More Thailand Pictures

 The Floating Market reminded me a lot of the shops in Nogales, Mexico.  All of these little shops were lined up on the canals.  Most of the shops sold the same goods and would try to sell us their products for less than their competitors.  The whole time you are on a little boat being guided by its own captain.  When we would float by shops, the owners would stick this hook like contraption to our boat and pull us to their shop.  All transactions take place without us having to leave our boat.  It was a very unique shopping experience.

These temples  were everywhere.  

All of the boats to take people around the market

This sign says "Cobra Show Thailand".  The show's announcer let us know that these snake handlers were risking their lives performing for us.  Indeed, snake handlers at this location had been killed.  This was pretty crazy.  Janis had us sit in the front row saying that we were totally safe.  Um...no, not necessarily.  There were hardly any barriers between us and the snakes.  I stayed in the front row for a while, but when the jumping snakes came out, I high tailed it to the last row!

See Todd and Janis and the snakes not too far away?

The snake garden also hosted crocodiles!  My mother-in-law has sat on one before.  I need to find that picture!

The Rose Garden was very beautiful and a lot more peaceful than the snake garden!

Riding the elephant was fun, but slow.  We got to feed this guy when we were done with our ride.  Elephants are pretty sweet for being a two ton beast!

I went to the restroom and came back to see Todd holding a python!  I was roped into holding him too!  I kept on telling myself that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and do things I wouldn't ordinarily do.  So, snake holding and kissing happened!

These elephants were performers.  These little babies were so cute.  They were very friendly.

This is Thai fruit cut up to look like flowers.  So beautiful.

Enjoying some ice cream and hoping it will cool us down.

Todd thought this stray cat looked picture worthy.  The song from "Lady and The Tramp" was playing in my head....."We are Siamese if you please".....Thailand used to be Siam.

Grinding rice

Rice paddies

Thai Ox

 

Elephant show....this is where Todd met the Italians.  Every trip we go on Todd comes across Italians and gets to use his rusty Italian language skills.  We have got to go to Italy some day!!

The Thai Cultural Show.  This show portrayed Thailand's beautiful history.  It was very interesting!

These beautiful dancers pulled me onto the floor.  I am pretty shy and introverted, but going with my trip's mantra, I went for it and tried not to be too awkward!

Our view from our bedroom.  This day we went into downtown Bangkok to the Jim Thompson house.  He was a textile designer and architect.  His home was gorgeous.  His story is interesting.  He was in Thailand working and then just vanished.  

We went to The Big C - it is like Wal-Mart and they had a food court, which of course featured a McDonalds!  The McDonalds over there does not offer Big Macs and such, they serve Thai food, fast.

 

The Capitol City, with Todd's Dad.

That is the Temple of The Dawn above.  Todd and I climbed to the top.

These worshipers looked so hopeful and beautiful to me.  Shame on me, I took a picture of them as they were praying.

The "sleeping Buddha"....so enormous.

These school kids were too adorable.

I was really excited to see Monks.  I shamefully took a picture on the sly.

The Temple of the Dawn

Small view of Bangkok from the top of the temple

There's Todd'd dad down there.

More views of Bangkok

We ate lunch on the side of this river.  It was pretty good.

This park is in the middle of the city.

We went out to dinner and the owner keeps these exotic birds outside the restaurant.

Noi and Janis

People use elephants as transportation there!

The mission office

We went on a day trip up into the mountains with Todd's parents so they could do some mission business.  This was a church building up there.

Todd's parents took us to this cute restaurant that was "American Cowboy".  They served great

 burgers, fries, and shakes.

We went on another day trip to an ancient city.  They had an elephant show there too.

Ancient Ruins

Todd and I loved traveling to Thailand to visit his parents.  We were so happy to come home though!  That was the longest we had ever been away from our kids.  This trip did spark an interest in traveling more and we have been traveling more since then.