Peapod on Purpose

Sawatdee and Khop Khun

It’s tough stuff – traveling, not working, and visiting beach towns along the South East Asian coast.  What a hard life that we are living! Just kidding, just kidding.  As I write this post, it’s almost exactly three months from when we left the states to start our journey.  Man, I can’t believe it’s been three months already!  I want time to slow down even more than it already has. Our biggest worry these days is deciding between spending our day at the beach, or staying at the apartment to spend time with each other to play double deck (a traditional family game of mine).  Like I alluded to at the beginning of this paragraph, what a hard life we are living ;). Although, the honeymoon period for the start of our travel is starting to fade away as our “real” lives become more in focus. I feel this way for my life at least. 

Now, onto this blog’s subject, Thailand Time! The Peapod Squad spent the entire month of October in Thailand.  My thoughts on Thailand before I came were basically this, “a tropical beach country that is way too far for Americans to visit for a vacation.” However, if you took the time to venture out this way you would be exposed to some of the best beaches in the world, a cheap country where the dollar goes a long way, and one filled with youthful tourists looking to find a good time at a beachside bungalow.

Eastern City, Western Feel

I’d say that my original perception matches reality, but with twists of course.  Bangkok was our first stop, not a beach town to say the least.  Traveling around South East Asia there were a few conversations regarding Bangkok; it was the place to shop for those who could afford the journey from Cambodia or Vietnam.  It’s a big city with a western flavor, a little out of place in SEA.  (Although some friends that we met later in the trip felt that Bangkok had a full-on Asian culture feel.)  My only experience with this type of atmosphere was traveling to Hong Kong for work.  I would say that there were way more ex-Pats and westerners in Hong Kong.  In Bangkok, it’s western, but only in construction.  Lots of malls, really nice public transportation, eloquent hotels, and no slum areas that I noticed. 

We had to target some of the tourist spots while here, and of course that meant more temple visits.  Only three months in this part of the world but we’ve seen enough temples to last the rest of our lives.  This was going to be it, the last of the bunch.  (We specifically avoided Chang Mai since we knew that we had our fill.)

Right by the Beach, Mon

Most of our stay in Thailand was going to be close to the beach.  During the first quarter of our travels, the two places that I was looking forward to the most were Hoi An, Vietnam, and Koh Lanta, Thailand. Koh Lanta is an island that leans more favorable for families.  To get there, we flew into Krabi, then via private transport we drove to the island.  It’s remote, and requires a ferry.

Several things stood out immediately.  The infrastructure needed a facelift.  You can tell that the local transit authority was trying their best to help with the main throughways.  Thailand had the best roadway development so far…Koh Lanta not included.  There was a main road, and a couple of busy pockets on the island, but for the most part there were a ton of mom and pop shops scattered along the main semi-paved artery.

When on a journey like this, nothing prepares you for the turn that you are about to take onto the road that will lead you to your place of residence for the foreseeable future.  Ours was off the main road, the van bottoming out as it drives along this dirt road.  A road littered with pot holes that were filled with rain water, boulders perfectly placed for an automobile obstacle course, lined with a forest of trees where each held a small bucket collecting thick white sap the likes of which I had never seen.  A few signs led the way, but that didn’t mean that no wrong turns were had as we initially explored the area.  Buildings under construction directly in front of our villa.  That sinking feeling once again…what have we gotten ourselves into?

Time would lend itself favorable, just like it always does.  We had a huge top floor suite, a staff that would cook food for us (for a price of course), a pool accessible only to the villa guests, and, wow, a view of the bay with the most beautiful sunsets you’ll ever experience.  Space, comfort, the beach, and the wonders of nature at our fingertips!  Speaking of nature, every other day or so we had the pleasure of seeing the local monkey clan invade the villa area.  Full of monkey families, and a mean monkey leader, looking for anything to eat and claim as their own. We had an experience with the “mean” monkey; as we were admiring how close it was to our front door, it lunged at us, without warning, exposing its huge canines…yikes!  From our vantage point on the top floor, we could watch an old staff member with a slingshot trying to scare away the tribe, while at the same time – separated by patio fences – a nice cleaning woman feeding some of the others a piece of bread. Where were we?

Life’s a Beach, and This One is Heavenly

The beach, shells, and sunsets here are amazing. Back in the states the kids are always on the hunt for shells, but the ones that they find are usually broken and underwhelming. On Koh Lanta, it’s like every shell you pick up is straight from the shelf of a shell store. Hundreds of hermit crabs to be gathered, and set free for a crab race (if you’re into that type of entertainment). Perfect beaches with almost no one around, mainly because it was “low season” for the area. Low season hasn’t put a halt to the weekly fire shows on the island. We had the opportunity to dine right by the beach and watch a free fire show afterwards. The kids, and parents, loved it!

As we sat in our villa to enjoy slow days or dinner, we would gaze out into the ocean bay, in which we had a clear shot from the patio. Every time I looked out there I’d see this island that looked strangely familiar to me. If you look at it long enough, you can almost the silhouette of our dog pepper, laying on the ground, staring down a snail. Don’t you agree?!?! Just another reminder of how much we miss home, and how grateful we are to the family that is caring for him while we are away.

And the sunsets, wow! Sunsets are enjoyed all over the world (duh), so I’m sure you’ve seen fantastic orange, pink, and red colors in the sky where you live. However, we got to experience a view of the bay and the setting sun from our villa patio. All of these experiences made it the perfect beach experience for the family, one that was hard to let go.

Focus on Friendship

While on the island we ended up befriending a tuk tuk driver named O.  He helped set up our four island tour (see below), took us on a tour of the national park, and was communicating with me on WhatsApp as a friend.  Most days he would ask how we were doing and if we needed any rides.  I would walk down to the local main street to get groceries or other things that we needed for that day, and he would pull up to me asking if I needed a ride.  Even when I didn’t need it he would insistent that I hope on, free of charge.  It was so great to meet someone like O.  Mamma Pea baked a couple of sourdough baguettes for him, and O was so grateful. And when it was time to take Middle Pea to the barber for a haircut, who do you think I asked for a recommendation? O not only provided advice, his own barber of course, but he drove us there and hung out for the cut. When it came to pay up, a whopping 100 Baht (roughly $3) is all it cost. What a bargain!

Also during our visit to this island, Mamma Pea made friends with another traveling family, who wanted their kids to get some face to face play time with other littles.  Mamma Pea always says that I am pessimistic, so I tried to go into this chance online encounter with an open mind.  Meeting complete strangers, from a completely different continent (Australia), on a day that I really wasn’t feeling it….but it’s for the kids I said. 

The moms and kids went off into the ocean to get acquainted and roughhouse for a bit (not the moms, the kids).  So I had to make small talk with the dad…nice.  Come to find out that M was a CTO, and being in IT for the last 13 years, it was nice to have a connection.  I suddenly found myself chatting up some shop talk (not sure if M actually wanted to though), about topics that I had removed myself from for some time now.

M and Em were awesome to hang out with.  So easy going.  The peapod kids took to the relationship with their girls quickly.  Soon after we met, I was in a conversation when I heard screams of a young little girl, some would call them shrieks.  I looked around only to found it was their youngest, not mine, screaming horrifically with joy.  Guess I’m not the only one who experiences this type of little girl elation!

A Four Island Tour

There are a few excursions that you can do while in Koh Lanta.  There is the national park, which was a really neat experience.  During which we swam on a beautiful beach, had a picnic, and did a 2 hour hike through the jungle.  The hike was challenging, and I was a bit skeptical of the wild life considering some of our encounters recently.

Another excursion is what the locals call the four island tour.  This is where you jump on a long boat, drive for an hour to the farthest island, then proceed to make your way back stopping at each of the other three islands along the way.  While they serve you food and you get to snorkel a bunch, the highlight of the tour is seeing the Emerald Cave.  The experience has you swimming through a very dark cave for about 100 meters before gaining access to isolated emerald cove.  The kids were nervous about the prospect of swimming through the dark cave, we had heard about possible jellyfish encounters whilst doing so, so it took some convincing to get everyone onboard before we embarked for the trip.

We set off in the early hours on a Sunday morning with our newly made friends from Australia.  This trip was organized through my tuk tuk driver buddy, O, and there really wasn’t much (or any) reputable material or website to refer to.  However, I was assured that everything was on the up and up, and considering the great deal that we got, we figured that we couldn’t pass it up. 

The previous evening was filled with gnarly thunder storms.  The wind was up and the rain came down hard throughout the night, but by morning it had seemed to pass.  It was overcast, which was a relief from the beating sun that we would have to endure while on the boat and in the ocean for 6 hours.  I texted O to see if it was still on, he indicated that it was, I so we were off!

We weren’t the only ones that were going on the trip.  When the bus picked us up there was a trio of Germans, one who was really feeling it from the night before.  Here we were, piling into the pack of a pickup truck with 5 kids in tow, while Hans looked like he could use a few more hours of sleep.  But heck, why not take a boat tour on a Sunday morning while vacationing with your buddies?  (Sounds like a great plan to me!)  We were also accompanied by a group from France, and of course there were the local tour guides.

In total there were about 20 tourists ready to embark on the trip, and a  super animated captain, who seemed like the perfect guy to lead a tour like ours.  The kids started off the trip singing songs in the back of the boat. Remember those days in elementary school, slapping the back of the bus seats to the beat of “we will, we will, rock you”?  It was like that.  The first 30 minutes were high energy fun.  Meanwhile, Hans over here didn’t look so hot.  He reached into his bag and pulled out a green bottle filled with lager and lit up a smoke, classic.

Thirty to forty-five minutes into the trip things started taking a turn.  The seas were rough and seemed like they got worse the farther we went out.  It wasn’t too windy or rainy, I think it just was the remnants of the evening before.  However, Hans wasn’t the only one on the boat starting to turn green.  There was a little girl, about the same age as Little Pea, who was losing her morning chocolate milk in a clear plastic bag that her mother was holding.  The combination of the boat movements, tight quarters, and watching this little girl losing her breakfast resulted in several other turned stomachs.  Big Pea had to grab a bucket but for the most part held it together.  Mamma Pea wasn’t felling too hot either.  One dude was there with his girl, head on her shoulder as she stroked his hair to help keep him calm, as true sign of chivalry.

We were almost there! The moment we were all waiting for, our first island stop, the Emerald Cave!  As we pulled up, I remember Mamma Pea saying, “thank goodness, we can get off this boat now!”  No more than 90 seconds after pulling up, the boat captain turned to us and said it was a no-go, the seas were too rough to make the swim.  On top of that, there was another long boat in the area where their rudder had fallen clean off their engine, and we were the only other boat there to keep them company!  At this point PM Daddy Pea starts to kick in and questions start to run through his head.  How did the captain not know that it would have been too rough to make the cave swim?  There are no other boats out here, we’re going to have to give this other boat a tow!  And, about a quarter of our boat was feeling the worst of the sea, how was the rest of the trip going to go?  There was no getting off of the boat for us now.  We threw a line to the other boat, turned, and off we went. 

Surely we were headed back to the mainland, right?  Nope, we headed for the second island.  This was a stop where we would jump off of the boat and snorkel for 45 minutes, then continue on with our journey.  So there we were, two boats worth of tourists jumping into the ocean to snorkel.  The current was strong, and at one point we all kind of looked at each other with looks that indicated we’d better head back to the boat.  Visibility was, maybe, 3 feet.  (I know I mixed imperial and metric in this post, yeah…). We all had life jackets on of course, but there were the littles, how would they fair?  I was dragging, and the kids as swam ahead.  They made it look effortless as Daddy Pea made his best Michael Phelps impression, no struggling here.  Mammy Pea has already lost her breakfast in the water, apparently being out of the boat didn’t help as much as she thought.

The third island was actual dry land.  They served food, you could grab some drinks and fruit as well.  And, there was a nice cove to swim in.  It was definitely a well needed break from the rough seas.  The fourth island followed, another snorkel spot.  But this time our visibility went much deeper.  We saw some anemones and zebra fish.  By this time another fully functional boat had met up with us, and figuring that they would tow in the disabled boat, things started looking up!

As we prepared for our journey back, we kept a close eye on how the boat crews were handling the disabled boat.  They decided to have the tourists board the new boat, which made sense.  However, what didn’t make much sense to me was that they had our boat tow the new (good) boat, and the new boat tow the old (broken down) boat.  Maybe someone can explain this to me, probably has something to do with adding more horsepower so that we all could reach shore faster?  There we were, a three boat train, heading back to shore. 

The seas were still rough.  About 15 minutes into the journey, SNAP.  The last boat’s tow rope came undone.  Time to turn around and regroup.  After some interesting maneuvers by both boat captains, we were off again.  Ten more minutes passed, SNAP!  Time to turn around again.

Now we were still 30 minutes away from land and people were feeling it.  It’s during these moments that my true comedic personality comes out.  Of course, not holding back, I started to look around and joke with Em about the situation.  Here we were, a group of Americans, Australians, French, Germans, and Thais, all together on a boat, half sick, some hungover, towing a broken down boat, experiencing about half the prescribed tour…and we actually paid for this! The life vest says it all…

Meanwhile Mamma Pea was standing up, head leaning over the side of the ship.  Then…lunch overboard!  (I’m sure my jokes didn’t help the situation either.)  Then…SNAP.  At least we were getting good at these recovery maneuvers!

Our boat pulled up next to the other working vessel.  Our captain said a few words in the local language, then off we went!  The captain was not going to have us stick around any longer.  Thank you Mamma Pea!  If she hadn’t lost her lunch, I think we’d be sticking around for another tow.

It truly was an adventure.  Not the one that we paid for, but one we’d not forget for a long time.

Self-Reflection and Solace

We asked O to drive us to the ferry on the morning that we left the island.  When we finally said goodbye to him on the dock, we took a photo like he was one of the family.  I’m not joking, I think we all had tears in our eyes as we said goodbye.  O kept in touch over the few weeks that followed after we left.  He informed me that the car that he used to take us to the national park, and dock, had been totaled in an accident that his wife and son were in.  I’d ask anyone who is inclined, pray for O, that his wife and son are on their way to recovery and are healing well, and that he may find the means to get a new car.

One more thing about Koh Lanta before I move onto the final leg of our Thailand journey.  This was the time that I was supposed to self-reflect on what I am doing with my life.  The time to find out if I wanted to change my career path, start something new, or go back to my old career that I was comfortable with and knew well.  During this period I had a lot of time to have self-reflection moments, and time to pray on it.  It was a hard, and sometimes frustrating, time for me.  I made a lot of notes, wrote a lot about different things.  I tried to read and listen to podcasts about different perspectives that I thought I was chasing.  And what did I conclude?  That I need more time. 

In essence, I don’t know what the future will hold.  I continue to pray that I will be called to do something that the Lord wants me to do.  I continue to talk about it with Mamma Pea and other friends.  Most importantly, what is best for our family?  The one thing I did realize: I need to make the most out of this time with my wife and kids.  I think this self-reflection period was great, but it was somewhat selfish.  I need to let go of what will happen in the future and be more present now.

A Family Visit, A Taste of Home

Enough of that talk, time for the final part of our leg had us going to Phuket and Khao Lak.  This was a special treat as the grandparents were going to meet up with us.  The kids were so excited!  And, the parents were excited too. It would be nice to converse with other adults, and to get out on some dates as well! 

We got to hang out as a family.  It was so nice to sit down for family dinners, go out and explore the town, and to hit up the beach together.  Daddy and Middle Pea got to golf some, and Papa came along for the ride.  Middle Pea was so excited to be golfing, and all of those lessons that he had taken before we left paid off.  We also experienced a Thai cooking class together, sharing an experience that we had as a family while in Vietnam. It was fun to split into twos and cook together as a family. Of course, we enjoyed the fruits of our labor afterwards. What a treat to experience this time together!

We ended our time in Thailand in Khao Lak.  We stayed in the JW Marriott resort, utilizing the last of the reward points that I acquired while traveling for work.  It was fantastic!  There were waterslides that the whole family enjoyed, a trampoline/waterslide that even Grandmama and Papa enjoyed, and a beautiful beach front property to experience the warm waters and sunsets of the Indian Ocean. 

One of the more memorable experiences was spending the day celebrating Big Pea’s birthday!  She was treated to a beautiful day of swimming and boogie boarding, a very nice dinner, and a hotel staff-prepared presentation which included towels folded like animals and a collage of pictures of her throughout the years that Daddy Pea provided in advance. 

It’s Hard To Say Goodbye

Saying goodbye to this country was hard, but it was even harder to say goodbye to the grandparents.  We are so thankful that they traveled half-way around the world to spend time with us.  We are thankful for the people that we met during our stay in Koh Lanta.  And, we are thankful for the time in the beautiful tropical climate of Thailand.  What an experience overall!  Now it was time to head out of South East Asia, to our final stop in Asia before heading to Europe.  Time to fly to Mumbai!