Back in Montreal

An uneventful flight Back to Montreal. We are still recovering from the time change so the boys slept

Soon we saw the familiar sights of Montreal

To top it all off, my buddy Dave marshalled our flight to the gate. Dave works for Delta airlines in Montreal, and was working our flight by coincidence… I recognized his walk immediately as we taxid to the gate. He came by our window as we waited to disembark, and we waived like a couple of crazies. At first he just waved back politely thing we were just a couple of random nutjobs… But a couple moments later it clicked in and he came back for a closer look, and recognized us:

He met us as we got off the plane and we had a good laugh. What a way to end an amazing adventure.

We’re back at home now and the jet lag is hitting hard… Can barely keep my eyes open.

I look forward to speaking to all our friends and family over the next couple days.

Now that I am home I will be ble to post some videos too, so keep checking in… I should have some pretty cool stuff to share.

Bye for now

Ron

 

Mall of America

Since we had an unexpected layover in Minneapolis we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and see what we could in our limited time. Luckily the Mall of America is only minutes from the airport.

Sponge Bob welcomed us to Nickelodeon Park inside this massive mall. It was once the biggest mall in the United States, but lost the title a couple years ago… Not to worry, there is a big expansion underway, and they will reclaim the title in a couple months.

We spent most of our time thre riding a roller coaster and log ride in the amusement park area.

In front of lego land

This was interesting also… I guess there used to be a ballpark on the site.

We saw tha sign as we were leaving

That should keep the gun wielding maniacs at bay.

Jamie got a cool watch… He’s modelling it here as we ride the subway to the airport.

I was impressed with how clean the subway was, and would have liked to see more of the city, but we had to be back at the airport for 1pm.

Along the way we also passed Fort Snelling National Cemetary. It was established in 1870 on the site of a civil war base, and now contains the graves of over 208,000 veterans. It was quite something to see… I could not have imagined the enormity of the place, and we only saw a portion as we sped by on the train. There were grave stones as far as the eye could see.

A solemn place, but very beautiful. I read online that the bugle players there have never missed a service due to inclement weather. That is really something given the winters in Minnesota, and gives an indication of the respect that the fallen soldiers command and deservedly receive.

Shortly after we were at the airport and ready for the final leg of our journey.

Change of plans

we thought we’d be pulling into Montreal right about now, but instead we are in a hotel Minnesota… Why you ask?

The airline overbooked the flight and the airline rep was looking for volunteers to give up their seats and receive  an online Visa card as compensation. They made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, and we took it. They put us up in a hotel, paid a dinner, and gave us visa gift cards, so our return to Montreal will be delayed until tomorrow.

The long way home – and one last priceless moment in Thailand

So today will be literally the longest of our lives. Because we are travelling against the rotation of the earth, and crossing the international date line, August 5th 2015 will actually last for 35 hours for us.

We will even travel back in time as leave Tokyo at 4:25pm on August 5th and arrive in Minneapolis at 1:45 pm on August 5th, 2 hours and 20 minutes before we left, and flying for 11 hours and 20 over the Pacific Ocean to boot.

And one last priceless moment in Thailand before we got off the ground… As we are passing through security in bangkok, Cameron comes to the counter with his backpack on, and the security agent extends his hand (motioning Cameron to take off his pack and place it on the counter). I have been saying how friendly the Thai people are, and Cameron has gotten used to the hospitality I guess so he mistook the extended hand of the security guard as an offer to shake hands. So Cameron being the friendly guy he his, looked he guard right in the eye, gripped his hand firmly, and gave him a friendly shake of the hand. The security guy thought this was hilarious and we all had a good laugh. He barely checked our bags at all and ushered us through to the gate area. I’ll be telling that story for years to come. Way to go Cameron… The innocence if childhood😃.

A fitting way to end our time in Thailand.

Last night in thailand

so we spent our last afternoon / evening in Thailand at an interesting market by the riverfront in bangkok. It is called Asiatique and over the years has been an important site in the history of Thailand

Cameron couldn’t resist photo bombing what was supposed to be a Grn and Jdmie shot.

Starting in the 1800s, when the capital of Thailand moved to bangkok, it became an important shipping port for thailand and all of south east asia. It was home to the first paved roads in Thailand, and during World War II was taken over by the Japanese, and used as naval base. There is an old bomb shelter that was left behind that we were able to visit. Pretty cool. Thailand was neutral during WWII but since the Japanese were so strong and recognized the strategic importance of Thailands location in south east Asia, they just marched in and took over. The Thais could not put up much a resistance so the Japanese just kind of took what they needed.

Now the place has been developed and houses a large night market, with many shops and restaurants and shows. We went to what they call a 4D movie. We set in a small 3D movie theatre where the seats move with he action on screen and give you the feeling that you are riding this roller coaster. It was really cool. No photos though…. My phone battery died😞.

We met up with a friend we made on the ferry/bus from Koh tao. He is an American born guy named Chip who is married to a thai girl, and together they have a 15 month old boy. Chip has been making his living here as an English teacher for the past six years. We spent a couple hours with them at the riverfront, chatting about  life in Thailand, and Canada, and our trip. Chip shared some of his knowledge of the place, and it was a very enjoyable way to spend our last evening in Thailand.

One last tuk tuk ride, and we were back at the hotel to pack up and get ready for a 3am wake up.

It’s time.

Catch up

ok so I have some catching up to do…

We left Ko Tao two days ago, and I must say that of all the places we have visited, Aow Leuk will be the place that I will miss most. The beach was awesome, and the atmosphere was the most enjoyable. A real beach club with not a worry in the world. We were sad to leave

We took a ferry to Chumphon and stopped at the pier for some local dining. Jamie danced for the locals and was a big hit. I have some hilarious video.

We boarded the overnight bus, and thought we had hit the jackpot with our lower deck seats with a table and comfy setup for our overnight  ride to bangkok 

But… Turns out we were on the wrong bus. No worries though, we scored similar seats on the lower deck of the right bus

Our plan was to play cards into the wee hours as we rolled towards Bangkok. But the movie started playing and the lights went out, and our card game came to an abrupt end. No problem, we’ll watch the movie and relax right? WRONG… The TV malfunctioned, and we were left in the dark while the passengers on the upper deck enjoyed a Liam Neeson movie (Taken 3) we tried to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the night.

Turns out it was a bad idea to take the couch style seating in the lower deck. We had a hard time sleeping, and had a long ride ahead of us.

Good news and bad news… The bus driver drove like a demon and we arrived early in bangkok (4am instead of 5am). Good news because we could get out of the painfully uncomfortable seats an hour early, but bad news because we had no hotel booked for our arrival at the famous Khao San road in Bangkok.

We spent an hour and a half at the MacDonalds with the remaining party goers frm the night before then I set out looking for a hotel. It didn’t go so well. It was 8:30am before I found our spot.😨

Two lessons learned… First, As appealing as the seats with the card table seemed, we should have opted for seats where we could have actually slept, and second, we should have arranged for accommodations before arriving. I did not enjoy spending two hours wandering the streets looking for a hotel after a sleepless night on a bus.

Oh well, next time I take a bus from Chumpon to bangkok with my wife and two young children, I will know better😛😄.

I won’t tell you about the propositions I received  while I wandered the streets as the sun came up, nor the local wildlife (rats) I observed.

But we made it, and after finally checking into a nice place, we all had a nice rest and set out for some Sunday shopping and entertainment. (Family style)

See next post for details…

Travel Day

Well today is a write off. We tried to catch a ferry / train combo from Ko Tao back to Bangkok, but the train is full. I am guessing it is full due to the full moon party that takes place on Ko Phangan every full moon.

Full moon was last night. If you have never heard of full moon parties, they see essentially huge beach parties / raves that go all night, and mostly western kids get drunk and high out of their minds until the sun comes up.

Not exactly kid friendly, and that is why we skipped Koh Phangan in the first place.  But the timing of this full moon (the second of this month) is not good for our plans to get back to bangkok, as it seems every tourist in Thailand is trying to do the same. In any case, we have successfully procured a ticket on an overnight bus, which should be barrels of fun. We will roll into bangkok at around 5am if all goes according to plan which, according to my research, almost never happens.

We are having fun in each other’s company though which is really amazing considering we have been living on top of each other for almost 6 weeks now. We are playing cards ( gen and I have introduced the kids to the wonderful game of a**hole.) Cameron is quizzing us on our knowledge of super hero movies. And we are all trying to decide our favorite parts of the trip.

My next post will probably be from Bangkok since I don’t have any internet access on the ferry / bus. Will let you know how we made out when we arrive their.

Bye for now

Ron

Kay guys I’m going to the beach and OH MY GOD😨😨😨

Yesterstay we had a bit of a travel day to an almost deserted  area with a beach that had said there were sharks in it if you were lucky ( no worries they weren’t dangerous) It was amazing with fish of all shapes and sizes so heal yeah. I tried writing in the morning and now it’s like 5 pm and I have some amazing stories to tell so I’m ending it here, bye

OK – this is it

So we have been touring around Thailand for a month now, and I said I would stop comparing one place to another because they are all beautiful.

But this place tops them all: Aow Leuk on Koh Tao.

Our bungalow is right on the beach… And what a beach. It has the best snorkeling I have ever experienced just about 10 metres offshore. Cameron is in heaven.

The water is super clear, turquoise in color, and nice and calm, with almost no waves. A great place for Jamie to practice his swimming.

Aow Leuk is in a little cove where tour boats come from all around to anchor and let the tourists off on day trips… So the beach can get a little busy during the day, but at around 4pm they all leave, and we have the place to ourselves (there are only a handful of other families here). In the morning it’s almost completely empty also. Photo taken at 9 this morning

We decided to skip Ko Phangan, the island between Samui and here. Phangan is beautiful for sure, but a couple people I have run into have raved about Ko Tao, and since we have been craving a place to stay for an extended time, and our time here is running out (about 10 days to go) I figured this was our shot.

This is shark island in the distance offshore.

 It’s called shark island because it looks like a shark fin… Not because there are sharks there. There are sharks here however, but not the kind that would threaten humans, I  hoping we can spot one while snorkeling.

There are many different areas on the island, and we elected to take a chance on a secluded resort on the far side of the island. Did we ever hit the jackpot here.

The ride across the island was interesting… Not your typical taxi (the back of a pickup truck)

 Sunset last night  
Great restaurant with very reasonable prices. We ate last night for about $25 including beers.

I think we are going to stop roaming. This will probably be our last stop before returning to Bangkok for the flights home.
This is my new happy place😎

Travel day

Today was a travel day.  So we moved from one side of the Thai peninsula to the other today, from Phang Nga (little red pin) to the island of Koh Samui (the little green pin).

We rode a bus for about 3 hours through some very beautiful countryside.

  

The we took a ferry across to the island

The water looks very blue and these are supposed to be some of the nicest beaches in Thailand. Tomorrow will be a beach day.

Koh Samui is in the bay of Thailand, and is protected (by the mountains we rode through in the bus), from the monsoons that blow in from the Andaman Sea. The result is that we should see a lot more sunshine here.

I must say though that our time in the Andaman sea in Phuket, Phi Phi, Railay and Phang Nga was really quite nice weather wise, considering it was right in the middle of monsoon season. When it did rain, it didn’t last long, and we had our fair share of sun. I hope our good luck with the weather will continue.

I’ll be sure to post some beach stuff tomorrow.

Ron