Catching up in February for December

December was a time of parties and illness for our family in Tokyo. Each family member has chosen a particular comfort food in Japan. While Caroline climbs Mt. dumpling or requests corn soup, Alex wants ramen, and the adults like spicy Chinese.

Adventures in Thailand

Preparing for a trip is a bit different in Tokyo. Since we do not have a car and the taxis cannot get us close enough to the entrance of the airport train to be worth the 710 yen starting cost we need to walk to the station. We knew that we did not want to drag our suitcases through the streets and onto the airport express train so we tried to contact the luggage forwarding company. The only problem was we could not get them on the phone - and they want you to make a reservation on line in Japanese. So, Jonathan got some assistance from one of his colleagues. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a panic when they did not come to pick up the bags by the time indicated. (This is very unusual in Japan where everything runs on schedule) Of course by that time the office was closed and we could not understand the message on the machine. One more desperate plea to the colleague and everything was fixed and the bags were picked up with an apology from the service More than an hour and a half late.

We left for Thailand at an hour that we are normally never awake. It was strange to see Shibuya still shuttered and deserted. (Goggle Shibuya crossing and you will see what we normally face.) The train station had most of the entrances locked so that we had to go in an unusual way – good thing we had an extra five minutes to find our way. We watched the sun rise from the train and we were startled to see frost on the ground as we neared the airport. One special touch were the fresh flowers in the rest room at the airport – what a wonderful thing.

Check in ran very smooth and we got on a rather old plane with no screens on the backs of the seats. It was packed and we were glad that we only had 7 as opposed to 14 hours for the trip.

Our arrival in Thailand was also met by flowers in the airport –wonderful orchids could be seen through out the terminal. We were soon in the shopping area of the airport and we could tell that we were in a different country due to the much lower prices. Unfortunately the food options at the airport were quite slim and we basically only found dried fruit to eat. This is quite different from Japan where we can find all sorts of food including ice cream in a vending machine.

Customs in Phuket was rather basic – folks were waved through with no questions asked - and we were quickly outside and glad to see a representative from our hotel. This meant that we could ignore all the cabbies try to hustle up some business. The traffic was light and we got to see the various stands and small business that lined many of the roads on Phuket. We were happy to get to the hotel and the warmth was truly delightful. We went down to have dinner where we could hear the ocean and then we collapsed in our rooms. Yes, the best part of this vacation was arranging 2 rooms so that everyone had a real bed and space to move around.

Several relaxing days were spent playing in the sand and getting a daily Thai massage. Anyone who has experienced this knows that for this type of massage you get your limbs moved in unexpected ways. We enjoyed the experience but it is quite different from a Swedish massage.

Everyone finally recovered from their colds and caught up on needed sleep. We took one boat trip to go snorkeling which was fun for 3 of the 4 of us, but Caroline did not feel comfortable in the waves breathing through a tube and to make things worse sitting in the raft while the rest of us explored made her nauseous. The fish were fantastic but the size and number of sea urchins made me focus on my location rather than the beauty.

The resort was not full which made the experience great for us. Something about the economy matched with an airport closing makes people a bit reluctant to travel. However, unlike Japan everyone was happy and smiling. Definitely a different culture.

We changed venue and explored Chang Mai – which is much smaller than Bangkok but still has traffic issues at certain times and places. We rode in tuk-tuks, and in the back of odd trucks, and discovered the necessity of bargaining for transportation. On the one hand we do have more money than the Thai customers, on the other hand it should not cost us 10 times as much to take transportation. We also had to look before entering a taxi to make sure that there were seatbelts.

Every time we bought an item we had to negotiate the price, with the exception of eating in a restaurant. On the one hand this is liberating, on the other hand it makes every transaction lengthy and after a while you just want to get away quickly.

The bathrooms were a surprise after Japan. In numerous places we were warned not to flush the toilet tissue but instead place it in a bucket. This is due to low water pressure, but still not a pleasant fact of life. The streets in town were also an indication that we in a country that had to be careful with its funds. However, most streets had sidewalks which is more than you can say for our home in Texas.

We saw numerous Wats and discovered that the ones we enjoyed the most were not on the map and were delightful finds as we explored different neighborhoods. We went to an open air museum that had different types of traditional Thai houses and stumbled upon an art museum showing children’s perceptions of global warming- next to a traditional ballet school. On Christmas day we hired a driver to take us out into the countryside and to the Elephant Conservation Center. The road there was in excellent condition and the traffic just outside of Chang Mai was very light. The highlight for the kids was the Elephant Conservation Center - both feeding the elephants sugarcane and bananas and ridding. Our best meal came later that day as we went to the Mandarin Oriental. This hotel is an amazing place to explore. The hotel has done a magnificent job of creating an oasis using traditional buildings from elsewhere and recreating a traditional Thai architecture.

We should add that one of the things that we have discovered is how Christmas has become a wonderful excuse for Japan and Thailand to import some of the tackiest parts of the US. The celebrations on the 25th usually have nothing to do with religion and instead they are an excuse to decorate with no restrictions. We saw pink trees and Santa hats in the oddest places.

Our favorite game in Thailand was trying to see how many people could fit on a motorcycle. To our surprise the top number was 4 and the driver did not seem uncomfortable. I wish we had a picture but it happened so quickly that it was impossible. The other amazing thing was to see some women ride sidesaddle and to also see numerous objects that you would not normally think of as transportable by motorbike. This was definitely an eye-opening experience. The lack of helmets was another thing.

We went to Bangkok for a few days where we were surprised by Jonathan’s mother and nephew. The days became a whirlwind of dinners and more sightseeing. The grand palace was fabulous, the traffic less so. We did not directly see any political protests but we saw many buses used to transport protesters to the parliament.

In Bangkok I took a short ride on the sky train. There are things on the Tokyo subway that I missed in Bangkok. In Tokyo in every car you can see all the stops for each line and on the JR there is an electronic sign showing how many minutes for each stop. At each station you can see what the next stop will be from each side of the train and the announcements are often in English as well as Japanese. (Of course this is another reason that we are not learning much Japanese.) All the stops in Japan have numbers and when you are in the station it is easy to see which direction you are going. I had to ask more questions in Bangkok to insure that I was going in the proper direction.

A last minute trip to Hua Hin allowed the kids to play on one more beach before heading back to Japan and it allowed the adults to enjoy the company of some wonderful Thai friends.

We returned to Bangkok the day before our trip and the adults went to the evening market for one last shop and then returned just before the fireworks on New Years Eve at midnight, which were fabulous. Alex adds that he newspaper also said that they shot off 10,000. I am not sure if this is true but they lasted 25 minutes.

Our trip out of Bangkok was rather bizarre. We took a taxi from the hotel instead of the hotel shuttle van to avoid paying NYC prices. We arrived early for our flight and then had to find change to pay the taxi drive since he could not make change for our large bill. Inside the airport check in was easy as was security. However, once you passed through security there was no food and no drinks. We had a 7 hour flight and because you can not take water through security we had no water to take on the flight as there was no place to purchase it. This was very disappointing in an airport that is very new. Once again our airplane was old and did not have screens on the backs of the seats.