Thailand is for Kids Big and Small!

A bunch of kids (big and small) having fun in Thailand!

The Yazells are back in Arizona, preparing for their final move to Ecuador.  Getting back to where our big computer is stored means we were finally able to download memory cards from our camera (except for one card Roger has hidden in our luggage somewhere!)  That means the next couple of blogs here will be mostly photo montages to catch readers up visually on our month long tour of Thailand.

One of the pleasant surprises was the kids we met.  Several were nieces and nephews of Thoom and others were neighbors, if not relatives from her home village.  What a delight they were to be with and what fun we had with them!

Before we left Chiang Mai driving across country to Thoom's village, she and Suzanne discovered some great vendors in a Thai marketplace and went shopping for native Thai outfits for all the younger kids.  It was a delight watching them try on these clothes!

During our stay in the village, we became the object of much curiosity for  these kids (not to mention some of their parents).  We were amazed by the courtesy, respect and discipline these kids displayed and the fact that they did so without giving up the fun of being kids.  That sense of fun was in evidence when Na Steve (Uncle Steve, our son Stephen) took the neighborhood entourage in a pickup to one of the flooded roadways into town.  Our visit there became a beach excursion!

A drive to see floodwaters turns into fun at the asphalt beach

Thai kids are respectful, courteous and reverent...
most of all they appear to be very joyous and happy!

Roger and Khow
pausing for ice cream

Suzanne and Khow
shopping

While all the kids were delightful, one in particular stold the show.  Khow, Thoom's niece, formed an immediate bond with the elder Yazells from their first moment of meeting and was prone to holding one of our hands  whenever we were walking.  We took her and her brother to school on our last morning in the village so her classmates could "see" that she indeed did have some "falang" family visiting from out of the country.

Dropping off Khow and her brother at school.

We departed for Koh Samui and then returned to Bangkok for a couple days prior to our departure.  Thoom's mother had already planned to come down to Bangkok to see us off and was surprised when Khow appeared in Grandma's room with spare clothes and announced she, too, was going to Bangkok to see us off.  As a result, we got to spend an extra couple of days with the little girl that had stold our hearts.

Of all the memories we accumulated in Thailand, memories of these kids will linger the longest and brightest as we continue our travels juntos en el camino de la vida.