Koh Samui

The final week of vacation was spent in Koh Samui, a beautiful tropical island paradise.

Here we got to visit the largest waterfall on the island, Namuang, we got to see Grandfather Rock (we couldn't find Grandmother), we went to a Muay Thai fight, set off a paper lantern into the night sky for good luck, and went parasailing, which was super awesome and exhilarating and you should totally try it one day!

 Roderick went after me and took the camera up with him

 Yup, that's me :)

 If you look closely, you'll see Rod in the pool

 Grandfather Rock ;)

Phuket

The second part of our journey in Thailand took us to Phuket; pronounced Poo-Ket!

While in Phuket, we went on two boat excursions to the Phi Phi Islands, where we got to see the places where the movies 'The Beach' and 'James Bond: Man with the Golden Gun' were filmed. We got to snorkel, go sea canoeing through caves, shop, eat some amazing food, and just admire the beauty of the Islands.

Phuket was way better than Bangkok, and if you ever go to Thailand, I highly recommend visiting this place! I fell in love. 

Bangkok

Well, we're back from our two week holiday in Thailand. It was great to get away, as the hubby really needed a vacation, and he's never really been on a proper holiday before, aside from our road trip to Boston in the summer. All the other "vacations" were work related, Afghanistan, Germany and Cyprus. So this was an exciting one for us!

Before we arrived in Pakistan, we knew that Thailand would be our first vacation. Rod had heard lots of great things about it, and once we arrived here, everyone was telling us that we must go there first. It's close, it's cheap, and it's just a beautiful place to visit!

Our first stop was Bangkok. I am happy that I had the chance to see it, but I don't think I'd want to pay to go back. It's nice, yes, but it's a big city and I'm more into beaches, nature, etc. It was interesting though, stinky, dirty, full of hookers and LadyBoys, great for shopping, and full of delicious restaurants!

For those wondering what LadyBoys are, they're basically someone who was born a man, but lives their life as a woman. We would call them transgendered. In Thailand, it's perfectly normal and ok for someone to have this lifestyle, and they're actually thought of as a third sex, which I found to be very interesting! Now if only every country could be so open to this.

While in Bangkok, we visited Nana, which is basically the Red Light District. Full of hookers, strip clubs, and old men looking to have a good time. I've actually never seen so many old white men with hot young Asians in my life! They're everywhere, but good on them I suppose. I've never been to a strip club and sort of wanted to test it out, but we never had the chance as we were in bed early each night and up at 6am.

We took a day trip to Ayutthaya, which was founded in 1350 and now just a bunch of ruins.

After our trip to Ayutthaya, we stopped in at Bang Pa-In Palace, but a massive storm came in quick so unfortunately we didn't get to see all of it.

Another day we went to see a floating market. We took a traditional long boat through the canals to get to the floating market, which was just amazing. I was in awe, and it is probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen or done. Basically, people set up shops alongside the canals, and tourists and locals alike get in the boats and float along from one shop to the other, buying things that they need, or don't need.

We were only in Bangkok for a couple of days, and that was enough I thought. Glad I've had the opportunity to see it as it really is an interesting place! 

Things you take for granted

I never realized how important natural gas was, until now.

For the past two weeks, our house has been without gas. Apparently there was a gas leak in the pipes somewhere on the compound that we live in, so we've all been without it, until today when it was finally fixed.

So for the past two weeks, I've had to take my laundry over to another compound and do it there (and I've always lived in a house, and have had my own laundry, so this was quite inconvenient for me and something I am not used to at all). I've had to take my showers in the Club changing rooms. I've had to eat at the Club every single night, and morning, if I feel like eating breakfast. And before this gas line incident, I was only home for a week or so from my 3 week trip to Dubai, so I've literally only had a couple of home cooked meals in well over a month. And now it will be even longer, as we are going on holiday tomorrow.

When we were out the other night to pick up a few things (ie. pirated DVD's from the local shop, Illusions. Totally illegal but who can resist $1 DVD's?) there was a massive lineup at the gas station for gas. Apparently there is a gas shortage in this country, and not due to any natural disasters either. Simply because it's a third world country, and very poor. So for 3 days of the week, the gas stations are all shut down to conserve gas. Who knew? Certainly not I, as we don't own a vehicle and have drivers drive us everywhere. And that's another thing. It's sort of nice, and convenient, being chauffeured around, especially in a place that you are unfamiliar with, but you do start to miss having your own freedom, and just getting in the car and going for a drive.

Anyway, back to the gas situation. In the winter months, the government turns off the gas for a couple of hours every day to conserve it even more. This is something we weren't told before coming here, and such an inconvenience, but I guess that's why we're getting paid the big bucks. For all of these inconveniences. Fortunately for us though, our heaters are electric so the only thing we'll be missing for those few hours a day is hot showers, a stove (and oven) and laundry. Hopefully they don't turn it off when you really need to use those things.

The government also turns off the electricity all year round, whenever they feel like it, which is a couple hours every day. We don't really notice this though, unless we're out in public, because there are generators here. I don't even know what I would do without the generators. You don't realize how much you rely on these simple things, and you definitely do take them for granted.

I sometimes think to myself, how did I get here? What is the purpose for this adventure? And maybe it's to appreciate life more, and not to take anything for granted. Life could always be so much worse, and I am very grateful for the life that I have been blessed with.

<3

Thanksgiving

On Monday night, the Canada Club held a belated thanksgiving dinner, since all the spouses were away in Dubai for the first one.

It was really nice to all be together, and have a "family dinner". We may not all be family, but it sure feels like it! We fight, we laugh, we cry, and we take care of one another. We're really fortunate that the mission here is so small. Others are huge and it doesn't really allow you to get close to many people. Take D for instance, he's here on temporary duty for 6 weeks from the embassy in London. There, he has no friends, no club, no social life, and he hates it! So as crazy as it can be here in Islamabad at times, we're really lucky.