Dreaming of a White (Sand) Christmas

I know everyone should be dreaming of a white Christmas during the holidays, snow, wool sweaters...the whole bit. But I certainly didn't grow up that way. I remember heading outside to play tennis with my Dad after we opened presents. But that cultural imagery is strong for a kid born and raised in the US even though I never experienced that myself first hand. Compound that with the fact that Shelley and I are sort of searching for our own family Christmas traditions. It's kind of silly to say, but we an ever-so0-slight tinge of guilt over our plans to spend Christmas in tropical Pattaya, Thailand.

Pattaya's beaches stretch for miles, and where we were staying were largely devoid of any tourists. This allowed us to have lots of fun at the beach - as you'll see in the photos.

Having the beach basically to ourselves allowed us to have some of the the best sunsets I've ever seen. And in doing so, I learned something about Shelley I hadn't known before. To me the sunset is the actual sun setting...the time before the sun actually dips below the horizon. Once it's gone...it's basically over for me. For Shelley, the sunset is the sun once it has set...the afterglow if you will. I never knew that before.

Anyway, these were probably the most tranquil parts of our days. We enjoyed the sunset, while our kids played in the mild surf, collected sea shells and climbed around rocks at the head of the beach. Quinton usually slept. Afterward, we would eat dinner at an open air restaurant - which usually had tables set up on the sidewalks overlooking the beach and surf below. Dessert was usually provided by a local cart which served up a banana and cream pastry-like dish. As hot and humid as the days got in Pattaya, the nights were perfect.

It was at these times when we were feeling pretty good about our white (sand) Christmas. The slight pangs of guilt we felt about turning our collective backs on the whole US centric Christmas tradition may in an of itself turned into a new family tradition of our own.

Sri Racha Tiger Zoo

I think one of the best things about Pattaya for families has to be the Tiger Zoo in Sri Racha. This is the kind of zoo that people want to go to, but for better or worse wouldn't last a day in the States because of the outcry of animals rights groups.

The attitude of the zoo is to give people a chance to get close to some of the animals and to interact with them in different ways. So, do you want to pet and play with baby tigers? Sure, $5, please. We did and it was amazing. We played with three baby tiger cubs for about 20 minutes. They were so cute. They were playful and like any other cat, liked to be held and pet. They certainly didn't mew like a cat. They gave out a raspy and high pitched roar when they were displeased with something. But it was so cool to interact with what will become fairly large and strong cats. Anthon loved it, Ella was more into the rabbits.

It's that way throughout the whole zoo. Want to feed the tigers milk? $1. Why not buy some bananas and feed the elephants and take pictures with them? You can feed the crocodiles...or have one sit on your lap (luckily with their mouths taped shut). There was an orangutan who was there posing for pictures with people.

Then there were the requisite shows - the tiger circus show where circus masters had tigers doing tricks - like jumping through fire and standing up and walking. The best was the crocodile show, mostly because these crocodile workers were putting their hands in the crocs mouth and sticking their heads in. As you'll see in the video below one of the crocs struck back and got a guy's hand.

Anyway, this is a wonderful zoo. If you're ever in Pattaya with the family this is definitely a place to check out.

Check out the video below or click on a picture to be taken to a small gallery of photos from the day.