Merry Christmas!

Our first Christmas in Thailand was different from any other Christmas we've experienced, but we managed to make it a fun day despite missing family and friends.

The presents were all laid out and the stockings were stuffed.

The big blue elephant toy is a gift from Jeff's mom to Elena.  Once Elena figured out what she could do with it, she was thrilled.

When Elena went down for a nap, Vivian decided to try it out too.

She has dubbed it The Polar Express.

Vivi's elf decided to stay for Christmas day to watch us open presents, and Vivian was so happy to see her.

There were many well received Christmas presents.  We mostly gave books and board games.

But, courtesy of Mimi, there were also the obligatory dolls and stuffed animals.

I got a new addition for my Christmas village, the Globe Theater.

We spent most of the morning enjoying our new Christmas presents, and then we got dressed up for Christmas dinner which was beef stew and ham for the people with teeth.  Elena had bananas.  Some of our neighbors with kids came over to have dinner with us, which made it feel more festive.

Dinner was really just an excuse to have dessert.  In honor of the Christmas colors we had a reddish and a greenish cake, strawberry and key lime.

We also invited over more neighbors.  Most of the kids had strawberry and most of the adults had key lime.  It was nice because the kids could play while the adults rested a bit from a hectic day that had started way too early.  Our guests all left by 7:30, but Vivian was so wired from her exciting day that it took another hour for her to wind down and be ready to go to bed.  Elena had a fun first Christmas, and Vivian clearly had a great day, so overall we deemed it a success.

Wat Pho and the Grand Palace Compound

For today's adventure, Vivian and I set off at about 10:00am.  I feel pretty comfortable on the highway now.  I've decided I'm a middle lane girl.  If you want to go really fast, you create a fourth lane on the shoulder and squeeze between the concrete wall and the cars in the real lane, but I've decided I'm not in that much of a hurry.  There was a LOT of traffic, so it took us about an hour to get downtown, but I didn't get lost!

After we parked and picked up Jeff, we walked a little ways to the BTS station and got on Bangkok's Skytrain.  We went a few stops to get to the water and the river taxi. The BTS is really the way to get around Bangkok whenever possible.  The ride took us 10 minutes, and it would have been at least 30 minutes in heavy traffic if we had driven.

We got on the tourist version of the river taxi, which may not have been the fastest choice, but we knew it would stop where we wanted to stop, and they announced all the stops in English as well as Thai, so it seemed like a good choice for our first outing.  We stood at the back, so that we could get some good pictures.

As we sailed along, we got to fully appreciate Bangkok's diversity.  There were luxury high rises next to houses made of corrugated metal, and at one point we passed a Chinese pagoda, next to a mosque, next to a wat.

The landmark we were looking for was Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn, which is right across the river from Wat Pho, and the stop we wanted to get off at.

There are lots of vendors at the pier, and when Vivian declared that she was hungry, we found one selling her favorite "meat on a stick", which is grilled, marinated pork.  We got her a couple of those and took a rest in a nearby park while she ate.

We were walking back through the vendors to get to Wat Pho, when Vivi saw strawberries for sale.  They're expensive here, and we haven't been getting them much, so it was a special treat.  She was so busy eating them, she couldn't stop to smile.

We could see the top of Wat Pho from a distance,

but first we had to cross a busy street Thai style (step out in front of cars and hope they stop).  We made it across alive and bought our tickets to go in.  

Wat Pho is a beautiful temple complex with lots of statues and chedis decorating the grounds, but the main attraction is the reclining Buddha which is almost 50 feet high and about 140 feet long.

There were a LOT of other people there, and there were supporting columns throughout the whole hall, so getting a good picture was a bit of a challenge.

Vivi and I decided that we really liked the feet.

The wall behind the Buddha is lined with little metal pots.  You put coins in the pots for good luck.  They make a satisfying ringing noise, and the monks use the collected money to help with upkeep.

It's inappropriate to wear shoes in the temple, so they give you a little bag to put your shoes in, and you just carry them through with you and put them back on when you get out.  Luckily we were all dressed appropriately (shirts with sleeves and pants to at least the knee).  If you're not, they have lime green robes you can rent to wear inside the temple.  I couldn't have gotten away with the sleeves on Vivi's dress, but Thai people love kids, so they just smiled and waved at her.  In fact, when we got to the wat at the Grand Palace, a Thai guard came and walked her through the free, Thais only entrance, and she stood inside and waved at us while we waited in the tourist line to get in.

After visiting the Buddha, we walked around the complex a bit.  It has one of the oldest massage schools in Thailand.  There were lots of chedis which supposedly hold the ashes of the royal family.

Vivi mostly enjoyed the statues.

I've checked our Fodor's guidebook, and Wat Pho doesn't seem to be in it, which is really a shame, because it's been one of our favorites so far, and definitely one I would take visitors to.

After Wat Pho, we headed to the Grand Palace.  On the map, they're right across the street from each other, but the entire palace complex is surrounded be a big white wall

and we had to walk all the way around to the other side to get to the entrance.  It wasn't a bad walk as Thailand walks go.  Yes, it was in the 80s, but it wasn't too humid, and there was a nice breeze.  We did get some "are we there yet" type comments from Vivi, but overall she was a trooper.

When we finally got in, we headed for Wat Phra Kaew, the home of the Emerald Buddha (made of Jade) and one of the most sacred wats in Thailand.  When you walk into the complex, the first thing that hits you is gold, everywhere.

There are also lots of statues of yakshas who guard the Emerald Buddha from evil spirits.

At one point Vivi sat down and started studying the map.

When we asked her what she was doing, she said she was looking for a bathroom.  We helped her find one, and then walked around the covered perimeter of the complex where The Ramakien, the 2,000 year old Thai adaptation of the Indian epic the Ramayana, is painted, again with lots of gold.

Unfortunately, all the plaques explaining the story are in Thai, so we'll have to find a description in English before we go back.

After the wat, we walked by the biggest palace in the compound, Chakri Mah Prasat.

It's nickname is farang si chada, which means "the westerner wearing a Thai hat", because most of the palace is European, neo-classical design, but the roof is Thai style.

After all the walking and all the gold stuff, we decided we should take a taxi back to the car, even though we knew that, with traffic, it would be about an hour.  We figured at least it would be an hour sitting down in air conditioning.  We tried to get a taxi driver who would use the meter, but no one wanted to.  Instead we negotiated with a driver who started at 500 baht and came down to 400baht, still more than twice as much as we would have paid with the meter, but only about $12 for an hour long cab ride which kept things in perspective.

When we got close to the embassy area, the traffic was so bad that we sat in almost exactly the same place for 10 minutes.  I knew where we were, and I could see a Starbucks from the taxi, so we decided to pay the driver, get out, get a drink, and walk the rest of the way.

Along the way, we stopped at Central World which, for some reason, has hundreds of Snoopy figures out in front to celebrate Christmas.

From Buddhas to yakshas to Snoopies, it was quite a day.

Kidzania Take Two

Today was Vivian's first official day of winter break, and by 8:00am she was "bored" and looking for something to do.  Luckily, I had anticipated this and planned a second attempt at Kidzania with some friends.  This would also be my second time driving downtown, and my first without an adult co-pilot.  With my GPS in hand, we set off at 9:30am.

I was fine until we got close to the city.  Then Google started telling me to do things that didn't make sense.  Luckily, there was so much traffic downtown, that I had plenty of time to double check the map and make some course corrections.  The best was when I exited the highway, made a u-turn, and then got back on the highway.  Vivian was in the back seat watching Ponyo, so she only peeped up once to ask if we were there yet.  Luckily, she missed our near death experience.  When I finally got to the correct street, I made a right hand turn onto what I perceived as a one way road, not realizing that there was one lane of oncoming traffic that I had to get across.  I didn't see the bus until it was about a foot from my right hand driver's side window.  Luckily, it saw me, and I guess assumed I was just doing every day Thai driving, because the driver didn't even beep.  After our brush with smush, I drove through a couple parking lots until I found the right one (there are about four buildings in that area with Siam in the name), and then I got a parking spot right near the door (which I regretted later when we came out to find it double parked in, but that's another story that ended fine).

Vivian and I were both better prepared for our second attempt at Kidzania.  We knew there were going to be lines, and we knew there was going to be a certain level of chaos and noise.  With that in mind, I had put Candy Crush on my phone for her to play while waiting 15-20 minutes for her chosen activity.  Possibly not the best solution in the world, but I know perfectly well that my child cannot stand and wait calmly for that amount of time, so it was either yell at her or sedate her with technology.  I went for the second option.

Her biggest regret from the last trip was that she didn't get to be a firefighter, so we went right there and waited for twenty minutes until she got her turn.  First, they had a training session which also seemed to involve stretching.

Parents are not allowed into the training areas, since this is kid land, so we were all clustered outside the window holding up cell phones.  Yes, I am aware that makes me ridiculous, but what's a mom to do?  The funniest was when the kids all got in the firetruck and the parents followed along after it holding up cell phones.  But come on, how cute is this picture?

I think when you become a parent, you just have to relinquish some of your dignity.  It's all about the smile on your kid's face.  She continued to smile while putting out the "fire".

After all that excitement, she just wanted to walk around for a while.  While we were in the main square, a girl in a red Honda jacket walked up to her and asked if she would like to design her own car.  Well, obviously, the answer was yes, so off she went to the Honda dealership.

Her finished car had hearts across the roof and stars on the bumpers.  Honda also had a driving school, but she was just a few centimeters too short to qualify for it.  As we were coming out of the Honda place, we ran into our friends who said they were going to go be doctors and ride in the ambulance.  That sounded good to Viv, so off she went.  She got a little goofy during training

but pulled it together and got to ride shotgun in the ambulance.

The kids rode back to the main square where one of the adults who trained lawyers was laying on the ground.  The kids swarmed around him and poked and prodded him to figure out what was wrong and how to revive him.  The poor guy was a really good sport about the whole thing and played his part well, including thanking them for saving his life, even after they poked him in the face.

After the thrill of being a fire fighter and an EMT, the only place to go was up, to pilot school.

After flying a plane, we broke off from the boy group we were with, so that Vivi could focus on her interest in the performing arts.  First she went to the True (the local cable channel) studio and learned how to operate a camera.

Then she went to singing school.

After some practice time, they went out to perform Christmas carols in the main square.

Finally, she deposited all the money she had made at her various jobs in the bank and got an ATM card for next time.  We were both exhausted and ready to go.  Before we could get back on the highway though, I had to pull one more awesome driving move which involved making a right hand turn across four lanes of heavy traffic with no light, just a man with a reflective vest and a whistle trying to hold back the oncoming horde.  I managed it and didn't even swipe any of the suicidal motorcycle drivers who tried to swerve around me.  Ah, Bangkok.