Lucky us! We had been circling around the Thai beaches for quite a few days at this point and as it turned out, one of the Thai captains invited our captain over for lunch on his warship. She picked a group of people to bring along with her and we were off…! But how does one get from one warship to the next? You have a few options the two main ones being by helo or by small boat.  We opted for small boat. Our captain was in an unusually good mood and so that made for quite an enjoyable ride. We were doing circles and emergency stops all the way there and it was awesome!

When we walked on board the Thai warship we were greeted by a line of Thai Naval Officers and they escorted us to the wardroom where we met with the CO of the ship and shortly afterwards we were escorted on a tour. This ship was very new and it was spotless. I have been on a tour of a Japanese, South Korean, and now Thai warship and they are all very clean. Very VERY clean.

Once the tour was finished we headed back to the wardroom for an authentic Thai lunch and let me tell you a little bit about this. Thai food was never on the menu for me when I was growing up and it wasn’t until the end of college/new life in Virginia that I tried Thai. I have always thought Thai food was pretty good but I had never had authentic Thai food.

This food was the real deal and it was exquisite. The flavors were a mixture of fire and sunshine all at the same time. Thai food is spicy but it’s flavorful spicy so it doesn’t just burn your mouth, every bite is worth savoring. The combination of all of the things we were served with all of the sauces was just amazing. I have no good words to describe it all!

Our platters of food to pick and choose from at lunch.

During the tour we stopped by the Marines berthing and these are the racks they sleep on! My legs clearly hang off the end, Thai men are so tiny!

Our tour group.

This just reminds me of Despicable Me.

They were changing a light bulb.

It’s not everyday you can lounge on the back of a Thai LCU…

Or put yourself at the helm of a Thai Warship.

The three of us were very excited to share this experience.

Checking out the wardroom after lunch.

What do you get when you put two Suunto Core’s together? IDK, You tell me!

We bought this hat for less than 1 American Dollar. It makes you a ninja of sorts.

Your typical Thai fishing boat. They were always a coming and a going trying to get the next big catch.

Stay tuned for the next Thai adventure!

This article appeared first on Dynamic Soarer.