This awesomely named staycation adventure was the result of several factors. Vivian had two days off of school for conferences, Jeff had had a crazy week at work where we hadn't seen him much, and I'm leaving next Friday for 10 days. I wanted to keep Vivian busy and happy and make sure that I got to spend some time with Jeff without excluding the girls who have also been missing him. Solution: bring the girls downtown on Friday (with Young for support), and stay at the Anantara Sathorn with reasonably priced two bedroom suites and a rooftop restaurant that Jeff and I could enjoy while Young and the girls enjoyed room service and a movie a few floors below us.
Once I found the hotel, I searched through all the lists of best things to do with kids and found one we hadn't tried yet, Imaginia at the Emporium mall on Sukhumvit. My plan was to pack up everything we needed Friday morning, drive to the hotel, drop off the car and the bags, and then Young, the girls, and I would take a taxi to Imaginia. Elena insisted on helping with the zippers while I was packing.
I knew the trickiest part of the day was going to be getting from the highway to the hotel. I had studied the map, and it looked fairly straightforward. What I didn't realize though, was that Google, in its well-intentioned attempts to take me on the shortest possible route, had included streets that were meant for motorcycles, not cars, and certainly not Honda CRVs. Unfortunately, by the time I realized what I had turned into, it was too late, and the only way I could go was forward. We had a couple close (and I mean REALLY close) encounters with other vehicles, and I think the left mirror got a kiss from one of the walls I squeezed up next to in order to let another car by. Poor Young was trying to help me by holding the phone up, so that I could see the map, but I really had to focus on the road. I finally got to a road with several lanes, so that I could block one by pulling over and putting my hazards on (everyone else does it, so I figured I could too). I looked at the map, figured out where we were relative to the hotel, told Google to stuff its stupid directions, and got us there on roads with at least two lanes in each direction. Whew!
Honestly, at that point all I really wanted to do was put my feet up and have a drink, but the show must go on, so we dropped off car and bags and got in a taxi. Once we got to Imaginia it quickly became clear that it had been worth the trouble. It wasn't too expensive, and they had sliding scale pricing depending on height for children, with a parent rate of about $7. Vivian was the most expensive at about $12, and that price was good for three hours of play and a locker for shoes and bags.
Once the girls had their socks on they got right into exploring the interactive art exhibit.
There was also an astronaut cut out at the front which presented an irresistible photo op.
Moving back into the first floor of the space, there was an arts and crafts area on the right and a construction area on the left. Right behind the globe, there was an area where you could decorate part of a "car".
Elena's favorite part of the first floor though, was the explorers playground, which was only for kids under 90cm.
There were some other fun things around the playground too. Vivian's favorite was the shadow area, where you could have your shadow be a bird, a tree, or a gnome, depending on which screen you stood in front of.
There was also a "biking" area, and behind that, for some unexplained reason, an area with black lights and bell chimes.
One thing that really captured Vivian's interest though, was the bottom of a two story slide. We left Young and Elena exploring the playground and went upstairs to find the top of the slide. The first thing we found though was a play area full of nets and trampolines. Vivian quickly found an entrance, and she was climbing around all over the place. It was really hard to get a picture of her through the net, but, if you look carefully, you can see her smiling out of the pink and blue drop in the middle of the picture.
When we eventually brought Elena upstairs, she saw Vivian go up into the net and wanted to go too. Of course once she got in, she decided she wanted out almost immediately.
Luckily, there was TONS of other stuff for her to enjoy, including the trampolines under the net.
The girls could both enjoy the DJ booths too. Vivian found it first.
And of course, if Vivi do, Elena do.
Next to the DJ station was a cute little reading area with books in Thai, Japanese and English.
Vivian, ever the explorer, discovered that the wall with the window opened, and you could crawl in behind it.
Guess who insisted on getting in next . . .
While we were in the reading area, one of the staff members came to tell us that they were starting a special show in the town hall area, and it was in English. We were curious, so we went to see what it was. It turned out to be a giant screen with a "puppet" show about a boy who was born from inside a huge peach and defeated a monster with the help of animal friends which he made by sharing the best rice balls in the world. The girls were mesmerized.
I thought the animation and story were both pretty weird, but the girls were happy, so no complaints. Other interesting stuff we found on the second floor: a circle of stones that lit up in time with the music they were playing,
"Sound clouds" with dangling drops that you could pull on to make sounds (we didn't really get into that one), the bathroom,
and, finally, a giant inflated "mountain" and the entrance to the slide.
Vivian zoomed down the slide.
It popped out right near the toddler play area, and we discovered a regular path on one side of it and a "challenge" climbing path on the other side. Vivian proceeded to climb the challenge side and slide down repeatedly, while Elena did some serious block stacking.
The girls played at each area at least twice, and, before we knew it, our three hours were up. We found a taxi, and Young and I got two worn out girls back to the hotel.
Jeff got there shortly after we did. The room was great. There was a large kitchen, dining, living area, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and two balconies. We spent some time just relaxing and enjoying the view.
One of the buildings we could see from our balcony was the "robot building" which Vivian had learned about in her art class. She was super excited to be able to see it in real life. After a while, we ordered room service for Young and the girls, got changed, and headed up to the roof for the sunset.
Zoom's menu was pretty limited, so it was definitely not top tier rooftop dining, but there was a wonderful breeze, happy hour went until 8:00pm, and they gave us great seats to watch the sun set, so we enjoyed it.
The sun went down, and the city lights came on, including a building that put on a moving light show.
We enjoyed the lights, our dinner, and some more buy one get one free drinks. Eventually though, we decided we should go back down to the room and make sure the girls were settled into bed. We must have really worn Elena out, because she went into her pack and play with no complaints and went right to sleep. Jeff and I stayed up and watched The Man from Uncle, which was really fun.
Unfortunately, the next morning, Elena made us pay for her no fight night by giving us a fighting morning starting at 3am. I got her to go back to sleep, but she popped up again every hour, and, finally, at 6, I gave up and took her out to the living room. Vivian and Young showed up shortly after that, and Young sent me back to bed until 7, when we all went down to breakfast together.
The breakfast restaurant was only on the second floor, but something about the location made it a wind tunnel. Elena kept saying "My hair blowing!"
Young tried to get a family picture for us, but Elena was too distressed about her hair to be able to smile properly.
Even though we couldn't get a great family picture, it was definitely a great family staycation.
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