It's Asia - Chieow Laan Lake Edition

From Krabi we were personally escorted via minibus 1.5 hours away to Chieow Laan Lake, part of the Khao Sok National Park in Khao Sok, Thailand.  Then we took a 45-minute boat ride on the lake...

...in order to get to our accommodations for the next 2 days and 1 night, our very own floating rafthouse... 

There was a group of older raft houses, very basic, and there was a group of newer raft houses with rooms that rival some hotels.  At first we were sad that we would be staying in the newer raft houses because we wanted a kind of back-to-nature experience.  However, after being told that customers in the past complained of rats, mosquitoes, and valuables falling through the floor of the old raft houses we realized that the newer ones would be plenty of a back-to-nature experience for us.  (Our raft house was the third one on the right.)

This was the view from inside our raft house.  I don't think I need to say anything about that.  I forgot to take a picture of it, but you could also see through the floor of the house into the water, which seemed to glow a bright bluish green when the sun was shining, and if you were lucky enough you could possibly even see a fish swimming by.

If you look closely, you can see big blue drums underneath the boardwalk.  These are what kept the newly built area afloat.  The old area was supported by planks of wood and bamboo.

We were also taken on a guided jungle walk, the coolest part of which was our tour guide teasing scorpions and tarantulas out of holes in the side of the hills.  This one was a tarantula....

We even saw more macaque monkeys--in the wild this time.

The crazy thing about this lake is that it was all the result of a dam built in Khao Sok.  At first, knowing that the beautiful lake wasn't natural kind of took away from the splendor of the whole experience.  But the lake has made it possible to discover things like this....

This was a cave that no one knew about until roughly 10 years ago thanks to the dam and lake.  It was absolutely pitch black in there and had some pretty awesome formations (and sorry, but the flash on my camera is terrible, so that's the best in-cave pic I took).

From swimming 10 feet from our hotel room, to the scenic views and the sounds of gibbon in the jungle, it was an experience that we'll never forget.  And to make sure that I never do, I made sure to take a pic of my new all-time favorite reading spot....

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, vacation.






 

It's Asia - Krabi Edition

OK, I promise that these travel posts are not meant to make you jealous.  I just want you to get the chance to learn a little more about some places and cultures that you might not ever be able to visit or experience.

But this post might be tough for those jealous types, and here's why.....

This was just one of the views we got to see everyday for 6 straight days in the beautiful Krabi, Thailand.  That picture was taken from Ao Nang Beach, just a simple 10-minute walk from our hotel.  

One of our 6 days in Krabi included a nice, day-long snorkeling trip to the nearby Hong Islands...

...which included this lagoon, with knee-high water and starfish....

The snorkeling itself was amazing, the best part of which were the Clown Fish and Sea Urchins (with spikes about a foot long!).  If you're a little jealous, don't worry, we were also stung by tiny jellyfish.

On a different day we rented a kayak and kayaked (noun and a verb?) around for a couple of hours...

Even with all of the beautiful views, by far the best part of Krabi (for a couple of animal-lovers) was/were the 40-some monkeys that would roam around and play on the far end of the beach every night before sunset...

The town of Krabi is a pretty laid-back place, but very touristy.  Almost every street was lined with shops or restaurants or street food vendors.  Normally I don't like touristy towns, but this was actually a good touristy....the prices seemed pretty decent, the people weren't pushy, and the fact that there were a lot of tourists didn't seem to ruin the views.

And speaking of the street food, Heather and I discovered one of the greatest ingredients ever: sweetened condensed milk.  They put it in the fruit smoothies, on the pancakes, in the iced coffees...it changed our lives (or at least our diets) forever.  Get ready fam, 'cause everything Heather and Brock are gonna make from here on out is gonna be sweetened condensed milkified (and delicious).

So if you want to find a beautiful place to escape to at a very reasonable price, head on down to Krabi, Thailand, a place where (thanks to the numerous old men in speedos) even the pale-skinned redheads can feel good about themselves on the beach. :)




   

 
 

It's Asia - Kuala Lumpur Edition

Heather and I are in the middle of a month-long vacation, the first 2.5 weeks of which are being spent throughout Southeast Asia.

The first stop on our trip was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which was quite an interesting city.  The airport seemed pretty modern, and it was connected to a pretty decent subway system, but once we stepped outside I was pretty surprised.  I had been told Kuala Lumpur was very modern, but that only seemed to be true for a select few parts of the city.

First of all, there was a strange smell throughout much of the city that smelled like a mixture of curry and sweat.  Second of all, one of the little rivers that ran through the city was brown and full of garbage.  Third of all, the buildings and the sidewalks just seemed dirtier than what I had pictured.


Despite all of those things, Kuala Lumpur still had its very modern sections, the highlight (pun?) of which was/were the Twin Petronas Towers:

 Daytime

 

 Nighttime

The other big attraction  was/were the Batu Caves.  These are some cool caves that Buddhists built some statues in and around.....

           

The main cave was ok, but it didn't have too much to it except a cool opening to the sky.....

Easily the best part of the caves was/were the many many monkeys that lived inside and begged for food, even tried snagging peoples' bags every now and then.  Heather and I had a bag of peanuts and were the most popular humans in the cave for about 30-45 minutes (sorry, none of those pics were on my camera...but check Heather's facebook page soon for some of them).  

And after we were done with the monkeys we got a nice view of most of Kuala Lumpur, and you can see the Petronas Towers in the distance....

 

 All in all, Kuala Lumpur was a pretty cool city.  Everywhere you went you saw native Asians mixed with Africans and Europeans and Americans, etc.  It was an amazingly diverse city with some really nice people.  I'd definitely recommend stopping there for a day or two if you happen to be swinging through Southeast Asia.

    

  

A Monk-dern Day Surprise

We are living in a modern world.  We are blessed with a lot of technology that makes our lives easier.  Cell-phones, laptop computers, coffee-on-demand....we've got it pretty good these days.

On a soon-to-be related note, when I picture a Buddhist monk, I picture someone in modest orange clothing meditating on the front steps of a huge temple hidden away somewhere in the mountains.

Imagine my ignorant surprise when I got to witness those two worlds coming together....

I meet one of the students that I tutor, Apple, at Starbucks in a big mall right off the subway every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  One day, she stopped speaking mid-sentence and stared over my right shoulder for a few seconds before I turned and looked at what had rendered her speechless. It was that guy, who walked in and sat down by himself.

Then as I had just finished snapping a pic of the first guy, his friend comes walking in with a laptop bag over his shoulder and sits down at the table.  Apple couldn't even believe what she was seeing, and her mom is a Buddhist.

And a week or so later a few different monks were in the Starbucks, and one of them even went outside to make a phone call.  I wish I knew who was on the other end of that phone.

This makes me wonder what other crazy surprises are in store for me in this crazy city.  A taxi driver who follows the normal rules of safe-driving?  A seller in a market who offers a fair-price to a foreigner?  A Chinese man with even semi-impressive facial hair?  

This modern-day monk thing has sure opened up a world of possibilities.

   

Belated Christmas Post

Wow, Christmas was a crazy time here in Beijing!  We had so much going on, it was awesome.

We also received a bunch of gifts from many different Chinese friends.  Everyone is so generous.  One of those gifts included this card, which has Santa doing something many Chinese people do when they pose for pictures....

One of the coolest experiences we've had so far in Beijing was the annual Christmas party put on by FoC.  First there was an hour-long kids' party with presentations, songs, and dances from the kids of the FoC school, including this madness on the stage at the end....

And check out this next picture!...

This next baby was staring at me for a good 20 straight minutes, so I had to snap a photo, but I guess I was asking for too much with a 2nd pic.... 

Then after that we had our regular party, which included an award-deserving performance from yours truly as Joseph in the annual FoC Christmas play, as well as an OK performance from Mrs. Groth as Mary....

And it also included a seriously amazing Jesus Loves You performance (with Lifehouse's "Everything") from some of our Chinese friends....

And this was the crowd that got to witness that awesome performance (many Christians, some not)....

A picture of FoC Beijing after the Christmas Party (courtesy of a friend)...

And to wrap it up, some Christmas Chinglish joy from Beijing....

I pray that you all had a very Lucky Christmas!





 

Chinglish of the Week - Monthly Edition

Ok, so I haven't posted for a while, which means I have a bunch of stuff stored up and waiting to be shared.

Including Chinglish pictures.....

This was a rug in one of the elevators of the restaurant where Heather and I had our wedding reception.  Either they were wishing their customers a bright and sunny day, or they have a new rug for each day of the week.

At the ever popular and (in)famous Silk Market in Beijing, a place known for their counterfeit everything, we saw this lovely little booth.  I was very tempted to go in because after a long day on the computer my nails were really sore.

These are from the chap-stick Heather bought.  There are so many angles I could attack this from I really don't know what to say.  However, it's true...all-day time I experience this choiceness of sweet and fruity attraction to full lips does indeed make me feel like I become back from orchard.  Fo sho.

And this one is from a milk tea shop, a different one than the one I previously posted about.  When I read it I figured I stumbled upon the Popeye-equivalent of spinach for pastors.

And after trying it, I'm telling ya....I could've preached for days.




 

Scenes from the Street - The Sidewalk Business Pep Talk

Every now and then if you're riding your bike in the morning you can spot a group of people huddled together on the sidewalk.  In the midst of these people is someone seemingly barking at them, all while the rest of the group stands there like attentive soldiers.

It looks like this:

Sometimes it's business people in suits, like the picture.  Sometimes it's restaurant employees in uniforms.  And sometimes it's even hair salon employees in, well...crazy Chinese haircuts.

No matter who is involved, it's always fun to stop and watch for 10-15 seconds.  But no longer than that because after 15 seconds or so you just start to feel bad for the underlings.

It probably depends on the boss, but I think I could see these pep talks actually working.  "Sell more printers."  "Get your orders right."  "Cut that person's hair into a Chinese mullet."  There's some potential here.

The only thing I don't like about seeing these sidewalk-business-pep-talks is knowing that, as a future pastor, I won't get to implement them.

Just kidding....I totally will.

(Unrelated note:  Please pray for my future congregation.)