Bangkok and Hong Kong

We had a few days in Bangkok and it was really good. We staying in the Baiyoke Sky hotel which is the tallest building in the city, with 85 floors!!!! Our room was on the 49th! The view was incredible. Monday, while everyone was in meetings, Janis (my boss' wife) and I took off to explore the city. We went to the Grand Palace and temple. The temple is mostly made of gold! The grounds are huge and it took us about an hour and half to get through it, and even then we skipped over some things. The buildings were incredible to look at, either covered in gold or very detailed mosaics. It was a super hot day and you have to wear ankle length pants and sleeves (short sleeves were fine) and we were told that flip flops weren't acceptable either but they were....so my feet were sweating for no reason. Once we finished in the temple we were debating whether we wanted to find a market or go for a long tail boat ride. But decided we didn't really have the time for the boat ride. So we jumped in a Tuk Tuk, which is a motorcycle with a little cab attached to it. Great way to breath in all that smog! It was so much fun though, we weren't planning on taking a LONG Tuk Tuk ride but it ended up being about an hour! We got a really good rate to get to a market but there are a few stores that if the driver stops and we just go in and look he gets free gas coupons. So we agreed to stop at two of the stores and he was very grateful and gave us the ride for free. We ended up only getting maybe 10 mins at the market before we had to be back at the hotel. But the adventure was worth it, we had a lot of fun. OH and Sunday night we had a SUPER good dinner on the 79th floor of the hotel, we had a private room where a group came and sang to us and the tables were set up so beautifully! AND THE FOOD! it was amazing, it was edible and I didn't have rice!!! Well, besides the rice in my delicious sushi. It was so nice to have some food that was tasty not blah! After dinner five of us (Samantha, Chris, Janis, Graham and I) decided we wanted one of those wonderful Thai foot massages again....well, the place we ended up in was umm, guess you can just say it was sketchy and a bit gross, the massage was ok but the enviroment and stuff around us were very entertaining, Sam giggled almost the entire time. We walked away with some great stories at poor Chris' expense.
Our last night in Bangkok we went to a night market, which was very big and so much fun!!!! I barley spent any money and came away with so much stuff!!!! By the end of the night I was so tired and wishing I was going straight home, and skipping over a night in Hong Kong. Now I'm glad I didn't.
I arrived in Hong Kong and was still undecided as to how I was going to get to my hotel. As I was looking into it I met a lady from New York that was staying in the same area as me so we took the train together and then I hopped on to a free hotel shuttle from the train station. The traffic in Hong Kong is BEYOND insane! We didn't go very far but it took forever to get there! It is bumper to bumper, I don't know how any of the cars move! I found my hotel so easily and got checked in with no problems, and the room is really nice too. I found my way to the Star Ferry (this was on last seasons amazing race) terminal to cross the harbour over to Hong Kong Island. The harbour is incredible! It's so busy with ferries, yatchs, bardges, cruise ships! The sky line is breath taking with all the tall buildings. Once I got over on the ferry I got on a public bus to Victoria's peak where I took a tram (furnicular? tram) up the mountain to a view point of the city. By the time I got up to the top it was dark and the lights of the city were breath taking!!!!!! So colourful and just so many skyscrapers, I think a few of my pictures turned out. I got back down the peak and across the harbour just in time for the laser show! Every night at 8pm all the buildings do a laser and light show, it's kind of like our symphony of fire but with the lights of the buildings, spot lights and lasers all going to music!!!! I"m really hoping my videos turn out cause it was really impressive, with lights of all colours running up and down buildings and lasers dancing through the sky! I've had a great time so far. It's 9:30pm and I think I'm ready for bed and will just wake up when I wake up. I have to head to the airport around noon tomorrow so I don't think I will really put to much effort into doing much in the morning, except relax...that makes sense do nothing right before my 12 + hour plane ride. Well, Starbucks and McD's are right outside my hotel so a walk to Starbucks will definetly happen in the morning. :)
I'm almost home and I'm excited to get there. See everyone real soon :)

Happy Elephants

Hello again,

Today is our last day of the conference. Things have gone really well. It's another packed day of sessions etc, but we do get our two hour break in the afternoon and we're going to a craft market. Yeah, tacky souvenirs :)
Yesterday I actually got to ride an elephant!!! There was probably close to 50 of us that went, and it was incredible. It's really wierd to drive down the road and see an elephant in a field like we would see a cow at home. The place that we went to wasn't in the best condition, you get on the elephant and they take you on a 20 min ride down a dirt path. Our drive jumped off part way through the ride to take pictures and I got to slide down on the the neck of Sumbat (our elephant). It was so cool!!!! Just the pace of the walk is really neat to feel. After the ride there was another elephant that I got my picture taken with, I got to sit on his tusks and then he picked my up with his trunk!!!!! AMAZING! I have some really good pictures of it all. But I"m using a pretty old computer so I can't get them on to my blog or facebook :( So everyone will have to wait till I get home. The funniest part of our time with the elephants was Carl..... he is a larger man and wanted a picture taken on the tusks and being lifted up. While he was in line the elephant seemed to be eyeing him and we were thinking he was worried cause Carl is a larger man. Well..... he wasn't scared...... he actually really, really liked Carl. We'll let your imagination fill in how we knew. But I don't think I have laughed so hard in my life! Even the chinese people around us were pointing and laughing to the point of tears. I don't think Carl will be living down this story for a very, very long time.
After dinner last night I hung out with our Latino representatives for a bit and practised my Spanish and now have places to stay in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Columbia, Paraguay and some more friends in Honduras :) At about 10pm a group of six of us went for Thai foot massages! This was just over an hour long and was incredible. It was a full leg, arm and back massage....and it only cost $6!!!! Unbelievable. We may be heading back tonight, it's a great treat right before bed, and after shopping for a couple of hours we many need it. Reid is the guy that has set up the elephant ride and the massages, he's the guy to travel with, finds all the great places to go and great deals to go along with it.
Today is my last full day in Pattaya and tomorrow we head to Bangkok until Wednesday morning. I can't wait to see the city, I've heard it's pretty fun.

Giving up on learing to speak Thai

Hello Everyone! I have finally figured out how to get onto the internet here! I am having a great time and just game inside to coold down! It has to be around 35 degrees today, yes life is rough. The conference has been amazing!!! The first night we got here we caught the tail end of the ACE (athletes, cities and events) conference, which was a world wide conference of all sports ministries (not just AIA). There were over 700 people attending this conference from all over the world! I went to a bit of their last evening session, and it was AMAZING to see that many people from all over the world (some countries I have never heard of) worshiping God together! All of them here for the same purpose, to seek God's will in how to reach people with His love. Our conference AIA World Leadership Conference started on Wednesday and it has been so busy ever since. I was helping with a lot of the administration side of things, getting gift bags ready and paper work ready for check in...those kind of fun things. We have about 130 people here, from 65 different countries. I have been a greeter for the sessions and we have had fun trying to greet each person in their own language. I have given up on Thai though....after three days of saying thank-you to the Thai staff, I learnt that I was really saying Good Morning... yeah I'm sure some of them had a good laugh at the dumb white girl. Wednesday and Thursday I had about 30 mins to an hour of free time, we've just been walking on the beach and exploring the streets around us. Pattaya is a very big, busy city and unfortunetly is the one of the largest sex trade tourism cities in the world; needless to say it's not a very pretty city.
Today I have a bit more free time and a lot of us are off to ride elephants!!!! I can't tell you how incredibly excited I am!!!!! Apperently they will even let you sit on the trunk and the tusks to take pictures!! I'll feel like I'm on Top Model!! haha :)
Tomorrow for free time we have a 90 minute shopping trip to a hand craft market, you know how much I LOVE tacky souvenirs :) yeah!!! Tomorrow (Saturday) is our last day in Pattaya and Sunday morning we head to Bangkok for our Global leadership meetings, there will only be 30 of us for these meetings.
This time has just been so amazing to meets so many people from all over the world that are using the gifts and passions that God has given them to fulfill their greatest passion...to reach out to people with God's love. I live in a multi-cultural country but I am still blown away when I look around the room and see 65 different countries represented, a true rainbow of God's creation sitting right infront of me.
Well, I have to go now....gotta get ready for my elephant ride! I hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to write more later :)

Drinking Starbucks in Hong Kong

Well, it's 8:00am Tuesday morning...for those of you at home it's only 4:00pm Monday afternoon! I am drinking my decaf tall soy Carmel Macchiato from Starbucks as we wait for our flight to Bangkok. The flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong was smooth, long but smooth. I slept for only about 4 or five hours...each at one hour intervals. But I still somehow feel rested. I watched three movies..."I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry", "Hairspray" and "License to Wed". I had plenty to keep me occupied for the 13 hour flight!! I'm glad the next one is only about three hours I think. Well, since I've just been on a plane all day there really isn't anything exciting to type yet. Looking out on Hong Kong from the airport, all I see is smog. I can't wait for the return trip when I get to stay here for a night and actually get to see the city up close and breath in that fresh smoggy air.
Well, bye for now....next time I'll be writing from Thailand sweating in 35 degree weather...enjoy the rain and wind storms everyone!!!!!

Time to breathe?

My sister and I
for formal night

On the cruise

Well, I had an absolutely fabulous time on my cruise! We were on the ship for five days and four nights, the entertainment, food and ship were great, but even better than that was my travel companions. My sister was able to join me, thanks to our fabulous mother watching the kids during the day till Jay got home. And there were 12 other from my work that came on the cruise as well. It was so much fun spending time with each of them and getting to know some of their spouses a little bit better.


My favorite part of the cruise was getting to dress up every night and go dancing after dinner. My wonderful sister and my friend Katie stayed and danced with me till 2 am most mornings....they looked beyond tired. But I thank them for letting me dance till my hearts content :)
I paid dearly for the week off of work. This past week was extremely busy at work trying to get things organized and ready for Thailand. I leave tonight and think I have everything ready. This is going to be interesting.... I have never had to have things ready for a big conference before, but I'm pretty sure I'm ahead of the game, if I'm not....it's too late now :). The place our conference is at is right across the street for a beach and I am praying that I get to step foot on the beach at least once :) One of the most interesting parts of this trip is going to be my day in Hong Kong. On my way home I have chosen to stay in Hong Kong by MYSELF for a night.... this should be interesting. I am staying in a hotel that was recommended by at least five different people, so it must be good. And have suggestions of things to see, but this is the first time that I'll be in a really big city, by myself, where I don't know anyone or know the language! It will be an adventure :) At least I know I'm going to a nice hotel so if all else fails I'll enjoy a few movies if I get cold feet to go explore on my own. I don't think I'll have time to sit, relax and breathe until I get to Hong Kong, I hope I'm not going to be too tired to enjoy it.
Anyways, I pray that everyone is doing well, and if I have internet access I will do my best to update my blog.
Enjoy the rain while I enjoy weather in the high 20's hahaha