Songkran in Sattahip (Sah-tah-heep)

Okay I'm a little late on this, but two weeks ago we had a 5 day weekend for Songkran, Thai New Year and the accompanying annual water festival. I hadn't made any plans (trying to be responsible and save money for home, blah blah blah), but last minute my Thai coworker Sue invited me to join her and her family for the weekend at her sister-in-law's house in Sattahip, outside of Chonburi. She insisted she would "take care of me," so I couldn't say no, and off we went. We set out at 6:30am Friday morning, and after stopping for breakfast made the 3 hour drive into the country. Nobody in her family spoke more than 10 words of English, but I did my best with what little Thai I had and we all had a great time anyway.

Precious little Ice, she was so adorable!

Fun at the beach!

With Sue's daughter Film (left) and niece Ink

The weather couldn't seem to make up its mind, but only rained a little bit before being nothing more than a mess of ugly clouds

Sue and Film

Sue, Me, Ink, and Film

Film teaching me how to write the day of the week in Thai

Heading to the temple for their prayer time

At a winery - Focus (Sue's son), Film, me, Ink, Ink's mom, and Sue

Huge gold Buddha image on the mountain

Skewering pork for dinner! 

Ink

Dinner :)

Karaoke! :D

Picking up the chicken for dinner

We ate the entire tub. Had to - it was going to melt, haha

Went to the temple Sunday night for the festival, and there was Thai dancing..

..lots of people..

..dance party..

..shoot the stuffed animal, take it home..

..two minutes to pick up as much candy as you can with the remote-controlled truck..

..and, just in case you wanted to buy a cabinet, there was a furniture "shop" as well. lol

Got some fun balloons for the girls

Hanging out at father-in-law's house Monday afternoon

The kids wasted no time getting busy with their water pistols

Sue singing some (loud) karaoke

Songkran tradition - little "flowers" fashioned from ribbons then 1, 2, or 5 baht coins are put inside and thrown for the kids, somewhat like a pinata

Focus having his guitar lesson

Film, entranced with the ONE game on my phone haha

Prayer time

Gathering the blessing from the elders

They poor the water over the elder's hands, then receive their blessing

Trying to hit the empty coffee bottle with the slingshot

Film trying out the ukulele

Palate Cleanser? :D

My favorite part is at 2:20 hahaha

Day 18 - Back to the Land of Smiles

-After trying a few different exchange counters in Abu Dhabi, I finally found one that would take my Egyptian pound, so I changed most of it to Euros and got a little bit of local currency, just enough for coffee and some sinful chocolate/peanut butter pie.

-Our flight was pretty empty, and I had the whole row to myself. I watched a few movies, some TV episodes, and read my book.

-I was so glad to arrive back in Bangkok that in my haste to get off the plane I completely forgot my jacket under the seat. Didn't realize it until a couple days later, and by that point, mai pen rai; one fewer thing for me to pack.

-As it turned out, my bag was the ONLY bag they managed to forget in Abu Dhabi, so I had to fill out a bunch of forms for them to bring it to me the following evening. To top that evening off, I left my cell phone in the taxi on the ride home from the aiport. Carried it all over Europe, then left it in the freakin' taxi. Luckily, a Thai friend of mine called the airport with my luggage info so they could contact her instead of me the next day when my bag arrived, and when I bought a new phone the next day, TRUEmove (service carrier) gave me a new simcard with my same old number and all my minutes still on it, free of charge (once I'd verified the number and when I had purchased the last one).

-So as usual, though some things get lost, some things don't work, and some things just don't go how I'd have expected, life goes on.:)

Day 17 - Last Day in Egypt

-Like clockwork, my bladder woke me up at 8am, and I plodded off to go squat in the sand somewhere. When I returned the others had woken up, and after some coffee and a light breakfast we packed up our gear and started the journey back to to Cairo.

Breakfast...and me with my umbrella...I've definitely been living in Asia too long

-We visited a few of the famous white rock formations, stopped for lunch at the muscle woman's home/shop, and switched back to the van again when we reached Bedwin.

-Upon arriving home, I checked my flight and realized it was leaving at 4am not 4pm the next day, so I quickly showered before packing up my things. We ordered a delicious bagel dinner to be delivered, then watched Life of Pi before saying our goodbyes and sending me off in a taxi to the airport.

-I was several (4) hours early for my flight, so I settled down with a cappuccino and my book to wait it out. Two o'clock came, and I headed to my check-in counter, only to get all the way to the front of the line and their system "had a problem." For whatever reason, their computers wouldn't scan or print anything, so we sat around, on the floor, for over an hour, before they finally started hand-writing our boarding passes. Then currency exchange before my gate was "out of euros," so I was stuck with my useless Egyptian pounds until my next stop.

-We left about 30 minutes behind schedule, so when I got to Abu Dhabi for my transfer, I rushed off the plane to hurry to my connecting flight, only to find it delayed 2 hours. Sigh...story of my life.