Round the World Tour

For a week and a half in December, Raquel went on a round-the-world tour for work. She had the following itinerary: Houston - Amsterdam - Kazakhstan (4 days) - Bangkok (5 days) - Tokyo - Houston. The first work stop was in Kazakhstan.

For those of you wondering where Kazakhstan is, it sits right on top of all of the rest of the Stans in Central Asia. (I had to consult a map myself.)

This is a picture of some of them at a local restaurant. Raquel's boss (Taco - from the Netherlands) is sitting next to her. Notice all of the cool albums on the wall. The Monkey's made it on wall with Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, the Cars and the sound track to one of the James Bond films.

This is some of the local handi-crafts. It is a bride sitting on a camel.

After a few days in Kazakhstan, it was time to head to Bangkok, Thailand, which is one of the cities we visited on our 10th anniversary trip to Southeast Asia. Raquel was determined to have fun, seeing some the sites (whoops - I mean markets) that we had seen before.

Here she is in the airport, in front of a depiction of a Hindu story of the churning of the great sea of milk for the elixir of everlasting life.

Here is a shot of the city from her hotel room. Its certainly a modern city.While its a modern city, its still Thailand, where the elephant is revered. While they don't let them roam free anymore, they do have them in the city sometimes. This one is working on his parallel parking skills. Looks like he still has some learning to do.Here's a shot inside the Chatuchak market, which is said to be the largest market in the world. Raquel was in heaven.Raquel said she went for work, but now we know what she really went for . . .Of course she won silly - she's beautiful!!