elephant ride in ayutthaya - whee! (one of the rare moments
markie and i are actually in a photo together during this trip)

(Junnie’s post over at Memento about nostalgia set me off on a trip down memory lane. His question (in part) was: “Is there any part of your blog that you always tend to go back to or anything that makes you feel good reading over and over?” and my immediate answer to that is my Travel category, where I keep the memories of some of my best adventures. However, when I visited that section of my blog, I couldn’t find an entry about the trip and honeymoon the hubby and I took in Thailand, one of our most memorable adventures ever. Fortunately, we kept a journal of our trip and I was able to lift off details from there for a “retrospective” blog entry. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I did writing it and reminiscing about that wonderful time. )

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Markie and I left behind our busy lives for a few days and “escaped” to Thailand for our honeymoon and Valentine’s Day celebration on February 13, 2003. Because it was just the two of us and we forgot to bring a tripod, we had to take turns taking photos of each other. That was an “amateur traveler” lesson we will never forget (or commit ever again). But that aside, we had a great time in timeless, romantic Thailand!

We arrived in Bangkok close to midnight on a Thursday. After we checked in to our hotel, we walked around the block and decided to eat at a street-side food stall. Yummy noodles! We bought some soda at a nearby 7-11 to go with our food. Turns out there are a lot of 7-11s in Bangkok, you could find them in almost every street corner, they are as ubiquitous as the sari sari stores in the Philippines. We actually saw more than twenty 7-11 stores during our city tour the next day!

On Friday we went to see the Four-Faced Buddha, the Golden Buddha, and the Reclining Buddha. Of them, the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho was the most impressive, measuring 46 meters (about 138 feet) long and 15 meters (45 feet) high! Covered in gold leaf with feet decorated with mother-of-pearl, it’s definitely an awe-inspiring sight.

my head is smaller than the pads of the statue’s toes!

markie posing at the statue’s feet

We walked around the other parts of the temple that did not have a lot of tourists, and Markie was able to take a couple of nice photos:

o f f e r i n g s

r e f l e c t i o n s

(more…)

Posted under Travel

All this going back and forth to the fridge for a few bites at a time of Chubby Hubby ice cream reminded me to Toni’s Ref Door Project. (I say ‘a few bites at a time’ because I really hold back from polishing off the entire container-ful in one sitting, partly to savor its sweet gooey goodness, and partly because my doctor has warned me not to eat too much sugary foods…more on this later.)

On our ref door are: a photo of the hubby and me taken during our latest adventure in Sonoma, my work/class schedule for October, and a small collection of our favorite magnets.

The New York City skyline-with-Lady Liberty magnet is the only one we kept from a bunch we bought during our trip to NYC in 2004 (the others are now on fridge doors in the Philippines). We got it in the Liberty Island souvenir shop, when we finally decided to go inside after braving the bone-freezing, near-zero temperature and icy winds outside for a few photos to send home. You wouldn’t have missed us - we were two tropical fish in layers and layers of clothing foolishly running around with our little digital camera on a teeny tripod, taking photos even when more hardy (and wiser) Northeasterners and European tourists had chosen to stay indoors. I was still shivering from head to toe even after we’ve had piping-hot coffee at the on-site cafeteria, but after purchasing several keychains, etched glass paperweights, two silver spoons, two ’silver’ dollars stamped with a Lady Liberty figure, a dozen magnets, and several postcards, I felt much better. Further proof that shopping (even for ridiculously overpriced souvenir trinkets) warms you up inside.

The San Francisco magnets we bought at the Cable Car Museum when we toured some family friends in The City earlier this year. Our visitors included one of our ninangs sa kasal, her mom, and a relative of theirs who have been living in the U.S. for over 20 years. Before this, I had only travelled to various places around the Philippines and outside the country either with Markie or with friends close to my age. As most of our friends know, Markie and I are koboy* and will tour new cities on our own, using public transportation where available, armed only with maps, transport passes, a guidebook, and a large supply of enthusiasm and love for history, culture and stories.

This time, because our titas were special guests from back home and because they were older than us, we decided to treat them to a guided tour run by a good tour company so that they wouldn’t have to walk up and down the hills of SFO so much (since we would be in an air-conditioned bus), and so that we could get tidbits of historical and pop-culture info that we wouldn’t otherwise know. The trip turned out to be quite eye-opening, not only because we had a very knowledgeable ‘official’ guide, but because the U.S.-based relative tried to outdo said guide in providing SFO trivia, mostly revolving around which parts of SFO he (the relative) ate or hung out in during his younger days. Looking back, his antics and bid to ’steal the show’ now seems more sad/hilarious than annoying, which it was at that time.

Then there are the mini Lego magnets of Catwoman, Robin and The Joker that Markie bought at a local shop. He’s still trying to complete this collection with a Batman, The Penguin and Two-Face mini magnets, but the ones we already have are so cute they make me smile every time I see them.

The set of teeny magnets in the middle are my most favorite of the bunch. We got them at a nearby bookstore, while we were buying greeting cards to give with our housewarming gifts to two different friends who had just bought new homes. The magnets are reproductions of Van Gogh paintings, and the magnets themselves were made by a designer named Lucy Lu. They look great as a set, but are also good when used individually, for holding small notes, messages or clippings. I think they’re absolutely adorable.

Here’s a couple of close-up photos of the ‘Van Gogh’ magnets:

*koboy - Filipinized slang for “cowboy”, usually meant to denote being down-to-earth and willing to forego certain luxuries

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A little note about Toni and The Ref Door Project:

I’ve been a long-time reader and fan of Toni’s Wifely Steps blog. I’ve never met her in person yet, and have just gotten to know her through her blog and through occassionally exchanging emails. I think that her blog is one of those that is able to capture different facets of the writer’s personality. All through the entries however, you’ll always get the sense of an open, friendly, smart, and sincere person behind the words and photos.

If you’d like to contribute to her Ref Door Project, please do so…to share anecdotes and stories, maybe swap magnets, or even exhange a recipe or two. If you don’t have a ref door contribution, you could still visit Toni for a little online chat about marriage, work, food, travel, or most anything. I’m sure she’ll give you a warm welcome.

Posted under Navel-Gazing