Great Long Weekend in Pattaya

Vivian had two days off of school this past week for an "activity free weekend."  We decided to take advantage of the time to do a family trip to the beach.  We've tried the close beach towns to the east and the west, and found that Pattaya was easier to get to.  There's a resort there called Centara Grand Mirage that has family suites for a reasonable price and a bunch of extra water park features in its pool area, so we decided that was where we would go.

Even though Vivian had a four day weekend, we thought that two nights away was plenty, and we planned to leave on Friday.  On Tuesday and Wednesday the monsoon season let loose and there was rain almost all day.  It was easing off by Thursday, but there was a lot of flooding.  We had friends going to the same resort on Thursday, and they said that some of the roads were flooded when they headed down Thursday afternoon.  The resort was still open, but all the extra water had damaged one of their pumps, and so all the special water features were closed.

We decided not to let the weather deter us, packed some cards and games to keep busy in case the rain didn't let up, and got on the road bright and early Friday morning.  We knew our room probably wouldn't be ready, but we also knew that if we left too late on a Friday, we would spend half our weekend in traffic, so we were on the road before eight.  It turned out to be a good call.  There was a bit of traffic, but not too much, and we made it there in under two hours.  It still looked a little gray, but the lost world jungle theme was definitely cool.

The overcast weather actually kept it cooler and less crowded.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was ready, and we could go there immediately.  It was great to be able to get settled in and get changed right away.  The room had a living room area with a table and chairs, a little kitchenette, and a big bedroom and bathroom, but the best part was a little space with a bunk bed and two sliding doors that made walls to close it off to the living area.  Vivian loved it.  She also wasted no time making herself at home at the kiddie pool.

There were several different connected pools, and one had a "cliff" to jump off of.  Vivian and her buddy quickly discovered the cliff and proceeded to take flying leaps off of it.

There were a couple sand areas next to the pool which was nice since the actual sand at the beach is full of junk and not really a place you want your kids to play.  We invested a few dollars in some sand toys, and the girls played happily.

Elena spent some time at the pool with us each morning, but she's not really a big fan of the water, and I didn't want her to spend too much time in the sun.  Our solution was to ask Young to come with us, and take Elena to the kids club after pool time.  Elena really enjoyed the kids club.

We made Vivian take a pool break during the hottest part of the day, so she got into the fun at the kids club too.  She went the camouflage route, wearing her rainbow dress to hide in the rainbow balls.

Young also helped by staying in the room with Elena during nap time, so that Jeff and I could take Vivi out for lunch with a view.

There were a couple places where you could walk from the hotel onto the beach proper.

Vivian was intrigued by the orange and white floating barriers, especially when she saw several people walking out onto them.  The storms earlier in the week had tossed them all around, but by Saturday, they were connected into three sides of a square, and Vivian was determined to walk all the way around.  Jeff agreed to go with her, but thought they should wait until the evening when it wasn't as hot.  Vivian kept checking to see if it was "evening" yet, and eventually she and her buddy set out with the dads, while the moms stayed on the beach. We watched their little silhouettes carefully walking the circuit.

Thankfully, they all made it around without falling off, and I had them do triumphant poses to celebrate.

Vivian took a moment to issue a proclamation from one of the balconies on the way back up to the room.

The food at the hotel was alright, but nothing exceptional.  Luckily, they had fried rice, which Elena ate for most meals.

Since Young is a superhero, she watched all four kids one night, so that the four adults could have a kid free dinner.  The food was fine, but the best part was being able to have an uninterrupted conversation.  

On Sunday we got up early to take one more dip in the pool.

At nine, some of the slides, part of the lazy river, and the splash pad opened up for the first time that weekend, so we took some time to try them all out.

It was a great finish to a great weekend.  I'm almost glad that everything wasn't open the whole weekend, because Vivian was so exhausted after just an hour of play that she fell asleep in the car on the way home.  We came to the unanimous family decision that this was our best beach trip yet, and we will definitely go there again.

Fun with Mom

My mom's visits are usually pretty low-key.  She's been to Thailand several times, so she doesn't need to do the sight-seeing thing.  She's happy hanging out with us, and just making our days more fun.  For example, she came with me to Vivian's swimming lesson, but afterwards, instead of a regular snack, Mom upgraded Vivi to ice cream.

Mom really wanted to do some souvenir shopping, so I decided to take her to a place we haven't tried yet, but that sounded like it had what she was looking for, Asiatique.  It's basically a bunch of market stalls and restaurants on the river.  You can get there by boat, but it's also pretty easy to get there off the highway, and there's plenty of parking, so on Sunday (aka, low traffic day) Mom and I gave it a try.  

We actually managed to get there without getting lost!  Even though it's technically farther away than Chatuchak, it took us less time and was easier, since there was minimal driving off the highway.  We found several of the things my mom was looking for at the stands outside of Asiatique proper.  It turned out to be the right place to shop, because we found a beautiful dress for Vivi for 150 baht, and they had the same dress inside for 250 baht.  We also found the perfect gift for Jeff.  His Thai beer of choice is Chang Classic, and this seemed like a great keepsake for our time here.

We also found my mom some elephant pants and a shirt that says "Same, Same" on the front, and "But different" on the back.  "Same, Same" is a very typical expression in Thailand, but same is sometimes a bit different, so it's a fun shirt.  Luckily, we fueled up for shopping and had dinner with a view.

It was nice for sunset, and the whole place looked pretty once it was lit up as a true night market.  I think it would be a fun place to bring guests who want a tourist experience.

Since we hadn't done enough shopping on Sunday, we joined up with some people who were going to the Jim Thompson outlet on Monday.  This is a good place to go if you want fabric.  They have several floors with rooms full of fabric.

I'm thinking it might be a good place to get some nice fabric for curtains for our "real" house, since it will be time for an updated look whenever we get back to living in Virginia.  In addition to the fabric, there's a floor with bags in lots of different sizes.  I got a little one to put jewelry in when we travel.

The final floor had household merchandise, so pillow cases, tablecloths, things like that.  Mom got a few things there.  We weren't sure if we were going to find anything we wanted, but it ended up being a very successful shopping trip.

Tuesday was Mom's last day here, so my friend and I took her out to the Blue Sky cafe for a final lunch with crazy big smoothies.

It was really sad to say goodbye to her early Wednesday morning, but I'm focusing on the fact that she'll be back soon, and she'll bring the rest of the gang with her next time.

Taking It Easy for the Labor Day Long Weekend

Jeff gets Labor Day off, so we were planning a Sunday night downtown, but before we left, we wanted to do something fun at home.  There's a "new" restaurant on the lake, which is really just the Nichada Club, but in a new location and renamed Vapor.  Of course, the place mats and the menus all still say Nichada Club, but they have a cool sign out front that says Vapor.  It's up in an apartment building that overlooks the lake, and there's seating with a view over a balcony, so that's where we decided to sit.

We lounged around there for a while, and then Jeff and I got in the car to drive downtown leaving Mom and Young in charge of the girls.  For this staycation, we were planning to stay at the Centre Point Grande above Terminal 21.  It seemed like a great location, but what we didn't account for is that a hotel on top of a mall might be difficult to get into on a Sunday afternoon.  The short version of our adventure involved a right hand turn across six lanes of traffic with no lights (We love you Bangkok!), a u-turn, going into the mall parking lot and then out the exit at the next level to get to the front entrance of the hotel.

We were so relieved to reach our destination that all we wanted to do was get rid of the car.  All the hotels we've stayed at so far have had complimentary valet parking, so we just told the people who came out to help us that we wanted valet.  They seemed a little confused, but there were three guys, so we just figured they weren't sure who should take the car and who should take the luggage (one tiny carry on rolly suitcase which I keep trying to roll myself and which the scandalized hotel employees always take away from me).  They like to send us up to the room first, and then bring our one piece of luggage.  We were a little worried, because we hadn't gotten a valet ticket for the car, but the lady at check-in assured us that they would bring it up with the luggage.  The guy showed up with our suitcase, a parking ticket, and the keys to our car.  Apparently, they don't actually have valet parking, but in classic Thai fashion, they weren't going to tell us no, so they must have done the equivalent of rock, paper, scissors to see who was going to park our car for us.  Gotta love Thailand.

You also have to love the views of Bangkok from the 31st floor.

It's rainy season, and so the clouds make all kinds of unreal creations in the sky.  This is a picture I took lying on the bed in the room.

While we enjoyed the wall of windows, the toilet options in the bathroom scared us a little.

It took a while to figure out how to flush it (the black buttons at the top).  We were too scared to try any of the other buttons.  Instead, we got on the BTS and rode down to National Stadium to go visit the Jim Thompson House.  I'd been there before, but Jeff had not.  Luckily, I knew it was at the end of an unassuming looking little soi.  It's right on a klong (small river) and the gardens are beautiful.

You can't take pictures inside the house, but that allows you to focus on the tour and enjoy it.  Afterwards, we were hot and thirsty, so we stopped at the cafe for delicious mango smoothies.

We got back to the hotel with enough time to rest and change for dinner.  Our plan was to meet up with several of our friends who live downtown.  Jeff has been missing Brazilian steakhouses, so I looked online, and found one a few sois up Sukhumvit from where we were staying.  It was about a ten minute walk to the restaurant from our hotel, which gave us the opportunity to look around.  Walking is definitely the best choice, because some of our friends got an uber from almost exactly the same spot, and it took them over half an hour in traffic to get to the restaurant.

We started with drinks, and once everyone got there, we took a pass at the salad bar.  These are the only non-meat items that Jeff allowed on his plate.

The non-stop skewers of meat service made it easy for us to stay there for several hours, talking and eating.  It definitely wasn't as good as our favorite Brazilian steakhouse in D.C., but for about thirty dollars per person it was the best priced steak we've had.

The next morning we weren't sure if we could handle breakfast, but we made room for Chu's Chocolate.  One of Jeff's friends recommended the chocolate milkshake, so that's what he had to drink with his chorizo frittata.  I love that man, and I love enjoying delicious chocolate while watching Bangkok traffic that I'm not stuck in.  I also got a kick out of the fact that the guys on one side of us were speaking in French and the ladies on the other side of us were speaking in Japanese.  Love Bangkok, great stay downtown, as always :-)

Life of a Monk

One of our neighbors recommended a tour arranged by the Young Explorers Club.  The tour is called Life of a Monk, and it's geared to elementary aged children.  My mom is visiting us for a couple weeks, and so she got to come along too.

We had to meet at 8:00am at the Saphan Taksin BTS station, which was a bit of a challenge, but we got a taxi, and since there was no traffic that early, we got downtown easily.  We met up with the seven other kids and their families, and then we walked over to the boat pier.  Our tour had its own longtail boats reserved, and they gave us life jackets for the kids, which was nice.  The trickiest part was getting in the boat, since the tide was quite low, which put the boat a couple feet beneath the pier.  It wasn't graceful, but we all tumbled into the boat, and no one ended up in the river.  Once everyone was aboard, we took off at full speed.  Vivian absolutely loved it.  My mom was enjoying herself too.

We got off at the flower market.  The kids had activity booklets and stickers.  They had to find the various flowers and put the sticker in their books.

It was stiflingly hot in the enclosed market, but the flowers were beautiful.  Some had already been assembled into bouquets and garlands,

but many were available loose in bags and buckets.  Our guides picked up some of those, so that the kids could make their own garlands.

We left the market for a long table set up along the river walk.  The breeze was wonderful, as was the iced coffee they brought for the adults.

The guides gave each child an alarmingly large needle, with string attached to the bottom and a pile of roses and dok rak, also known as love flowers because they can appear to be heart shaped.  The children were supposed to do a pattern of one red rose to five dok rak.  Vivian needed a little help getting started, but she soon shooed me away.

The children repeated the pattern three times, and then the adults helped them cut and tie off their three strands and attach it to a pre-made jasmine ring.  Vivi was very pleased with the result.

After that we all got into tuk tuks which had been pre-booked by the company.

We got a fun tour along the side of the fruit and vegetable market, and then we emerged onto the main road leading up to the royal palace.  Our trip ended at a beautiful wat.

The courtyard surrounding the main temple, was full of golden Buddhas holding the ashes of various illustrious Thais.

Inside the temple was the biggest Buddha of them all.  Underneath it were the ashes of the current king's father.

The guides showed the children how to show proper respect to the Buddha.  

Then one of the temple's monks came to tell the children about his life and answer their questions.  His English was pretty good, but our guides also helped out.

It was fascinating, and the adults asked as many questions as the kids did.  After we thanked the monk for his time, we went back out to the courtyard.  The guides gave each child a lotus flower.

The children were supposed to learn how to fold back the outside of the lotus to reveal the flower in the middle.  Vivian and several of the other kids were more interested in using the long lotus stems as swords and magic wands though, so I commandeered her lotus and took a stab at the folding.

Vivian was pleased with the result, snatched it, and went back to playing with her friends.  There were a couple kids she knew from school, but she also made friends with some of the other kids on the tour.  

After the temple, we got back in our tuk tuks and went to lunch at a restaurant known for its roti.  You could see the cooking process from outside the restaurant.

Our guides took us upstairs to the air conditioned dining area, which was lovely.  The children by this point had formed a unit, and they sat at a long table, while the parents were waved away to the smaller surrounding tables.  The chicken roti was absolutely delicious.  The tour company had also ordered kid-friendly dishes like fried rice and omelettes, neither of which my picky eater went for.  Luckily, I had packed a bunch of snacks for her, so she was fine.

After lunch we walked back along the river inside the amulet market.

By that point, Vivian's lotus flower had fallen off the stem.  She gave the flower to one of the other girls who was collecting them, and happily used the remaining stem as her magic wand.  We didn't buy her an amulet, because she already has a very nice one that Young bought for her a while ago.  The amulets are supposed to give you protection and good luck.

After a pleasant stroll along the riverside market area, we got on a regular river taxi boat to return to our starting point.

Back at the BTS stop, there was a man selling flower garlands with marigolds, and Vivian begged for one.  Since it cost about 25 cents, I said sure.  We got back in our taxi, and after a relatively quick ride home, we presented the flower garlands to Elena and Jeff.

You would think that would be enough excitement for one day, but less than two hours after we got home, Vivian went to a neighborhood birthday party.  And that wasn't the end of it.  Since it was the first Saturday of the month, that night was also a Secret Garden night.  We wanted to show Mom the Secret Garden experience, so we picked Vivian up from the birthday party and walked over.  She saw that her friends were in the giant bouncy slide castle, and took off to bounce for half an hour.  The rest of us walked around and chatted with friends.  Then we found a table and had dinner.  

Elena wasn't very interested in dinner, so she wandered off with me following.  Her confidence level was pretty high, because she didn't check once to make sure I was following her.  She was very pleased when she found a flock of cement ducks to make friends with.

By seven though, we were all pretty much done.  We got the girls bathed and in bed, and then finished off the crazy day with a much needed massage.  It's a tough life living in Thailand ;-)