Additional Vacation info

So the good news is that when we got back, Akiva’s birthday presents from Mom and Dad and Rachel and Micah were waiting for us. He received an electric gear thing, several good books, two years supply of saline nasal inhaler. Akiva is busy experimenting with seeing how what happens when you put your figures in the gear thing toy, and how much torque the small electric motor has..

The bad news is that Suzhou is -1 C…. much colder than when we left and possibly the coldest ever in Akiva’s life so far.

So as Haga said, Thailand was great. Possibly the most relaxing vacation in my life. Not necessarily the most exciting vacation. But the most relaxing. Our daily schedule was something like this:

6:30 Haga and Akiva wake up, they go out.
7:30 Jesse wakes up. We all go out.
7:30-8:30 Akiva plays outside
8:30 we eat so-so breakfast
9:30-10:00 Akiva plays in sand
10:10:15 Akiva plays in ocean
10:30 Akiva and Jesse sleep
11:30 Akiva and Jesse wake up and plan where to go for lunch
12:00 We all go to the local Muslim curry restaurant. Jesse eats spicy chicken curry. Haga eats Pad Tai (noodles). Akiva eats rice cereal mixed with lemony Thai soup. And Ice Coffee.
1:00-2:30 Akiva plays in sand
2:30-3:15 Akiva goes in ocean
3:30-5:30 Akiva and Jesse sleep
5:30-6:00 Haga, Akiva, and Jesse swim in pool (its in the shade now)
6:30-7:30 Akiva and Jesse discuss what to eat for dinner
7:00-8:00 We all eat calamari, pad tai, chicken curry. Although sometimes we eat BBQ and Satey.
8:30-9:00 We get Akiva ready for bed.
9:30- Jesse goes out to local bar and socializes with Belgium film crew preparing to film reality TV series.

We had some variation to this routine…we went to Phuket Town one day to buy stuff.

Oh…and I went Scuba diving one day. Here is how that went…

I was taught for 45 minutes in a pool by an Italian instructor.
We went out on the boat the next day in the morning. I put the gear on and went under. It took me a long time to get down just 10 meters because I’m not good at equalizing the pressure in my ears.
I saw a bunch of coral and fish. It was pretty.
About 15 minutes into it, I felt I was having trouble going both up or down because of my ears (I have sinusitis and it is a little difficult to gauge if I am blowing on my ears (by holding my nose) to much or little.
On the way up I started to get dizzy (I guess from pressure on my ears). I got scarred for a few seconds because I thought I was going to pass out. Then I figured I should communicate to the instructor that I was about to pass out. I made a circle motion around my head, signifying birds / stars were orbiting my head. The instructor sort of made a hand motion like “mama mia, fugett about it. Tis nothing.”. So I thought…OK.
Then we got to the top. But my ear felt itchy for a few days afterwards. Haga thinks its because I don’t clean my ear enough.

We also met up with a friend, Amy. Amy is a “cool chick”. We stayed at her house last time we went to Thailand. You can see pictures and read the post about the last time we went to Thailand here.

What else? Ummm…. Here are some random observations:
1. China Eastern Airlines sucks. Period. Not because we took the red-eye…but because it is just bad.

2. Thai people like rock and roll. And not just young people. That makes them better than Chinese people. On the beach, the Muslim middle-aged woman who made my ice coffee (and I note that SHE was Muslim because she wore the black head scarf…which I guess means that she was somewhat observant) hums disco and rock songs.

3. In China, the best clothes are exported to the US. In Thailand, they import thrift store cloths and wear concert T-shirts (because many are made there). I saw a lot of older people wearing Dead Kennedys T-shirts. Very funny. So Thai people, although not as wealthy as Chinese, look cooler.