Today we are going scuba diving so we had to get up early to eat have a shower then get out for the bus. when the bus pulled up mom and dad called it a “chicken bus” because it was a truck and in the back there was a wooden frame with two benches in it. It was a little bit of a drive to our first stop where we picked up the other people that were scubaing. Mom couldn’t scuba because it would hurt her back so she went snorkeling. When we got to the place we were diving on the boat we got on our gear and we jumped in. Mom had to snorkel in a different place for some unknown reason so me and dad went on our own. There were two dives, they were both in the same bay so we went on the first dive on the left side of the bay. The first thing I noticed was that most of the coral on the sides was dead from people touching it, but the fish were still there and that’s what I came there for. Dad videoed the dives on the “Joey Cam” which is a head mounted camera that files were you look. We saw a lot of fish in the sea anemones or however you spell that and in the coral. We even saw a sea snake swim up to the surface. But at that point I was almost out of air (because of my addiction to breathing) so we came up. After we got on the boat and had lunch we went over to the other side of the bay and went back in. In my opinion this was the better dive because we saw a sting ray ( images of Steve Irwin came to my mind) and a flounder our guide somehow spotted in the sand. And the coral was different on this side because there were big rocks coming out of the sand so there was more coral on those rocks. We saw a really cool kind of shrimp too. It had to little hammers on it’s face and it would beat stuff open to get it’s food. After this dive we started on our way home. But about one fourth of the way back we had to save two stranded people in a little boat (of course our captain charged 2000 baht to bring them back to our port and 3000 to bring them back to theirs) they chose to pay the 3000 and after we dropped them off we went back to our port then we got on the “chicken bus” and went back to our hotel. After that we went town and and got tickets to Phi Phi (spoiler alert) and we are still waiting for it right now (in case you didn’t realize I am blogging about this the day after). Then we went back to our hotel and went to bed.
Animal Day
Today we went out to ride elephants at the elephant farm first out of the lot of things we did today. So we got there but to get to the elephants you have to ride an ox cart. So we went in the cart and we even got to go in the drivers seat. After that we finally got to the place were we could ride elephants (of course there were a bunch of shops selling “hand made” scarfs and wooden elephants that all looked the same and had China written all over it). Finally we actually got on the elephant, it was a pretty bumpy and the pad that’s supposed to be covering the back wasn’t there so you had to push on the bar in front to keep you stuck to the back so you didn’t have hit it every step it took. But on the way back we ran into some people with a baby elephant and so when we just got to a place were only one or two elephants could fit through it decides it wants to nurse from its mom. So after it was done yelling because it wanted some milk we had to go the long way around. So when we finally got back to were we get off the show was just starting. It was an elephant show and they did some tricks like danceing and bowing and laying down but then two elephants started to paint pictures. Their names were Suda and one other I didn’t hear, when they were done they auctioned them off and I didn’t hear that they were doing that so I didn’t get one but mom asked Riam our tour guide if she would ask if Suda would paint another. She would paint on just for me!!!! While she was switching the colors of paint brushes we could feed her and pet her. After we got our painting and thanked Suda we went to a bamboo raft down a river (the river could go to Bangkok so they had a constant joke that “we’ll see you in Bangkok) after that we went to get lunch and pet some tigers. So we got the tickets to go into the small size tigers cage (there was large, big, medium, small, and very small sized tigers) so went in and we played and pet them for about fifteen minutes (there are pictures on dads blog of this too) after that and lunch we went to a monkey show it was really cool because they would shoot hoops and climb trees and all those things monkeys do. I got to do some things too, like I got to shoot hoops before the monkey (I lost to a monkey I only got one shot out of three and he got all three) after that you could throw money in to a pool and the monkey would go and get it. After that as the last thing we were doing we went and saw a crocodile show. We had twenty minuets before the show when we got there so we decided to go fishing for freshys, literally, they would put a piece of chicken on a string on some bamboo. After we ran out of chicken we went in to watch the show. It was mostly the same thing. They would hit it with a bamboo pole and make it bite and stick there heads and hands in its mouth. But when they were done they said 100 baht for pictures so I went in and sat, stood, laid on, and kissed a crocodile (and nearly gave mom a heart attack in the process). After that I was really tired so we went back went to the market for a bit then came back and went to bed.
Cooking School
Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while in fact a really long while but I have been trying to blog ever since I got to Thailand but I just haven’t gotten the time. Anyway today I had to get up sort of early to get to cooking school because it started at 8:00 AM but since I am not all the way on Thai time I got up at 7:30. So I got up watched some TV then we went down for breakfast I just had some bacon and mini pancakes then we were of on the bus/van of to pick up the other people that singed up for it also. After everyone came then we went to the market (even though we were doing the country cooking not the city cooking) and our instructor showed us stuff like the differences in rices and things like that. After looking around the market for a little while we went on our way to the farm. When we got there I thought it would be some little farm just outside of the city but it was a huge farm way away from the city, it was so far from the city it took us about twenty minuets to get there but I not really sure. And when we got there The instructor showed us some plants like egg plant and two different kinds of lime and a bunch of other plants I never heard of. Then we started our first dish, mine was Pad Thai and moms was Pad See Uw. To make Pad Thai is a lot faster than I though it would be. All you have to do is dice some garlic and get some bean sprouts/carrots and chicken then you fry everything but the noodles for about 120 seconds then you add the noodles with a bit of water and cook those until the noodles are wet. Then you mix it together and you have Pad Thai. I’m not sure how to make Pad See Uw but mom does and at the end of class we got a little cookbook that tells you how to make these things. After that I made spring rolls you just roll tofu, glass noodle, and some other veggies then fry then for about 10 seconds. my first one fell apart in the oil but my second one worked better. After that I made some Panang Curry. It takes a bit longer if you make your own curry paste, that’s what we did (did you know that to make Panang all you have to do is add peanuts to red curry). But we didn’t eat the curry instead we put it on the table then made Tom Yum soup and Mango Sticky Rice. After everything was made we ate it all for lunch. Then we said by to the farm then rode the van back to our hotel. When we got back we went and got dinner in the market and dad had to go to the tailor. After that we came back watched a little bit of TV then went to bed.