Mom & Dad Come to Visit!

My parents spent the last two weeks in Thailand and it has brought me more joy than words can explain. I still had school, but I was able to meet up with them on the weekends while they explored during the week. Their adventures started in Bangkok where Lauren and I arrived a day before them to make a day trip by train to Ayutthaya. We got dinner with a few of my friends and started a movie marathon to try and stay up as late as we could. Mom and Dad's flight arrived around midnight so we did our best to stay up until they made it to the hotel, but I admittedly dozed off (just a

little). We spent the next few days exploring the city. Saturday we went for breakfast and decided to take a boat to the reclining Buddha. The Grand Palace is still closed for the King's cremation, so we went to a few of the temples near the reclining Buddha instead. We got tired of temples pretty quickly and went to China Town to walk around the small shopping streets. I’ve been to a handful of markets in my day but this was something else! Small alley ways lined tightly with human sized stuffed animals, toys, trinkets, and every food imaginable. And then, when you think that it just can’t get any smaller, someone on a motor bikes honks his way through. Pure chaos. We lasted about 5 minutes before seeking refuge on the main street. At this point we were pretty tired (especially with Mom and Dad fighting jet lag), so we decided to head back to the hotel. My friend Sarah met us on the rooftop of our hotel for drinks. We were treated to an absolutely beautiful sunset. After, we walked to a local place where my parents had their first traditional Thai dinner! The next day Mom led yoga in the morning before an early lunch (late breakfast?) and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around the park, eating ice cream and catching up. I said goodbye to my month long travel partner, Lauren, and we headed to the airport so that I could go back to Trang and my parents to Chiang Mai.

They spent the week in Chiang Mai while I was back at my first week of school. They enjoyed a cooking class, visiting the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary (where dad fully embraced the mud bath), exploring the temples and their agreed upon favorite activity, a monk chat. On Thursday they traveled down to Krabi where they spent the following day at the beach before I met them after school on Friday. 

We went to a great dinner and celebrated Loi Krathong. It was so special to be able to spend this Thai holiday with them. We spent the weekend at the beach, reading and drinking smoothies. Sunday, I headed back to Trang for school while my parents traveled to Koh Lanta. They enjoyed a few more days at the beach and exploring the local island via scooter.

On Tuesday, I finally had the moment that I’ve been waiting so long for, my parents finally arrived in Trang! They stayed at my friend, Dear’s, guesthouse and she was their local tour guide while

they were here. She took them to breakfast and the local markets while I was in school. And on Wednesday they came to school with me! Every Wednesday we have a school wide Easy Easy English assembly. Each English teacher chooses students to perform a skit or song in English for the entire school. By coincidence, my groups performance was last Wednesday, so my parents came to school to watch! It was so fun introducing them to my students and showing them around my school and the rest of Trang. We did yoga on my roof, ate at some of my favorite places, and shared more laughs than I can remember.  

Being able to share my town, school, and friends here in Thailand was incredibly special. I am a homebody through and through so living abroad has sometimes been challenging for me. I didn’t realized how much I had settled here in Trang until it was time to share it with the most important people. But with that being said, even though I got to spend so much time with them and share so much, the goodbyes were still hard and I’m still working on being OK. I now realize how much I took for granted in my life back home. Not just the material things, but also having my friends and family around the corner or just a quick phone call away. Despite the 14 hour time difference I’m so thankful for the friends who still check in every now and then and especially for my amazing parents who travel half way across the world bring their little girl smiles, hugs, snacks, and Christmas presents.

Peace and blessing to everyone near and far! May you have a great week!