Lantern Festival 2013

Our family and a bunch of friends all met downtown for the controlled chaos that is the Lantern Festival.  We know this country's population is quite large - but being shoulder to shoulder with it brings this fact to full realization!  There were A LOT of people out for the festivities.

We waited a bit until they closed off the roads.  Family picture opportunity.

We saw a lot of Tibetans that were clearly from outside of town - likely drawn to the 'big city' for the holiday and sights.  Many of them wanted their picture taken with the girls.  Here's Lia with one new Tibetan friend.

Darkness is setting in and the lights are looking good.

I feel safer now.

Lanterns

Fireworks show!

  
We made it to the "center" of all the festivities.  It was a bit anti-climatic.

At one point as we left the area, a policeman escorted our group of very obvious out-of-towners through the thickest part of the crowds.  Very nice.

Getting home was an adventure.  Buses were ridiculously crowded - hundreds of people were waiting at the bus stop we were at.  Buses that did arrive were already crazy packed.  I walked up the street a bit where dozens of others were flagging down taxis.  Miraculously, one saw me, did a quick u-turn and picked me up.  I drove down to the bus stop where the ladies and the four young'uns got in the taxi.  Myself and other man-folk ended up walking the 4 miles back home.  We all made it back safely!

I was exhausted.  But a really bad stomachache kept me curled up and sleepless until about 2:30am.  Not fun.

Lia's 11!

Can't believe we have an ELEVEN year old in the house!

Hotel Time

We got a free room upgrade that gave us a VERY spacious suite.  Such a gift!  Here the girls are hanging out on the balcony.

“No picture, Dad!”

“Okay, just one.”

 At the pool, do you notice anything about the picture?

If you said the lizard, give yourself a pat on the back.  While I was reading poolside, the girls came to me and said, “Dad, quick!  Come see a lizard!”  Okay, okay, I’ll put down my very enjoyable book and listen to my daughters to see a little gecko we’ve already seen tons of times.  Little did I know it wasn’t a gecko but a two-foot long dinosaur!  Oh my word!  The girls wanted to get closer, but I didn’t let them.  The baby T-rex crept back into the foliage never to be seen by our eyes again.   Later, I found online that this reptile dude is a Bengal Monitor Lizard.  I like it.

 Getting artsy ...

Our last night - family picture time!

Long Tail Boat Excursion

I asked the woman from whom we rented the car about nearby snorkeling spots.  (I had searched online and only found snorkeling excursions quite a distance away.)  I was a little surprised when she said, “Oh yes, there is Na Yak.  My friend can take you there for snorkeling and tour.  He has a good boat.”  So a bit reluctantly I signed us all up to go to “Na Yak” on a “boat” of a “friend.”  Hmmm.  I told Lori about this, and we began the day’s tour with VERY low expectations because of the lack of details and the really inexpensive price.  Well … it turned out to be one of our very best days!

It started with a fun ride on a ‘song thaw.’  The girls loved it.

We arrived the beach we were to launch from.

And we found our guide and his boat.  Lookin’ good!  But does it run?

It does!

In this picture, please note Lori’s smile.  Lori really, really enjoys being on a boat.  Her smile lasted for the next 6 hours.

Hanging out with Meg on the bow as we cruise along

Ahh, Thailand.

Our guide spoke very, very little English.  He pointed to this land ahead and then took each hand and quickly and repeatedly scratched that arm’s pits.  (??)  Oh … monkeys!  He was saying there were monkeys ahead.

And so we looked.  And looked.

And finally saw some!  That speck in the middle on the beach is indeed a monkey.  Success!

Observe Lori – she is still smiling.

At our first snorkel spot, our guide caught a squid.  With a big grin, the guide said one word to me - "barbeque."

Ready for fun!

We saw a lot of different fish – triggerfish, bannerfish, parrotfish, and tons of sergeant majors.  We had fun feeding these fish.  While we fed them, a large shoal of squid closed in – like the one our guide caught.  The squid wanted lunch too.  While the many sergeant majors took to the bread, we saw one squid get in close and in half a blink, nabbed one of the sergeant majors.  Crazy fast.  He hung around with his prey as if showing off – hey y’all, look what I caught with no lure … just stealth and speed.

I saw a 5-foot long black-spotted moral eel – it’s mostly black with a yellow and white honeycomb design on its body.  Beautiful.  It was hiding in a large rock but then swam out into the open.  I chased after it for awhile as it swam from rock to rock.  It was incredible seeing it in the open water.  It knew I was following it so it stopped and gave me a good stare a couple times before continuing on.  Fun stuff.  A highlight.

We went to a nearby beach for lunch, and put our mats down on the sand in a shady spot.  We noticed a few hermit crabs walking about.  Cute.  We got out our food and it happened … an army of literally hundreds of hermit crabs came marching toward us.  They wanted lunch, too!  It was comical and creepy to watch.  They were really persistent, and the guide and I were busy protecting the ladies and our lunch.  We had leftovers, and our guide poured these out for the shelled natives.  This made for some very happy hermit crabs!

Eating our leftovers

Val at our lunch location.

The waters at the second snorkel spot were a bit rough but still had decent snorkeling.  Here’s Meg diving in!

The girls were getting more comfortable on the boat.

We returned with a ton of fun memories as well as with the backs of our legs slightly to moderately sun burned.  [Too much sun and not enough sunscreen while snorkeling.]

Sunsets etc

A particularly incredible sunset …

 A local

 

View up from one evening’s dinner location

Goofing around at dinner

 That sunset is worth another look