Adventures with the Klines!: February 2016

Aaron has been working pretty long days and 6 days a week but we both still try and get out and have some fun. The weather has been amazing and I could really get used to life with no winters! Aaron has been golfing a lot and we are both enjoying not shoveling any snow!

Sunny coffee morning in the gardens on the Leela Palace! This is really one of my favorite places!

I have started playing tennis two days a week with a new friend, Paige. I must say I forgot what a good workout tennis can be, especially in the hot sun!! The courts are still pretty new and are surrounded by apartments as you can see below. It is funny to be playing and then look up and see a bunch of kids watching. Makes me feel like I am a much better player than I am to draw an audience!

Paige and I helped the chef at the hotel prepare a few salads the other day! The staff here usually just put out iceberg lettuce and have a few toppings available so Paige showed them some different combinations they could serve instead. I was mostly there for moral support!

Aaron got me some beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day. I'm a very lucky lady I must say!

On Valentine's Day we slept in, had a nice brunch together and we spent some time by the pool in the afternoon. After that we went to watch a soccer game with some friends we have met and grabbed dinner with some couples afterwards. It was great to get out for the evening!

We have met another couple that is living where we are now and it has been fun getting to know Nick and Paige. We squished all four of us in a rickshaw home the other night! There was one point Paige and I were pretty sure it was going to tip over but we made it home safe and sound!

Every day on the way to Aaron's work he passes this facility. Can you read the sign? It is the Butt Firing Facility, I'm sure there is legitimate work happening here but too funny to not giggle! Had to share it.

Oh India.... :)

Well things have been quite crazy with us and I have just forgotten to post! Aaron and I have been to Thailand and moved apartments. I went back to the US and traveled to 7 different states in 21 days and Aaron has been working 6 days a week with super long days! We are taking Valentine's Day to just lay by the pool and relax together finally (and get caught up with the blog)!

Here are a few pictures of Thailand, which quickly became our favorite country we have traveled to. The hype of Thailand is not over done.

These are pictures from The Grand Palace and Wat Pho in Bangkok.

This is the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. It is a massive golden Buddha. We couldn't even get close to getting the entire thing in the photo. We have one of us in front of the Buddha but we were so hot and sweaty it did not turn out well!

In order to enter the grounds at the Grand Palace you must have your chest and shoulders covered and below your knees. This made for a very warm day of sight seeing!

The Tuk-Tuk's in Thailand are a little bigger than the rickshaws in India! Aaron liked the extra leg room!

I told Aaron I would like something simple like this in our home some day! So much gold and so many jewels covered every building of the Grand Palace.

This is one picture of a huge mural that covered the walls around the perimeter of the Grand Palace. The entire thing was truly amazing to see.

I would not mind living here!

This is our hotel room in Chiang Mai. I think we both liked Chiang Mai the best. The beach in Thailand was amazing but Chiang Mai was a very relaxed place with a small town feel and the food was unbelievable!

We ate at the street markets two of the nights we were there and were very happy! So many choices of really fresh and tasty food!

We got mango every day that we were there, sometimes with every meal!

We took a cooking class in Chiang Mai as well and made 6 dishes! We were quite full when we left! But we learned how to cook cashew chicken which was Aaron's favorite.

We went to spend a day with elephants while we were in Chiang Mai. While we loved spending time with the elephants and seeing them up close we both left a little unsure of the experience. We could tell the elephants were well taken care of and had plenty of food and space to live it was hard to see that they were confined to one area at night and not free to roam. They are such massive animals and we both just wanted to let them run free! It was neat to see the relationship the care takers had with them and how the family in charge of them raised their kids from birth in how to care for the animals. All in all it was a good day and a once in a life time chance.

Aaron's elephant had an itch on his side and just rubbed along this wall of dirt for a bit! I think Aaron almost fell off a few times! We both did not find the ride extremely comfortable and would have skipped that part and just done the feeding and helping get them leaves and things instead!

Aaron's elephant was an older male and mine was a younger female. Aaron's elephant could eat leaves and branches faster than mine so when he finished he would try and steal food out of my elephants mouth!

The elephants loved being in the water. It was a warm day so they tried to cool us down by spraying us with the water too!

Aaron's elephant didn't know how to spray water out of his trunk so mine just got him soaked and Aaron couldn't get me back!

Right after bathing we took them to the dirt pile and they put on their dirt sunscreen!

It was really fun to see them play around in the dirt!

After Chiang Mai we headed to Krabi for some relaxation on the beach!! We got foot massages at the airport. Doesn't Aaron seem happy?!

Our first day we rented scooters and headed for a hike at Tiger Cave Temple.

It was a bit of a difficult hike up those 1200 steps! Can you tell?!

Really amazing views at the top. We ran in to an American family at the top of the mountain and it turns out that they knew one of the American rotationals working in India for KPMG. Such a small world!