THAILAND!!

Hey Everyone!!

Sorry it has been a while since I updated! Well, we went to Thailand on September 30, after we went to the Hong Kong temple to do baptisms for the dead with the youth, and then came back on Thursday, October 5! We had a good time. We stayed in Bangkok on Saturday and Sunday night, then stayed on Ko Samet on Monday and Tuesday night, then back at Bangkok on Wednesday night. So....

Saturday: We arrived around 10 or 11, and went to the hotel
Sunday: We went to the local english speaking branch, and it was testimony meeting. We only stayed for sacrament meeting seeing as we wanted to do some sightseeing. So after church, we went to the Grand Palace. There was a lot of neat things to see there, and were spent about 2 1/2 hours there. Afterwards, my mom, dad, and I went and saw the Reclining Buddha, but the kids wanted to stay in the car, since it was hot outside. So we were there for about 1 hour. After that, we went back to the hotel to change out of our church clothes. At the Grand Palace, there is a dress code, no shorts, flip flops, spaghetti straps, and so forth, so we just stayed in our church clothes. After we changed, we went to a mall, not like US malls, but it was like, I don't know how to explain it, it was like Louhu's, but you guys don't know what that is either!! They have a huge food court thing, with like 12 different restaraunts, serving EVERYTHING, except mexican food. You get a credit card like card, and they you just charge the food to it, then pay at the end. So Ben, Noelle, and Camille had American food, Mom had Thai food, I had Korean, and I don't remember what Dad had!! But none the less, it was all good!
Monday: Monday we spent the morning at a gem factory. Mom wanted to buy us girls rings with our birthstone in it! So everyone, even Mom, Dad, and Ben, got rings with their birthstones in them. Then we went to the ferry terminal, which we thought was only going to take an hour, but them the driver said it takes 3 hours. So we missed the 1 o'clock ferry, but ended up taking a speed boat over!! That was fun! Mom and Camille didn't enjoy it much, but the rest of us did! We got there and it was quite warm. We had to bungaloo/hut/house things, one for mom, dad and ben, and one for us girls! Then we went swimming. The water was warm and sort of clear. Definately clearer then California beach water, but nothing like Hawaii! That night we had dinner at the resort restaruant. That night we went to look at the shops, and it started POORING RAIN!! Of course we didn't have our umbrellas, so we were stuck for a while, then we decided to buy one, and it stopped raining! Also, Noelle, Camille, and I got our hairs braided! Like tons of those small individual braides!
Tuesday: On Tuesday, we spent the day at the beach mostly. It was raining in the morning. Mom and Dad went to check out some more shops, and the kids got pretty sunburned on their faces, so the afternoon was spent watching TV. I did homework at an internet place (because of my online class) and Mom and Noelle shopped. That night we went to a different restaurant. Most of us were adventurous in our eatings, (except for camille and ben!) Dad had chicken kabobs ( i guess thats not adventurous!) Mom had chicken and cashews, Noelle had shrimp, and I had 1/2 kg of crab!! Shells, heads, eyes and all! I kind of stared at it for awhile, not knowing what to do. Then I had the waiter come over and teach me how to eat the crab. He taught me what to each of it, how to open it, how to crack the legs, and everything else! It was pretty funny! Then we went and bought some board shorts for me and ben.
Wednesday: We ate breakfast, then spent time watching TV in our rooms, and packing. Camille was getting sick, almost threw up at breakfast, and she had a fever. So we checked out and went to the ferry terminal, and took the ferry back. We were supposed to leave today though, so it wasn't like we went back because of Camille. Since we took the 12:30 ferry instead of the 3 o'clock ferry like we told our driver, he wasn't going to be there till 3:30. So we sat around for 2 1/2 hours. That night Mom and Dad and I walked around Bangkok, just where our hotel was. It is kind of cool to see everything at night. There are lots of street shops, and so we looked at those.
Thursday: We had to be at the airport by 10 o'clock so we were up early. Our flight left at 12:30. And that was our trip!!

Interesting things about Thailand: So there were a lot of strange things in Thailand. One really cool thing was that they have motercycle taxis. There are umbrellas along the side of the road, and you stand under one, and a motercycle comes and picks you up. You know it is a motercycle taxi becacuse of the orange vest they wear.
There are an unbelieveable amount of dogs in Thailand. They are everywhere. You will see 2 or three of them at a time, and then less then a mile down the road, there will be another 2 or three of them.
Taxi's in Thailand are different colors, like hot pink, or bright blue, or orange or magenta, or purple!
The traffic is as horrible as can be!!
The speed like there is no tomorrow! You don't understand how fast they are going!! And there really are not any seatbelts in the cars.


Some of you were worried about he coup that is going on in Thailand, but honestly, we saw almost nothing related to it.

I am going to post pictures when I put them on my computer, and I am going to get some from my dad too!!

Let me know if you have any questions!!!




Love, The Busaths!