Goodbye Bangkok

It's hard to believe, but we head for Vancouver first thing tomorrow morning. We've been keeping busy the last several days so we haven't been able to post anything.

We went to visit the boys and girls home in Baan Mai Sawan with Cavell Rowsell, a career missionary in Thailand on Thursday. It is run by a local church with a real heart for outreach into the community. They have planted a number of daughter churches in the area as well. The drive through the country side was quite beautiful with rice paddies and water buffalo.

On Friday, our last full day in Chiang Mai, we visited an elephant camp on the outskirts. Fortunately a fellow motorcyclist at a stop light let us know that we needed more air in our tires! Friday night we took a Tuk Tuk ride (a three wheeled taxi) to our dinner location. We enjoyed a traditional northern Thai meal where we ate sticky rice and side dishes with our hands instead of the more common fork and spoon. Then of course it was more browsing through the Night Bazaar. Elizabeth enjoyed a foot massage while we waited for the torrential downpour to end.

Saturday's train trip from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was 12 hours long. There were many stunning scenes along the way, in between naps. =)

On Sunday we attended Jai Samarn church across the street from our hotel. It is one of the first churches associated with the PAOC in Thailand. In fact, that morning PAOC's general superintendent was visiting from Canada and was the guest speaker. It was great to meet the senior pastor and some other Thai friends of the Faulkner family.

In the afternoon we visited with Jason and Sonya, two schoolmates from Dalat. Graham was in fifth grade until 12th grade with Jason, so it was great to see them and their new son. They treated us to some wonderful Thai food at a restaurant around the corner from their home.

today we visited a Christian bookstore in town in the hopes of meeting with a family friend who works there. Unfortunately it was her day off, but her coworker phoned her to let her know we were there, and we had a nice chat.

In a couple hours we're having dinner with a missionary family in Bangkok. Unfortunately Peter is visiting northern Thailand, but we'll be able to see Pat and the children.

We have to leave the hotel for the airport at about 4:30 AM tomorrow. This will be our last posting for now. God has blessed us with a wonderful time in Asia, and we look forward to our time in Vancouver with family.

Blessings,

Graham and Elizabeth

We're having a great time in Chiang Mai

Hi everyone,

We're having so much fun that we haven't had time to write! Our flights from Penang to Bangkok, and then from Bangkok to Chiang Mai went well.

Our first day here we took our rented motorcycle out for a spin. We went up Doi Suthep (a popular mountain area with a famous Buddhist temple) and enjoyed a beautiful view of the city below. We visited Graham's old school (Chiang Mai International School) and had a tour led by a former schoolmate from Dalat. While we were at CMIS we ran into the Canadian missionary who runs a home for children with HIV/AIDS along with his wife. We visited Agape Home later in the afternoon and were touched by the love that these kids receive. In the evening we enjoyed some excellent Thai food with a couple former Dalat schoolmates who both teach at CMIS.

Yesterday we had an amazing Thai cooking class. They picked us up at the guesthouse and we went shopping at a local market. There were only two other American students in our group in the morning portion, so we made four dishes before lunch. In the afternoon it was just the two of us with our teacher. The class was really well organized and the food was delicious if we do say so ourselves. If only we had a gas stove in Kitchener...

Last night we spent several hours wandering through the Night Bazaar. The assortment of handicrafts, clothing, replica watches, and other odds and ends is quite astonishing. The Thai people are definitely gifted artisans.

Now it's time for a late breakfast at our guesthouse before we continue with our day.

We trust you all are doing well.

Blessings,

Graham & Elizabeth

More food...

Hello again. Today we're having a low key day after a late night visiting a former classmate of Graham's. We met at Starbucks at 9:30 PM and enjoyed a leisurely visit until about 10:45 PM. That is when they asked, "Would you like to go for supper?" Graham could not hide his surprise and exclaimed, "Now?!" Anyway, long story short, they hadn't had supper so we joined them for some Chinese delicacies at a late night, outdoor food market. We discovered that grilled sting ray with curry paste on top is delicious! ;^) It was fun being with David and his wife Ann, who are Chinese Malaysian, as Graham hadn't seen David since 1989.

This morning Elizabeth was introduced to "Chinese pancakes" at a local "wet market". They are similar to crepes, but they folded like tacos, and have peanuts and sugar sprinkled inside. Yummy!

Between breakfast and lunch Graham ran into a few former school mates who currently work at Dalat. It was fun to talk about the "good old days" with Lisa and Bethany and to hear about how the school is facing the future.

For lunch we went across the street from the school to an outdoor Indian restaurant that served delicious naan, chicken tikka and aloo gobi (all for $9 Cdn for the two of us, including fresh mango drinks). Nice!

After lunch we headed to downtown Georgetown again on the local bus (travel time is about 30 minutes, in air conditioned comfort). We are walking around, visiting the various shops, and have now stopped into this Internet cafe to make this post.

We are probably heading down to Batu Ferringhi (a popular beach area on the north of the island) later this evening. That is when all the vendors are out selling their wares, and of course, that is when the food vendors are out too. ;^)

We trust you all are doing well.

Blessings,

Graham & Elizabeth

Back to School

We arrived safely in Penang after a short flight from Bangkok. We had purchased "express boarding" with Air Asia as it is free seating and we wanted to sit together. To our embarrassment, we were the only two who had purchased this, and had to sit in our own section of the boarding area. The airline officials kept yelling at people who dared sit in our section. Unfortunately we already purchased the express boarding for our future flights, so we may have to deal with some more embarrassment.

Elizabeth was wondering where all the long-promised geckos are hiding as we didn't see any in Bangkok. When we were travelling to Hua Hin she did see one on a far off wall. She was happy to see a couple of them outside our guesthouse room at the Dalat International School campus. =)

When we arrived at the campus yesterday afternoon we checked in and then walked to the "hillside" for a dinner of "char kway teow" and chicken with black pepper on rice. Elizabeth was looking forward to some Indian roti there, but unfortunately the vendor that Graham knew from years ago has retired.

The school campus has undergone many changes since Graham was last there in 1999. This afternoon we are meeting with the dorm supervisors and taking a tour of the dorms. This morning we had a nice time visiting with Graham's former English and Journalism teacher John "Tommy" Tompkins, who was a former Dalat student back when it was located in Vietnam. He has been teaching at the school since at least the early 1980's. We will be having lunch with him on Sunday after church.

An unexpected blessing at the Dalat guesthouse is the free use of a washer and dryer. It sure beats having to hand wash everything, especially since we're showering many times a day.

Right now we're at Komtar, a popular shopping complex in the heart of Georgetown, the capital city of Penang. Graham spent many a Saturday afternoon walking around here as a student at Dalat. It has all really changed, however, as the McDonald's is no longer there and there is a brand new mall area adjoining the previous site. Elizabeth is amazed at how massive the malls in Asia have been. It hasn't increased her love of shopping, however. ;^)

Tonight we are planning on visiting Gurney Drive, hopefully with a former classmate of Graham's that he hasn't seen since 10th grade. Tomorrow we hope to venture to Penang Hill and the Kek Lok Si temple.

Thanks for all your prayers. We are keeping in good health and have adjusted to the time difference quite well.

We miss you all and trust you are all doing well.

Blessings,

Graham & Elizabeth

The Beach was a Trip

Yesterday we took the "rapid" train to Hua Hin. Our three hour trip took an unexpected four hours. When we got into town we visited the local McDonald's to use their nice washroom. Let's just say the ones on the train were rustic.

We rented a motorbike for an hour and drove around looking for the old location of the Juniper Tree, a guesthouse for missionaries that Graham and his family frequented when he was young. We were able to find the location, but it looks very different as it is now a construction site for upscale condos. The flow of traffic is very "fluid" but thankfully we emerged unscathed. It took some team work to anticipate where the vehicles around us were going.

After our adventure on the bike, we walked to the beach and enjoyed our lunch of fried rice under a sea of beach umbrellas, while local vendors tried to sell us anything and everything. After lunch we walked along the beach for a bit before heading back to the McDonald's bathroom to freshen up. Then it was a short walk to the train station where we found some green Fanta (don't be too jealous, Brent).

Much of the area between Bangkok and Hua Hin is crowded with rice fields. It was interesting to watch the farmers working in the fields. There was an American Thai lady on the train with her two grown daughters, and she helped us understand that there would be no free food on this trip, but that we could order noodles for 10 baht each (about $0.30). The fish balls weren't Elizabeth's favourite part, but we enjoyed the noodles in general.

On the way home we rode Bangkok's subway, which is world class in every regard. The platform is separated from the tracks by glass walls with sliding doors that open automatically when the subway doors open.

Graham went for a swim in the tiny hotel pool, which is outside on the seventh floor, the same floor as the breakfast buffet. It was a refreshing dip after a hot and sticky day in Hua Hin.

We are heading to the airport shortly as we are flying to Penang, Malaysia this afternoon. We might grab an iced coffee in our neighbourhood before we head out.

We trust you all are doing well.

Blessings,

Graham & Elizabeth

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our reading audience (especially our own)! Today is a holiday in Thailand as it is the Queen of Thailand's birthday. The streets and SkyTrain were eerily quiet as most people were at home (not that we're complaining).

We enjoyed visiting Graham's old homes yesterday afternoon. It is amazing how much the neighbourhoods have changed. After a lot of walking we were happy to find that Graham's favourite restaurant at Soi 15 Sukhumvit was still there and making tasty food. In the evening Graham introduced Elizabeth to the goodness that is called Swensen's Ice Cream. ;^) The Central World mall where we had the ice cream had a fascinating exhibit called "Earth From Above" with stunning aerial photography from all over the world.

This morning we took the SkyTrain to the main pier on the Chao Phraya river, and then took a tourist river boat to the stop for the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha Temple. The crowds we didn't see on the streets were all at the Palace. ;^) The architecture and ornamentation on the temple and palace buildings were certainly intricate and colourful. We also went through a coin and historic artifacts display and learned that the Emerald Buddha has a change of "clothes" for each season. He was wearing the "rainy season" outfit today.

After walking through the Palace grounds we walked to a local market and found a small restaurant that had air conditioning, which was a welcome relief. We enjoyed some rice with chicken and red pork, and washed it down with some refreshing lime-ade -- a traditional Thai drink.

After lunch we got on the river taxi again and headed farther north to the Khao San Road area, a popular hangout for backpackers. We walked through aisle after aisle of clothing vendors and other varieties of vendors. We rested our sore feet by stopping for a couple scoops of hand made coconut ice cream. Delicious!

We came back to our hotel to shower, and now we are heading to the MBK mall for supper. Then we need to get to bed early after we wash and hang up our laundry as we'll be up first thing to get to the train station for our day trip 3 hours south to the beach resort town of Hua Hin.

We trust you all are doing well.

Blessings,

Graham & Elizabeth

p.s. BBC keeps featuring news from Canada -- today it was the riots in Montreal.

Arrived Safely

We arrived safely in Bangkok last night. Our layover in Hong Kong was uneventful. We ended up crashing on some lounge chairs we found at the airport. The airport shower facilities were nice after our 15 hour marathon flight from Toronto.

This morning we enjoyed a great buffet breakfast at our hotel -- fresh fruit, pancakes, omelletes, etc. We then went for a walk to the tourist agency that handled our hotel and train ticket arrangements to pick up documents. It is warm outside, to say the least!

We purchased a day pass for the SkyTrain and already enjoyed a short trip on it. The SkyTrain station is literally a few hundred metres from our hotel, which is a tremendous blessing.

We're meeting some missionaries for lunch at 12:00 for Lebanese food so we thought we'd enjoy an escape from the heat and update the blog before lunch.

This afternoon we're doing some more traveling on the SkyTrain to visit some old stomping grounds. This evening we're hoping to have supper at Graham's favourite restaurant -- a little hole in the wall a few streets over from the hotel.

Tomorrow is the Queen of Thailand's birthday which is an official holiday (Mother's Day).

Now we're off to find some iced coffee from a street vendor before our lunch appointment. Love to all our family.

Blessings,

Graham & Elizabeth

p.s. we heard on the BBC News TV station that Toronto had an explosion. We don't know any details. We hope everyone is OK.