Your Above Average Beaver in The Land Of The Smiles: December 2016

Swadee-Krop Family and friends

Wooohoooo! The Lelli family made it out to Thailand safe and sound! Unfortunately, Momma Lelli’s luggage got left in San Fran so we knew we were off to a great start. Luckily they sell elephant pants on every corner so we got Mom fitted in some cool new Thailand outfits! She loves how comfy and cheap the clothes are. Good news is her bag came two days later, she wishes she had just brought an empty suitcase and just bought everything out here! My bad on not informing the fam to pack light and to not bring much stuff because they will want to bring lots home. Sorry I was too busy with group projects and a dead phone to reply to your guy’s texts and emails!

BANGKOK

We were in Bangkok for 4 days, the first full day here we took a river taxi up the waterfront of Bangkok and enjoyed the Venice of Asia. We took the taxi up to the Grand Palace where I had not been since the King had passed. It was quite the sight, the streets all near are closed down and we had to go through security showing our passports. Everyone is still dressed in all black head to toes. We ended up skipping the Grand Palace and let the Thais mourn the Kings passing in peace. We walked down the road to Wat Pho which holds the famous reclining Buddha, it is quite the sight.. After visiting the famous temple, we decided it was time to reward ourselves with a cold beer, I knew about a secret rooftop bar that overlooked the river and the temples. We went there for a couple drinks and had an amazing sunset. We then adventured out to the world famous flower market and then went down to the good ol’ China town where we treated ourselves to a yummy meal. Mom thought she might have felt something in her shirt, but didn’t say anything. Taking the taxi back home Alix and Kim were absolutely silent, thinking there was a bug in the back with them, our driver was confused on where to go and I recognized a bar and told him to stop there to enjoy more drinks with the fam. When we got out of the taxi Mom freaked out and just about threw her shirt off when the cockroach fell out, it had been in there since dinner!!! She handled it a lot better than all of us would have. We sat outside the bar and played a fun game- Lady-boy or Girl, if you didn’t know, Thailand is known for its large population of Lady Boys. Family weren’t too good at identifying which are which, but by the end of the night they knew how to spot a lady-boy vs a real girl hahahaha It was quite the first full day!

Day 2

The next day Steve and Alix got massages, they were in a bit of pain after! I told them the Thai messages aren’t the best! Anyways, we adventured around the city, I showed them my beautiful campus, they were impressed. We also explored another temple that is located nearby that I had never been to. That night, Alix and I decided we had to take the parents to the famous Koh San Road, the big backpacker hub where you can buy buckets of alcohol for $2 and party on the street till the cops close it down. They couldn’t believe the street, it is quite the sight, 10/10 recommend going there if you want to see a bunch of 20-30 year olds getting crazy on the streets with each bar blasting music! And I’m sure you are wondering, we did get buckets with the parents and they loved them.

DADS BIRTHDAY!

December 15^th, pops turns the glory age of 60!!! Woot Woot, from the night before you would have thought he had just turned 21! LOL, Steve woke up early and ran a solid 5k in the hot heat while we all slept in. We went to a day market, did some shopping and drank a few beers at one of the restaurants. Took it pretty easy that day. We then went to one of the best rooftop bars in all of Bangkok for drinks, Vertigo Moon Bar, 10/10! It was a beautiful evening and one of the first time the parents had been to a true rooftop, it was on the 60^th floor, so made sense we went there since he was turning 60! After spending some time enjoying the beautiful night views of Bangkok we headed back to our hotel and ordered pizza to top off the night! I think he had a pretty good birthday, even though he didn’t get too many gifts.

Overall we had a great time in Bangkok, we didin’t fight as a family, we all got cool elephant pants, shared some good laughs, took in all the chaos and are ready to move on to the next adventure, Chiang Mai!

Chaing Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai and were greeted with clouds, great… Oh well, no one could make up their mind on what they wanted to do because we are the Lellis and “it doesn’t matter to me” is our motto. The day we arrived we explored the old city and the different temples. Went to one temple that’s made out of silver, unfortunately Alix and Kim didn’t like it because they were not allowed in. It’s a sacred temple and is believed if a women were to step inside; the temple would become cursed forever!

Day 2 Chiang Mai

Family and I hired a taxi, not a taxi you would expect back home. But a Toyota truck that has seats in the bed. He drove us up to the Bou Tong Waterfalls (Sticky waterfalls) about an hour away from the city. It’s such a cool experience, you are able to walk up the rare waterfalls because of the minerals in the spring making the rocks sticky. It’s not a tourist spot and not too many locals even go which makes it perfect to get away from everything. After the waterfalls we enjoyed a Mexican dinner and a spa treatment. It was a solid day!!

Day 3 Chiang Mai

We had nothing planned for the day and were able to finally sleep in. We explored the city more and went to a couple markets. Went to a nice rooftop bar for happy hour and enjoyed a another beautiful sunset, sunsets are by far my favorite thing in the world, and if I miss a good sunset, I’m not in a very good mood. That evening we went to one of the largest markets in Thailand called the Sunday Night Walking Street Market, it’s very impressive. I spent all my Christmas money from my grandparents on some sweet pants for all my friends, so they better be happy to see me! Its better to give than receive, I suppose. We are now off to Phuket to finish our time in Thailand, it’s a beautiful beach area in the south and hope to come back to the states darker than ever!

Phuket!

We have arrived to Phuket, beach is nice, weather is alright, Mom seems have caught what I got in Chiang Mai a while ago, not fun, hopefully she will start to feel better soon and join us out at the pool.

Sorry for the long blog post, but this is what we are up to!

Oh, I forgot, I am all done with school, I am a college GRADUATEEEE!! WOOT WOOT, bitter sweet about it, but I’m excited to begin the real world. I have began applying for work in Portland, Austin, Denver, and Seattle, not sure where I want to end up, but I’ll see where the wind takes me! Each city offers something I’m passionate about and I’m excited to start 2017 fresh, with a college diploma and start saving my $$ for my future wakeboard boat!