What an Ending! (Weeks 12 & 13)

One of the coolest aspects of travel is being exposed to foreign holidays and festivals. After our travels through Vietnam we flew back to Bangkok to celebrate Songkran, Thailand’s New Year.

The Thai people celebrate their New Year unlike any other country. Historically, this was a time for locals to use water to clean temples, homes, and street food carts. It has evolved into a 3 day festival were travelers and locals alike flood to the streets and have an epic water fight/party. Imagine dancing through the streets of Bangkok, soaking wet, surrounded by hundreds of smiling locals. And lets just say... thank goodness for the cool water... April in Thailand is miserably hot!

At night, Young Thai’s walk around with bags of white clay and rub it on everyone’s faces while muttering “sa-wat-dee pi mai” or “Happy New Year”. The clay symbolizes the giving of blessings for the year to come. At this point in our travels... Corbin had grown an ‘impressive and manly’ (Corbin’s description) beard. The locals seemed to have just as much fun giving his beard a yank as they did rubbing on the clay! We SO enjoyed celebrating Songkran and hope to experience many other foreign festivals down the road!

If celebrating Thai New Year was our trip’s grand finale... our next destination was the cherry on top! Where to next? It was back across the Pacific to the land of margaritas... Mexico!!! Why Mexico? To enjoy a week surrounded by family and friends and to celebrate Nick and Brianna’s wedding!!

The 32 hours of travel were worth it when we were reunited with our families! The Shriner clan received a warm welcome from us at the airport... although they didn’t want to claim us after they saw what we were wearing. It’s amazing what you can buy for $3 in Vietnam! Don’t worry Shriner siblings... there’s plenty to go around!

We spent a week enjoying the beach in the beautiful town of Sayulita. The highlight was Nick and Brianna’s gorgeous cliff-side wedding. Those two sure know how to throw one hell of a party... the reception contained fireworks, street tacos, and even a donkey! Corbin gave a great best man speech... although Nick may not agree after Corbin’s low blow about Nick’s beard growing inabilities. Tatum's mom, Amy, was able to make it to the wedding and even surprised everyone by catching the bouquet!! To say the least... we had a blast celebrating Nick and B's love with our families and their amazing friends.

Another high of the week was celebrating our engagement with everyone. We arrived to a late Easter brunch and to our surprise everyone was wearing t-shirts with our photos on them! We quickly realized that our parents and siblings had organized a surprise engagement party! We feel so blessed that we were able to celebrate such a special time with our loved ones.

We loved spending a week on the beach and getting our family-fix. After 14 weeks of pure travel and adventure... it was time to begin the next phase of our year abroad... living abroad while teaching English.

Stay tuned...

With Love,

Boots Abroad

Corbin’s

Highs: Spraying Thai people in their face with water guns (and getting sprayed). The engagement party, that was special. Hanging out with family in Mexico. Claiming my wallet at the airport and telling the man what all was in it (5 different types of currency)

Lows: The travel time from Bangkok to Mexico (mostly the flight from LA to Mexico). Losing my wallet, for the first time while traveling, after being in Mexico for a total of 10 minutes.

Tatum’s

Highs: Nick & B’s Wedding, Family Time, Engagement Party, Partying at Songkran

Lows: 2 Transpacific Flights, Corbin loosing his wallet at the airport (don’t worry we got it back), Saying goodbye to family again (hello waterworks!)