Eighteen Years Ago

Dom exited his room and announced, “My underwear is in the safe, and I can’t get it for another fifteen minutes.”

Annie had locked it on purpose.

That line was unanimously voted the funniest quote of our Summer 2025 family trip.

Coming in a close second was:

“Eighteen years ago…”

That phrase became a running gag, mostly because it was true. Nadine and I had visited nearly every stop on this trip eighteen years earlier. And I reminded everyone constantly.

“Eighteen years ago, Mom and I came here to rock climb.”

“Eighteen years ago, the Reclining Buddha looked exactly the same.”

“Eighteen years ago, I was thinner.”

You get the idea.

A Trip Minus an Original Member

But it’s true, in the summer of 2006, we began an epic tour of the world and stopped in Malaysia and Thailand along the way. It was in Thailand where we learned Nadine was preggers with our first daughter Sophie. Ironically enough, she was the only family member not on this trip. Responsibly she was taking college classes, completing drivers ed, and swimming with a club team. Maybe in the back of her mind, Sophie knew that she had already been here before.

Back then, we traveled north from Singapore to Malaysia and Thailand. This time eighteen years later, the route reversed, carrying more luggage, more kids, and fewer illusions about how young we still looked.

Scrambled Memories

For two decades, Nadine and I fondly retold Thai stories to anyone willing to listen and to plenty who weren’t. Being back in person was confounding.

Back in the flesh, some memories didn’t quite match those indulgent memories of the past. The Reclining Buddha, maybe now with a fresher coat of paint, was the same oversized, serene Buddha. But the grounds of Wat Pho, except for the idyllic curved orange roofs, appeared foreign and didn’t jive with our stored memories.

Photos from 2006 and 2025 juxtaposed tell the real story. Wat Pho hasn’t changed much. The 2025 photo indirectly shows eighteen years of life experience with a few wrinkles and gray hair telling their own story.

Railay Beach brought a similar feeling. The cliffs and blue waters were still dramatic, but new developments where once stood trees made parts of it feel foreign. This pattern repeated itself in Bangkok, Koh Lanta, the Cameron Highlands, and Kuala Lumpur.

Places weren’t always matching memories.

Thailand is Still Good Ol’ Thailand

Thailand is still a community and culture to be rediscovered.

What hasn’t changed is that Thais are still warm and friendly people. The food ranges from good to great. Even average meals are good to incredible.

Thailand is many things, but boring is not one. To be bored here may reflect more of that person’s character than this country.

The kids found the hidden Buddha statues, framed by fig trees among orange and yellow flowers, interspersed among the Wat Pho premises to be interesting.

This Thai visit started pragmatically with physicals at Bumrungrad Hospital in Sukhumvit. If you know anything about Sukhumvit, this part of Bangkok isn’t kid-friendly as much as adult playground. Fortunately we weren’t there long. Expectations started low which made the rest of the trip greater. Kind of like when Nadine married me.

A Ride Back in Time

Railay marked a shift from the concrete Bangkok jungle to the warm, humid, laid-back vibe of Thai beach life. Also the Fry family joined us there. Their eldest daughter just graduated high school and explored Asia as a family. Thailand was their last stop after Japan and South Korea.

Previous trips with the Frys had been in South American and Europe, but this trip was simple, the beaches and warm waters of the Andean Sea, all while avoiding jellyfish stings. Three of us still felt the sting of their electric tentacles.

The iconic limestone cliffs of Railay explode out of the sea and are perfect for rock climbing. Eighteen years ago, Nadine and I scaled these rock walls, but in 2025, a younger group took the challenge. Annie and Momo became the official White family representatives. Annie climbed just as high or even higher than we did eighteen years ago.

Stalking Elephants

As a youth on the island of Koh Lanta eighteen years ago, I rode a scooter into a volleyball net. This time I made better choices, I stalked Giants. These giants just happened to be elephants and we quietly watched their every move. They ate tree leaves, we stared from behind a tree. They pooped. We took photos. At one point the elephants thought to themselves, “let’s give them something to talk about.” As we stealthily stood behind them 25 meters on a path, they abruptly stopped, reversed course, and walked back towards us. Like any decent stalker, we stepped aside unobtrusively looking down at the ground to avoid making eye contact.

Following Giants is actually an ethical elephant sanctuary and eco-tourism project in Thailand, founded by Ray Sangkaow. His vision is to create a natural environment for rescued elephants and at the same time educate visitors. They follow the herd as they forage and socialize in their jungle (i.e. telling a few jokes about the tourists), learning about their natural behaviors and participating in conservation efforts, all without forced interactions without humans (i.e. humans riding them). The sanctuary, supported by World Animal Protection, uses profits to fund ongoing elephant rescue and rehabilitation, contributing to the well-being of these towering animals.

My Eye Sight Must Be Fading

The beaches of Koh Lanta, and honestly everywhere on this summer trip were beautiful and picturesque . . . from a distance. Up close, the beaches were littered with all types of trash. Empty plastic containers. Plastic wrappers. Broken glass. Talking with another traveler later in the trip, they told me that the beaches are regularly cleaned only in the high season. June isn’t the high season. The state of the beaches was shocking.

Despite plastic littered beaches, Thailand is still like that girl you wanted to date in high school. She was gorgeous, popular, and friendly with everyone, but she still had some flaws.

A Ride Back in Time

Riding my bike along the eastern coast of Koh Lanta seemed like a return to a Thailand that wasn’t geared predominantly towards tourists and their dollars. Along the eastern coast, I passed parents ferrying their kids to school in tuk-tuks. Older couples cleaning up around their house. Massive spiders unabashedly jutting across the street.

Reputations

Places carry reputations and leave a mark. In ancient times, Alexandria was a center of learning with the great library. Some of Pompeii’s residents were charcoaled in time. The Incas built Machu Picchu. Paris has an iconic radio tower from the 1889 Exposition Universelle that still piques people’s interest. The Burj Khalifa stands tall. Phuket had a reputation of ill repute eighteen years ago, so Nadine and I didn’t visit. This time we did. And with kids. Only two things caught my attention about Phuket. Lots of Russians and Phuket is not a small fishing village.

But there was a spot a bit off of the beaten path along the eastern coast. Back across the bridge on the “mainland” of Thailand was a place called Beyond Skywalk Nang She. An elevated glass catwalk suspended a hundred feet above the green jungle with panoramic views of Phang Nag and the islands dotting the cloudy horizon.

Tickets with spectacular views of Phang Nag also included a buffet which ended being the worst Thai food we would eat over the two weeks.

Left Egypt to Visit Egypt

Before moving on to Malaysia, the island of Phuket was the final stop. We met up with Lee, our friend and P.E. colleague from Cairo American College. He claims he was working, I would argue he spent the summer golfing. Any improvements on the golf course didn’t transfer to the pool hall this night.

It may have been the rain or the Chang beers, but we consequently lost three out of four head to head matches. Mind you, the other teams brought their own pool cues. Also who knew that pool sharks had their own billiards gloves and pool cues that screwed together. The fanciest thing I do at a pool table is put a little chalk on my hands and not set my beers on the edge of the pool table.

Funny enough, the only pair we beat were two Egyptians expats living in Thailand and Abu Dhabi. They had fancy pool cues and gloves too.

Eighteen years later, Thailand still holds its charm.