Remembering Thailand....

Remember these? I bought them for about $3 each in a Muslim village that was entirely over water (on stilts)

Well, I finally got them framed!! Don't they look great??

I'm so happy with them!
Beautiful!!

Dressin' up the Dining Room Area - Thai Style

Well... sorta Thai style... or not really. I did get some place mats and a table runner while we were there. I think that they go really well with my color scheme!
There is definitely something Asian going on in here... with the bamboo mat on the floor and now the place mats. I love it! (The flowers are from the baby shower on Saturday.)
There are elephants in both patterns!

I also got a table cloth and some prints that I hope to get framed soon. Don't you just love that pink and gold combination!!?
It was so much fun to shop at the night markets in Thailand. There are no set prices so you just go into it with a price in mind and DON'T BACK DOWN! I walked away a few times and the vendor chased me down and gave me what I wanted :) It reminded me a lot of haggling with the Gypsies in Spain. Wouldn't it be great if we could all walk into a department store and haggle a bit?

Thailand 6 (Phuket FantaSea... or Bizarro World.)

We were recommended by both our friends and many brochures to check out "Phuket FantaSea." We knew that a night here involved a dinner buffet and an evening show... what we didn't bargain for was everything in between! It was like a mini Thai theme park or carnival with strange games and lots of shops and a weird theme song that played throughout the park. Cliff and I still sing it to each other. It was rather catchy. It was incredibly kitschy and beyond bizarre in some places, but overall I am really glad we experienced this. We will laugh about it for years to come!
Entrance to the park
There are mermaids in Thailand too, in case you didn't know.
Siamese twins anyone?




This was where the show took place. It was actually pretty cool.


The restaurant.
Apparently this place can seat thousands of people.
Elephant ride?

White crow?
White tiger. There were a couple of them.
I don't even know how to describe this.... It was a little mini show on a stage outside of the real theater.

Thailand 5 (More Phi Phi Islands)

I might try to paint this picture. I love it.
There were lots of beautiful fish swimming right by the shore here. Cliff and I did a little snorkeling right off the beach!
I had SOOO much sun block on... it didn't help much.
Long boats. We got to know these really well.
Long Beach on Phi Phi Don
Phi Phi Ley in the background
A moment of shade...
The Viking Cave where swallows nests are harvested for "bird's nest soup"
They don't allow tourists inside anymore for fear of disrupting the birds or something.
I just think this is beautiful.
So I took a lot of pictures...

Thailand 4 (Phi Phi Islands)

Phi Phi Ley? The smaller of the two famous islands.

Very popular with the tourists
Maya Bay (where the movie "the Beach" was filmed)
More Maya bay
It was very crowded here but the water was absolutely gorgeous.
Some cliffs around the bay
Pretty steep...
Entering Maya bay
I was getting sunburned about now...


Picture time!
The Phi Phi islands in the distance
Kind of random... one night in Patong, Cliff and I got ice cream and I got the specialty of the season - "Forever Mango!" It was really good and really... interesting. Mango ice cream served over the traditional sweet rice ( a typical Thai desert is fresh mango and sticky rice,) but this was also served with... a sweet and salty-ish cream? I wasn't really sure what to do with it so I poured a little bit over everything. It was... good I think? Yeah it was good. The little candy on the top, however, not so good. I thought it was going to be sweet or maybe even a little sour like a gum ball or something - WRONG! I actually spit it out into my napkin. I was so embarassed but I couldn't stand having it in my mouth another second. It tasted and felt sort of like... potato. I kept trying to describe it to Cliff. He actually got to try one for himself later on in the week and he agreed... potato. Not what I was expecting with my ice cream!
Cliff always takes the sure and safe way with deserts. He got a Snickers sundae. Also very good.