close shot of one of the ice sculptures.




A traditionally dressed Mongolian couple with a rather icey relationship.




Notice the people at the bottom of the photo and this puts the monument in size perspective!





Inside the monument, we took a photo of Saraa, her mom, and sister, in front of the huge leather Mongolian boot. 

 


Once inside the monument, you can walk up many steps (similar to going to the top of the Statue of Liberty) and go outside to stand in front of the chest and head of Chinggis.  Khaan means king.




Kevin captured this photo of the Great Khaan as the sun was setting on the first day of 2011.
 (Our photo date was incorrect for a couple of the photos because of a battery mis-hap!)




My unedited feelings after coming in from a 15 minute walk in -27 degree weather.



We're Famous!



Chocolate from Germany--easy to obtain all kinds of chocolate here--from the very good to the downright tasteless, waxy stuff.  What fun to look for the good stuff, though.  Even though I haven't seen chocolate chips here (except at the American stores--and for a pretty penny...I mean tugrik), we make chocolate chip cookies here by taking a "chip off the old block" of chocolate.


Speaking of taste...a famous quote could be changed to go something like this, "If the chocolate doesn't taste good, it is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot."  And a thought I've had is, "Make them thirsty...don't drown them."  To think more on these thoughts, read Mt. 5.13-16

If I Were a REAL Photographer...

I recently bought photo books of Mongolia for our parents and siblings for Christmas.  I think it's a very true-to-life book for the countryside. We see people in traditional dress here in town, and we have friends who live in gers right here in town; but I wish the book had some pictures of some city life. I haven't seen a photo book of city life yet.

It would show a man in a deel (the traditional "dress" type coat that men and women wear, getting out of a car....that would be a good shot! Also, Mongolian girls & guys all dressed up after graduation, getting their picture taken at about three main spots in the city: Suhkbattar Square in front of the Genggis Khaan monument; Zaison (which is a Russian monument); and in front of a Buddha which is very huge, over by the Zaison monument. I can think of other scenes for a city book....maybe I should take up photography!

A beggar with no arms and legs, a drunk sleeping on the edge of the sidewalk, a man peeing beside a building (oh, now wouldn't that be nice for a coffee table book), a fruit stand filled w/colorful fruit, an old lady cleaning the street with a bedraggled whisk broom, someone buying a single cigarette from a vendor on the street (the vendor having set up a large box covered with a piece of fabric as his selling table), the meat market with 2-4 kilogram-sized hunks of fatty meat, goat heads for sale. Oooooh! I can think of so many interesting photos. Many are photos I don't feel comfortable taking for my blog. For instance, how can I dare take a photo of an old woman sweeping the street. It seems like an intrusion into her life. I don't think this culture would apreciate it, and it would feel very "touristy". This past summer, I did take a photo of my fruit stand lady, but that was because I was taking a picture of a friend and I asked her. She was proud to have me do so. We had a relationship. So, for me, if I were to take photos of those situations I mentioned, I'd have to know the person.

Sarentuul, my fruit stand lady (A possible photo for a "City Nomads" photo book!)

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

I hear a child coughing upstairs right now. I wish I could take her my humidifier and a warm drink, some Vicks vapo rub and a few pillows to prop her up. It's strange to live in an apartment again, after having not done so since we were in Dallas 24 years ago! We hear the pitter patter of little feet sometimes as late as 11:30...and I DO mean "little". They run across the floor like they're playing a game. Kevin and I lay in bed and say, "I think I'm going upstairs to tuck those kids into bed!" I think two of our neighbors upstairs have pianos. It's hard to tell, but I think the music comes from two different spots...one above our kitchen, and one above our living room. We hear the same songs over and over again as different people practice. We can tell different ones are practicing, because the music goes from flowing and beautiful, to choppy and irritating! I had a delightful surprise the other day....a new song! I haven't heard it again. Bummer. It must've been a visitor. It was absolutely beautiful and well-played. I thought it was a recording at first until I heard a tiny mess-up. This piano thing is another thing that Kevin and I joke about. "I'm going to go buy some new piano music and take it up to our neighbors!"

I recently was shaking our big rug which sits by our door to capture everyone's boots and shoes. I shake it out over our balcony. (Now, I know "balcony" sounds very romantic and beautiful, but ban any thoughts of a place you'd put a table and chairs with a nice gas grill. No, "balcony" in this case is a 3' X 10' cement hunk jutting out from our kitchen door. It has cement walls that come up to my waist and it seems like a very unsafe situation for children since there's no lock on the door. I wouldn't like this if I had small children!) So, back to the day I was shaking out our rug. I snapped the rug hard, it buckled, and it flew out of my hand. My heart sunk...and so did the rug. Remember, we live on the 6th floor. On the third floor, there is a roof which juts out to cover the floors below. I watched as our big, black rug swayed back and forth in the wind as it sailed down to the third floor roof. I popped back into the kitchen and said to Kevin, "Guess what I just did?" I proceeded to tell him the story. He wasn't too excited to try to deal with this situation. I wasn't either. I figured the rug wasn't going anywhere too fast, so I decided to wait until Saraa came for her English practice in a couple hours.

Later, she arrived, and as I let her in, I said, "Will you pleeeeeeeeeese do me a favor?" She looked eager. I explained the situation, and we hopped on the elevator. I felt so good to have my security blanket....a Mongolian speaker! So we went to the third floor, knocked on the door, and soon had a man at the door. He was around 50 years old and looked like we might've disturbed a nice Sunday afternoon nap. Saraa launched into telling my story, I smiled with friendliness, and he had understanding creep onto his face. He shook his head and left the door to go back into the apartment. I heard a door out to his roof open and he soon appeared with my rug. I smiled, gave a slight nod of my head, and said "Byerkthlah, byerkthlah!" (thank you, thank you!) and Saraa and I both waved and turned to head up to our apartment again with rug in hand. Since then, I've seen him get off the elevator on the main floor once and he gave me a hearty, "Sain bain oooo!" (Hi, how are you). I would guess his English is zilch, or he would've said something.

I'm 99% sure that we're the only non-Mongolians in our whole 12-floor apartment. I've never seen a foreigner (that's what we are) other than us and our friends. I guess it's pretty well known that the foreigners live on 6th floor, as we recently had a gathering, and our American friends came in saying they had gone to the wrong floor, and the residents just saw their faces and pointed up and said, "zorga" (six)! Hilarious!