I am back from Thailand! Tell me... how is it possible that our elephant whisperer captured this picture? Amazing, and it was with our wonderful new, slow, point and shoot camera (I had to buy a new one the day I left cause I lost our old one... :( This is my favorite shot and I think even Brian is smiling. And Elaf doesn't look so skinny from this angle. That's what we named him, Elaf. Below, Brian has a monkey on his back... Tony. He was a friendly monkey who took a liking to Brian. He sat on several people's backs and Brian was just one of the lucky ones he chose to sit on for a while (he was probably there for about 20 minutes while we hiked through the jungle). He liked to suck his thumb.
That's Brian inspecting some fruit he plucked off the tree. Our guide was explaining what it was. If you look closely you can see Tony eye-balling it. Brian took one bite before Tony snatched it from him with his ridiculously long arms.
That's them again. Both happy after their snack.
This elephant in the background was a bit pushy. He stole a bushel of bananas out of someone else's chair and he was at that moment coming after ours... Kind of odd to have an elephant trunk sniffing around your back. Kinda like a really weird harmless snake.
That's us in all our sweaty glory :)
This table was at the Elephant place. It was HUGE. Seriously. Ginormous! Take note of how Brian's feet aren't even touching the ground...
We also went on an ox ride. Pretty cool. I really just like this picture cause the guy behind me was clearly unprepared :) Ha!
Doesn't this make you want to get a foot massage?
These shrine things were everywhere. This was taken while we were on a ferry heading to Ko Sichang.
And the food.... oh so good! Spicy yes. But I loved it! I really love curry. I had never had it before moving to Japan and it is now a new favorite! I almost like it more than Mexican food... I told Brian that and he then asked me who I was and what I did with his wife!
Our last night together we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe because well, they had RIBS! Last time I had ribs was in America and that is WAY too long ago. Scratch that, I have made ribs at home once or twice, but there is something tastier about it when you don't have to do the work. Brian of course could not pass up the brownie sundae on the menu. I was already full so we got it on the condition that he would eat most of it. As you can see below, that was not much of a problem...
He was double fistin' it at the end.
Overall it was a great trip! It was so awesome to see Brian and we had a really great time together exploring and doing fun things. I must say though that Pattaya is not exactly anywhere I would recommend going. It is kind of the butt crack of Thailand, or the Tijuana of Thailand. We did not get to any beautiful beaches and everything was kinda smelly and dirty. Lots of bars and prostitution. Lots of people trying to get you to pay more than you should for stuff. I definitely want to visit Thailand again someday, but I want to see Phuket. I had my fill of Pattaya. Oh, and just to let you know all these pictures are from our happy snappy. All other pics were taken on Brian's camera and he has all those images with him.
Military life... it is truly something else. Brian's ship pulled in this morning and since I work for MWR marketing I was able to sneak away from work for a bit to see them pull in. I have never been out there to watch them pull in and it really wasn't anything special, but a little bird told me that they would be "manning the rails in their whites". That little birdie was wrong :( Since they have been gone for more than 57 days MWR had a little welcoming picnic thingy set up with food and drinks for the families while we waited (which is what I needed to get pictures of). And of course there were little American flags for the kids.
I cannot really explain or describe what deployments are like. They are always up and down. I generally get in a good rhythm and life goes on without him. In an odd way we just have separate lives while he is gone and then when he returns we fumble through reconnecting them. For instance, this week I am going vegetarian just for the heck of it. I know I don't eat very healthy a lot of the time so it is just a one week, I am going to eat really healthy kick, not like I plan to BE a vegetarian. So when Brian came off the ship to say hi, he mentioned something about trying my weird veggie diet (which I totally would not call it a "diet") and I jokingly said this was a permanent thing and he gave me the "your crazy/who are you and what did you do with my wife" look. That's my favorite thing about him coming back. The little things that change along the way and by the time he comes home it's like getting to know each other all over again. It can be annoying, but it can also be fun too.
My favorite thing is seeing the loving families. The ones who show up super excited. I know over the years the military can wear on you and going through a 6 month deployment for the 20th time is not the same as it was the first or second time. But I think it is just as important as ever to never loose that excitement for them to come home. It is a difficult balance, but we cannot allow our lives to separate so much that we loose that excitement. I don't know the family below, but I definitely dread the day I have children and have to deal with a deploying husband.
