Mi Panda, Mi Panda

We had a quiet weekend before our big Bangkok trip, so we stopped by the Chiang Mai Zoo for the morning. On the way we saw this parade:

And then, of course, we immediately went to visit my favorite animal at the zoo:

We couldn't stay too long with the giraffes, as they had some business to attend to.

I'm still trying to decide whether to bring a Thai Baby or a Thai Baby Elephant home with me.

I really hope I don't bring one of THESE home:

Opposition in all things.

Thailand is awesome, because they always let you venture into the animals' cages. Here is Andrew feeding some hungry hungry penguins:

Please note his white go-go boots. The penguins were really cute, and Mr. Popper made sure each one got a fish.

This zoo also has three pandas; one was born just before Andrew finished his mission in 2009. Pandas really are so cute.

We stopped at the aquarium which has the longest tunnels of any aquarium. I also thought they had a dolphin show, but they didn't, which I found out as we were exiting. Good thing I'm not 5 or I would've thrown a tantrum.

Then at night we went back to the cultural center where we went on our first anniversary, but this time we brought the kids.

This time, it wasn't raining afterward, so we got to stay and watch the hill tribe dances as well. One group did tinikling! Made me think of those Greenland Pines nieces and nephews. Also, these kids were kind of bored with the whole business, so they weren't very diligent about avoiding the crunching of the dancer's ankles. We heard a lot of "OW"s and "OI!"s during this number. Super funny.

It was nice to have a quiet weekend. There won't be any of those left the entire trip!

Andrewism #17

"BA BING!"
Translation: Cha ching.
Best Part: This could mean "to patch a grilled hole" in Thai. Also not real.

Action, 2 Words, 1st Word...

Arm motion down, index finger pointed: sit down here
Lips puckered, then shoved head-nod style toward object: it's over there
Legs in a squat, right hand posed ready for action: don't move, I'm going to get the lizard off your shirt and then carefully take it outside so it can still live, because if you try to get it, you will kill it and it will be gross

I'm getting so good at this game.

Lora the Explorer

We just got back from Bangkok, and we had such fun adventures there. A little mishap with our camera means I am currently picture-less for that trip, so I am going to catch up a bit on our past adventures while I gather photos from the students who went with us. 

I haven't talked at all about my job here, really. Now that I have an adventure to associate with my job, I am ready to write about it. If you want a recap of why we are here in Thailand, read this post. Even though I've graduated, BYU gave me the opportunity to be a student for the summer and have my own internship. I work for an NGO here that supports and initiates projects with various hill tribes in Northern Thailand. The projects themselves are varied and depend on the needs of each community the organization works with. One of their big focuses is an organic farm. The NGO set up the farm as an example to villagers of how to farm organically. 

Andrewism #16

"Man, this place is POPPIN'!"
Translation: Hopping
Best Part: It stuck.

Is there a Fourth in Thailand?

Yes!

The American Consulate held a huge bash for anyone who loves America last Monday. We love America, so we went. Andrew sported his BYU football shirt, and I wore a blue skirt (red is hard to come by in our family; go BYU!).

They had delicious American food for us: burgers, hot dogs, pizza, APPLE PIE, lemonade, burritos, steak. We loved it:

Vacation from Our Problems

We had such a great trip to the beach. We flew down to Phuket, but we heard that we'd have a better time on Phi Phi Island or Krabi, so we took a ferry off Phuket as soon as possible (Phuket caters to a younger, looser crowd, and transportation is expensive too). We stopped on Phi Phi for 1.5 days, then continued by boat to Ao Nang beach near Krabi for the rest of our stay. We got to Phi Phi Island twenty minutes before the day-long boat trip left, so we changed to our swimsuits and jumped on the boat! This is what our day was like:

• Snorkeling x 4
• Island hopping x 5
• Beach lounging x 2
• Swimming x 3
• Lunch x 1

Andrewism #15

"If nothing happens today, we'll be out of the blue."
Translation: Out of the woods
Best Part: I think this came from the idea that something happens out of the blue. But this Andrewism is really a beautiful combination of several idioms, many of which I still can't pinpoint. (e.g. "in the red," "in the clear," etc.)

Thai Beds

I was going to make "Thai beds" the hardest on the scale, but I didn't want to exaggerate. 

I only complain on days when I get home from a day full of hard work and sweat like this one: