Greece ended up being a really fun stop. For somebody who previously didn't really care much for Greek food, it wound up being one of my favorite cuisines of the trip thus far. Nothing lasts forever though, and it was time to move along. We briefly split up, with Tim and I heading to Thailand while Carol and Neil went another direction, planning to link back up again in a couple of weeks.
Tim and I headed to Koh Tao, a postage stamp-sized speck of land in the middle of the Andaman Sea. Why such an esoteric spot? Because Tim discovered that he loved the underwater world during our stops earlier in the trip. He had let us know that he really, really wanted to get scuba certified before the trip was over, and this particular postage stamp of land happens to be surrounded by warm, calm water and great coral - a perfect place to learn. He spent the next week doggedly learning the ways of the ocean - practicing all day and reading his course material late into the night. For my part, I mostly sat on the wooden bench in front of our "not as nice as advertised" hotel room and tried to avoid a contact high from our neighbors.
As it turns out, the island has changed since COVID and now has a 24/7/365 spring-break-extravaganza-for-Europeans thing going on. It has clearly exhausted the locals, and it turns out, us as well. Our hotel was surrounded by nightclubs so we were treated to thumping tunes nightly until 2:00 AM, and our ground-level room let us enjoy the conversations of many stumbling drunks. Have you ever wished your hotel bed felt like it was in the middle of the dance club? If so, Silver Sands Koh Tao is the place for you!
As the week wore on, we settled into a routine. Tim would get back from class and study before dinner. For his pre-dinner snack, he'd wander to the end of the alley and buy us a couple of chicken kebabs, one with ketchup for him and one with chili sauce for me. This became predictable enough that the lady would toss them in the oil as soon as she saw him coming. Ultimately, Tim got the job done and proudly took his new certification on to the next stop. But I'll let him tell that part of the story on his own.
That part of the trip done, we took a high-speed boat over to the mainland, then a bus over to Ao Nang, where Carol and Neil met us the next day. The place was a lovely break from the dance club, and at the base of a soaring limestone cliff where we spent many afternoons wandering. The boys were inspired by the Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) gym next door and began hunting for ways to give it a try. Days were spent visiting temples, doing a rock climbing class, swimming, and of course eating roti (Thai pancakes) and endless fruit smoothies. Fortunately for my waistline, it was a hot uphill hike back to our place to help me work off the smoothies. Perhaps most importantly, the place had a tiny pool with a projector where the boys watched such cultural masterpieces as "Spaceballs." They do need a complete cultural education after all. By about this time, we had also learned to fear the Thai version of "spicy" and after a few episodes of intestinal fire stopped ordering things "mild" and instead simply requested "not spicy." Even then, we sometimes had to give up on part of a meal. I think Thai intestinal tracts are probably asbestos-lined.
Not to be left behind, Neil wanted to get scuba-certified himself, so with that in mind, we cruised south to Koh Lanta. The place we stayed in was really quite nice, but much of Thailand doesn't have street addresses as such, so we generally had to give taxis directions via a nearby landmark. You get a fascinating assortment of looks when you get into a cab with an 11-year-old and say, "take me to Lucky Lady Tattoo Parlor." Neil had a very successful open water class, while Tim did his advanced course with his Swedish instructor Joel, who he described as "the nicest pirate I know."
That phase done, it was time to see a different side of the country, and we cruised up north to Chiang Mai, former capital of the Lanna kingdom. We spent a number of days wandering the ancient city, visiting its many night markets, sampling the street food, and took a small side trip to a tiny town in the mountains a couple of hours away. A highlight for the adults was touring temples with a former Buddhist monk and learning both about the Buddhist faith as well as the symbolism and history of the temples. It also made for a nice tour of world religions, having seen orthodox christianity in Greece, Islam in Egypt, and now Buddhism. The boys, however, probably preferred the trip to the "Grand Canyon," a giant bouncy house water park in the middle of an old gravel pit. To each his own, I guess! It's a fun spot, and if nothing else drove home the point that Thailand does not have as many lawyers as we do.
At this point, it was about time to call it a wrap on Thailand, and we boarded an overnight train back to Bangkok. Compared to the Egypt train, this one was a dream. On time, fast, clean, and quiet. It was even a pretty good night's sleep. Bangkok was only a few days, but we had time to visit some sights like the Grand Palace. Dating back several centuries and 10 generations of royalty, the buildings are covered with gold and cut glass. They sparkle like the biggest jewels you'd ever seen. The Bangkok subway was less awe-inspiring but a great way to gain sympathy for sardines in a can.
One of the highlights was catching up for lunch with Pichaya, a friend we met on our overland journey in Africa and who lives in Bangkok. Unfortunately, much of our time was spent dealing with the Airbnb (which it turns out was illegal) and delays in Neil's Vietnam visa. We had submitted them a week in advance, and they are supposed to be done in 1-3 days, which three of them were. Neil's somehow got stuck in cyberspace. We took a vote and decided by the slimmest of margins not to abandon him in Bangkok (we all felt he'd be a lousy Buddhist monk. He's not great at silent contemplation). Ultimately, we had to hire an "expediting service," which basically meant that I paid a company who then bribed somebody in the visa department to click the "approve" button. We ended up getting his visa an hour after they closed for the weekend, and less than 12 hours from flight time. We celebrated with a night cruise through town, and then we bid Thailand a fond farewell. It had been a great stop full of warm, kind people, amazing history, fantastic food, and very affordable to boot. We were off to Vietnam to continue our tour of world religions with a more recent addition to the list: communism.
Notable quotables from Thailand:
Tim: Based on my research, the cotton candy is better than the stick. But the stick wasn't half bad.
Carol: Some of the ingredients she couldn't tell me the english names. But they looked like dried insects. So I skipped that part.
Neil: Mom and I think we should just snack our way outta here.