Thailand: Day 3

 Day 3 of our trip and my second to last day with Glenn was our scuba diving trip! If you haven't noticed, my new hobby has become quite my obsession.  I guess, I figure if we move back to Virginia, I won't have a lot of opportunities for diving. Gotta get it in when I can!

Pattaya is mostly famous for it's wreck diving. Since I'm not certified as an Advanced diver or wreck diver, our options were more limited. We headed to Koh Rhin island to do some coral reef diving. We were at the southern tip of the island and were working our way to the eastern side. That meant, we had some strong currents! Not as strong as Indonesia, but pretty strong still.

The next dive accessory I will purchase will be an underwater case for my digital camera. I hate not having pictures of the neat things we saw. Keiran and Paul from the squadron also joined us on the dive, but each twosome had it's own dive master. Much nicer than Guam where they just threw us in the water! Having a dive master is nice because they are familiar with the area and no what to look for. For example, on this dive, our dive master, John B, pointed out a bamboo shark that was hiding under some rocks! My first shark!

 To get to the island, we had about a 90 minute boat ride to take in the sights and relax.

 While we were diving we saw lots of fish, a few eels. I love the big schools of fish. So amazing. Next time I go diving, I'll have a case, I promise!

 Here you can see Pattaya city. Our hotel was about 5 miles down the coast to the right out of the city.

After we got back from diving, we headed to our hotel, got cleaned up and then met up with some of Glenn's squadron buddies. We stopped by a few bars...

 Rode in a tuk-tuk...

 

but we did not apply for any visas for our girlfriends from the bar...

What's for Dinner? Pancake Friday

Have I written about Pancake Friday before? I don't even remember. It started back in Kingsville when Glenn would be gone for a weekend or two on a cross country or CQ Det or whatever the other million reasons they are gone for. I'd finish work or get home from work with plans to meet my girlfriends later that night. The thought of cooking and cleaning up a dinner on a Friday night, never sounded appealing. Thus was born, Pancake Friday.  I'd cook them and freeze them ahead of time and then just heat them up on Friday. And you know my love of breakfast breads... I'm putting it in my will. Must serve breakfast breads at the funeral of Kelly D. Smith. It's gonna be there. Ahh... pancakes, I love you.

Thailand: Day 2

Our second day in Thailand didn't start til close to the afternoon since our night before didn't end til close to 4 am. I figured this might be the plan which is why I signed us up for an afternoon cooking class at Happy Home cooking school. I found them on TripAdvisor.com and they had high recommendations. Glenn and I both really like Thai food so I thought it would be something fun to do!

We had our own private cooking class with just Glenn and I and our teacher. We made 4 dishes and sampled each one after we finished cooking it. Perhaps we shouldn't have had a late breakfast!

First we made Penang Curry. A coconut milk based curry. We started with a whole plate of ingredients and chopped and ground them into a curry paste. We fried the curry paste and then added the coconut milk, veggies, and pork and other sauces. This one was my favorite!

 

Next we made Tom Yong soup- a sweet and sour soup. This was was so easy! I need to find a premade curry paste so I can make this at home. Just a few veggies and some coconut milk, boil and you're done!

Next we made Pad Thail with shrimp. I think I need to buy some palm sugar and fish sauce. They seem to be in all the dishes.

 Lastly, we made mango sticky rice. So much better than my attempt. We steamed the rice. Then stirred in some coconut milk, sugar and a dash of salt. Why was I making it so difficult? Serve with a side of mango!

We stayed in after our cooking class and took it easy since we were going diving the next day. We had our pad thai for dinner. We enjoyed some wine and cheese, watched a movie and relaxed. It almost felt like we were home!

122? Do you really have to remind me?

The USS George Washington has a Facebook page. Have I mentioned how much I love Facebook? No? Well, it's right up there with boots, Skype and things wrapped in bacon.

Anyway, each day they (aka some pulic affairs guy with a fun job) post photos of what's going on aboard the ship and I check occasionally because maybe I'll see an E-2C or maybe Glenn! Neither of this has happened yet.

I'll get to my point now. Each photo album is titled. Today's: '2010 Summer Patrol Day 122'. Awesome. Thanks for the reminder. 4 months down. A little more to go. Why does the end always take the longest? I don't even know what happened to July or September. August goes by pretty fast when you leave on vacation for 3 weeks. October though, you're killing me. Could you move a little faster already?!

Not America Safe: Thailand needs an Electrician

Tuesday 10: Thailand Water and Beach Shots

 1. Phi Phi Island

 2. Phi Phi Island. Technically there is a beach here, it's just high tide right now. Plus, monkeys!

 3. Our hotel in Phuket

 4. Khai Nai Island

 5. More of Khai Nai and our boat.

 6. Pattaya City in the background

7. More Pattaya

8. Khai Nai Island

9. Pattaya City (obviously)

 10. Patong Beach, Phuket

Badgirl Ball: Costumes

Each year, the squadrons get creative with their "Badgirl" themes. I'm always impressed. We also put together a skit or short dance/song/joke to introduce us to the rest of the part. It's a Navy tradition that I love. It's called the Roll Call. Many of these pictures are from the Roll Calls.

VFA-115: Stepford Wives

 VFA-102: Austin Powers and the Fembots

 

 VFA-27: Roller Derby Girls

 HSL-51: Bollywood

 VFA-195: Superheroes

 VAQ-136: Gilligan's Island

 VRC-30 Det 5: Harajuku Girls

And of course my very own VAW-115 Pink Ladies

I apparently never took a picture of the HS-14 Can Can Girls either.

Such a fun night!

Thailand: Day 1

 I arrived at Bangkok airport around 5:30 pm. There was one other person that I knew on my flight and we were both headed to Pattaya City to meet our husbands. I had hired a driver ahead of time via the internet and, luckily, he was there! He was waiting with a sign with my name and hotel name. Success!

Two hours later, we arrived at my hotel. We dropped off Lauren, said hi to some friends eating dinner at the restaurant and the bell boy whisked me off to my room. Glenn. Finally. A 2 hour trip to the airport, 2 hours of waiting, 7 hours of flying and 2 more hours in a car. Totally worth every minute even for those first few minutes. It had been 6 weeks since I had last seen Glenn. I know that's not a 6 month deployment and thank goodness. He was waiting with bottles of wine and cheese in the fridge. What a good hubby.

We were invited to a "Wet Down" (aka promotion party) that night, so after several hours blissful hours together, we headed in to the city to find the party.

Free t-shirts! Hookas! Free drinks! Thailand is fun.

Thanks for a fun party VFA-102. This is Christina, she and I did some traveling together later in the week.

After the party, we decided to head down to Pattaya's infamous Walking Street. I won't even attempt to describe what I saw there. Ok, maybe a little describing. Pattaya was made famous during WWII when many American GI's stopped here during the war. When a bunch of lonely sailors stop by, what is bound to happen? Thailand's capital of sex tourism. Not kidding. Thailand is also the capital of Lady Boys. Glenn found it a fun game to point out all the "boys" to me. I had a much harder time telling who was a boy and who was girl. They all looked like girls.

Walking Street is full of shows and bars and clubs. We saw some shows. Yes, I added money to their famous industry, but you can't help but be curious. Buy me a gin and tonic and I'll tell you all about it some day. How one learns those skills, I'll never know, or ever want to know.

It was hard to ignore the obvious prostitution, the sleazy guys and general nastiness of the place. It made me glad I had Glenn by my side. We went to Walking Street one other night and enjoyed a pretty decent live band and no topless girls (in that bar) so there were some ways to enjoy yourself without needing to cover your eyes every few minutes..

Around 3 am, my 5 am wake up call was getting to me and we headed back to Jomtien Beach where our hotel was located. We found a Baht Bus aka tuk-tuk aka open-air taxi to take us back to our hotel.

 Welcome to Thailand!

Badgirl Ball: Champions!

This year's Badgirl Games champions were the VAW-115 Liberty Bells! Our trophy was a lovely leg lamp complete with all the squadron zappers! Perfect!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy 28th Birthday to me! I opened one of my presents early so that I could take it to Thailand and I'm so glad I did! Remember this post? Thanks, Mom! I love it! It looked super cute with my dress so I made Glenn take a picture for me so I could show you!

Now if only Glenn were here, then it would be a great birthday! A day at the Yokohama Oktoberfest tomorrow should help!