Spring Break Vacation to Thailand Part I

In October we booked a vacation to Phuket, Thailand.  It seemed like it would be a long time away when we booked it.  We had the cards paid off for it in December and we were busy living.  And then March came, and it was a reality that we would really be heading to Thailand for our first tropical vacation.  It is also the first real non-travel vacation, or a vacation where we just go and stay in one place for a long time that we have ever taken.

Our flight from Astana left at 9:30 on Saturday evening.  We ordered a minivan taxi to pick us up at 7:30.  We left our dog, Yuki, with our friends, grabbed our three suitcases and two backpacks and headed for the airport. Our friend, Chris Keeley was traveling to Bangkok for a training session for the US embassy, so we waited at the airport with him.  Our flight to Almaty was uneventful.  In Almaty we had to walk to a different building outside.   Almaty was above zero (Celsius), had no snow, and had green grass.  Astana has been hovering around zero (Celsius) and some days had gotten plus enough that the snow and ice began to melt, but there is still plenty there.

Waiting in Almaty for our connection to Bangkok

We waited for a few hours before boarding our flight to Bangkok.  That flight was full, but nice.  We really like the Kazakh airline, Astana Air, because they have a bit more leg room than most US carriers. That extra two inches really makes a difference in comfort for tall people like me.  The kids slept a bit, watched the television, and ate their snacks/dinner on the flight.  We landed in Bangkok at about 9:00 a.m.  The airport was huge and we got a bit lost trying to make our connection - we had to go through passport and customs before making the connection.  We had plenty of time, so we were okay.

After checking in to our next flight and going back through security, we went to eat with the girls.  We went to McDonald's since our kids were quite broken down after a sleepless night and we knew that they would be happier with something familiar.  We had a nice slow lunch and then went to our gate.  We were still a few hours early, so Yulia and I stretched out and rested while the kids played.

Lunch at McDonald's at the airport in Bangkok

View of a garden from our table at McDonald's

Our flight to Phuket was only about an hour long and we were served a nice snack lunch on the way.  When we landed we had to get our checked bag.  It did not come out on the carousel, so we were a bit worried.  Then an airport employee told us that we could pick it up with the international bags.  We had checked it all the way through, so it went to a different carousel and we had to walk through customs with it.  Success!

Our Thai Airways flight to Phuket.  Happy travelers!

We found the taxi company holding up our name on a sign and then took a minibus to the Marriott resort.  It turns out that there are two Marriott resorts and we went to the wrong one.  It was okay - we were treated nicely, given a cold towel and a cold drink, and then driven on a golf cart to the correct resort about a half mile down the road.

Riding the cart to the correct Marriott resort (Marriott's Mai Khao Beach).

We were asked at check in if we wanted to upgrade to a room with a private pool for an extra $30 a night.  We thought, why not?  So we did that.  We were in a two bedroom suite with a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a laundry.  It's about the size of our apartment in Kazakhstan! We let the girls put on their suits and swim in our pool for about an hour.

Swimming in our private pool.

Our living/dining room in our suite.

After swimming we walked down to the beach and we all waded a bit and saw the sunset. Then we went and found a place to eat.  We found a little Thai place that is like a chain restaurant for Thai food.  We ordered and loved everything that we tried.

Walking to the beach (about 300 meters) from our room.

Kids, meet the ocean!

Wading.

The water is so warm - even warmer than our pool at our apartment.  It's fun to play in the surf.

After that it was home to our suite for a well-deserved Rest.

Nauryz

Tonight we are flying to Thailand for our spring break but before we get on the plane and fly to a tropical paradise we decided to take our girls downtown to see what festivities they had going on in honor of Nauryz.

Yurts by Khan Shatyr (the huge tent right behind us)

Nauryz is a Kazakh New Year – a symbol of the spring renewal, love, abundance and friendship. Traditionally, people used to wear holiday outfits and fill all vessels in the house with water, milk or grain to increase the odds of a good harvest and prosperity. Home cleaning and the planting of trees and flowers several days before the holiday is also an important ritual. It is believed that if Nauryz is celebrated in a clean house, it will protect the hosts from misfortunes and illnesses during the year.The word “Nauryz” has Persian origins and literally translates as “a new day.

 

Kazakhs in their national costumes

The celebration usually includes fairs, traditional sports like Kazakh wrestling, horse racing, dancing and singing. Nauryz is celebrated during 21-23 of March but this year most of the festivities will take place on the 22^nd of March, so we’ll miss them all.

 

Rope swings - traditional fun activity during Nauryz

Today though they had a little concert going on by Khan Shatyr, and it was fun. We watched two performances before we went on to checking some other things. Maybe next year we can fully experience the holiday!

One of the bands performing a popular song.

And of course our kids couldn't pass this great opportunity!

Lina and Veronika

Lexa and Sophie

Lexa and Sophie. We hope to see this traditional game live sometime. It is when a young man first trying to kiss a girl on a galloping horse, and if he is not successful, she will chase him and whip him!

Is it spring yet?

Today is 20^th of March. A lot of our family and friends in America are well on their way into spring and in some places into summer but this is how 20^th of March looks here in Astana, the second coldest capital in the world! 

NU Campus on March 20th

 Awesome! I have to say though that during the day it warms up to about -5C (23F), so it feels like spring! And tomorrow we are heading straight into summer… we are going to Thailand for the spring break! Tropical weather sounds pretty good to me right now. We all love snow, and this winter has been pretty mild (or that is what we were told) but we think we are ready for some really warm weather now.

They are ready to put on swimsuits instead of winter coats!

This morning I took the girls to Khan Shatyr  (the big shopping mall that looks like a huge tent) to get some swimming gear for our trip, and right across from Khan Shatyr they were setting up the yurts for the celebration that starts tomorrow – Nauryz – Kazakh New Year. 

Tired of winter!

Setting up the yurts for Nauryz celebration.

Because we are leaving for our awesome vacation tomorrow, we’ll miss most of the celebration but we’ll probably see some of the festivities before we leave tomorrow. However it will be another post.

International Women's Day

International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on the 8^th of March is a big holiday in this part of the world. If you want to know its origins, you can read about it here: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp#.VQj9JE0frIU. 

The way it is celebrated here I can only compare to Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day put together. In other words it is a huge deal! On this day men give flowers to the women in their life including loved ones, family members, coworkers, and sometimes perfect strangers. It is not uncommon for a girl to receive flowers from strangers (men!) while walking on the street. And if you are a man who forgot to at least acknowledge in some way this very important day in every woman’s life here, I do not envy you the next day! Girls can also give flowers to each other, and it is totally normal. It is also a Federal holiday, and everyone gets a day off work. Except the flower shops! This is the biggest day of the year for all of the flower shops around here. And the flower of choice is … tulip!  Tulips are specially delivered here from Holland, and there are a lot of different varieties of them.

With 5 ladies in our family we had quite the festivities! Our girls had lots of attention from the boys in their classes. Each class also put a nice program for the moms completed with poems, dances, skits, games for moms (and the kids made some handmade gifts for their moms), and the boys put a special program for the girls in their classes. The girls and boys could also come to school in their pretty dresses and suits. After the programs each class had a "tea party" which in reality was more like a feast!

Polina in her class right before the festivities began.

The program has started!

Polina's class, each kid was saying a little poem for their moms

An Uzbek dance by one of the girls.

This was a game for moms. Each mom had to recognize herself in the pictures. I am the one in the second row on the right (in the purple skirt)!

The boys singing funny little riddles for each of the girls in their class

Sophie and Lexa waiting for their party to start.

Ready, set, go!

Sophie is performing a skit with her classmate, Azat.

A game for moms: moms had to recognize their own kids while blindfolded and while only being able to touch the children's hands. Impressively every mom found her own child!

Sophie's and Lexa's 1st grade class

Little ladies!

The "tea party" after the program.

Each of our girls also got a little present: flowers, cute journals, and Nika got a mug with her picture printed on it along with some greeting cards (I didn't get to see Nika's class party because it was exactly at the same time as the twins' program). The school also celebrated this day by putting together a competition show for the girls called “Miss Enchantment” but it deserves a separate post. 

Some of kids' presents.

And that’s not all! The girls on Spencer’s basketball team gave each of our daughters a tulip and a nice bouquet of them to me. With some gorgeous roses from Spencer to top it off we were totally spoiled! 

I do not remember having so many flowers all at ones!

We only have one vase, so we had to get creative with so many flowers in the house

A trip to Aquarium

Aquarium "Duman" in the summer

Back at the beginning of February  when the weather was a bit dreary and the kids didn't get to go out to play in the snow much because it was either really cold or really windy, or both, we decided to take them to a local aquarium for some entertainment. We've heard that it was relatively small but had a good selection of fish. It was actually a good size aquarium in my opinion, probably not as big as Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas but of the same level. The Aquarium is located in the entertainment center “Duman” and is the only aquarium in the world that is located over 3,000 km away from the ocean. They have more than 2,000 of sea inhabitants from different parts of the world.

One thing that I haven’t encountered anywhere else is the way they do the ticketing. They issue you a sort of credit card on which they put the money for your pass.  And then when you go in you have to swipe that card which will open the gate and let you in. Interesting!

Sophie and Lina looking at some fish

Spencer, Nika, and Lexa 

Room with the fish of Kazakhstan

Nice crew!

We really liked the aquarium. They had a nice selection of fish found in the rivers of Kazakhstan along with a lot of tropical fish, and even an alligator (maybe it was a crocodile, I do not remember). Then they had a long and winding tunnel with sharks and sea turtles and other creatures. It was pretty impressive.

This poor alligator didn't have much space at all.

A tank with piranhas 

Sharks or catfish?

Going through the tunnel.

Cute clown fish!

The sea turtles were big!

At the far end of the aquarium they had a viewing room where you can watch the feeding of the sharks. When we were there they already fed them for the day, so we didn't get to see it but the kids liked climbing up the stairs to the second story of the viewing area.

The shark feeding viewing area.

When we were going back through the tunnel again, we saw a mermaid swimming with the turtles!

The little mermaid!

Doesn't it look like I am the only one who is having fun?! For the record, everybody had fun, just not everybody had fun posing for the pictures!

It was a nice aquarium, not too small with a lot of things to see and not too big so the little kids don’t get tired. We had a great time! And of course our kids couldn't pass this great opportunity for goofing around! 

Lina and Lexa 

Nika looks way too happy considering the situation

Poor shark will have some digestive problems!