They posed for the picture :-)


Aaaww, a little lizard (no I didn't kill it) ;-)
Leechie fruit


The city hosted a sea food dinner by the beach side


The Hilton was located next to a beautiful beach

We stayed at this Hilton Hotel in Phuket


Phuket...

Hello everyone!
Thank you for all your prayers! We made it back home safely. What an experience and one that we will always remember. We spent our last days in Singapore which is where we performed our last concert at the XinMin High school. The concert was joined with a couple other school bands (directed by the same band director) who also shared their music with us. The final number of the concert was a piece played by both the highschoolers and the MSU symphony! It was a very fun concert in which we made many new friends! Some sights that we visited in Singapore included Santosa island (the southernmost point of Asia), an underwater aquarium, "Little India" market place, and other huge shopping malls, and the largest ferris wheel in the world; we enjoyed our last days in Asia with the wonderful people in our group. Again, we want to thank each and every one of you for all of your prayers and support. We love you and hope to see you very soon!

6/7

Hello from the beautiful island of Phuket! We are at an internet café by the ocean side. Phuket is a tropical island surrounded by clear blue beaches! It’s so beautiful! It is also a big tourist attraction. Before our arrival to Phuket, our last concert in Bangkok performed in the beautiful cathedral (as seen in the pictures below) was a memorable one. We had a standing ovation which, according to Mr. Komiyama, is the highest honor for any performance! After that, the Assumption University hosted a dinner for us in a very elegant dinning hall. We filled our last days in Bangkok with visiting the Wat Poe temples and the grand palace and exploring the city of Bangkok while shopping. Early on Friday, we arrived at Phuket, Thailand and we are now residing at a Hilton hotel that is located near the beach! We are a sea of red people because most of the members of the orchestra are red from sunburn. We wish that we could bring back the ocean for you! The people of Asia are so kind; they are very generous and it only takes one smile from you to light up their whole face. ;-) Yesterday evening, we performed at a park venue and today we will perform again. Tomorrow morning, we leave for Singapore which is our last stop before we return home! We love you and miss you all so much!

Street vendors.

Thai warriors!

not bad!

Evelyn with Alyssa (oboe player) and Gretta (percussionist)

A scaled replica of a palace in Cambodia.

Evelyn and Kathryn (our horn player :-) )

Today (6/3) we went on a tour of the king's palace grounds in Bangkok (the king doesn't live there though), and to another site with many beautiful and intricately decorated temples and buildings. It was a very interesting cultural experience! This is a photo of just a part of a huge wall painting.

...And the room in which we ate!

The formal dinner after the concert.

These are the music students at Assumption posing with the orchestra.

The concert we played today (6/2).

As well as this!

This is the view from the balcony outside of my bedroom.

Assumption's bedrooms are really nice.

This is where we dine.

Yes, I did eat it!

Last night's dinner (Friday 6/1) at Assumption.

This is a traditional Thai dessert. It was SO good! It is rice cooked in coconut milk and a special tea with a coconut glaze with mango. Simple, but delicious.

Rehearsal at the Assumption University Church

The Mahidol University at which we played provided outdoor dining with a traditional Thai dinner

Our performance at Mahidol University (Mr. Komiyama taught here before coming to Bozeman).

Dreaming...

We shopped at the largest flee market in Thailand. It covers thirty-one acres.

The National stadium

The MBK mall is one of the largest malls in the world and is seven stories high. You can imagine that we explored for about five hours!

We took the sky train to get to the mall

This one is for Myra. ;-)

There are about 37 floors at this hotel and about 100 rooms on each floor!

The five-star hotel at which we resided for two nights in Bangkok.

These traditionally dressed Thai people greeted us at the airport and gave us free, fresh fruit.

Just arriving to the Bangkok airport

Our friend from the Vietnam youth orchestra (she plays the violin). Her name is Traing. She came to our hotel to say good-bye the night before we left Vietnam.

It was astounding!

The scenery from the boat

Our lunch served on the boat (the fish was so good!)

The boat took us to this island on which we visited some caverns

Can you see what the boat says?

HaLong Bay

This is what Vietnamese houses look like.

Look, a water buffalo on our way to HaLong Bay.

Our last performance in Hanoi, Vietnam.

We went to see this water puppet show, but we didn't take pics because they charged for photos.

Dude, gotta start young! Isn't he so cute

A performance by Vietnamese girls celebrating Hanoi's 999 anniversary in downtown, Hanoi