Fulfilling the fantasy!

One of our oft-told family legends is the tale, surely exaggerated, about Daddy’s trip to Thailand in the 70’s. We played all day on the beach, went para-sailing, and, since sunscreen was barely invented back then, got a world-class lobster-red sunburn that laid us up crying and whining in the hotel beds for 2 days… Here we are 35 years later, and our girls have been fantasizing about Thailand for months. Not the sunburn part, but the beach and para-sailing part. High on the Himalayan passes, Eliza would mention “this is SO awesome… I LOVE trekking in Nepal…. Hey Dad, will we get to para-sail in Thailand?” Or at a Kathmandu restaurant Sylvie would exclaim, “Dalbaht is my favorite FAVORITE food!!! …except Thai food. Mom, will we eat Thai food every day in Thailand?” Eliza even claimed that Thailand was her favorite country, weeks before she'd ever set foot in the place!

So now we are finally here in "tropical paradise," hoping that Thailand will meet their lofty expectations. The fruit & food is exquisite, plentiful, and delicious. Mangoes, star fruit, dragon fruit, mangosteens, pineapple, papaya, etc. etc…. Pad thai, green & red curries, tom yum and tom kha gai, spicy green papaya salads, chicken satay on the streets, ice cold beer and soy milk and fresh fruit juices…. Ahhhhh… It is SO wonderful to just eat here! And the parasailing bit? Will it be possible on Koh Chang? We came here because it’s not too far away from Bangkok (5hrs.), but still has some mellow quiet affordable places to stay… But on our first day splashing in the waves, we saw parachutes way down the coast, so we boarded our scooters and zipped down to check it out. Oh yes! They do parasailing, and such a deal too… 700 Baht per kid ($23 each). Each of them got a 20 minute ride, out around some smaller islands, and managed to land safely back on the “launching pad” raft. Lupin was so light that they sent an extra boy up with her to add some weight…. He just grabbed on, dangling from the slings, and upon takeoff, scrambled up into the rigging to sit above her harness. They all came down smiling and giggling and squealing with joy! Fantasy fulfilled, and on the first day at the beach!

The motorbike bit has also been a blast! The girls were begging us to ride scooters or motorcycles in Nepal, but egads, Kathmandu traffic is pretty daunting with kids! Even down in mellow rural Chitwan, we couldn’t find scooters to rent, as the entire town seemed to have only 3 rentals, all of them constantly booked up. Here in Koh Chang, scooters are like an extra appendage… everyone rides them everywhere, sometimes a family of 4 on one unit. It was so much more fun, efficient, and economical to zip around the island by scooter, as every pickup-truck taxi ride runs about 50 Baht per person… that’s 200 baht ($7) for the family one-way every single ride! Yikes… but the scooters go for 150 ($5) per 24 hours, which must be 10 to 20 times cheaper than shared taxi rides.

One great ride was up a quiet side valley, with a hike to Klong Phu waterfall… plenty of tourists on the trail, but also plenty of tarzan vines, snakes, and cool jungle trees. The slot-canyon waterfall was cool and exciting… and it was so nice to swim in fresh water for once! So far so good… parasailing, tropical waterfalls, fresh mangoes, motorcycle riding, snorkeling, rope swings over the sea, and luscious sunset swims every evening… I think they’re loving Thailand so far!