A Boring Travelogue, So We Posted Lots of Pictures

OK, so we haven't been very good about updating the blog. This post will be an attempt at providing a synopsis of the last week, mainly a boring travelogue with lots of pictures, and then hopefully a soon afterward post of observations, insights and thoughts about what we have taken in during our 2+ weeks in Thailand.
When we last saw them, our heroes (Jim and Teresa) were seen lunching with a Karen (pronounced car-in) family on Thursday January 2.  So we pick up the narrative from there:
Friday Jan.3:  Spent the morning in Tessa's Kindergarten classes helping teach English and riling up the kids. The afternoon and evening were spent strolling through some interesting and fun shopping areas. Cavell took us to Sam Khamphaeng which is like a little city of nothing but shops and stalls selling local crafts and merchandise.  In the evening we wandered around the night bazaar in Chiang Mai bartering for scarfs, tee-shirts and the like.

Saturday Jan.4: Cavell drove us out to the children's home so we could meet Pastor Tongin and his wife Hom. The home was a POW camp during WWII, and we will be in a rather remote area. That afternoon, Tessa showed up at The River, the two T's walked to Big C, (Asia's version of Wal-Mart) while Jim went jogging and hurt his leg.  In the evening we accidentily crashed a party at a neighborhood cafe, but the folks welcomed us in and even helped us with our order.
Sunday Jan.5: Attended church with Tessa, Cavell and the other members of the group that allowed us to accompany them last week-end to the village in Chiang Kham. After lunch, Tessa's cute little friend, Kim picked us up and drove us to Chiang Mai where we spent an enjoyable afternoon taking in the beautiful gardens of the Bhubing Palace, and playing in the Arts in Paradise museum of life size and 3-D art.

Monday Jan.6: Said  our good-byes to our wonderful new friends at The River, and attended the worship service they held for the staff to kick-off 2014 as they prepared to go out and serve their community.
As soon as Tessa arrived, we caught a red song tao into Chiang Mai and the offices of Sports International Ministry where we met Jill Ireland who is part of the ministry Luke and Becca Voight are doing in Malawi. She took us and some her staff to lunch where we heard about her work in Southeast Asia, as well as the moving testimonies of the two Thai staff members.
Jill took us to the airport in time for us to catch our 415pm flight to Bangkok.

Jan.6-9: Bangkok.  Though we landed on schedule, we had to wait over an hour in a taxi queue before we were able to get in cab driven by a delightful man named Charlie. Charlie like all the other cabbies we've encountered was engaging and laughed easily. One thing we notice is that a smile or laugh is always close to the surface with Thai people, and they laugh when they don't understand something.
Bangkok is a city that is a feast for the senses, but a famine for the soul.

Heather and Andrew who had arrived a few hours earlier met us at our hotel, and we set out on foot in the Sukhumvit district and didn't have to go far to encounter prostitutes, transvestites, and merchandise encouraging all sorts of sexual activity. We dined that night in an Irish-American pub/restaurant.
Tuesday we tried to mesh five personalities and formulate a plan to take in the attractions of a city that is 12 million people huge, very spread out, and difficult to get around.  We didn't do too well, so by the time the afternoon rolled around, we settled on lounging around the pool, and making better plans for the night and next day. That evening we took a combination sky train and metro (subway) to a shop where Andrew had been fitted for a suit, then spent over an hour jammed in a tuk-tuk trying to get through the traffic worse then LA during rush hour to Menam Riverside where there was a cluster of nice restaurants and shops.

 Again we skipped Thai cuisine and opted for Italian.  Over dinner, we decided that on Wednesday we would go to Pattaya two hours away, ride the ferry to Hua Hin and hang out on the island. However those plans were hi-jacked late Tuesday night when Jim tried to use his debit card in the only ATM in Thailand that doesn't accept mastercard. Not only were we not able to get cash, the machine swallowed the card. So the first part of Wednesday morning was spent trying to resolve that issue and come up with a plan B. Mid-morning we split up and then met back around 1:30pm at The Snake Farm which was actually very cool and enjoyed by everyone.

We switched back to Thai food that night at a really quaint restaurant across the street from Andrew and Heather's hotel. The food was excellent and the owner very hospitable. We said good-bye to Andrew and Heather who wanted to do some last minute shopping before their flight home the next morning and took the sky-train back to The Grand Sukhumvit.
Thursday we spent a casual morning, working out, packing up and finding an English language book store, where we meandered, had something to drink and bought some books for the children's home. We strolled the 2km back to hotel, stopping to pick up some food supplies, and a couple souvenirs.
We caught our 7pm flight back to Chiang Mai, were met by Pastor Tongin and escorted back to our home amongst the kids at Abundant Life where we will spend the next ten days. And where we can post a few non-travelogue articles.