Thursday, January 23 - Multiple Activities

Today several of us arranged to have a Thai cooking class, others went on a full day excursion to Ko Thalu island, others relaxed and worked on journals, while others visited a palace of King Rama IV.

Here are photos of the cooking class,  Cameron arranged the class and the others who attended reported that it was an amazing experience, they learned how to select  the correct ingredients from the marketplace, how to prepare the ingredients (which includes having children prepare the coconut for coconut paste) they also learned how to cook the meal correctly.  They all reported that it was absolutely the very best Thai food they had ever had. They made Green Curry, Pad Thai and a Coconut dessert.  

Excursion to Ko Thalu

Vicki was very interested in doing some scuba diving while on the trip and invited those interested to tag along. Nathaniel also had his scuba certification so he signed up for a scuba class too.The other 6 of us decide to go snorkeling. It turned out that our excursion, which we arranged directly through the concierge and our tour guide, involved a 2.5 hour van ride (each way), a 20 minute boat ride ( each way )  but also  a full lunch  buffet and beautiful fish, coral, and soft sand beaches.

The island had a turtle hatchery to protect sea turtles that lay eggs on the beach om this island. The baby turtles were very cute, and Alexa actually got to hold one!

Finally, some of our group relaxed on the beach making sand castles, writing in their journals, sleeping, and shopping. All in all it was a great end to our time in Thailand.