Time with the Thielmans!

The Thielmans met us in Hua Hin on the 20th. It was so, so good to see them!! We had such a fun, full, eight days together at the beach.

Day two was filled with the beach and simply the joy of being together. Zach, Kelly, Megan, and I kayaked out to an island that looked pretty close. We discovered that Monkey Island was in fact, named appropriately. As soon as we jumped out of our kayaks a bunch of monkeys appeared from behind the trees to meet us/ eat our paddles and steal our water. A lot of people take boat tours out to the island to feed the monkeys, so I think they were expecting food from us…they weren’t too happy to find out we didn’t have any. We attempted to hike up to the top of the island-that was interesting. It was super steep and extremely overgrown. After a few scrapes too many we turned around and headed back. After a couple (very funny) falls on the way back down, and what seemed like a forever long kayak back to shore, we spent the rest of the day hanging out on the beach.

Day three was spent with our guide for the day, Nut. In the morning we drove about 2 hours to a national park where we hiked up to really pretty waterfall. On the way we stopped at a pineapple field for a look after a conversation in the back seat between Mr Andy and Zach that went something like this- A- “What do you think that this?” Pointing to one of the many, many fields we had passed. Z- “ I don’t know…it looks kind of like pineapple though.” A- “pineapple doesn’t grow in the ground, it grows from trees. Z- “no it doesn’t, it grows in the ground.” So, we then had to stop and learn about how pineapple grows. It was pretty funny.
After hiking up to the falls, Nut told us that whoever caught one of the HUNDREDS of fish by hand from one of the many pools beneath the waterfall, would get a free chocolate milk. Lets just say that looked MUCH easier then it really was. After about half an hour of trying, someone asked him if anyone had ever done it before. Nope. And we didn’t change that. We certainly tried to though. For a long time. It actually provided about at least an hour of entertainment.

We had lunch at a little local place, and then drove about an hour back towards Hua Hin, to the elephant village. We got to spend about 2 hours trekking around trails on elephants. That was so cool! Definitely a first.

Day four Zach and I introduced the scooters :) Zach, Mr Andy, Kelly, and I headed into town to make a grocery run. Who knew the grocery store could be such an adventure? That night we all headed into town to the local night market. That was a cool experience. We tried some of the local street food for dinner, and found some gifts for peeps back home. In Thailand you can find just about any type of food on a stick-they really seem to like the skewers. We tried chicken on a stick, pork on a stick, fruit on a stick…etc. It was all pretty good! We steered away from most of the weird stuff :)

Day five was Christmas Eve! It was the 1st year that it really didn’t feel like Christmas Eve to me. We had to keep reminding each other what day it was. It was a fun day though! Spent the morning playing frisbee at the beach and then took a boat tour out to Monkey Island. This time, armed with bananas. Monkeys are actually pretty nice when you have food for them…all except for the one male that stole all the other monkeys' bananas. Not cool. He wasn’t my favorite. Every once in a while one of the smaller ones would randomly jump on somebody looking for more food-that was always pretty funny. As long as it wasn't me. After they finished off the bananas, we got back in the boat and got a tour of the island from the water. It was a beautiful boat ride! God’s creation is amazing.

That night, we had Christmas dinner. Definitely not my mama’s cookin', but it was good. The best part of dinner though, was Santa. Apparently every year the resort has one of the guests volunteer to dress up as Santa and come during dinner, call all the kids names one at a time, and hand out gifts that their parents have pre-wrapped. This year no one signed up to be Santa. So guess who volunteered? Mr. Andy. It was pretty funny. Santa rode in on a rickshaw and delivered gifts to all the kiddos. Pictures below :)

Day six was Christmas! Definitely the most unique Christmas I’ve ever celebrated. I knew it was going to be a hard day. When think about Christmas I think about my Jesus and my family. I missed my family so much more during the holiday season. There are just so many traditions and memories that go along with that time of year and it was hard knowing that things were going to be so different this year. Knowing that the time of year when families are all together, mine was going to be so far away. It made my heart hurt. Jesus was so gracious to let me spend that time with people that I love so much and are so special to me, even though we were an ocean away from home. It was still really hard not to be with my whole family, but I was so incredibly thankful to be able to be with my brother and the Thielmans. That was such a huge blessing. We had so much fun, and made memories that will last forever.

Christmas morning we opened a few presents/stockings, made a quick grocery run, (nothing like Tesco on Christmas morning) and then Kelly, Megan, Zach, and I, packed a lunch and took the scooters to the national park for most of the day. We had so much fun! Kelly and I also learned that going over speed bumps too fast can result in a flat tire. That evening we all headed back the night market to find a Mexican restaurant that we remembered from a few nights before, for dinner. We had Mexican for our Christmas dinner, and it was delicious :)

Day seven we drove about 4 hours to the floating market. Took a while to get there, but it was a neat experience. You hop in a little paddle boat and shop from the water. All the little vendors are set up and when you go by, they grab a long stick with a hook on the end and pull your boat over to see if you want to buy anything. It was pretty crazy. After that, we drove about two more hours to the place where we ate, and then drove a little ways to a little village where we went bamboo rafting on the river Kwai. It was a little slower then any of us expected…we were pulled up the river by a long tail with a motor and then just drifted back down with hardly any current, but it was very peaceful and the river was really pretty. We also had a great sunshiny day for it, which was perfect. Towards the beginning of our four hour drive back home, we stopped to see the bridge over the river Kwai. That was cool. It was neat to see in person and learn more about the history behind it.

Day eight Zach and I went to Hua Hin and hung out together for the day. The Thielmans were really sweet to give us that chance to be together- I didn’t think I would care that much…we had just spent a week together, but it was really nice to have one more day with him before he went home. He’s a good bro:) That night Kelly, Megan, Zach and I played spades (trying to finish our ongoing tournament) until about 1:00am when his taxi was scheduled for the ride back to Bangkok. Bummer goodbyes, but they all seem to be. I always hate those. It was so, so fun to explore Thailand with him for almost 2 weeks though. I’m so thankful for that special time that we had together. Sweet memories were made for sure.

Day nine the rest of us headed back to Bangkok to catch our plane to China! We made it to Shanghai about 9:30pm. So much fun to see where the Thielmans have been living for the first time, and a glimpse of what their day to day life is like here.