Christmas Day Hike

This is how Katie exits the car everyday...

Parking lot near JPL at start of the hike...



Aunt Tina's animated storytelling...




The athletic one in the family...






Drill-sergeant Duc...




Post-hike lunch...

Gingerbread house

The making of gingerbread house...

Misc photos!

"Something To Remember"

Here is a scan of Elaine's painting, "Something To Remember". If you click on the image you can see a larger size, but if you'd like the original scan size (9 in. by 11 in., 3 MB JPEG) please let me know!

"Something To Remember" © Elaine Huynh 2005

Ah... The Good Old Times...

The Last Leg - Bangkok

As the "Fantastic Four", we were all in denial when we had to check out of our villa in Phuket and go back to reality. Since it was a travel day, we didn't get into Bangkok until like 3:00 PM. We didn't do much the first night and we went our separate ways. Lauris, Nhi and Quang went to watch "King-Kong" in a plush movie theatre. Each had a plush reclining loveseat with pillows and blankets.

Alvaro and I went to meet up with the rest of the crew who had sprinkled in for Earl's wedding. It was good seeing other people and sharing our various travel stories in Thailand. The consensus was that Thailand is a definite must see in SE Asia.

After dinner, we all went out to the "Red-Light District". The streets were teeming with tourists and vendors trying to solicit business with magical "things": candles, cigarettes, beer bottles and ping-pongs. It was such a change from where Alvaro and I were 24 hours earlier (We were at FantaSea - a nice clean family environment =) There were street vendors, pubs, clubs all lining up the strip. Since it was obvious we were tourists, every five feet we walked we would hear "Free show.. no cover charge". After a while, we all succumbed to the temptation since this was probably the only time most of us would ever be in Thailand. The PG version: We were led to the club and it was dark and cigarette smoke pervaded the room. The performers rotated on stage and since it was dark we couldn't see much but what we did see was pretty nasty. Somehow, they wanted to charge us 300 baht/person. Little did they know that we had Aporn and Christie who speak Thai and went off on them. We all left and walked a bit more and went our separate ways.

The next day a group of us went to the Floating Market. Traffic was incredibly bad as it took a good hour to get out of Bangkok.

Hmmm... What do we have here?






We then headed off to the Grand Palace. Our tour guide was so funny. He would give us a fact like this year is the 215th anniversary of..... next year will be the 216th anniversary... and the following year will be the 217th anniversary. We were like really?

That evening, the Fantastic Four + Quang reunited for the Calypso Cabaret at the Asia Hotel. The performances and music were great. The WOMEN ... ah... I mean MEN looked beautiful. It was crazy. I thought there would be some tell-tale signs, but most did not have adam's apples and the other parts checked out as well.

Ah... what happens in Thailand stays in Thailand...

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn 5:00 AM to witness a traditional Thai ceremony. Earl and Aporn are great people and to see the amount of friends who flew thousands of miles just to partake is a testament to who they are.




Since there was a five-hour gap between the morning and evening ceremonies, most of us went back for a nap. After which, we went shopping for watches.

Here, Edwin explains the difference between a "TIG" and a "TAG".

The results... two dashing men in their formal attire ready for a wild night in Bangkok.

All in all, it was a beautiful ceremony and I felt honored to be able to attend. The wedding picts are courtesy of my sister Nhi.

The next day we visited some ruins at Ayutthaya, the ancient capitol of Thailand. It was amazingly picturesque.

That's it!! 10 days, one country, three cities, countless memories... Each city was very distinct and great in its own way. Chiang Mai was an old city with alot of history and character. Phuket was very luxurious and relaxing. Bangkok was a vibrant and busy... I'm ready for the Amazing Race now... oh wait... I can't drive a stick... It's going to be hard to go back to reality.

The Fantastic Four signing off...