I just wanted to take a few minutes to update everyone. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I leave Chaing Mai to travel to Bangkok. From there, I’ll be traveling up to Ubon Ratheni (sp) and on to several other places before returning to Bangkok. I don’t know how internet access will be while I’m gone, so I may be out of touch for a few days. I’ll try and update the blog with some more pictures and texst before I leave; however, I may or may not get time.
Sick
Several of us are sick (I think I have the beginnings of a cold or something small). Pray for us that we would continue to be effective.
Four Generations
While Matt is enjoying his Thailand experience, Lydia and I are back in Ohio to visit friends and family. It has been so exciting to introduce Lydia to her Great-Grandma Prather! They have hit it off very well and it is so sweet to watch them together. Lydia did pretty well during the LONG drive from Richmond to Columbus and we had a great visit with Ronda (and Kevin) the last couple of days. Ronda came with us to Gran’s yesterday so we could take the four-generation picture my mom and grandma have both been anxious to get. I hadn’t thought much about it, but after seeing it printed and in the special Four Generations frame she had, I was really excited. What a blessing to see the women of our family all together like that! I’m now enjoying letting Lydia and Grandma get to know each other over the next couple of days 🙂
On a side note, I had the privilege to attend our old church this morning and there were several people giving testimonies about recent missions experiences. I was so blessed by the work God is doing in that body! Several youth spoke and their spiritual maturity and heart for others was truly awesome. And the many others who shared inspired and challenged the congregation to look for opportunities to minister in the community, state, country, and around the world!! I even got to share about what God has done in the life of our family in the two years since we left 🙂 Words cannot express the joy I feel in seeing familiar faces developing a passion for missions and daring to walk in obedience regardless of where that takes them!!
Wat Prathat Doi Suthep
Several days ago (I don’t remember when right now) we went to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep (a Bhudist Temple). I’m in the process of uploading some pictures as I’m typing. I won’t get them all up, but I’ll do a few.
This was my first visit to a Bhudist place…as I was there, I was struck by the sadness of it all. These people praying to these idols (statues or Budda). I’m not real sure what they believe; however, they are following a false religion. The temple, in general, reminded me of a Catholic church. There were all sorts of boxes around asking for donations for this and that. There were all sorts of insense sticks, candles, etc… for sale. And nothing these people do matters…they are deceived by Satan.
I’ll post some more about our visit (and more pictures) later.
Laundry
I didn’t have room for 2 weeks worth of clothes, so I decided in advance that I would get them washed here. I figured it would be cheap; however, I didn’t know what the situation would be. The hotel we are staying in charges something like 40 baht to wash a tshirt. Outrageous. Across the street from the hotel, there is a place that charges 40 baht per kilogram.
I took my laundry over tonight, I’ll get it back tomorrow night, and the whole weeks worth of dirties cost me 148 baht (a tad over $5). I’m sure I could have found it cheaper; however, this was convienient and not too bad. I’ll let you know how it comes out tomorrow.
Calling the US
I had a friend here loan me a spare cell phone while I’m here. I decided to see how much a call to the US was. Turns out, it is 10 baht per minute (at the current exchange rates, that is about 30 cents per minute). That is almost better (if not better than) what Cyndi can call me for. So, I talked to her tonight…that was great.
For those that don’t know, you can call an international number by dialing <Int’l Access Code> + <Country Code> + <number>. On a cell phone, you can replace <Int’l Access Code> with a + character. And the US country code is simply 1. So, to dial a US number from here, it looks like +1xxxxxxxxxx (where xxxxxxxxxx is the normal phone number for the person). It is super easy to call internationally on a cell.
Pictures On The Way
For everyone waiting on pictures….I have over 1GB already. But, you’ll have to be patient. The connection only gives me 256kbps upstream. I get more at home and this would take all night there. As I get pictures up, I’ll post links.
I’m working on getting food up first. Then, I’ll do some general travel pics, then I’ll do a section on a Budist temple, then I’ll post others in a general area.
If you want to look at what is going on, here is a link to my 2007 Thailand Picture Gallery .
[Update 22 Dec 2012 07:49] Â All of our pictures are on Flickr.
Haven’t fell off the face of the earth
I just wanted to let everyone know I haven’t fell off the face of the earth. I just haven’t had time to blog. In fact, tomorrow I start doing some stuff at 7:30am and here it is almost 11!
Today, we went and rode elephants. I’ll get pictures of that (and all my meals) up tomorrow. In the mean-time, just be patient. We are trying to work some things out.
Meals
I had some extra time so I thought I would take this opportunity to blog about what we have eaten so far (pictures will come later). In JFK, I bought a kfc twister for lunch. I’m planning this to be my last western food for some time. On the plane, I had some curry chicken stuff, shrimp pad tai, and a chicken/noodle stir fry. It was a ll very good. This morning for breakfast, I had sweet and sour chicken (what the Thai people eat for a morning meal…go figure). At lunch, we had an assortment of dishes–sorry, I won’t have any pictures of this as I forgot my camera. At dinner, we had baked chicken, and a mango noodle dish. Our friend here is willing to help oblige my trying to not eat western food while here…tomorrow he sounds as if he has some good things in mind.
One other thing…the Thai people only eat noodles (think cup-o-noodle noodles) with chopsticks. Instead, they use a fork and spoon. They hold the fork in the left hand (really fist). They use the back of the fork to push the food away from them onto the spoon (I’ll post some pictures later).
Hello from Thailand
Hello from Thailand. We have been in country less than 24 hours at this point, but have had a great time. I’ll get some pictures up shortly. We’ll have to belay the podcasts (long story….I’ll write more about that later) because I have no way to record them….
We went to bed last night at about 10pm local. I woke up about 4am after sleeping very well.
Later this evening, I should have some pictures and additional details up.