Nicholas Family Fun Tour 2551!

October 17: my parents, my brother Andrew, and his girlfriend Jenn arrived sleepily from 18 hours of airplane fun and I met them with sign in hand "Nicholas Family Fun Tour 2551" with matching t-shirt on. We walked around the Nana area and had dinner at the India Hut before getting some much-needed sleep at the Manohra Hotel which was quite nice with a rooftop garden.

October 18: bus ride to Kanchanaburi. We booked two rooms at the Noble Night Guesthouse in town after much ado with bungalows we found that were too crappy or too luxurious. We ate some good Thai food (ahan thai) and walked around a Chinese cemetary for World War II casualities in Thailand that was in utter disrepair. We poked around a weird spirit house garbage pile.

October 19: met up with a tour guide and now good friend Anngee that took us to a geothermal hot spring next to a cooling river that was nothing like I'd ever seen or swam in before. We visited a huge waterfall, rode on a old train, visited the Bridge on the River Kwai, crept in a Buddha Cave, and walked through Hellfire Pass that was park of the slave-labored railway construction of World War II.

October 20: back to Bangkok, we stayed in a huge family room at the Grand China Princess in the heart of Chinatown. Immaculate room, amazing view, and revolving restaurant on the roof. We ate a late lunch at the Shangrila where we ate a very delicious Chinese meal and where we accidentally devoured and paid for a $125 King Lobster. Don't be fooled by the dainty words 'by weight' when you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Delicious little fella though. Happy Birthday to Phillip on this day!

October 21: we spent the morning on a ferry boat on the Chao Praya River past Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) to the Grand Palace and Wat Prakao. I got in free with my student idea and a lot of smiling. We flew to Chiang Mai in the far north of Thailand and booked a room at Penon Peng Guesthouse that was family-run, adorable, and very quaint. We ate dinner at The Zest where my father realized his love of any food served in a pineapple. The band at the Zest was two men, one with guitar and one with banjo. I told the man I loved his banjo and that I have one of my own to which he responded by dedicating the ballad of Old Susanna to me next.

October 22: a taxi driver gave us a tour of some of the major temples in Chiang Mai's "old town" inside the moat area that was once used as defense against neighboring armies. I released several birds from a cage at a temple for good luck. We ended up at Doi Sutep, a temple on the top of a mountain that made for some amazing views and incense-fueled spirituality. Dinner at El Diablo's Heavenly Burritos was exactly what the doctor ordered.

October 23: Outside of town we went to an elephant camp where we rode on the backs of elephants, travelled by oxcart, watching an elephant trick show, and took a bamboo raft down the river. My first time on an elephant! One elephant was trained to lift people up with its nose between their legs and my dad just walked right up to it and did it! I was too chicken at first, but I couldn't let him show me up. Went to the Night Bazaar to explore the trinkets and excitement.
October 24: back to Bangkok, we booked a room at the Zenith Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 3 and went to Siam Ocean World in the center of town. The huge aquarium was one of the highlights of the trip with more undersea life than I could have imagined existed. I will have to go back! Afterwards it turned out, much to the happiness of my brother and his girlfriend who are both graphic designers in New York, that we accidentally ran into the Bangkok Design Festival! Very cool artwork at the Bangkok Center for Cultural Arts. I also ended up showing the family around my campus a little bit at KMUTT and having a mediocre lunch at The Frog.
October 25: Andrew and Jenn flew back to New York while my parents and I grabbed a flight to Phuket, the largest island in Thailand in the Andaman Sea. A lazy afternoon of eating food on the beach, shopping, and relaxing around the Sugar Palm Resort. Note: every towel on the grounds is printed "SUGAR PLAM".

October 26: a boat cruise in the Andaman Sea of the most gorgeous karst landscape I'd ever seen. We visited the James Bond Island where "The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed. We canoed through several bat caves and grottoes that were perfect. At one point we jumped off the boat and swam to an island where two monkeys were sitting on the sand and we fed them oranges. On the cruise back to Phuket, two of the boat's crew members ended up dressing up as Ladyboys and performing a quite strange sexy dance on board. I met a very nice girl from Israel on the boat and I hope to stay in touch with her. Apparently Israelites travel to Thailand all the time, as one Israeli guy on the boat said "If I wanted to see this many Jews I would have just gone to Tel Aviv." Happy Birthday to Zena on this day!

October 27: sunning ourselves on the Haad Kata and Haad Karon, I ended up going parasailing as part of my birthday present. Very exciting to see the island and water from so far up! We bought some nice sarongs and went to the FantaSea cultural and lights and dance show. Pretty gaudy and much like Disney World on the outside, it was a nice experience but a bit too much going on.

October 28: flew back to Bangkok then took a chartered car from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Ayutthaya. We stayed one night at Baan Lotus where I stayed months ago with my friend Greg. Very quaint, great teak homestead with very kind family owners. We took a tuk tuk tour of many temples at sunset and saw them lit up at night in an eerie beauty. We ended up at the Night Market for dinner and smoothies along the canal before turning in for the night.

October 29: after sleeping in and nursing my mom's cold, we took the public bus back to Bangkok and a taxi to my apartment. I gave my parents a tour of campus and we ate Mama Tom Yum at Ann's noodle shop at the Girl's Dorm. My father and I bought matching windbreakers with the name of my school in Thai on the back. We stayed at the Grand Mercure Park Avenue on Sukhumvit Soi 22.

October 30: spent the afternoon at Muang Boran just southeast of Bangkok where we rented a goftcart and travelled through mini-Thailand in park-form. It was a ton of fun and my parents realled loved it. It was very comfortable outside although we ended up getting caught in the rain and instantly soaked. Bought lots of nifty gifties. That evening we ate dinner at the Andaman Restaurant on Thanon Henri Donut and bought some beautiful scarves at Jim Thompson's Thai Silk store.

October 31: we toured Baan Jim Thompson and admired his gorgeous teak home from the 50s and 60s. He opened the international market for Thai silk decades ago and at the height of his fame, mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia. I gave my parents a tour of the park near my apartment and took them to the roof of my graduate school building for a nice sunset view. I sent them back to their hotel so I could prep for a sweet Halloween/Birthday Party. I dressed as a Zebra (in Thai: Ma-lai) and was absolutely proud of how it turned out. We had a bunch of friends over and then went out to Kao Sahn Road (mini-Franklin Street for Halloween as it turned out) and had a really great time. I didn't pay for anything all night and we met these really funny Thai students at one bar and danced with them all night. At midnight I was screaming "WON GERB CHAAAAAN" which was "ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!" and fun was had by all.
November 1: My official birthday, my parents flew back home in the morning and I relaxed with my friends all afternoon. Nothing's more fun than celebrating your twenty first birthday in Thailand dressed as a zebra. We will celebrate my birthday again on the second so we've got bookends of happiness around my bday.