Hey Guys,Here are the Thailand pics I promised you last month. You may have already seen heaps of them on Facebook, but if you don't have FB, this post is for you. I'll comment underneath each pic. They are in very random order.
Here's Andrew in our new house, setting up the lights we bought in Bangkok... you can see the final result in the top pic. 
View from the deck of our guesthouse in Koh Lanta. Every day this big white ferry would pull up and let off a bunch of new tourists and take the old ones back to the mainland. 
Fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet. You have to pay to stick your feet in here for 30 minutes, which is kinda ironic since you're basically paying to feed the fish! I did it and it really tickled and felt a bit eery, but after about 5 minutes you get used to it, and then you leave with really smooth feet.
Andrew in the pool on Klong Nin beach on the island of Koh Lanta. It was one of those infinity pools that looks like it doesn't have an edge... pretty neat! 
Railay Beach in Krabi. Although this area is technically part of Thailand's mainland, it is only accessible by long-tail boat, which are these long fishing boats with a long motor sticking off the back. They just chuck your luggage in and the water sprays up into the boat if it's a wavy day. Best to pack light and not bring your laptop :)
Yummy Pad Thai... we had this almost every day, and tasted so many different varieties... love it!
Sipping coconut water at Karon Beach on Phuket... nice restaurant overlooking the ocean.
We rented this scooter a bunch of times to get around Phuket. In Bangkok it's easy to hop into a taxi since there are meters to charge your fare, but in a lot of other parts of Thailand (like Phuket) you and the driver have to negotiate a price before getting in. This means they usually charge you WAY more than the ride is worth, so it's a good idea to have your own wheels!
Going for an elephant ride, which was followed by lunch, a hike to a waterfall, and then white-water rafting... an all-day kind of tour in Chiang Mai (a couple hours north of Bangkok by plane). 
Renting a kayak in Railay Beach... it was really cool b/c you could paddle through these narrow ocean tunnels which are part of the cliffs that go right into the ocean all around this area. I got Andrew to sit in the front so I could take a paddling break whenever I wanted without him noticing :)
Night market in Chiang Mai. Andrew always finds guitar stuff wherever he is, and this stall was full of little replicas and keychains. Look how happy he is!
This is at the end of our ziplining trip called "Jungle Flight," also in Chiang Mai. The guy in the green shirt was our guide and was really funny. 
Jungle Flight included 22 different ziplines, suspension bridges, and abseils.... and lunch afterwards (and a free t-shirt). The first few zips were a bit scary, but after a while it was just fun! There were a few ziplines where Andrew and I got to go side-by-side. The guide called this "honeymoon style."
We also got to visit an orphanage near Bangkok. This is the one that Julia did her missions trip to last year. The houses that these orphans get to live in are brand new and look really North American... we were really impressed. The people who run the orphanage, Karen and Ricky Sanchez are from my old church in Abbotsford, and it was really great to see/hear everything they've been doing in Thailand since 2000. 
At the beginning of the cooking school in Chiang Mai, they took us to the market to learn how to pick out the right ingredients for all the stuff we were going to be making. The guy teaching us was really funny with his descriptions of all the veggies... didn't know veggies could be so funny!
In Bangkok we did a big tour of the Grand Palace... really amazing grounds. Technically this is where the King and Queen live, but they actually only spend a night there once in a while, and then live somewhere else the rest of the time.
Andrew with a guard at the Grand Palace. We didn't know this, but you can't wear shorts into the Grand Palace, so he had to rent these ugly grey pants. (And I had to rent this pretty Thai skirt, which looked ridiculous with the runners I was wearing... so no pics of me, you'll see!)
At the Grand Palace... the only pic of us together where you can really tell we're in Thailand from the background.
Andrew ordering Pad Thai from a street food stand on KhaoSan Rd in Bangkok... this is the really touristy area and we were staying nearby. You could choose from a variety of toppings and noodle thicknesses... all for about $1. That's about 1/15th the price of ordering the same thing here in Australia!
Out for lunch with Ricky Sanchez, the orphanage guy. He took us out to eat at the local mall and introduced me to this really yummy "unripened papaya salad"... way better than it sounds!Anyways, next time we see you we'll show you the rest of the pics, unless you've already seen them on FB.
We'll post a few pics of our new house soon too. I tried to take a video of it for you, but had plenty of trouble uploading it online... I think it had to do with our camera, so we're gonna borrow another one soon and try again. I'll send you the link if/when it works. If not, it'll just be good old pics!
Talk soon,
~Corinna for Team AC
