{"id":6479,"date":"2024-11-28T21:52:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T04:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/?p=6479"},"modified":"2024-12-31T01:29:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T08:29:01","slug":"thanksgiving-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2024\/11\/28\/thanksgiving-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>I was invited to both APVRS<\/a> in Singapore and PAO<\/a> in Manila this year. With two weeks between the two meetings, we decided to squeeze in a family trip to Thailand. After a parent-teacher conference and piano lesson, we drove to SFO for noodles<\/a> and chowder<\/a> before our flight to Changi<\/a>. Our hotel<\/a> let us settle in early and chow down at Food Republic<\/a> with chicken rice, yong tau fu, and fish noodle soup en route to the ArtScience Museum<\/a>, where the World of Studio Ghibli<\/a> exhibit of dioramas and activities immersed us in Miyazaki’s masterpieces and more Totoro merch. After a short nap to overcome jet lag, we returned to Night Safari<\/a> with enough energy this time to watch scootching pangolins, pacing bitturongs, and lunging gharials. I gave my talk<\/a> on Saturday while Melody and Westley sweated it out at Bird Paradise<\/a> before meeting up for yummy chicken rice<\/a>, laksa<\/a>, and fishball soup<\/a> at the airport<\/a>. The flight delayed our prearranged transport to Railay, resulting in a late dinner of pad thai, pineapple fried rice, and steamed seafood at the Local Thai Restaurant<\/a>. On Sunday, we chartered a speed boat<\/a> to Phi Phi Island<\/a>, which included stops to snap selfies at Maya Bay<\/a>, swim in Pileh Lagoon<\/a>, peek at Viking Cave<\/a>, and watch macaques at Monkey Bay<\/a>, followed by lunch at Phi Phi Don<\/a> including yummy McThai\u2019s<\/a> pineapple and corn pies, Pirates House’s<\/a> curries, and Mango Garden\u2019s<\/a> sticky rice. Although the corals were too deep for Melody, Westley and I snorkeled in the afternoon before helping to tow a stranded long-tail boat on our ride back for dinner at Mom\u2019s<\/a>. We spent next morning at Phra Nang Cave Beach<\/a>, passing climbers and lingams to explore the clear but mostly fish-free waters. After savoring BBQ chicken<\/a> in West Railay, we relaxed at our resort<\/a> lobby watching Muay Thay videos before traversing sea, land, and air to Chiang Mai, where our Airbnb<\/a> host Charles met us at the airport<\/a> to show us Old City and his massive info binder. We awoke to porridge<\/a> to fuel our tour with Tom \u2013 an ex-Buddhist monk who showed us the dark tunnels of Wat Umong<\/a>, quiet meditation at Wat Pha Lat<\/a>, many steps at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep<\/a>, and Lanna-styled Wat Chedi Luang<\/a>, followed by tasty khao soi at Lamduan<\/a>. Our evening cooking class<\/a> taught us to create Northern Thai dishes, and even included a local market stop for dried mangos, mangosteens, and durian. On Wednesday, we learned to make elephant digestives and give them a mud bath at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary<\/a>. Westley relaxed at the house in the afternoon while Melody and I braved the heat for more khao soi, khanom chin nam ngiaw, papaya salad, and sai oua at Huen Phen<\/a> and a visit to Wat Phra Singh<\/a>. We explored Chang Phuak Gate Night Market<\/a> for dinner, where we sampled khao kha moo from the Cowboy Hat Lady<\/a>, along with meat skewers, dry suki stir fry<\/a>, kanom krok, pa tong ko with soy milk, steamed pandan cakes, and a warm coconut-tapioca-salted egg dessert thing. Next morning, our hired driver \/ Charles\u2019 ex Tukta drove us to Chiang Rai, stopping briefly for cappuccino<\/a> and soaking our feet at Thaweesin hot spring<\/a> on the way to the Wat Rong Khun<\/a> (white temple), Wat Rong Suea Ten<\/a> (blue temple), Baan Dam Museum<\/a> (black house), and Wat Huay Pla Kang<\/a> (guan yin temple). We followed our late lunch<\/a> with an early dinner<\/a> at CEI<\/a> before flying to DMK<\/a>. With our delicious and eye-opening tour of North Thailand, we did not miss celebrating Thanksgiving back home.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was invited to both APVRS in Singapore and PAO in Manila this year. With two weeks between the two meetings, we decided to squeeze in a family trip to Thailand. After a parent-teacher conference and piano lesson, we drove … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6479"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6519,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6479\/revisions\/6519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}