Studying for the Test

I am sad to say that tomorrow will be my last class with the kids from the Bangkok Refugee Center. Tomorrow is the end of their term and then the students will have a break for a few days. Since I will be in the States for awhile, I won't get to see the kids until I return (if I still able) and some of them will be moving into new classes. Here they are today studying and working on review test for the assessment I am giving them tomorrow. What an adorable bunch!

Rainy Season

Well, it's offically rainy season here in Thailand. Thailand has three seasons; dry "cool" season (Nov-Feb), hot season (March-June) and rainy season (July-Oct). During the rainy season some days are cloudy and rainy all day while others days are sunny beautiful day and the next thing you know, huge storm clouds roll in. Here are some photos I took from our balcony yesterday. They show some amazing storm clouds that blew through and brought a heavy rain which only lasted about 30 minutes.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

John traveled to Kuala Lumpur last week for a conference and I had the opportunity to fly in and join him for the weekend. Kuala Lumpur is the capital and largest city in Malaysia. This is a clean city with many well manicured parks and various sights for tourists to visit.

On Friday we visited the aquarium, walked around the park by the hotel, went up to the pedestrian bridge in the Petronus Towers, and did a little shopping. The Petronus Towers (also known as the twin towers) are an amazing sight to see. These towers were the world's largest towers until 2004 when they were surpassed by Taipei 101. However they still remain the world's tallest twin buildings.

On Saturday we went to a Malaysian market and bought some unique souvenirs. After shopping we walked around another large park in the city. While walking through the park we saw the national monument and toured a bird sanctuary. We returned to our hotel after the bird park to lounge by the pool for a bit before we headed out to dinner and a night listening to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra plays in the Petronas towers which look spectacular at night. It was a nice treat to attend the concert which we both enjoyed very much.

Oh Baby!

We are pleased to announce that we are having a baby! We went to the doctor this morning for our 12 week exam. It was the most amazing visit to the doctor ever! I was able to watch our little miracle for about 30 minutes on a TV monitor and the doctor sent me home with pictures and and video from the exam. Everything looks healthy and we should be expecting our bundle of joy around January 1st. Maybe we will have the first baby of 2010!

We look forward to sharing this NEW adventure with you all the next few months.



The baby was VERY active this morning. You can see him/her bouncing around in this video. Amazing!

Hua Hin Jazz Festival

This past weekend we had a great time visiting the small town of Hua Hin. Hua Hin is located on the west coast of the Gulf of Thailand. We drove there Friday after work and it was about a 2 hour drive to the hotel. Hua Hin is a not only famous for its annual jazz festival but it is also where the king resides in his Klai Kangwon (Far From Worries) palace.

We stayed at a hotel right next to the beach stage for the festival. This festival brings in Asian and World famous jazz musicians for a weekend filled with great music. There were two stages but we spent most of our time at the beach stage on Saturday. We couldn't have asked for better weather or a better location. We would love go back again one day!!

Konchanaburi Province

This weekend we decided to escape the hectic city life and head out to the country side. On Saturday morning we drove north-west to the Province of Kanchanaburi. This area is very famous for it's WWII museums, Bridge over River Kwai, and National parks.

Our first visit was to the Tiger Temple about 40km north of Kanchanaburi. It was a quick visit through the temple grounds but an amazing experience being able to get so close to the tigers. All the tigers and wild animals that roam the temple grounds are cared for by the monks who reside there.

Our next stop was at the Bridge over River Kwai. If you have watched the movie 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', the shooting was claimed to be done in Sri Lanka and the bridge was a wooden bridge. The historic bridge over the River Kwai was actually made of black steel and concrete crossing over the Mae Khlong river, approximately 5 km from Kanchanaburi downtown. Mae Khlong river was renamed to Kwai Yai River in 1960 (Kwai means River in Thai, Yai means Big). After walking over the bridge and taking pictures we grabbed a quick lunch at a restaurant on the river

After a long day it was time to find the Hin Tok River Camp, where we were staying for the night. It took bit of driving and avoiding wild monkeys and cattle in the road along the way but we finally found the camp grounds tucked away in the mountains. It was a beautiful and serene place and we both enjoyed relaxing and reading our books in the peace and quiet before dinner.


Hin Tok River Camp

Sunday morning we both woke up not feeling very rested. It had rained most of the night which made it a bit noisy in our tent and we were woken by loud Thai music at 6am. Apparently it was some Buddhist holiday and the Thai's in the next camp over were celebrating...very early. We were served a lovely breakfast and then relaxed a bit outside our tent until Yai arrived to pick us up.

Our next visit was to Sok Yai National Park. The park, near the Burma boarder, is surrounded by mountains and hills which are covered by mixed deciduous and dry evergreen forest with bamboo. Wildlife seen in the park includes bull, red cow, tiger, wild pig, samba deer, barking deer and birds. Khun Kitti Bat (probably the world smallest bat) and Poo Rachinee (Queen Crab) are also found-lucky for me we never saw any of these animals. We spent a few hours walking the trails through the park. Along the way we saw old Japanese grill pits from the POW camp, bat caves, Sai Yok Waterfall, and lots of mosquitoes! It was an extremely hot and humid walk but it was nice to be able to get some exercise while listening to the sounds of nature.