The Gated Community

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been feeling under the weather for about a month now. I've been a familiar face at the US Naval Hospital here on base; and I'd like to give kudos to the kind folks there who have taken care of me. As it turns out, when we left Thailand, I brought home an unexpected souvenir concealed in my gut... Salmonella. My advice to all of you, don't ever get Salmonella. It's not fun. The good news is that I'm feeling much better than I was three weeks ago, but the battle still rages.

In other news, we received a telephone call on Tuesday, January 8, 2008, from our friends at the Yokosuka Housing Office. The voice on the other end told us that our name was moved to the top of the waiting list for on base housing and asked if we were interested in moving aboard. By Wednesday, we had signed the paperwork and we were told to be at the house on Thursday, January 17, to collect our keys and start moving. Lucky for us, the following weekend was a 3-day holiday weekend. Even luckier for us, we have some great friends who offered to help. This was a huge plus, because the move was at our own expense, and we were quoted a steep $1800 - $2100 estimate for having professionals do it. Not on my life.

Once we got the keys, we started moving. Thursday and Friday were the box moving days. I rented a moving truck on Saturday from Nippon Auto Rentals, right outside of Yokosuka's main gate, for a mere 16000 yen (approx $150). For the majority of sunlit hours on Saturday, the boys and I did all we could to move the big and heavy stuff to the new place. I finished up the small stuff on Sunday then on Monday we turned in the keys to the old place. All in all, everything went fairly smoothly. Our total out of pocket costs for the move... under $400.

Ultimately, the decision to move on base wasn't that difficult. Being off base has its advantages, such as easy access to public transportation, a higher rate of immersion into our host nation's language and culture, and the opportunity to be able to leave work behind and get away from it all. On base, however, both Nicki and I have reduced our commuting times from about 2 hours per day to less than 10 minutes. Additionally, our new home has effective heat and insulation, better storage capabilities, closer parking options, a larger and more versatile yard for us to play in and use, and an equally beautiful view of the bay. In all honesty, they had me at "shorter commuting time".

If you're wondering, this post's title is in honor of our friend, Pete, an American who lives over here but is not associated with the base whatsoever. When he heard that we had accepted on base housing, he poetically said, "when you move into the gated community, don't forget about all of us still on the outside."

Falling Apart

Hey Everyone and Happy New Year. Nicki did a great job posting about the first half of our Thailand trip and I've been excited about posting the recap of our second half... especially after going through a lot of the pictures that we took while we were down there. Unfortunately, since we've been back, I've been hit with several different ailments that have kept me mostly lethargic, congested, and otherwise not so genki.

In lieu of telling my story, I thought I'd instead show you Thailand from Josh's perspective. His photos were sent directly from his camera to the computer, without any fancy editing. You can view them by clicking on "Josh's Pics" on the left column and then the date 01/05/2008. Or just click here.

Things have been busy since we got back and we've got quite a few stories to tell. So bear with us over the next few days and weeks and we'll try to get back to a regular posting schedule soon.

Sawadee!!

Since our return from the winter break, everyone keeps asking, "So, how was Thailand?" It was AWESOME. We really had a fun time and the weather couldn't have been better.

For our first trip to Thailand, we decided to do a group tour through Camp Zama. Because we had never been anywhere in mainland Asia on our own, it gave us a sense of security along with being able to see all of the sites easily. Camp Zama did an excellent job getting us booked. Any of our readers stationed here who want to go on vacation, I highly recommend calling them first! Both resorts that we stayed at were 5 star resorts and they were some of the most amazing resorts we have ever had the pleasure of seeing, much less staying at. Our first stop was in Pattaya a bustling beach getaway town located about 2 hours from Bangkok. This first resort that we stayed at was the Dusit. Located right next to the ocean with a semi private beach and many many pools. As our bus drove up the gate, the gaurds greeted us with a salute and our first of many exuberant "Sawadee!"s. It was evening and the front garden of our hotel was lit up with thousands of Christmas lights and snowmen (Fake of course. With 90 degree weather, I don't think the real Frosty would have stood a chance!). We were very tired from the 7 hour plane ride and 2 hour bus ride but were still very amazed at the beautiful facility. When we entered the lobby we were again greeted with a bow and a "Sawadee!". The lobby itself was filled with the smell of lemon grass. Our tour guide, Mr. James took care of getting our room keys and luggage sent up. (We didn't even have to take our luggage up to our room!!) Our first evening was uneventful. We ordered deli sandwiches for dinner and plopped down on our beds for a well deserved night's rest.

The next day, bright and early, we started off on our tour. Our buffet breakfast was out of this world. One type of fruit I really enjoyed while in Thailand was the Dragon Fruit. We met our tour after breakfast. Even though it was a long plane ride, the time difference was only 2 hours behind so it wasn't too tough to get adjusted. Although Josh enjoyed the Aquarium, I'd have to say this is something that can be skipped if one doesn't have children. We also stopped at a market strip that we sped-walked through because the place smelled of hot spoiled fish. I'd have to say though, my favorite part of the first day was feeding the monkeys. For only about 100 baht, we bought a small basket of food and fed the monkeys. For the most part they stuck their noses up at all of the bananas and cucumbers. What they really were holding out for were the raw eggs. The monkeys would gently roll them on the ground to crack them then wait for the yolks to come out and lick the goo off of the cement. After visiting the monkeys, we went on to eat a seafood lunch of fried rice and steamed shrimp. Tummies full, we then took a ride to the Chinese Temple which was beautiful and such a contrast from most of the Shinto and Buddhist temples of Japan. We were lucky enough to make it back to the hotel for some much needed pool time for all of the children on the tour. We had dinner at a small place right outside of our hotel called Kiss. For 90 baht (about $3.00), Mike got his favorite Thai dish, Panang Chicken Curry. It's served in a bowl with small slices of chicken and spicy mix of coconut milk, lemon grass and lots of chili spice. YUM!

The next day we were able to go to an Elephant sanctuary. Many of the couples without kids skipped out on this day tour. While at the sanctuary, we enjoyed a presentation and talk about elephants and what they are used for in Asia. Some people on our tour took a bath with an elephant and all of us had the opportunity to ride elephants bare back and saddle! We were all also able to feed them bananas.

The 3rd day of our tour, Christmas Day, started off pretty rough. Josh hadn't been sleeping well and we were all a little cranky. After breakfast, we walked down to the beach and got a private boat ride to an island beach. The water was absolutely crystal clear and aquamarine in color. The island was fairly quiet and relaxing. The kids played in the sand and water. This was an all day beach day so for lunch we ate on the island as well. We were served with deep fried fish, curry, rice and fried veggies. So much food! Josh ate just about a whole fish all by himself. Of course while I was lounging, I drank my token coconut milk. In my mind this is the staple of vacation lifestyle! That night the resort had a dinner celebration with an elaborate buffet and free gifts. Unfortunately, we were all so worn out that we couldn't stay for too long. Fortunately, some of our tour mates snagged some of the free gifts for us.

Because of the previous late night, we were all very happy to have a "free day" for our 4th day. We ate again at our new local haunt, Kiss. Then walked the strip and got some shopping done. Thailand is famous for its jewels and silk. Mike was nice enough to let us stop into the trusted and recommended World Gems shop and purchase several things for me. What a lucky wife I am! We also stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe and got Mike's father (an avid collector of Hard Rock pins) 2 pins.

By the 5th day, our tour was moving on to our second Hotel in Bangkok. The brand new Pullman Hotel. This is where I leave my blogging to an end and ask that Mike continue on about Bangkok and all the amazing sites were saw! Pictures are soon to come! For now, click on the links.