joon and jane

PHUKET, THAILAND
the night flight from KL to phuket was quite the experience... with turbulance, lights flickering and severe lightning storms outside our window. and surprisingly no puking. but it was all worth it once we arrived at the villanueva's timeshare with our suite and balcony overlooking the tropical beach and islands. we celebrated our honeymoon with crepes, a glass of wine and "sex and the city". our week in phuket flew by. most days we rode around in tuk-tuks, drank coconuts on the beach, ate our way through the streets and got caught in the tourist trap of vendors asking "you beautiful- you hungry? want tuk-tuk? massage?". nicole got harrassed with "are you thai people? you sexy."- while brittany with "you know who you are? angelina jolie!". we grew to love the harmless sweet-talking thai men, who in the end only wanted us to buy their cheap knock-offs. we found a favorite street eats lady the first day and returned to her throughout the week. thai food is by far the best food we've had in asia so far, and it's definitely keeping us regular. we'll return home putting chili peppers on our bland American food. other days, we took day trips to the islands. on our day trips, we got pelted with rain in our bathing suits as we took a high-speed boat across the ocean to the phi phi islands, played with monkeys on monkey island, visited James Bond on his island that Tomorrow Never Dies was filmed, canoed through bat caves and around islands, made friends with the fun crew on board and even experienced a mock ladyboy show. the crew dressed up as ladyboys and danced with all of the men (and us) to "barbie girl" and the vengaboys... they were almost too good. we laughed so hard our stomachs hurt. we had a Thai halloween at the "FantaSea" show with elephants, acrobats and thai performances... followed by Singha on the beach.

phuket marked our halfway point, where we reminisced and also anticipated the second half of our trip. we expect it to be a different experience than the first half, traveling around third-world countries with a hopefully more authentic and less-touristy feel. we also got to skype friends and family, which was wonderful and needed. we had a great honeymoon on the island.

MAETANG, THAILAND
while laying out on beaches and island hopping was great, we were ready to do something a little more worthwhile. so why not hang out with Thai kids and teach English? after a long night of two flights and sleeping on the metal chairs at the Bangkok airport, we arrived in northern Thailand to be taken in by Belinda (she hosted a Loveworks team this summer at Maetang Tribal Children's Home), Peter and Leanne (an American couple volunteering for a year) and P'Nit (a sweet Thai lady who looks after the girls at the dorm). we went right from tourists to locals. while some children spoke great English and others not a word, they were all full of so much love that they made us feel like family the very first day. they were all just so happy to be with us and us with them, hugging us and holding our hands every second. they are all tribal children from northern Thailand who are sponsored from people around the world, giving them the opportunities of housing, a community and a good education. we taught English at the primary school one day and at the high school 3 days. when our teaching skills failed, we played hangman and pictionary... and all was good. we even picked up on some Thai enough to have basic conversations with kids, although we butchered the tones probably more times than we thought. on our breaks we hung out with the teachers, ate in the cafeteria, tried out a Thai dancing class and visited some of the kids we knew in their classrooms. back at the home, we played volleyball, jump rope, practiced Christmas carols for their caroling next month, had photoshoots and hung out with everyone at Belinda's house. we even got nicknames from our friend who we nicknamed joey- joon and jane. we celebrated Leanne's birthday with the Thai kids singing Happy Birthday (which made us laugh) and eating REAL american cake with frosting. we devoured that Betty Crocker.

on friday, the kids piled into the bed of a pickup truck and hung off the sides with their luggage as we cruised down the highway at 90mph... when in thailand. we were off to church camp- yes, all in Thai and without a translater. it was a great and exhausting weekend. two childrens homes and a YWAM team of people our age from all over the world came together at a camp in the middle of the quiet green mountains. we're still amazed by how much patience and diligence Thai children have. they wake up at 5:30am every morning and do activities for hours at a time without ceasing in enthusiasm for it. it was us Americans who found any excuse to take breaks... multiple ones. a respectable cultural difference. in just 3 days, we gained relationships with some campers and learned and experienced a lot about their cultural beliefs and spiritual warfare. a specific instance that occured on the last night is still challenging and stretching us- which is so unexpected and awesome. we ended it with an adults night out in Chiang Mai, cruising down the Sunday night walking street in anticipation for the upcoming Loy Krathong festivities... and the arrival of Rosalie and Cristiana in the morning!

MALAYSIA PICTURES
PHUKET,THAILAND PICTURES