Thailand

"How about Thailand? I've always wanted to go to Thailand." That was the answer I got when I asked Erin's Mom (Wyveta) where they wanted to go while they were in Southeast Asia. Sounded good to me! So we started investigating what we could do there. We planned to go for 4 or 5 days during their 2 1/2 week visit to Singapore. Well, as Burns says, "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley" But we didn't really get grief and pain for our promised joy. The worst was that we had to cancel some of the things that we wanted to see. Our trip got whittled down by a couple of days because Erin HAD to be in the office on April 26 and H. HAD to be at a meeting on the 30th. Argh! So we left Singapore late on the 26th, and returned late on the 29th.

By the time we got to the hotel (The Novotel Bangkok Siam Square)in Bangkok at 11:30p.m. or so, I knew for a fact that we weren't in Cambodia. I thought Thailand would be more like Cambodia. Cambodia is so very poor. Thailand is several steps above that. We came out of the airport and drove to our hotel on an elevated 4 lane highway. There's nothing in Cambodia like that! Since Thailand didn't go through the Khmer Rouge regime and the subsequent invasion by Vietnam, they haven't had to rebuild. They could just build. Bangkok is a huge city. The metropolitan area has close to 12 million people! Singapore only has 5 million! Whew! They also have some public transport like a subway and bus system. Since we had a guide and driver we didn't participate in that. And yes, the traffic is awful in Bangkok. Similar to Houston at rush hour, but with less actual movement. Having lived in ultra-clean Singapore for a while, Bangkok felt dirty. But honestly, it probably wasn't much worse than Houston or any other large U.S. city. Remember, I'm not a city girl, so I'm unlikely to enjoy any big city.... Also, Bangkok has a terrible reputation as being sort of the hub of the sex slave trade in Southeast Asia. There's also a huge homosexual/transvestite type community in Thailand/Bangkok. So now that I've told you all of that, let me tell you what we did enjoy....

The next morning we got up and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. It was a buffet of Western and Asian foods with fruit and pastries etc. I think it was Gordon (Erin's Dad) who said something along the lines of: 'That continental breakfast at the Hampton Inn is going to seem pretty shabby now.'

After breakfast we met our guide downstairs and drove to the Floating Market. Well, we didn't actually drive there. We drove to a boat dock and took a boat the rest of the way. It was a "long tail" boat. The long tail boats are designed to operate in shallow water. The motor is on the end of a long almost horizontal pole. Bangkok is built on many canals. They used to serve as the city's principal "streets". The canals are still there, but there are many more roads. But some of the markets are still in the canals and the women put their wares in their boats and bring them to the market. You can buy fruit, veggies, hats, etc. right off their boats. We didn't buy any produce because we would've had to eat it on the spot, but we did buy some souvenirs for which we haggled mercilessly. (And were probably still ripped off.)

After the market we got back in the van and drove toward Kanchanaburi. One of the things that struck me as we drove was how quickly the mountains just appeared out of the ground. I know that sounds funny, but I don't know how else to describe it. In E. TN, you work your way up slowly from valley to hills to mountains. Not in Thailand. It's flat and then, BOOM. There's a mountain. We stopped for lunch at a floating restaurant that had a buffet. It was very relaxing. Most of the buffets we went to included spaghetti. I guess they learned that Western kids will eat that.

Kanchanaburi is famous for "The Bridge on the River Kwai" which is a good movie, but contains many historical inaccuracies. First of all, "The Bridge" isn't on the river Kwai. It's on the Mae Klong river. And there were two - a temporary one and the one that's still there. No, it wasn't blown up by the POW's. But oh well. Read a little more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwae_Noi_River

So, yes, we did walk across the bridge. As you may expect, it's covered in tourists. And with the tourists come the salesmen hawking all sorts of tourist junk. It was still cool. There was a loud radio broadcast going on and they were playing American hits from 30+ years ago - including YMCA. There's a picture of us posing in front of the bridge during that song.... It was hard to imagine prisoners standing there working on that bridge. It's almost a carnival atmosphere now.
After walking across the bridge, we went to the nearby WWII museum. It was well done. The price of admission also includes a free tea or coffee in the upstairs cafe which overlooks the POW cemetery. Our guide was so sweet, he bought the kids a treat at the cafe and the rest of us sat and enjoyed our tea. (I tried not to be a cynic about him wanting a bigger tip.... but it's hard for me.) Then we went out and across the street to the cemetery. Out of close to 100,000 deaths on the railway, only 131 were Americans and their bodies were return to the U.S. for burial after the war. Only 686 American POWs worked on the railway. So the cemetery was for British, Dutch, and Australian POWs. Many many more local people were recruited and then treated like slaves and died. (Over 85,000) For more on the cemetery:

http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/Cemeteries/Kanchanaburi_War_Cemetery/


After the cemetery, we checked into our hotel, The Felix River Kwai Resort (which is also on the Mae Klong as far as I can tell). It's a pretty snazzy place. There was a sign over the light switch at the entry of our room that showed "No pets" and "No Durian". LOL! If you've ever smelled a Durian, it's worse than any pet ever smelled. The kids and I went for a swim in the pool. As we were drying off, I noticed a conversation to my left between 2 women. But then I looked again. The one in the one-piece bathing suit had a deep voice. Was that, or was that not an Adam's apple under there? uhhh.... So, yes, I admit it I was tempted and I looked down under. It was a guy. Thailand. He was asking the woman for her phone number (like for a date, not for tea.)

For supper we went to another floating restaurant. This one was very close to the famous bridge. At night they light up the bridge with colored lights. It was very pretty. A loud party/karaoke barge went by and tried really hard to ruin our dinner. Our guide had picked out some Traditional Thai foods for us to try. Some were good, others too spicy (even for me). But we all got enough to eat.

When we got back to the hotel, Erin and O. traded their room for Gordon and Wyveta's because they had the double bed and Gordon and Wyveta had twin beds. This becomes important later....

The next morning we checked out after a good breakfast and drove up to the Hellfire Pass Museum. The museum itself was similar to the one in Kanchanaburi. Really we should've done either and not both, but who knew? (oh wait, the guide. hmmmm) The first one was good for putting you in the right frame of mind for the cemetery across the street. The second one was hard to pass up since it is basically the beginning of the walkway down to Hellfire Pass. And it was 'for donations only'. So we walked down through the Pass. It really is amazing what those guys did in such little time and with almost no equipment. We wanted to walk on down the path to the trestle bridge that we thought would look more like the one from the movie. But I think we couldn't get the guide to understand us, or we just didn't have time to walk that far down.

Our next stop was at an Elephant Camp. They must've had 60 elephants there! Wow! We all took a ride 2 by 2 on the elephants. They gave us a pretty long ride - 20 min. or more. The benches we sat on were possibly the most uncomfortable and awkward thing you could come up with to strap to an elephant's back. I can't imagine trying to ride a horse like that! I figured out that if you leaned forward and rolled your hips with the movement (like a really slow canter) it was better. The elephant guide took us down to the river and took pictures of us with our camera as the elephant splashed us. He let me sit in his spot on the elephant's neck - which was WAYYYY more comfortable! He didn't speak a lot of English, but he knew how to ask for a tip. I truly felt like a heel trying to explain to him that I didn't have any cash money on me. I tried to explain that Erin had some if he could wait after he dropped me and A. off. But he didn't wait. I'm sure it wasn't the first time some snobby tourist ripped him off. sigh.

Next we stopped at lunch and I got a funny picture of O. When we got back in the van I realized that I didn't have my money belt with me. The one with mine and H.'s passports in it. The one I tried to put in the hotel safe, but it was still locked from the previous guest. So I gave it to Erin to put in his safe. You know, before he changed rooms with his parents and forgot about it. sigh. double sigh. Really it was all my fault, 'cause I should've remembered it as I was getting dressed. The guide assured us that it was no problem to swing back by the hotel on our way back to Bangkok. It didn't seem to slow us down much, but I don't know the roads and how far we had to go out of the way. Fortunately, it was still there and was returned with nothing missing. Whew!

So we got back to Bangkok just in time to sit in a massive traffic jam. I wasn't looking at my watch, but I'm pretty sure it took about 2 hours to get from the outskirts of the city to our hotel. We stayed at the same hotel as the fist night. But we were much smellier and dirtier. If you've never had dried elephant sweat on your navy blue pants before, you should try it some time. But let me suggest that you not stand around in a fancy hotel while your husband checks in. Plus I was carrying a large backpack. The manager (who'd been so sweet 2 nights ago) came and asked me if I wanted a shower. red face. I replied that we were checking in. I'm not sure if she thought, "Great. Glad I don't have to clean the rooms!" or just "Let me see if I can speed that process up a bit and get them out of the lobby." Clearly not one of my better looks/smells.
After a quick change of clothes and a reapplication of some d.o., we walked down the street to the shopping mall. After dark on a side street near the dead center of Bangkok is just not my thing. I know lots of people enjoy the hustle and bustle of cities. I just don't like being hustled or bustled. But we did find a food court. It was an interesting concept for a food court. You got a credit card thing as you went in. Next, you order your food and they swipe your card. At the exit you pay for everything at once. I guess it was to speed up the process and keep the individual merchants from having to make change or keep up with money. They had lots of choices - Western and Asian and even Greek. The kids got burgers. (losers.)
After supper we looked around the mall. We found the "tourist junk" area and went crazy. Most of the booths were closing down, but we found some of the things we wished we'd bought earlier in the trip. We haggled a little, but got pretty good prices overall.

The next morning we enjoyed another hotel breakfast buffet (yum), and then headed to the main tourist attractions in Bangkok: The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Both were very glitsy and colorful. I do like that about the Thai's - they like their color. No bland shades of white for them! The Grand Palace is the same one where Anna Leonowens would've taught the King's children. Although the play is about as historically accurate as the Bridge on the River Kwai, it's still fun to think about walking in her footsteps. (Even her own books are proven to be inaccurate and exaggerated if not downright false.) Still.

There are several 'layers' or circles within the palace. Westerners imagine a castle when I say palace. But this is more like a miniature city. The outer ring or layer is more accessible than the inner layers. But every layer has many buildings. Tourists can go in the outer layer and the layer with the Emerald Buddha. We got to see the throne room among other things. Tourists are not allowed further in where the royal family still lives. You're not allowed to take pictures there or at the Emerald Buddha, so can't show you that. I wasn't as impressed with the Emerald Buddha as I was supposed to be. Erin says, "Oh I don't know, it's a pretty big chunk of Jade." No one seems sure if it's made of jasper or jadeite or what. "Emerald" refers only to the color. Here are some pictures:

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/thailand/bangkok-wat-phra-kaew-emerald-buddha

After the Grand Palace we got mobbed by some salesmen. One guy was selling prints for $15. At least they started at $15. By the time we got to the van they were down to $1.50!!! We found that price drop to be common in the Bangkok merchant hoards.

We went on to see the reclining Buddha. It was huge. About the size of the Saturn V rocket at the Space Center in Houston. The bottom of it's feet are inlaid with Mother of Pearl. I'm glad I got to see it, but it's still sad how many people in this world are worshipping false gods and idols. Maybe someday all these "high places" can be torn down and people will worship the One True God and Creator.

From there we went to lunch on a boat. I'm not sure why the restaurant is on a boat. Maybe it leaves the dock for dinner cruises or something. But while we ate, the boat remained at the dock. After lunch, we found another horde of merchants on our way to the van. I ended up buying a couple of the prints for $3 each. I know, I know, I could've talked him down to $1.50, but really. I liked them. I would've paid $5 easily, so in the end, I met him halfway -right? Erin's sister, Alicia, bought a purse that she liked. After she bought it the lady tried to sell me one for $3 less! Alicia was not happy. Ah well. Just when you think you're getting a good deal.....

Our next stop was a place called "The Art of the Kingdom". I didn't have a lot of info. on this place, it had just been put on the itinerary by our travel agent as part of the standard fare. When we got there, we had to lock our cameras up in one of the lockers. The women in the group had to purchase and wear sarongs (wrap-around skirts) in order to enter. Luckily, the sarongs only cost $1 or so. And we got to keep them, and they're not that bad. But why all the fuss? We'd already been deemed modest enough to go in the Buddhist temples. But the standards were higher here by order of the Queen of Thailand. It turns out that this whole place is her idea for inspiring the artisans of Thailand to make beautiful things. Well, to make beautiful things for the royalty of course. There were some pretty cool things in there. We liked the cloth made from beetles wings. Yes, beetles wings. The wings are iridescent - green from one angle and blue from another. Very cool. There was plenty of gold to be seen as well.

http://www.tatnews.org/events/events/2008/may/3782.asp

Our last stop was at a gem factory. We got a short view of the jewelers at work setting stones in rings, polishing stones, etc. Then a looonnnggg sales pitch in the showroom. We saw lots of pretty things. But we weren't prepared to spend jewelry type money.

From there we went to the airport for our return flight. We got to our gate in time to see the Royal Wedding (no sound). We missed the balcony scene by a few minutes because our flight was called. But I'd recorded it on the DVR and so we got to watch it and fast forward through all the boring stuff and pause it for the goofy hats and the "Is that so and so?!" etc. -which was much more fun than the airport version.

O.k. Once again blogspot is not letting me upload a file of pictures. Sorry folks, but I refuse to sit here and upload 30 pictures one at a time. You'll just have to see them on Facebook. Bummer.

April 2011

April was SUCH a busy month! In fact, I was a good 9 days into May before I really felt recovered from April!

Erin left for a meeting in Texas on April 1. So the kids and I made some decisions. First of all, if Dad was going to get to eat all that good American Junk Food, we wanted to do something, too. We declared it "Pizza Week". We ate pizza at least once every day. We made our own and we ordered out. None of it was as good as Papa John's, but oh well. You can get Domino's pizza here, but the tomatoes aren't the same, and so it doesn't taste quite right. But it's the closest we can get, so we get it. Also, we haven't found real pepperoni to put on the ones we make at home. Cheese is very expensive too, so it's not a whole lot cheaper to make them at home. In case you were wondering, none of us got tired of pizza. I almost canceled it one night though. We were at Univeral Studios and I'd told the kids that we'd eat at the Italian restaurant "buffateria". But when we walked in, the pizza was $8.50 per slice!!! Fortunately, the slices were huge - about the size of 3 normal pieces of pizza. Everybody got one slice.

So, yes, we also went to Universal Studios one day after school was finished. Bwa ha ha.

After spending too much time on the bus and MRT taking the boys to various scouting events, I decided to work up my courage to try driving. It was just silly to spend 40-60 min. more taking the bus/mrt when our car was sitting unused in the basement. I started by driving over to the YMCA where our church meets. It's a pretty simple drive and I didn't have to concentrate on directions. After that, I told the kids that if they promised not to talk to me or each other in the car, I'd drive them to the Night Safari. I needed them to be quiet so I could chant to myself, "keep left, keep left" or "turn wide, turn wide" when turning right etc. They agreed, and off we went. When we bought our season pass to the Singapore Zoo, we paid a little extra and got the Night Safari and Bird Park included. The Night Safari is really cool. It's basically a zoo for nocturnal animals. You know, the ones that are completely boring in a normal zoo. It doesn't open 'till dark. By then, the lions are actually awake and playing or walking around at the Night Safari. The bats are flying around, etc. They have a good "creatures of the night" show that opens with a white wolf coming out, jumping up on this big rock and howling. Cool. Then the hyenas come out and walk around a bit. The show also features some creatures I'd never heard of like Civets and a Binturong as well as a clouded leopard (I think) that they get to show off how high he can jump. We'll skip the part about the giant python being under someone's chair (not mine!).

After the show, you can ride the tram through the place and get off and explore on your own. We walked down a trail and saw the leopards. The people that work there have a constant mantra of "no flash photography". You hear it over and over and over. But of course, not everyone complies. The guy next to us took a flash picture of the leopard. She stood up, looked right at him and made this scary barking/growling noise at him for about 30 seconds and then walked off and laid down further away. Everyone there got the message. I now know what leopard cussing sounds like.

As we were leaving the Night Safari we stopped in the gift shop (of course) and O. being his natural self, started talking to a random stranger. I kept my eye on the situation but didn't interfere because said stranger looked like he wasn't annoyed. I walked past after a minute or two and offered the guy a chance to break it off by saying, "He'll talk your ears off if you let him." But he said he didn't mind and turned back to O. and asked him a question. So I walked off. He was so nice to O. that after awhile, I went over and stood with them thinking he might be wanting to go, but he asked me if we were living in Singapore and why, etc. I told him and asked him the same and he said he was in the entertainment industry, doing a stunt show at Universal Studios. I asked if it was Water World. He said yes. Turns out he plays the bad guy in the show. The one my kids were quoting for a week after they saw it. This was like O. meeting Robert Redford or something. This guy was so nice. Clearly he was there with his girlfriend (both 20 something), but he took quite a bit of time to talk to O. and eventually the other 2 as well. He told O. to come find him at the next show and he'd let O. be the kid in the pre-show that gets to squirt the actor in the face. He's really looking forward to that!

The Saturday after that was the Merit Badge Marathon for the Boy Scouts. A. had signed up to take swimming and reading. I signed up to help wherever they needed me. They put me as an assistant on the swimming. She said, "I just need a warm body there, so that we have the required adult to scout ratio." But I wore my swimming things anyway, just in case. 10 min. into the class, the organizer came and said, "Beth, we need you to go teach First Aid because our teacher didn't show and you're the only other one here that can do it. Sheri, you can teach swimming, right?" Uhhhh.... I had done it for the cub scouts once. But I didn't even know the names of most of these boys! As we're walking down to the pool, I'm thinking, "What if they sink like stones? What if someone gets hurt? Am I insured? I'm not an official merit badge instructor, so I'm thinking not. etc." But it turned out o.k. One boy was not so much of a swimmer, but the rest did fine.

The next day we went bowling with some friends after church. I offered one a ride home and we got sooo lost. Thankfully we had the gps! We turned it on and got back on track. But I got in an extra hour of driving practice. By the time we got home, I didn't really feel like I needed any more practice.

Erin got home from Texas early on the 14th. He brought back wonderful things like Magic cards, candy and Kool-aid packets, and some things we'd ordered - like new suitcases. The ones we had were not holding up like we thought they should.

The next day, his parents arrived for a visit. Their plane landed at 2:30 or so in the morning, but their taxi driver got "lost"? or maybe just lost and they arrived to our apt. around 4 a.m. We planned a lot of things to do with them. Starting with a walk through the Botanic Gardens to keep them awake that first day. :-) We also walked through Bukit Batok nature reserve and saw a Durian Tree. We went to the Old Ford Factory where the British surrendered to the Japanese in WWII. We hiked across the Henderson Waves bridge, where O. did a hilarious imitation of Grandpa sliding. (Artificially deep voice saying, "Wheeee" a la Eeyore.") We took them to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant on Orchard Rd. I think they enjoyed trying the local foods. Especially the fruits. We did buy a durian while they were here. We all tried it. Now we can mark that off our lists. None of us is volunteering to buy another one. It took a couple of days to get the smell out of the house. :-P

We hiked up to the highest (natural) point in Singapore, Bukit Timah. We went on the tourist boat ride on the Singapore River and the tourist bus ride around the historic areas and shopping areas. We walked down Arab Street and learned something about the oriental rugs for sale there, and saw all the beautiful material for sale. Wow! I really wanted to have a dress made for my nephew's wedding in July, but the cost was prohibitive. We discovered that there is now a "Merlion Hotel" built around the Merlion downtown so that you can't even see the Merlion anymore!! What?!?! This is like building a hotel that covers up the Statue of Liberty! It's just wrong!
We also went to the Bird Park for the first time. It's pretty good. They have several different kinds of owls in a darkened tunnel. Very cool. The shows were good, and A. got picked to participate by holding his arms out for 2 toucans to fly to. We also enjoyed the Lorie Loft where we fed the Lories. It was fun to have birds voluntarily land on you and hop out your arm to the food cup. One complaint - the map of the park is not very helpful. They had small paths on the map as though they were major roads. Very confusing.

After Erin's sister, Alicia, arrived on the 22nd, we were invited to eat at Jumbo's Seafood restaurant. Some folks from church invited us. Our friends ordered all kinds of food. You wouldn't believe what all there was to eat! Poor Alicia was so tired from her trip, I hated to make her stay out after dark, but the rest of us really wanted to go. Anyway, we tried chili crab and black pepper crab and fried squid, rice, noodles, satay, scallops fried with yams, and probably something else that I'm forgetting! I'm not a big seafood eater, and neither is anyone else in my family. For me it's that 'fishy' taste that I don't like. None of this food had that taste, so I ate my fill of the crab and scallops especially.

Sunday night, a group of us went to the Singapore Flyer. It's like the London Eye, but taller.

We planned to go to Sentosa on Monday. I knew that Alicia would enjoy the thrill rides at Universal, but I didn't really think Erin's parents were into roller coasters, so we went to do other things on Sentosa instead. Turns out I may have been wrong about them and roller coasters, because the first thing we did was the Mega Zip! I tried to film them coming down the Mega Zip, but I kept turning involuntarily as I slid down. The video is terrible, but funny. After the Mega Zip, Alicia and the kids went to Universal and we went to do the Luge! Gordon and Wyveta enjoyed that enough to want to do it again, so we did. Then we went to Images of Singapore, which was better than I anticipated. It's a pretty good overview/introduction of Singapore. We also did the butterfly garden, which was o.k. There was really only one room of live butterflies. There was another room with free-flying birds that was nice. Then there was a huge collection of dead insects (lots and lots of Rhino Beetles). Lastly we rode the Sky Tower. It has a very good view of Sentosa and the coast of Singapore.

The Percells were all here over "Easter" weekend. We had the traditional Owenby family egg-cracking with O.'s cub scout pack. Hannah won. :-) We also attended the "Caring for Cambodia" egg hunt. A. was volunteering in the dunking booth. So of course Erin and I each paid $5 for 3 throws. Erin dunked him twice, and I got him once. He had a lot of fun. O. did the egg hunt and got confused looking for the "golden egg" and thought his yellow one should qualify. It didn't. I did the "whacky hair" booth - which means a 11 year old girl spray painted my hair with the colored hair spray. She tried to get it to stand up, but it's just too thick. In fact, it's also quite dark and I didn't think you could see the color too well. It all washed out before church the next morning except one little red spot on my scalp. A couple of folks noticed it. Oh well. It was funny.

We planned a trip to Thailand to correspond with the Percell's visit. Originally we were going for 5 days or so, but it got shortened to 3 days because of Erin's work commitments and H's Girl Scout meeting. (Long story, but she just could NOT miss it.) We had a lot of fun, and I plan to do a separate blog entry for that trip. We came back absolutely exhausted. Some of us also had some "Delhi Belly" aka "Montezuma's revenge" or maybe it was just a stomach virus. But with only 3 days left in their visit, we wanted to make sure we did/bought everything they were looking to do/buy. So Saturday we went out to Chinatown and shopped 'till we nearly dropped. :-) Then we relaxed on the tourist bus for an hour. Sunday we went bowling after church and then used up the final hour we had left on the tourist bus 24 hour pass. I was wrong about where to catch the tourist bus at the Botanic Gardens, and we ended up walking quite a ways before we found the right stop. Monday we went rug shopping. Wyveta wanted a small rug for her entryway, and we needed some rugs to spruce up our bare floors. We walked quite a bit, including a stop to pick up some Bak Kwa for Alicia to take home. (It got confiscated at the U.S. customs. GRRRR!) But we finally ended up back at Arab St. It took us a while, but we eventually picked out what we wanted. Wyveta bought the rug she wanted, and we bought her a much less valuable smaller one as a Birthday/Mother's Day present. We bought a large rug for our den, 2 'runners', a blue rug that I just loved for our bedroom, and a purple shaggy rug for Hannah's room. The funny thing about my rugs is that I'm normally drawn to the most expensive thing in the room - even before I know the price. But as it turns out, I like the feel of the cotton rugs better than the silk or wool. Go figure.

So basically, after we got back from Thailand we walked for 3 days! At least it felt like it. It was worth it, but very tiring! I know the Percells were ready to sit down (on the plane) for awhile! Probably not 30 hours worth, but still....

I'm soooo glad they got to come, though! We really enjoyed having them. I told them they were 'breaking me in' as a tour guide. Now we know that hiking up Bukit Timah isn't worth it. (No view, and the only wildlife we saw was the monkeys in the parking lot.) We also know not to go to the Night Safari on a public holiday (insanely crowded!). And we know where the tourist bus stops at Botanic Gardens! :) And don't waste your money on the Bak Kwa unless you plan to eat it here. Fortunately, Alicia did get to eat some here.

So now that I'm all "broken in", it's time for the next round of visitors. Any volunteers?!?

(p.s. There are photos/videos on my facebook page. I didn't want to upload them twice.)