Early November 25th, 2015 my family set out on an adventure I will never forget. We woke up at 5:00 am and hopped in our suburban to drive to Los Angeles, California. After the long five and a half hour drive, (which we soon realized was a walk in the park compared to the rest of our travels) we arrived at the LA Airport. We searched for a short time to find parking and then rode in a shuttle to the international portion of the airport. In the words of MaKenna, my nine-year old sister, “Now the real adventure begins. Continue at your own risk…” The rest of the family laughed about that comment for most of the trip.
We boarded the first of many flights at 1:30 pm California time. As we lifted off the ground, it became known just how long our first flight really was: 15 hours and 27 minutes. I leaned over to Seth, my twelve-year-old brother, and told him just how long the flight was. The family tried to stay busy with books, homework, music, and movies. Soon the sun had set and we crossed the international dateline causing us all to have headaches trying to figure what day it was in Beijing, China. We landed in Beijing and ran, and I mean we sprinted through customs, to our next flight. Luckily this one was only six hours. We joked about how that used to be a long flight to us as we boarded. By this point I don’t think any of us knew what time or day it was.
The longest day any of us had ever experienced was coming to an end and our friend, Andy Armstrong, picked us up in a mini van to take us to his home in Bangkok. On the way to his house, he informed us it was 11:36 pm Thanksgiving day. The kids all burst out in laughter, mainly from lack of sleep, but also from the fact we had totally missed Thanksgiving.
Our bodies and minds had no idea what day or time it was at home when we finally reached Andy’s house. We were all worn out and fell asleep before our heads hit the pillows. The whole family adjusted to the time quickly. We were all awake and ready by 9:00 am Bangkok time. We quickly scarfed down breakfast that consisted of bananas, dragon fruit, toast, and some orange juice. Amazingly we were all very full when we hopped into the van.
That day we had the amazing opportunity to go to the Home of the Destitute. This was where we did our service project. We bought enough oranges for 500 people and delivered it to their kitchen. Then we journeyed over to where they were holding the Cambodian refuges. The Cambodian refuges were being held there until they could be deported back to Cambodia. The people we visited with were actually waiting for DNA tests to come back confirming their kids were their kids. Then the families could be deported together. The kept the kids in a separate room from the other adult mothers and only let the kids out at certain times during the day. According to the Buddhist religion only the women of our group could go into the room with the kids and bring them to the courtyard to play with the rest of our group. I was allowed to go with my mom and Rebecca to get the kids. We were warned the room was filled with children in bad conditions. Some would be unclothed, they went to the bathroom on the ground, some were vey sick, and some would even be dead.
I couldn’t bring myself to actually enter the room but I held hands of some of the kids and brought them to where the boys were sitting. Then we colored with the little kids. There were about ten of them and only two knew how to color. It broke my heart to see the kids hold the crayons and say thank you in Cambodian but have no idea how to use the object. We tried to explain to the children how to color, but soon realized the language barrier would be a tough barrier. We started communicating through examples and hand signals. While the language still created a problem, we managed to teach all the kids how to color. We sat on the grass with children all under the age of 10 as they colored for the first time. It was an amazing experience and brought my younger brother to tears. My dad explained, “They don’t know anything better. Most of the kids have been here for as long as they can remember. They don’t realize there is a better life out there. That’s why we are here, Seth. To help them as much as we can.”
We continued coloring with the kids until the adults said it was time for lunch. Then we were asked to leave. As we started to clean up, we saw the kids grab everything they could hold and run. I was confused until my parents explained they don’t have anything. They just want something for themselves. My eyes watered as I took the crayons from the children. My heart shattered into a million pieces. I tried my best to explain Andy and Rebecca would come back with the crayons, but they were still confused why we were taking their toys away. That might’ve been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but at the same time it opened my eyes to the terrible struggles and living conditions people go through every day.
The next day wasn’t as heart breaking. Andy had rented a van and a driver so we could see Bangkok while he was at work. Rebecca, Andy’s wife, came with us. We went to the Grand Palace, the Temple of Emerald Buddha, and Wat Pho. This is what Andy called our ‘Tourist Day.’ We did basic tourist activities such as, rubbing the Chinese Buddha’s belly, visiting the emerald Buddha, taking pictures with the giant reclining Buddha, and eating street food. Almost everyone in Thailand is Buddhist and it was quite a culture shock for my little Mormon family. The street food ranged from fried bananas to mango sticky rice to bugs.
We met the rest of Andy’s family at the mall near their house. Andy brought his three daughters and we traveled to the top of the eight-story mall to a little restaurant to eat pork dumplings. This was supposedly a fancy restaurant, but it fed both of our families for a little over twenty dollars.
The Armstrong family had to teach us how to properly consume the delicious dumplings. First we were to pick the dumpling up with our chopstick and place it on our spoon. In my opinion, this was the hardest step. Some of my family members were struggling with chopsticks. We were having such a difficulty that Andy asked for some forks to be brought to our table. After we had completed the first step, we were told to poke our cute little dumplings with our chopsticks to release the soup onto the spoon. This step was basically cooling down the dumplings. After our dumplings were properly cooled, we had to eat them in one bite. This was a delicious and hilarious experience and I think this is the moment I really realized just how different Thailand was from America.
The next morning we woke up and climbed into another van and drove to Damnoen Saduak, where we boarded a Long Tail to see the famous Floating Market. This was quite amazing to me. We saw boat after boat filled with trinkets, souvenirs, food, and other tourists. At first it wasn’t very crowded, but after about an hour we entered the popular and packed part of the market. As we entered the hectic and constant stream of boats, I honestly wondered how anyone moved. The boats were side-by-side and crammed into the smallest spaces. It was a miracle anyone accomplish anything in there.
At one point we saw giant snakes and a small lemur. Being the tourists we were, we hopped out of the boat and without a second thought my dad was holding a giant python around his neck and the kids were cuddling with the adorable lemur. We climbed back into the boat and continued, stopping only at the coolest souvenir boats. After at least another hour we were out of the chaotic crowd and back on the river heading back to our van.
The next stop was the Chatuchak Market, another famous Bangkok attraction, filled with people and nonstop noise. The first thing we did was buy delicious street food. Fried chicken on a stick, fruit cups, French fries, noodles, rice, and odd seafood were available. I stuck with food that looked somewhat safe: fried chicken and a fruit cup. My parents, however, branched out and bought what looked to be a giant fried shrimp. To my mom’s horror, she bit into the ‘shrimp’ and found tentacles. Luckily no one became sick, but my mom chose to buy the fried chicken on a stick instead of finishing her tentacles.
There was a lot more than just food in the Chatuchak Market. There were animals, clothes, trinkets, jewelry, accessories, electronics, and everything else you could think of. There were parrots, bunnies, puppies, dogs, kitties, cats, hamsters, mice, snakes, fish, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, and some animals I had no idea even existed. We walked through the market in awe.
After we made it back to Andy and Rebecca’s house, we packed up all our suitcases and journeyed to the Bangkok airport. The Armstrong’s came with us on our next adventure.
An hour and a half later we landed in Chang Mai. Another driver was there to pick us up and take us to the hotel. We were all exhausted when we finally arrived at the hotel and ended up asleep before we even looked around. The next morning we awoke to quite a surprise. What we hadn’t seen in the dark was what could be considered by some to be paradise. As my brothers and I looked out on the Amphoe Mae Rim, I realized how big the world is. There is so much to explore and see!
We walked around the resort and found a ping pong table, giant chess, pool table, air hockey, four person swing, pool, spa, miniature golf, darts, punching bag, little cars to ride down the hill, etc. The resort was packed with amazing activities to do. The parents finally convinced the kids to head down to breakfast. An all you can eat buffet was set up with amazing Thai foods. Honestly, I’m not sure any of us really knew what we were eating, but it was delicious.
We spent most of the day at the hotel, exploring and messing around. A little before lunch, we all climbed into the van and drove just down the street to a little restaurant. When we paid the bill, I was surprised to find we had ordered enough food for twelve people, yet we only paid $10. My dad tipped the little lady 50%, or $5 because we could tell she had home cooked the whole meal.
After the delicious lunch, we went into town. It was about an hour drive from the top of the mountain where our hotel was, to the bottom where the city was. Once inside the actual city we went to the ‘Monkey School.’ The school had sounded like a fun experience, but turned out to be a little sad. The monkeys were amazing and did crazy tricks from swimming to riding on a bike. The sad part came when we saw the monkeys not in the performance. They were changed to posts and just sat there. Heart breaking for the older kids and parents, but I’m not sure the younger kids fully understood.
Next we went to a snake and reptile attraction. This was not sad to any of us. We all agreed the snakes and reptiles were fine being in cages and it didn’t offend us. The show they put on for us was insane. The snake charmers would kiss king cobras and hold them in their mouths. None of the snakes were defanged and all were very poisonous.
After we had our fill of snakes and the show ended, we walked around looking at other reptiles. This is when we met Nuka, a 15-year-old Thai boy who looked 12. He told me he was small because he did not eat chicken. I laughed and he scampered away only to return with three smaller snakes. He asked if we wanted to hold them. Everyone said yes and we ended up with two snakes in either hand and one on our head or wrapped around our necks. My little sister was terrified and looks horrified in the pictures and I’m laughing as the snakes tickle my neck with their tongues.
As we played with the snakes, Nuka ran off again returning with eight scorpions. He walked over to Seth and placed one in his hand and walked away. Seth looked at me and asked if I wanted to take it. I laughed and said, “No way!” Nuka eventually took the scorpion back to Seth’s relief. After the crazy experience with Nuka we decided to leave before Seth had more poisonous reptiles placed in his hands; he wasn’t very big on holding the scorpions.
We boarded the first of many flights at 1:30 pm California time. As we lifted off the ground, it became known just how long our first flight really was: 15 hours and 27 minutes. I leaned over to Seth, my twelve-year-old brother, and told him just how long the flight was. The family tried to stay busy with books, homework, music, and movies. Soon the sun had set and we crossed the international dateline causing us all to have headaches trying to figure what day it was in Beijing, China. We landed in Beijing and ran, and I mean we sprinted through customs, to our next flight. Luckily this one was only six hours. We joked about how that used to be a long flight to us as we boarded. By this point I don’t think any of us knew what time or day it was.
The longest day any of us had ever experienced was coming to an end and our friend, Andy Armstrong, picked us up in a mini van to take us to his home in Bangkok. On the way to his house, he informed us it was 11:36 pm Thanksgiving day. The kids all burst out in laughter, mainly from lack of sleep, but also from the fact we had totally missed Thanksgiving.
Our bodies and minds had no idea what day or time it was at home when we finally reached Andy’s house. We were all worn out and fell asleep before our heads hit the pillows. The whole family adjusted to the time quickly. We were all awake and ready by 9:00 am Bangkok time. We quickly scarfed down breakfast that consisted of bananas, dragon fruit, toast, and some orange juice. Amazingly we were all very full when we hopped into the van.
That day we had the amazing opportunity to go to the Home of the Destitute. This was where we did our service project. We bought enough oranges for 500 people and delivered it to their kitchen. Then we journeyed over to where they were holding the Cambodian refuges. The Cambodian refuges were being held there until they could be deported back to Cambodia. The people we visited with were actually waiting for DNA tests to come back confirming their kids were their kids. Then the families could be deported together. The kept the kids in a separate room from the other adult mothers and only let the kids out at certain times during the day. According to the Buddhist religion only the women of our group could go into the room with the kids and bring them to the courtyard to play with the rest of our group. I was allowed to go with my mom and Rebecca to get the kids. We were warned the room was filled with children in bad conditions. Some would be unclothed, they went to the bathroom on the ground, some were vey sick, and some would even be dead.
I couldn’t bring myself to actually enter the room but I held hands of some of the kids and brought them to where the boys were sitting. Then we colored with the little kids. There were about ten of them and only two knew how to color. It broke my heart to see the kids hold the crayons and say thank you in Cambodian but have no idea how to use the object. We tried to explain to the children how to color, but soon realized the language barrier would be a tough barrier. We started communicating through examples and hand signals. While the language still created a problem, we managed to teach all the kids how to color. We sat on the grass with children all under the age of 10 as they colored for the first time. It was an amazing experience and brought my younger brother to tears. My dad explained, “They don’t know anything better. Most of the kids have been here for as long as they can remember. They don’t realize there is a better life out there. That’s why we are here, Seth. To help them as much as we can.”
We continued coloring with the kids until the adults said it was time for lunch. Then we were asked to leave. As we started to clean up, we saw the kids grab everything they could hold and run. I was confused until my parents explained they don’t have anything. They just want something for themselves. My eyes watered as I took the crayons from the children. My heart shattered into a million pieces. I tried my best to explain Andy and Rebecca would come back with the crayons, but they were still confused why we were taking their toys away. That might’ve been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but at the same time it opened my eyes to the terrible struggles and living conditions people go through every day.
The next day wasn’t as heart breaking. Andy had rented a van and a driver so we could see Bangkok while he was at work. Rebecca, Andy’s wife, came with us. We went to the Grand Palace, the Temple of Emerald Buddha, and Wat Pho. This is what Andy called our ‘Tourist Day.’ We did basic tourist activities such as, rubbing the Chinese Buddha’s belly, visiting the emerald Buddha, taking pictures with the giant reclining Buddha, and eating street food. Almost everyone in Thailand is Buddhist and it was quite a culture shock for my little Mormon family. The street food ranged from fried bananas to mango sticky rice to bugs.
We met the rest of Andy’s family at the mall near their house. Andy brought his three daughters and we traveled to the top of the eight-story mall to a little restaurant to eat pork dumplings. This was supposedly a fancy restaurant, but it fed both of our families for a little over twenty dollars.
The Armstrong family had to teach us how to properly consume the delicious dumplings. First we were to pick the dumpling up with our chopstick and place it on our spoon. In my opinion, this was the hardest step. Some of my family members were struggling with chopsticks. We were having such a difficulty that Andy asked for some forks to be brought to our table. After we had completed the first step, we were told to poke our cute little dumplings with our chopsticks to release the soup onto the spoon. This step was basically cooling down the dumplings. After our dumplings were properly cooled, we had to eat them in one bite. This was a delicious and hilarious experience and I think this is the moment I really realized just how different Thailand was from America.
The next morning we woke up and climbed into another van and drove to Damnoen Saduak, where we boarded a Long Tail to see the famous Floating Market. This was quite amazing to me. We saw boat after boat filled with trinkets, souvenirs, food, and other tourists. At first it wasn’t very crowded, but after about an hour we entered the popular and packed part of the market. As we entered the hectic and constant stream of boats, I honestly wondered how anyone moved. The boats were side-by-side and crammed into the smallest spaces. It was a miracle anyone accomplish anything in there.
At one point we saw giant snakes and a small lemur. Being the tourists we were, we hopped out of the boat and without a second thought my dad was holding a giant python around his neck and the kids were cuddling with the adorable lemur. We climbed back into the boat and continued, stopping only at the coolest souvenir boats. After at least another hour we were out of the chaotic crowd and back on the river heading back to our van.
The next stop was the Chatuchak Market, another famous Bangkok attraction, filled with people and nonstop noise. The first thing we did was buy delicious street food. Fried chicken on a stick, fruit cups, French fries, noodles, rice, and odd seafood were available. I stuck with food that looked somewhat safe: fried chicken and a fruit cup. My parents, however, branched out and bought what looked to be a giant fried shrimp. To my mom’s horror, she bit into the ‘shrimp’ and found tentacles. Luckily no one became sick, but my mom chose to buy the fried chicken on a stick instead of finishing her tentacles.
There was a lot more than just food in the Chatuchak Market. There were animals, clothes, trinkets, jewelry, accessories, electronics, and everything else you could think of. There were parrots, bunnies, puppies, dogs, kitties, cats, hamsters, mice, snakes, fish, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, and some animals I had no idea even existed. We walked through the market in awe.
After we made it back to Andy and Rebecca’s house, we packed up all our suitcases and journeyed to the Bangkok airport. The Armstrong’s came with us on our next adventure.
An hour and a half later we landed in Chang Mai. Another driver was there to pick us up and take us to the hotel. We were all exhausted when we finally arrived at the hotel and ended up asleep before we even looked around. The next morning we awoke to quite a surprise. What we hadn’t seen in the dark was what could be considered by some to be paradise. As my brothers and I looked out on the Amphoe Mae Rim, I realized how big the world is. There is so much to explore and see!
We walked around the resort and found a ping pong table, giant chess, pool table, air hockey, four person swing, pool, spa, miniature golf, darts, punching bag, little cars to ride down the hill, etc. The resort was packed with amazing activities to do. The parents finally convinced the kids to head down to breakfast. An all you can eat buffet was set up with amazing Thai foods. Honestly, I’m not sure any of us really knew what we were eating, but it was delicious.
We spent most of the day at the hotel, exploring and messing around. A little before lunch, we all climbed into the van and drove just down the street to a little restaurant. When we paid the bill, I was surprised to find we had ordered enough food for twelve people, yet we only paid $10. My dad tipped the little lady 50%, or $5 because we could tell she had home cooked the whole meal.
After the delicious lunch, we went into town. It was about an hour drive from the top of the mountain where our hotel was, to the bottom where the city was. Once inside the actual city we went to the ‘Monkey School.’ The school had sounded like a fun experience, but turned out to be a little sad. The monkeys were amazing and did crazy tricks from swimming to riding on a bike. The sad part came when we saw the monkeys not in the performance. They were changed to posts and just sat there. Heart breaking for the older kids and parents, but I’m not sure the younger kids fully understood.
Next we went to a snake and reptile attraction. This was not sad to any of us. We all agreed the snakes and reptiles were fine being in cages and it didn’t offend us. The show they put on for us was insane. The snake charmers would kiss king cobras and hold them in their mouths. None of the snakes were defanged and all were very poisonous.
After we had our fill of snakes and the show ended, we walked around looking at other reptiles. This is when we met Nuka, a 15-year-old Thai boy who looked 12. He told me he was small because he did not eat chicken. I laughed and he scampered away only to return with three smaller snakes. He asked if we wanted to hold them. Everyone said yes and we ended up with two snakes in either hand and one on our head or wrapped around our necks. My little sister was terrified and looks horrified in the pictures and I’m laughing as the snakes tickle my neck with their tongues.
As we played with the snakes, Nuka ran off again returning with eight scorpions. He walked over to Seth and placed one in his hand and walked away. Seth looked at me and asked if I wanted to take it. I laughed and said, “No way!” Nuka eventually took the scorpion back to Seth’s relief. After the crazy experience with Nuka we decided to leave before Seth had more poisonous reptiles placed in his hands; he wasn’t very big on holding the scorpions.