Lopburi and the monkey buffet

No, no, it's probably not what first springs to mind when you hear the term "monkey buffet." The city of Lopburi has so many monkeys that they hold a yearly festival in which they lay out a spread of all kinds of goodies for their local crab-eating macaque population.

 

 

The festival is held at Prang Sam Yot (temple of 3 towers), an ancient Khmer temple that dates back over 1,000 years ago and it quite literally teeming with monkeys.

 (for engorgement fans)

But, while the temple is cool and old and historical and all of that, the monkeys are the real draw. The little guys eat just about anything thrown their way.

 

Eliana was fearless as she decided to actively participate.

But even with all of the festivities, the kids became a potent side attraction in their own right. Yes, many Thais came for the monkey festival but left with pictures of our children.

The grounds had some cultural shows and were adorned with some interesting items.

 

As we left, we noticed that the monkeys weren't just relegated to the temple.

After that, we drove to a sunflower field nearby. Great sunflower seeds but they didn't really sell cut sunflowers, which was odd. However, they had a disturbing amount of ceramic sunflowers. At any rate, we did get to go on the slowest tractor ride known to man.

Shane sits

It may not be that exciting for you or me, but Shane enjoyed his first time sitting up on his own (with an assist from his chair).

Loi Kratong

It got steamy again on Sunday and the sun was a hazy fireball above the buildings of Bangkok.

It also happened to be Loi Kratong, the Thai holiday famous for people floating kratongs, which are typically flower-covered objects with candles and incense which are cast into bodies of water to send away bad luck. Apparently, the big celebration in Bangkok takes place at the Chao Praya river (see previous posts) but given the nighttime start and the location not being especially close or convenient, we headed up to Queen's Park, which has a nice-sized pond and a decent turnout in its own right.

On the trip there, the sidewalks were lined with people making and selling kratongs.

 

After surveying her choices, Eliana selected an kratong in one of her favorite colors, yellow.

With our kratong in hand, we navigated the throng of people down to the pond in order to launch our offering.

 

The pond was already full of krathongs. People tried to propel theirs out into the middle of the pond, but the kratongs seemed content to hug the shoreline, creating a beautiful rim of fire around the pond. I'm not sure our pictures really fully capture how striking the sight is, but nevertheless, here are our attempts.

 

 

(ours!)

 

Phuket

Over the 4-day Veteran's Day weekend, we went on what we eventually realized was our family's first family trip. Certainly, with Shane "new addition" Martin in tow but even with Eliana. We had been on trips with other relatives (most of whose company we enjoy) and traveled to visit other relatives (whose hospitality we mostly appreciate) but we had never been away on our own, Griswold-style, sharing hotel rooms and planning outings together and persevering through family meals in restaurants. What an exciting time to be alive!

Monsoon

Would a family trip have any street cred if it didn't have some unfortunate weather? Probably but, just to make sure, we were dealt a 3-day monsoon. November is supposed to be the start of the high season for the beaches in Thailand as the rainy season is ending but you do risk some overlap and we unfortunately ran smack into it. On our first trip to the beach, the clouds were ominous.

And before we knew it, the heavens opened and, with beach umbrellas whirling about, we ran for shelter at the local restaurant.

We had plenty of time to kill so Eliana got her hair braided.

Meanwhile, Samantha got a massage while the masseuses played the all-too-popular game of pass around the cute farang baby. 

 

The Hotel

Our hotel turned out to be a very "mom 'n pop" kind of place, with about 10 rooms total. I say "mom 'n pop" not to brag about the "real"-ness of where we stayed but just in a matter-of-fact sense. The place had its strong points and weak points. On the minus side, we had a rooster who began its cock-a-doodle-doo-ing at the wee hours of the morning, we had a Thai-style shower (w/no hot water) that slowly drains out via the bathroom floor and our place was pushed back a bit off the main road through an alley with daily construction and an array of dogs and chickens. On the plus side, the family who owned the place were very sweet--bringing meals to our room unsolicited and offering to watch the kids, we had the beautiful pool and garden essentially to ourselves and a great back patio that looked out into other people's backyards, giving us a glimpse into how the locals lived (and also a glimpse into someone's outdoor shower).

 

Our back patio even had a little mascot, who was still working on mastering the art of camouflage.

Here is the pool we essentially had to ourselves, although our typical swim included rain as well.

 

Ton Sai Waterfall

One day, we rented a car and toured around the island province of Phuket. Our first stop was Ton Sai Waterfall, located in the inland jungle (which, luckily for us city slickers, included a paved road).

Because of the recent rains, the waterfall was going fairly strong.

 

The setting itself was replete with many jungle trappings, such as this vine that allowed us to recreate a baby picture of Izaak with Shane.

And we even saw some wildlife. This toad had the camouflage thing down much better than our hotel lizard.

 

The Big Buddha

We decided to feed Eliana's Buddha obsession by taking her to Phuket's Big Buddha statue. Still under construction, it's the biggest Buddha in Thailand and is perched atop a hill, viewable from much of the island.

 

It was a long, steep drive up followed by more stairs but luckily Eliana's Buddha-philia outweighed the typical 4-year-old complaints about walking too much.

We were rewarded with spectacular views, trees covered in Buddhist bells, and a miniature replica of the finished statue.

Finally, Eliana got the opportunity to leave a mark on the Buddha as we purchased a piece of marble that will eventually be a part of it. Eliana decorated her piece herself.

Phuket FantaSea

We were on the fence about it, but with the monsoon we caved in. Phuket FantaSea is a over-the-top, Vegas-meets-Disney-meets-Thailand theme park that is opened for three hours a day. People come in, walk the grounds and enjoy the endless opportunities to blow money at gift shops and arcade games, eat at a 4,000-seat buffet, and then watch the grand finale, a nonsensical theatrical rendition of Thai history and Thai-ness is general. Essentially, you do it once and pray that you never have to do it again. It goes without saying that the kids loved it.

 

Here's the Martin family with two elephants in a very staged photo.  One of the elephants trunk-massaged Shane's foot with its trunk. He has four toes now. Eliana was very frightened of them...

...but got over her fear once she got the opportunity to ride one.

 

This is the big hall where they have the final show. We just have the outside because they confiscate all cameras once you enter so you have to pay them to get photos of you feeding milk to a baby tiger or posing with people in costumes. If you want some idea of what the show looked like (20 elephants on stage! blacklit acrobats! chickens! strange love songs! battle reenactments!), here's the website: http://www.phuket-fantasea.com/index.php.  It's probably better just to use your imagination.

Surin Beach

Of course, the day we left, so did the monsoon weather so we got half of a beautiful beach day. There are many beaches in Phuket and we stayed at one of the smaller, quieter ones called Surin Beach. Not-too-crowded, unbelievably clear water, surrounded by foliage...really a beautiful place.

 

 

 

You had to watch out for the occasional jellyfish.

But otherwise, everyone was happy.

 

 

 

 

It seems both the kids are turning into savvy travelers.

 

And, as an added bonus, Shane learned to laugh on this trip (I mean that in the way that he's a baby and not in the way that he was a miserable retch up to that point).