Christmas, Part 2: Phuket

And now, the post you’ve all been waiting for:

Christmas Day was quite full! It started with Sophie and I picking up my parents for church at the Akha church. It turns out that basically all the families of Taw Saeng go to this church, or at least attend on Christmas! It was so fun to see all the kids and I got to introduce my parents to the parents of the Taw Saeng kids. They met Lucy’s mom and dad, who were very excited to meet them, and we saw Winnie’s family too. Sophie had pulled out her Akha special occasion jackets and there were three, so each of us wore one: my mom, Sophie and me. It was hot but fun to wear some traditional clothing, considering American “traditional clothing” consists of jeans and a t-shirt. 

Even though my parents didn’t understand a word of the service, they still had fun singing Christmas carols, they just sang in English while everyone else sang in Thai. After service was over, they got ushered to the guest of honor spots at the tables where everyone was eating Christmas dinner together, family style. Of course, my parents had never had Akha food before, so it was an interesting experience for their taste buds, and quite spicy, but I think they enjoyed it anyway.

Afterwards, we took some pictures in our Akha clothing and then went back to the house, where Maiko was having a church celebration with the house church. Faa was there, Ning’s sister, so it was great spending some time with her and catching up and playing games with all the people who had come to the house church. I finished packing up, and we headed over to see the world famous Chiang Mai Walking Street. We saw Lucy’s family again and Winnie’s mom’s booth too. My parents were stoked to get all their souvenir shopping done and see the amazing things people make in Thailand. We also ate a bunch of great food, of course.

Finally, it was time to head for the airport and off to Phuket. After a quick goodbye to Sophie, we got the hotel shuttle to the airport, checked in and flew through the night. Well, it was night, and we flew, but it was only 2 hours. Phuket was great! It was so luxurious to spend the day on the beach with the beautiful, soft sand and playing in the water. The day after Christmas, my friend Jenny flew in from LA at about midnight and rallied so well the next morning that she was able to come with us on a day of touring the islands. We took a speedboat with a bunch of other people and saw James Bond Island, Ice Cream Cave and some other really cool tropical places. We had a lovely dinner on the beach and my parents got to set off a paper lantern into the night sky. 

Our final day in Phuket, we took a cab into Phuket town and walked around a bit, visiting their library, “Muddy Beach” and, since it was brutally, swelteringly hot, we got fancy ice cream. We headed back to the hotel, packed up and sent my parents off to the airport, while Jenny and I walked down to the beach for a final seaside meal before we were off to the airport and up to Chiang Mai.