Signs of the Thais!

I LOVE looking at funny signs in different countries... it can be a word misspelled, a phrase that just doesn't sound right, or just something that catches my eye. They all make me happy! I am hopefully going to have frequent installments of Signs of the Thais but here is the first one... What's your favorite?

Candidate #1: I must admit, they were bags, but I don't know how funny they were...

Candidate #2: For all your orders regarding space...
Candidate #3: Want a free house? (background... the land here is expensive and building a house is cheap so they are selling the land and giving away a free house...)

Candidate #4: The staff never did ark for it...

Candidate #5: I am not really laughing at this after a billion straight days over 100 degrees!!!

Food and drink... Thai style

Restaurants in Thailand will many times serve Cokes in glass bottles. Now, they are always more than happy to give you your food "to go" but I was curious what they would say if I asked for a Coke to go... Well, they made it to go alright. I think it's a very practical solution... don't you think?



Here are some pics of one of the restaurants we like here. Most of the restaurants (at least the ones we go to) are outdoors and has 5-6 tables... Meals normally run about 30-40 baht per plate (about a buck) and we've found some awesome food!!!




There are also really good food stalls that many times will just set up one table behind their grill for people to enjoy their food. Many times the best food can be found at these little food stalls... for cheap! (less than a buck for a heaping chicken fried rice!) This is a little place we found at the night market. We had chicken fried rice and it was awesome!

Then, this was us eating at a Thai family's house. They made us a soup dish with all different types of meat. Many times the tables are set up close to the floor. This was one of our favorite meals because of the company and the experience! We pray that we will have these types of meals more and more often as we build relationships and live life with the wonderful Thai people!

A look out the window...

We thought we'd give you a quick glimpse of what we see out the window while driving down the street in public transportation...

Sunday Night Market...

We have decided to make a new tradition... Every Sunday night we have decided to go to the Sunday Night Walking Street Market in our city. We have been 2 weeks in a row now and don't plan to stop. What's the Sunday Night Market? Well, basically there are a ton of people walking down a street that has been blocked off. All along the path there are vendors with great food, cool little gifts, fruit smoothies, and street performers! It's just a fun Sunday evening tradition and a way to get out in the community. Here is a glimpse of what it looks like:

1) We take a songtaew to the market b/c there is no parking! (or very little parking) A songtaew is a pickup with a roof over the bed and two wooden benches in the back that people can sit in. Corinne loves riding in them!
2) Rotee- our favorite dessert! It's a lot like a crepe w/ banana and chocolate... it's awesome and Dustin's addiction!
3-5) Sights while walking the market...

THE ZOO...FINALLY!!!

Last August, we decided for sure that we were moving to Thailand. When we first told Corinne, we told her that we were going to move to Thailand and that there was a zoo in our city with a panda in it!!! This thrilled Corinne and anytime we would mention Thailand for the next six months, she would say, "And in Thailand I'm going to see a panda"... So we knew that we needed to make it to the zoo quickly to keep our promise to Corinne. When we got here we found out that there were 2 prices for the zoo: the foreigners price and the Thai price. However, if we got a Thai drivers license we could get the Thai price. Well, on the second week we were here, we got our Thai drivers license and that Saturday we decided we were going to head to the zoo! (in the 100+ degree heat) And it did not disappoint! Corinne got to feed a giraffe, stand within a few feet of an elephant, and of course see her beloved panda!


Another funny part of the zoo was that there were 4 different people that asked if they could get their picture with Corinne. Most of them had never seen a blonde girl before.


Also Corinne transformed her Minnie Mouse phone into a camera phone and you could hear the click of a camera like a photo shoot as she was looking at each animal. (pictured below)
It was a great time at the zoo! We are now officially in Thailand!

SONGKRAN!!!

We arrived in Thailand at a very interesting time... April 13th officially marked the beginning of the Thai holiday known as Songkran... aka "the water throwing holiday". It is a time of celebration where kids and adults line the streets with their water guns, buckets of water (some packed with ice), water hoses etc and throw water on cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians going down the street. The Thai people see it as a New Years celebration signaling the beginning of Monsoon season.

Our apartment was right in the middle of the Songkran action! Some friends gave Corinne a water gun so she could defend herself! The people were so sweet to Corinne as she walked down the road and sqirted people with her water gun... Here are a few pics of the festivities...

And we're off...

Well, we are behind on our blog posts... again. So, let me start by catching you up on our last few days in TX before we set out to our new destination... So here are 3 things you missed that we have to touch on before catching you up on our trip and adventures in Thailand...

1. Easter!!! We celebrated Easter with Mimi and Papa and had a blast! Corinne loved hunting her Easter Eggs.
2) Rangers Opening Day- Lynn and I were able to take part in my tradition of always going to Rangers Opening Day. The Rangers heard that I was in the crowd and obliged by giving us a thrilling come from behind victory! It was a nice send off for us. Plus we got to hang out with good friends!



3) Packing- It's hard to pack up your life for 3 years! We had 3 precious friends help us get all of our stuff into 10 bags. They worked hard and had a little fun too...