Monday, July 17, 2006
Saturday, July 08, 2006
ireland
O Ireland isn't it grand you look--Like a bride in her rich adornin? And with all the pent-up love of my heart I bid you the top o' the mornin!John Locke
"The Exile's Return"
if you haven't heard, after our last recording trip, i abandoned my husband for 10 days and went to ireland... a good friend had been planning to go there on her sabbatical and was without a travel partner at the last minute, so i obliged her...
the really miraculous thing was that we were both able to get free plane tickets through our frequent flier programs within a couple months of the trip and even arrived in dublin within an hour of each other!
we drove our way around the south to glendalough, avoca (for all you ballykissangel fans), wexford, kilkenny, waterford, cork, killarney, the dingle peninsula, galway, clifden/connemara, & all the beautiful roads in between surrounded by goats, sheep, cattle (sometimes on the roads, as well) and fences made of stone.... we saw tons of buildings, abbeys, castles, rocks, ruins, shorelines, churches, graveyards, & gardens... all considerably older than the country of our birth.
the place was gorgeous and the people were just beautiful... they were always friendly & welcoming... a few times we were approached by strangers on the street who thought we looked lost & did not want to mug us, but actually wanted to help us...
if you'd like to see oodles of great pictures of ireland, debbie, and me, go to debbie's ireland photos on snapfish... you'll need to get a login if you don't have one, but it's easy... let me know if the link doesn't work.
faR&R away from the city
mike & i saw an article in a local magazine about ko jum... an island not a lot of people have heard of (yet) down in the south of thailand... we've been really busy -- & itching to go somewhere "lonely" for a while -- & decided to go for it next week since we'll be in bangkok for work...
just had to share with you the correspondence i had with the sweet thai man who owns the "beach bungalows" we'll be in.... i didn't edit anything so you could get the full experience...
(this is his response to an email from me asking him about the difference between the 2 ends of the island where we will be staying... we had already spoken on the phone, which was an equally delightful & cultural experience)
Dear Caryn
I just get my mail today after already have conversation to your goodself, the diffirence between Nort and South are:
1. local people call nortern part Ban Koh Pu and Southern part Ban Koh Jum end up with the island have two name.
2. northern have high mouthen the highest in the regien while the southern are flat land.
3. more resort on the south than the north because the road access to the north beach is resently constracted,
This may help you to know abit about Koh Jum and Koh pu before arrive their.
Since we have quite limited choise of food on the island and no refigirator to preserve food because no public eletric supply may I ask you very ood question that can you take see food? so we can prepare proper row meterial food for you.
Best wishes
Paul (Somporn Sangsuwan)
note that we are staying on the NORTH end of the island, "ko pu"... the one with high "mouthen" (mountains) and less "resorts" (mostly just little beach huts that run around $7-$12/night)... and that neither end has electricity... we are very excited about the fresh "see food" (fish & whatnot)....
just had to share with you the correspondence i had with the sweet thai man who owns the "beach bungalows" we'll be in.... i didn't edit anything so you could get the full experience...
(this is his response to an email from me asking him about the difference between the 2 ends of the island where we will be staying... we had already spoken on the phone, which was an equally delightful & cultural experience)
Dear Caryn
I just get my mail today after already have conversation to your goodself, the diffirence between Nort and South are:
1. local people call nortern part Ban Koh Pu and Southern part Ban Koh Jum end up with the island have two name.
2. northern have high mouthen the highest in the regien while the southern are flat land.
3. more resort on the south than the north because the road access to the north beach is resently constracted,
This may help you to know abit about Koh Jum and Koh pu before arrive their.
Since we have quite limited choise of food on the island and no refigirator to preserve food because no public eletric supply may I ask you very ood question that can you take see food? so we can prepare proper row meterial food for you.
Best wishes
Paul (Somporn Sangsuwan)
note that we are staying on the NORTH end of the island, "ko pu"... the one with high "mouthen" (mountains) and less "resorts" (mostly just little beach huts that run around $7-$12/night)... and that neither end has electricity... we are very excited about the fresh "see food" (fish & whatnot)....
the 4th
we had a great time celebrating our country's birthday last week...
there is a US consulate in chiang mai, so we joined many other americans, as well as thai guests, in an evening of "american style hotdogs", sodas we'd been missing from the states (like sunkist & dr. pepper), make your own patriotic necklaces, and a "rousing sing-along" followed by fireworks to end things right.... all very fun, but we have no evidence of this fun since cameras & cell phones were "discouraged" at the consulate....
afterwards, we invited friends & neighbors back to our place for dessert, games, & patriotic movies...
it's amazing how patriotic you get when you leave the country... caryn decided to decorate the party cups and wrote a line from all 8 stanzas of "my country 'tis of Thee" on each one. yes... there are 8 stanzas! go here if you don't believe it: http://www.montney.com/flag/hymns.htm
a family from texas came... they brought a really cool cake, & we didn't try to explain to them that texas is only a part of the US, and not the entire country...
hope yours was great, too... feel free to leave a comment & tell us what YOU did!
there is a US consulate in chiang mai, so we joined many other americans, as well as thai guests, in an evening of "american style hotdogs", sodas we'd been missing from the states (like sunkist & dr. pepper), make your own patriotic necklaces, and a "rousing sing-along" followed by fireworks to end things right.... all very fun, but we have no evidence of this fun since cameras & cell phones were "discouraged" at the consulate....
afterwards, we invited friends & neighbors back to our place for dessert, games, & patriotic movies...
it's amazing how patriotic you get when you leave the country... caryn decided to decorate the party cups and wrote a line from all 8 stanzas of "my country 'tis of Thee" on each one. yes... there are 8 stanzas! go here if you don't believe it: http://www.montney.com/flag/hymns.htm
a family from texas came... they brought a really cool cake, & we didn't try to explain to them that texas is only a part of the US, and not the entire country...
hope yours was great, too... feel free to leave a comment & tell us what YOU did!
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