MJRDN photo: christmas in khao yai

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful friends and family, Merry Christmas to the workers at 7/11 who always remember my coffee order, Merry Christmas to the motorbike drivers outside my condo who know where to take me without having to ask.

Merry Christmas!

To follow up to my Thanksgiving post, this was my first Christmas season away from family and away from the Western world. I don't think people truly understand how different the rest of the world can be. An American friend asked me about two weeks ago via Facebook if Thai Christmas music was better or worse than American Christmas music.

Haha, there is no Thai Christmas music. Lies, I think I heard ONE. But, that's it. This is a Buddhist culture, and in Buddhist culture they don't celebrate Christmas. First of all, it's hotter than balls still and the only Christmas decor you see is at huge malls where the only purpose is to tempt rich expats and affluent Thais to go spend their money on way-too-expensive stuff.

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So, I've been going through ups and downs trying to figure out exactly how to celebrate Christmas. I read some threads online from fellow Bangkok expats about how they keep their traditions alive in this culture. Half of them said they just decorate the crap out of their apartment, blast the AC, and pretend they are in snowy paradise. The other half said they don't celebrate at all, embracing the lack of stress and mandatory family time.

Justin and I decorated our place, we exchanged gifts, Santa filled the stockings, we drank champagne & cut out paper snowflakes. We did all you can do to create Christmas. At the end of the day, it still didn't feel much like Christmas. I guess I'm just used to celebrating with a bunch of family around, little kids making too much noise and standing in front of the TV. It was weird not being wrapped up in eighty five scarves, running inside as fast as you can and shaking the snow off the bottom of your pants quickly as to sit in the front of the fireplace and warm your toes.

It's just a bit different now, but I think this is all a part of growing up, changing your environment, moving away.

SOMEONE HAD A WONDERFUL IDEA. Ms. Rogers, thank you. This woman lumped about 15 of what she called 'Bangkok orphans' into a Facebook group and planned a Christmas in the mountains. Bangkok orphans, as you can guess, are us 20-something kids who moved far, far away from our families and are left celebrating holidays alone. NOT THIS YEAR!

Christmas was spent in beautiful Khao Yai, Thailand. It's a 3-ish hour drive north of Bangkok. Khao Yai literally translates to 'big mountain'. The Bangkok orphans found a wonderful, huge house on Air BNB and made the most of the holidays.

We grilled a wonderful dinner (Thank you Justin, grill master), we drank wine and ate a lot of expensive cheese (Thank you Katja & Lego), we exchanged gifts (can you call Batman symbol-shaped brass knuckles a gift or is it just a hazard?). The following 4 million photographs are from our weekend.

Thank you to the Bangkok orphans, for spending your Christmas with me - making it one to always remember. Cheers

The beautiful home we stayed in is called Angel Valley in Khao Yai. It's a traditional Thai style house.

Preparing the feast.

The gift exchange - I received the makings for a Hot Totty, Justin got some Hennessey. It worked out well.

Little pieces of the morning after.

This is MiraSierra, a Spanish-style boutique hotel in Khao Yai, where we ate great food, drank cold beers, and played a far-too-loud game of charades.