Sweet Home Chicago!

We have our bags packed! We leave tomorrow morning for a 6am flight back to Chicago. Therefore, there will be no blog updates until the beginning of April when we return. We are both looking forward to spending some quality time with friends and family. More to come when we return!

Certificate of "Paticipation"

That's right folks, John and I have completed a session of Thai lessons. It wasn't easy but it sure was entertaining! Here is a picture of us with our certificates on our last day.

Badminton

Well, after our guests left it was pretty quiet around here. John and I didn't quite know what to do with ourselves for awhile. We went on with our typical week of Thai school, work, and trying to stay cool. It's gettter hotter here every day. April is suppose to be the hottest month of the year...not sure how it can get much hotter. Since it's to warm outside for any outdoor activities John and I decided to spend the week competing against one another in badminton at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. Badminton is such a huge sport here that we thought it would be a good idea for us to learn more about the game.

We walked into the club, which is only a few blocks away from our house, and we were amazed to see a golf course and horse race track on the club grounds. Right in the middle of this hectic city was silence and beauty! After purchasing our badminton gear at the sports shop were we ready to have our first match. Let's just say that John wanted it to be best out of 5. Feeling the agony of defeat John insisted that we go back to play again on Sunday. So, we geared up again and played another best out of 3-John won this time.

Days 7 and 8

We returned to Kruntep (Bangkok in Thai) Thursday evening and the girls wanted to make another visit to the Lumpini Night Bazaar for more gifts. We were all pretty exhausted from our trip to Ko Samet so we went to bed pretty early that night.

Friday we woke up and went to the Jim Thompson outlet. This was a very successful trip even though it was a bit of a drive and Yai got lost. There were some great deals at the outlet and we all walked out with a couple bags in our hands. After shopping we headed over to the very famous Oriental Hotel on the River for lunch. This is such a beautiful hotel with an elegant patio overlooking the Chao Phraya River. Following lunch we headed back so the girls could pack and get all their things together for their flight out that night. They had a 1am flight so we decided that dinner and karaoke was a must before they went home. We headed over to the Singhai beergarden on Soi (Thai word for street)21 and rented a private room where we ALL sang our little hearts out. Let's just say that girls were feeling pretty good by the time they left for the airport. Unfortunately, I have no pictures from the karaoke night but I am waiting for the girls to send some over to me-and video!!

Pictures from the Oriental

Days 5 and 6

Well, these two days were full of R&R. After wearing the girls out the first few days we decided to go to the islands to relax for a couple days. We stayed on the west side of Ko Samet island on Ao Prao beach. The first night we had dinner at Buzz (took a picture for you dad) and then were in bed I think around 9pm. The next day we had massages on the beach and sat in the sun. The last night I took them to see the fire show where we enjoyed BBQ dinner on the beach and a few cocktails. All in all, it was a couple fun and relaxing days! Here are some pictures of the trip..

taxi ride to the fire show at Ploy BBQ on the beach