I finally met Ann

After the horrendous 30 hour trip, we finally stepped off of the plane
yesterday morning. As were were exchanging our dollars for thai baht,
I glanced to my right to a group of people holding up signs. There
was a girl in an orange shirt with a young little girl. It was Ann. I
could tell instantly. As we walked over I went straight up to Ann and
we embraced in a hug. IT was so cool to hug my older sister. Of
course at this point of time I was in a haze. I hadn't slept much in
the past 30 hours and the whole ordeal seemed surreal.

We walked over to where we could talk more. Ann and I have a lot of
the same features. Our hair is very similar, our shapes of our faces
is similar too. She and I couldn't say much to eachother... But she
told me Somchai was coming. So we waited. I didnt' know who Somchai
was at first. Then Gene and his wife appeared. I didn't realize at
first that this guy running around speaking perfect english was Gene.
Try to remember I was running on little sleep :) Then Somchai
appeared with his wife. As soon as I saw him, I knew he was my
mother's brother. They look EXACTLY the same!!

At this point we went back to my hotel. I rode with Ann, Somchai,
Somchai's wife her daughters and boyfriend. Dad caught a ride with
Gene and his wife.
Somchai luckily speaks almost perfect english. He remembered my Dad
from before when they had met. My dad didn't recognize him at first
but then eventually remembered. When we got to the hotel the two of
them instantly started drinking some brandy in the restaurant while I
got to meet and talk to my family. I gave my sister's daughters their
gifts - the teddy bear and the Bratz doll. Stupid me.. I should have
known... they both LOVED The bratz doll. I should have gotten them
both one. they were fighting over who got to brush the doll's hair.
It wasn't bad fighting though.. the two girls love eachother very much
:)

While we were at the hotel restaurant another man appeared. It was
Loong Wong my mother's oldest brother. He's 60 years old. He showed
up and paid for breakfast. I met loong wong before when I lived in
thailand during high school. He told everyone that I am a lot
skinnier today then when he met me last time. Apparently I was
fat?!?!!? He said that I was fat about 10 times... Thai people are
practically obsessed wtih age + weight. Anyhow, on with the
events..Then our family left gene and his wife and we went to Loong
Wong's house. He sells precious metals out of a storefront in front
of his house. Ann wanted to take me to her house so we hopped into a
Tuk tuk (Basically a motorcycle with a cart behind it) and rode over
to her little house where her daughters were at this point. They also
sell metals for jewelry out of their house. It was nice, ann's
boyfriend is such a good father to his two daughters. They were so
cute. I look at them together and then think of me and ann and how
that could have been us together as children... if we would have grown
up together.

Anyhow, we then went back to Loong Wong's house and his son (my
cousin, but they call cousin's brothers there - so I have to refer to
him as my brother) took us to the Wat Pho in Bangkok. This is the
King's Palace and temple. I took some amazing photos there. (Will be
uploaded later) I didn't realize it but my hotel's internet cafe is
very nice and it has a USB port on the front of it. It is going to
cost me 100 baht for a half hour to be on this computer. Okay - so we
went to this temple and since I"m a farang ( foreigner), my dad and I
had to pay to get in. As we gave our tickets I got stopped. The man
was pointing at my feet and wouldn't let me in. I was wearing red
birkenstocks. I had to walk about a 1/2 mile to this other place to
rent socks and cheap shoes because my red birkenstocks were
"disrepectful". My feet were cooking as we traversed the temple. It
was so hot out and I was so jet lagged that I almost passed out a few
times. I think the family was picking up on my dads and My discomfort
and they bought us some fresh juice. After the temple we walked over
to another building. This one was the THai history building. That
was pretty interesting - because teh whole place was totally catered
towards foreigners. I was reading the history of all of Thailand's 9
kings. They have some amazing stories of their kings.

After we left the museum/ thai history building we went to a
restaurant and had some AMAZING food. Oh my god, I can't express how
excellent thai food is. I had some fresh fried fish, mushrooms,
vegetables, shrimp... mmm mmm mmm I can't wait to go back to this
place. By this time it was about 3 o'clock and it felt like eternity
to me. I was so exhausted I could have fell asleep on the chair at
the restaurant.

My family brought us back to the hotel, and said goodbye.

Then dad and I got showered and changed and went for a walk around the block.

Bangkok is extremely polluted. There is this constant haze that hangs
over this city. As we walked around we could barely take the heat and
pollution that was making it hard to breathe. Along the streets there
were all of these little stands where people were selling their goods.
Thailand has the best knockoffs of designer clothes and items. I saw
some great gifts. I can't wait to go shopping :)

Today I'm getting ready because we're leaving in about 45 minutes to
go to Pattaya beach. We're going to drive about 2.5 hours south to
get there. I'll try to find an internet cafe there. ... I bet the
hotel has one.

So that's my update!! Sorry it was so long... but this is my story :)

Linda