Thanksgiving in Thailand - 2006

What a great trip this was for our family! After finding out in October that we would be moving from Chennai to Bangalore in January, this Thanksgiving vacation was really refreshing. Our Indian visas required us to leave the country every 180 days and by day 179, we were ready for the break. We spent a couple of days in Bangkok before flying to the island of Phuket for 7 great days on the beach. Our Bangkok days were spent eating, touring and eating a little more. It was our first taste of the west in six months and we all did lots of ooh-ing, aah-ing and mmm-ing. The king's palace grounds, a tuk-tuk ride, a riverboat dinner cruise (during which Eleanor danced with the Thai performers!), and a tour of the mall quickly filled our time.

Phuket was spectacular. The Andaman Sea was crystal clear and the sun did not disappoint. Our resort had a great pool, which really consisted of four different pools, and a waterslide that the kids just loved. OK, we all loved it. There were games for the kids in the afternoons and all sorts of market shopping along the beach as well. We were able to sail the resort's hobie cat each afternoon, went on a snorkeling excursion, and ate great Thai food at little open air restaurants right on the beach. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at a fun little open-air restaurant called Tatonka. The food was amazing - who needs turkey and pumpkin pie when you could have tuna and homemade cappucino ice-cream? Plus, the restaurant had a native American Indian theme which we thought was quite appropriate for our U.S. holiday.

All of this paled in comparison, however, to the time spent with three year old Anna, the elephant, who lived at the resort. We fed her bananas and bread every morning after breakfast and the kids got to ride her everyday. It was wild to be eating breakfast and see this elephant lumbering past your table towards the lawn! She would turn up anywhere and everywhere at the resort and was always ready for a water fight or tug-of-war or even a swim in the ocean with the kids! Anna was definitely the cherry on top of a great vacation!

Life in Chennai

We arrived in Chennai on May 20th, 2006 - the hottest day of the year, according to locals - and left for Bangalore on January 26th, 2007. During our brief 8 months we made some great friends, learned a lot about Indian culture, built up our immune systems (ie: caught a lot of stomach bugs plus a mosquito-borne illness called chikungunya!), endured some wickedly hot days, ate amazing new foods, felt homesick a lot, learned how to cook and live "from scratch," and generally rode the culture shock wave as best we could. The prayers of our friends and family were very evident to us during these first months in India and God used them mightily...we can't thank each of you enough for your faithful support.

London 2006

Here are a few photos from our stop in London in May of 2006. Cathy, Frances and Hallie Heald flew with us and helped us start to settle in Chennai. More photos to come.