The Dautel Family

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Cruising around Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

Rudy and his girls enjoying the dramatic coastline and islands!

In the Bat Cave . . . Hong Island, Thailand

This picture isn't the best, mainly because it was taken in a DARK cave. I had to add it though

. . .it was quite an experience to look up with a flashlight and see hundreds of bats on the ceiling of this cave. Here is a little slice of what we saw. Click on the picture to get a closer shot. When I put the flashlight on them they wiggled . . .how cute is that?

Making "Krathong" flower arrangements, Phang Nga, Thailand

While on the boat, the crew taught us to make "krathong," which is an offering to "Mae Khongka" or the Mother of the Waters. Each guide took three of us and taught us to make these beautiful flower arrangements using a stump of a palm tree for the base (to pin the leaves and flowers on), then using banana leaves and orchids we finished it off. I thought it had an origami feel to it, since we were folding banana leaves over and over again. Each arrangement was different than the others; the girls really enjoyed this.

Lauren is collecting one of the arrangements that we made. This comes from a tradition that occurs on the twelfth lunar month, when the moon rises. These arrangements are made and floated on rivers and canals in the central region of Thailand. How's that for a little Thai culture?

We were seacanoeing into the evening, so it was beautiful to see all of these floating in the dark, all lit up. By the time we rounded them up again, the candles were out, but they were still beautiful.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Funky Fruit!

I regret not taking pictures of all the fruits that we encountered that I had never seen before, even with the traveling we have done to other tropical destinations. Abby has one in her hand that was served to us while on the boat to see the different islands near Phuket. It had a hard skin that had to be split open to reveal a soft fruit (a little like like Kim Chee) that had a pit in it, but it was tasty!

We saw these at the market in Phuket one evening. Apparently the fruit inside is good, but these things did not smell very nice. These things are prickly and large!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Phuket, Thailand

I couldn't get over this palm tree (if you can call it that) . . .like a palm tree but the fronds were spread like peacock feathers! They were all over the resort and I thought they were beautiful. With the girls in the picture, it really shows the scale.

Here is the "tuk tuk" (think open air taxi) that we kept getting to take us around in Phuket.

I'm not so sure what Abby is fishing for here, but the girls sure loved the pools!

Upon arrival to our hotel, we were greeted with beautiful flowers which made me think of getting leis in Hawaii. These didn't go around the neck, but on the wrist and were made of tuberose and orchids. Lauren is loving hers!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Bangkok, Thailand, New Years Day '09

Noodles anyone? Here are some of the heaps of noodles that are sold at the market, all different types.

Abby and Tui checking out all the fun stuff that can be bought in Bangkok. We discovered quickly that the shopping here was fantastically cheap! Having Tui around to help bargain was also a nice bonus.