Our family had the amazing opportunity to go to Thailand recently. We started planning this trip last July when our best friends decided to sell everything and move to Thailand. We decided to take our four oldest kids, Grace (19), Thomas (17), Lucy (14), and Henry (10) and leave Charlie (6) and George (4) in the capable hands of friends and family (thanks Mom and Sara!).
As the date approached for the trip we had been talking to our friends that live in Thailand. They had befriended a local man whom they had met at an elephant sanctuary. He works as a guide there but lives in a remote village outside of Chiang Mai. He invited them to their home and showed them his village and how his people live. We started hearing about some of the struggles and needs of these people and wondered what we could do to help. Thomas had also been looking for a project he could do for his Eagle. After discussing some options we decided on helping the village build a barbed wire fence around their school. Local livestock and other animals had been wandering onto the school yard making it very unsafe for the kids. We helped raise money and plan the logistics for the construction. We had a pretty tight schedule so the moment we landed in Chiang Mai, after nearly 30 hours of traveling and little sleep, our friends picked us up at the airport and we drove about 2 hours up into the hills directly to the village. What a whirlwind of sights and sounds, driving on the “wrong” side of the road, seeing so many unique and different things. We arrived at the village and immediately joined the tribe who had already started working. (The village is only several hundred people, all living in elevated homes. Probably as many dogs as people in the village. Cows and pigs in everyone’s yard. Women weaving beautiful clothing and bags) We helped dig holes, place pre-fabricated concrete posts, and fill the holes with cement.
About 50 villagers had shown up to help with the project. It was a great experience to work alongside them and see how happy and hard-working they were. It was mostly women doing the work, some with babies on their backs!
We provided a lunch for all of them (the food is very inexpensive…we fed all of them for about $40). Then we needed to wait overnight for the posts to set before we attached the barbed wire.
In the afternoon we went to an elephant sanctuary not far from the village where we were able to play with elephants in the mud and then play in an amazing waterfall. After which we enjoyed some delicious thai noodles, watermelon and Oreos!
That night our local host roasted a pig for us and we had another amazing meal. We spent the night sleeping on the floor in our host’s home. What an amazing first day! The adrenaline definitely kept us going.
The next day we helped install the barbed wire and finished up the project. In total it was 175 posts, 383 yards of fencing put in. They were so grateful to us for providing the materials and helping coordinate the effort. They had been wanting to put in a fence for many years but could never afford it.
We then drove two hours back to Chiang Mai where our friends live. The kids went to a local water park in the afternoon and the adults went and got massages!
We spent Easter Sunday in Chiang Mai. They had sacrament meeting even though it was conference weekend. (They would watch it the next week). Fun to listen to a sacrament meeting as it was translated by the missionaries. We also went and saw some amazing Buddhist temples that day.
Then Sunday night we flew to Phuket to spend eight days at a Marriott resort. Talk about extremes. From a mountain village with rudimentary plumbing to a luxurious resort with all the comforts.
The resort and beach was amazing. We spent the week swimming, hanging out by the pool, playing on the beach, traveling to city of Phuket, eating lots of yummy food, sampling every mango sticky rice we could find, shopping, snorkeling, seeing and playing with monkeys, and more massages (how can you refuse when they’re about $10/hr?!).
We made two day excursions while in Phuket. One was to Phang Nga bay which is a national park full of amazing cliffs and limestone mini islands poking out of the water everywhere. Absolutely stunning scenery.
We also took a boat out to the Phi Phi islands and saw more amazing bays and beaches and incredible sites. All along the way we continued to enjoy all the yummy food!
On our last day in Phuket, we discovered a small, somewhat secluded beach. You had to hike down a jungle hillside to get to it. We arrived before noon and ended up staying most of the day. It was a perfect beach for relaxing and snorkeling. Locals have a little stand set up where you can buy Thai food, fresh young coconut milk, and drinks. We just kept enjoying it all. There weren’t any big waves so we just enjoyed all the amazing fish, including a puffer fish that a local guide pulled out of the water and let the kids touch. It was a perfect end to an amazing vacation.
After that last day we spent just one day in Bangkok before we flew home to see the kids. While in Bangkok we went to a floating market where you are taken around in long boats through a canal system where all the local people have set up shops. Most of it was just trinkets and souvenir things but there was delicious coconut ice cream! We also went to a snake show and did some last minute shopping and eating at a night market in Bangkok.
We came home with temporary suntans and permanent memories. A trip we will never forget.
