Thailand Adventure

In need of sun and a place where everyone seriously can't stop smiling? Check out Thailand. We started our trip with a night in Bangkok, complete with a Thai boxing match (no they wouldn't let Gene in the ring), crazy taxi rides, $5 foot massages, and endless food. We left the next day for Southern Thailand and stayed on Phi Phi island and then to Raleigh beach. Aside from the sun worship, we took a much needed cooking class, went rock climbing (where we went uncomfortably high up), snorkeled, hiked to a lagoon, and looked around for Leonardo DeCaprio on the island where "The Beach" was filmed. Another quick highlight involved being towed on a long boat. Our little wooden boat broke down in the middle of the ocean shortly after our guide, who didn't speak English shouted something resembling, "Big Wave!" ... clearly not the two words you want to hear on an 8 hour ride.

After a week of trying to turn our Oregon skin Thai, we headed up North to Chiang Mai, which is a mini Bangkok, but far more approachable and beautiful. Day adventures included elephant rides, white water rafting, bamboo rafting (we nearly sunk), King's flower festival (seriously like a Disneyland garden .. more than 10K people checking out flowers, plants and temples), and New Year's celebration complete with fire works and Thai style karaoke.

For more pics, click here. Want to visit Thailand? For our itinerary details, check with Gene, he did it all.