The Roberts in Korea

Lately

The month of January has flown by.  Lately, we have been reimmersed in school, work, basketball, homework and busyness.  It has been good.  Trains have played a part in this month as we took a few trips to Seoul and to Suwon and the train is a convenient way to travel. 

Becca and Sarah have been busy with basketball practices and games.  They are both having a great season.  Becca is currently in Shanghai, China playing in an APAC basketball tournament.  Dina found some material that she likes and is enjoying a bit of quilting with an amazing little sewing machine that some dear friends got for her. 

Becca and Sarah got all fancied up one night and had a good time at the Homecoming Dance.  Thankfully, life has carried on in this first month of 2011.  That is a bit of what we have been up to lately.  Life is made up of latelys.  What have you been up to lately?

Bummed Out? Go Bowling

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a month since our fun trip to Phuket, Thailand.  We left the perfect temperature of the beach and came home to some serious snow, ice and cold in South Korea.  We also came home to find that our home had been broken into and robbed while we  were gone.  The place was ransacked.  It was a bummer. It took us a day or so to get our heads and our home straightened out and then we went bowling.

  Our friends, the Millers, invited us to go bowling.  It was fun to hang out with them--especially Brittney who was home from college.  We did a lot of laughing.  We threw some strikes, a few spares and lots of gutter balls.  In the midst of friends, laughter and the  making of memories our spirits were lifted and we were filled with gratitude. 

Bummed out?  Go bowling.

Phuket Miscellany

Our trip to Phuket, Thailand was a wonderful experience.  The place, the people, the weather and the food were amazing.  Phuket is a very tourist oriented place and there are many famous food chain restaurants located in the city, but we bypassed all of that and went for the local cuisine.  Thai food is distinctive and delicious and we ate a lot of it.  Thanks to a recommendation from our friend, Craig, we ended up eating many of our meals at the Lamai Restaurant.  The food was excellent and the people at the restaurant got to the point where they knew what we were going to order.

We saw lots of amazing things in Phuket.  At the elephant riding camp we got the chance to feed the owner's pet monkey while we were waiting for our turn on the elephants.  At the close of the elephant ride we enjoyed the opportunity to pet a baby elephant.  He was four years old.

Phuket is an immense tourist attraction.  Most of the tourists that we encountered there were from Europe and/or Australia.  The place is filled with bars, restaurants and stores/shops. The roads are filled with cars, tuk-tuks (taxis) and motorcycles are everywhere.  Of course the beach/ocean are the main attraction of the island.

The Thai people that we encountered in Phuket were pleasant, humble, patient and helpful.  Upon greeting them and saying good-bye to them they always did so with the gesture of their hands folded in front of them.  We even encountered a Thai Ronald!

Riding Elephants in Phuket

When we first moved to South Korea five years ago Dina heard from some friends that you could ride elephants in Thailand.  This has been something that she has wanted to do.  We finally did it.  Here are some pics of us on elephants in Phuket, Thailand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phi Phi Island

We spent one of our days in Phuket on a Phi Phi (pee-pee) Island Tour.  It was an amazing experience.  We boarded a tour boat at 9 a.m. and took an our hour long speed boat ride to the Phi Phi Islands.  We visited four islands--Phi Phi Island, Monkey Island, Mosquitoe Island and Bamboo Island.  Each island visit included a beach and many beautiful sights. 

A lunch buffet was served at one of the islands and throughout the trip we were served soft drinks and fresh fruit.  We did some snorkeling at two different stops on the trip.  One time was on the shore of one of the islands and the other time was at a large coral reef located in the center of the islands (seemingly out in the middle of the ocean).  The fish that we swam with were colorful and exotic and the coral was beautiful.

At monkey island were observed a couple of wild monkeys that live on the island and hang out at the beach to get food from the tourists.  They liked the bananas and bread that was offered to them, but they loved the Coca-Cola that the people were drinking.  They snatched the can out of the tourists' hands and quickly guzzled the soda pop.  The monkeys were a bit overweight--it seems that high fructose corn syrup affects monkeys too.

One of our stops on the tour was at the island where the movie, "The Beach" was filmed (Leonardo D. was the star of the movie).  It was an amazing place.  The Phi Phi Island tour was a great experience and one that we all won't soon forget.

The Pleasants in Phuket

It was a privilege for us to connect with the Pleasants family while we were in Phuket.  Mark is the high school principal at TCIS, April is an ESL teacher in the middle school and their boys, John and Michael, are students at the school.  They spent Christmas Break in Thailand and three of those days were spent in Phuket and we were able to spend one of those days with them. 

We had a blast hanging out together on the beach for most of the day.  We spent a lot of time in the water, talking, laughing and "riding the waves."  The Pleasants' boys, John and Michael, wanted to ride "The Banana" so Mark booked a ride for five on the tube.  Mark, Becca, Sarah, John and Michael took a wild ride in the Andaman Sea while April, Dina and I (Ryan) enjoyed riding in the boat.

Later in the day, both John and Michael did some para-sailing.  It was cool to watch them. To finish out the fun day we met the Pleasants for dinner and enjoyed some delicious Thai food, we walked and shopped a bit and then culminated the evening with a dessert of mango and sticky rice.  We made some memories and had an extremely "pleasant" time with the Pleasants in Phuket.

FantaSea in Phuket

We went to the FantaSea show.  It is one of the major buffet dinner/shows in Phuket.  It was quite an experience.  We took an hour long van ride to the show location.  We started the evening with a buffet dinner in an amazing dinner hall.  After dinner we walked across the courtyard past the elephants to the huge 3500 seat theater.  The show was great and included, pyrotechnics, singing, dancing, lazers, acrobatics, magic, and 15 elephants.  We had a grand time at the FantaSea.  Click this LINK for more information.