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 ;-)

  

Something for Everyone

Our weekends are primarily for family, but Jeff and I also like to have some grown up only time, so we try to plan weekends that have a little of both.  This Saturday worked out really well, because we went on a family adventure with some friends to the Children's Discovery Museum in the morning, and then we went downtown for a grown ups' night out with some other friends.

The Children's Discovery Museum is across the street from the Chatuchak weekend market.  It's recently been renovated, and admission is free.  We've had mixed luck driving to Chatuchak, so we tried to leave ourselves some extra time in case we got lost.  There's a tricky u-turn we missed the first time we went, and a tricky flyover that I missed on another occasion.  We learned from our mistakes though, and so it was smooth sailing until we had to figure out where to park.  We could see the museum, and we could see a jam packed parking lot with double parked cars, so we figured that's where we were supposed to park.  We pulled in and even though we don't really speak Thai and the people who worked there didn't really speak English, we communicated enough for them to show us where to double park, and make clear to us that we should leave the car in neutral, so that it could be pushed out of the way if necessary.  We were perfectly willing to do that, but we learned that our car doesn't let you take the keys out if it's in neutral, so we had to leave the key in the car, which made us really uncomfortable.  Then, we walked around to the front of the museum, and realized that there was a beautiful, practically empty, dedicated parking lot there, so Jeff quickly ran back, got our car, and reparked it.  Whew!

The first thing we saw when we walked in was a huge playground and water splash area.  Our friends were already playing at the playground, so Vivian ran off to join in.  Elena climbed around a bit as well, but it was definitely geared to older kids.  There were a lot of cool features, like this metal ball tree house.

We wanted to check out what was inside the buildings as well, so we saved the water part for another time, since it closes from 11:30-1:30.  On another day, it would be fun to make a morning of just the outside area.

Inside, we started with a section that let kids explore science concepts.  There were chairs with different types of pulley systems, so that kids could see how pulleys make lifting easier.  Next to it was a set of vacuum tubes for sending cylinder message containers.

One of the best parts was that there were employees there to help us and show us how to use the different stations.  Our favorite though, was probably the one where you could put yourself inside a giant bubble (with Daddy's help of course ;-)

Then we went around the corner and saw the entrance to the dinosaur area.

They had some hands-on exhibits and boxes full of dino dress up.

After some fun there, we went up to the next floor.  That dress up area let you try walking like a duck

or flapping your mermaid fin.

The second floor also had a hall of mirrors type exhibit which Jeff and Vivian took full advantage of.

Four Vivians is a scary thought!

Vivian's favorite part of that floor though was a small exhibit tucked away in a corner.  It had a couple replicas of Thai houses, with a hat for dress up and a few baskets with plastic foods.  She played there for at least half an hour, both by herself and with her friend.  

We spent a little bit more time playing outside after that,

but Elena was clearly fading.  We figured the best plan was to call it a day and get her home for a nap.  Plus, Jeff and I needed to rest up for the second half of our fun Saturday.

We have some very good friends who we like to go on downtown adventures with, and we hadn't been out together in a while, so we all felt it was time.  For this outing our friends picked the Scarlett Wine Bar and Restaurant in the Pullman hotel.  It was a fantastic choice.  The wine was reasonably priced, which is practically unheard of in Thailand, and they had a huge selection of cheeses and meats to go with the wine.

You could also get tapas style dishes, main courses, and decadent desserts.  We may have overdone it a bit.  This is a place I can see us going back to, but next time we will definitely order less food.  The restaurant is up pretty high, and they have outdoor seating, but we ended up sitting inside, which we decided was for the best.  There were a lot of smokers out on the balcony, and it was a bit stuffy.  The view was fantastic through the windows and we had a/c, so it all added up to a fabulous night out.

Tragedy

Last Monday was supposed to be a good day.  It was the start of Vivian's first full week of school, and it was the start of my two week break between quarters.  Instead, it turned out to be a tragic day because cowards decided to set off a bomb in the center of downtown Bangkok during evening rush hour.  Our family was all safe at home out in the suburbs, but the place where the bomb exploded is where we went just a little over a week before to visit one of our favorite parts of the city.  It's the area of the city I'm most familiar with, and what I think of first when I think of downtown.  It's a place I have taken my children and my guests.  To see the images of what happened there was horrifying.  It made me angry, but mostly it made me sad.  Sad, obviously, for the people directly affected, but also sad for Bangkok and the Thai people whom I have mostly come to know as very kind, gentle people.  This is a country where it's considered rude to honk your horn at someone who cuts you off in traffic.  You're supposed to just ease a bit to the side and let them in.

We got several text messages and emails from the embassy and the school that Monday night.  The embassy is just a few blocks away from the site of the bombing, and several schools downtown were closed on Tuesday, so we weren't sure if ISB would be closed as well.  In the end, everything was open the next day, but ISB cancelled all after school activities.  The "cautiously carry on" attitude has been in place for the past week, and so far it seems to be working.  There have been a couple other reported bomb scares, but no damage.  It makes me angry that I have to think about this when planning an outing downtown.  I resent being at the mercy of people with no honor.  The only approach I know is to carry on regardless, but it's impossible to quiet the little voice of worry inside.  It makes me think about when I went to my job at the National Gallery of Art after September 11th.  I don't remember how long it took me to feel safe in D.C. again, but I do remember that when I went to work on September 12th it was eerie.  You could feel the communal shock and worry just by walking down the street.

This has been one of the many times I've been thankful for the community we have here.  I have friends I can talk to about everything that's happened to try and make some sense of it all, and my children have friends to play with and things to do to keep them busy and happy.  Watching my children grow and be happy reminds me to focus on the possibilities of the future year, rather than the tragedy of the previous week.

Hooray for Second Grade!

Vivian started second grade on Thursday, and so far she is loving it :-)

It's a very short week to start, which is probably a good thing, since by Friday afternoon she was pretty wiped out.  In anticipation of the start of school we were at ISB on Monday and Tuesday for different events.

Monday was a lunch, hosted by the embassy, to welcome new families and welcome back returning families.  It was in the elementary cafeteria at ISB which is nice because it's air conditioned, but not so nice, because it's enclosed and the noise of all the people talking echoed, so it was hard to hear.  The food was nothing special, but it was nice to see how many people turned out.  Once the kids finished eating, the returning students led a migration to the playground.  It was fun to hang out and watch all the kids play.  I could tell Vivian was particularly excited to have so many friends to play with.  It was hot though, so after a while we went to the library, and then headed home.

Tuesday afternoon was the big class list reveal.  It feels kind of last minute, since it's essentially the day before school starts, but that's when they post class lists.  They email them out, but they also physically post them in the grade level quads, so families gather around to see which teacher they got.  You can then go and meet your teacher briefly.  Vivian was really excited, because she got the teacher that two of her older friends had last year and really liked.  We walked over to her classroom and said hello.  Vivian looked around and (of course) immediately settled down to read through the classroom library.  I've heard good things about the teacher as well, so I'm hoping for a great year.

Last week, Vivian was nervous about the start of school.  She was being clingy and asking if I was going to bring her to school in the golf cart.  After Monday and Tuesday though, her full confidence had returned, and she was just excited to get started.  Wednesday was the queen's birthday and Thai mothers' day.  It's a holiday for the embassy too, so Jeff was home, which was great.  He's had a crazy work schedule lately, so we haven't seen him much.  It was nice to just have a day to relax.

Thursday morning, the alarm didn't wake Vivian up, so I had to do it myself.  She was groggy, but perked right up when she realized it was the first day of school.  They've revised the bus routes, so we only have one bus for our street now, which makes a lot more sense.  What doesn't make as much sense is that they pick up each kid at their own house, so the bus stops at our house and then drives to the house next door, and then turns around and stops at the house across the street, keeping in mind that "across the street" is a distance of 15-20 feet.  It's kind of silly, but it's nice to have that security net in the morning knowing that it's pretty much impossible to miss the bus.  With all her friends on the bus, Vivian's anxiety completely disappeared to the point where she just jumped on the bus and barely said good bye to me and Elena who were there to wave her off.

She was excited last year too, but it's nice for both of us to have the confidence that comes from returning to a known school.  We haven't had that for the past couple years, since Kindergarten and 1st grade were both new schools.  Now she knows how to navigate the campus, and I have a better idea of how to navigate all the options the school presents.  It's nice too that I'm at a break between quarters, so I can really focus on getting both girls into their new routines.  I'm excited to see what the  school year will bring.

Checking in Downtown

We went downtown last week for the girls' regular doctor check ups, but didn't really get a chance to do fun exploring, so we decided another trip was needed before school started.  We also have a new family in Jeff's office who we're showing around.  They have a girl just about Vivian's age, so we figured she would like a lot of the same things.  We got the dads to come with us and went to lunch at Central World.  The adults all wanted dim sum, so we went to Din Tai Fung.  Vivian wasn't as interested though, so along the way, we stopped at Auntie Anne's to pick up her favorite pretzel and lemonade.  With her usually creativity, she found a way to turn it into an Asian dish by ripping the pretzel into small bits and picking it up with her chopsticks.

After lunch, the dads had to go back to work, so the moms took the two girls exploring in the mall.  Vivian made us stop at the Disney/Marvel store next to the movie theater.  She spent some time admiring Captain America.

Then we went to the 6th floor of Central World, which is basically the kids' zone.  We got off the escalator right in front of Toys R Us which set off a chorus of "please, please", so we let them go in to look around with the clear understanding that we were not buying anything.  It was toy sensory overload.  Both of the girls got excited about the My Little Pony stuff.  The displays were pretty big.

After that, they did some climbing and sliding at the play area behind Toys R Us, and then collapsed on the chairs and cushions at Asia Books.

The rest helped.  Vivian picked a Disney encyclopedia as her book treat.  It had a section of "Tricky Trivia" questions, which she had a lot of fun quizzing us with, even though she had to practice saying the word trivia several times before she got it right.  There wasn't too much traffic on the ride home, which made for a nice ending to a fun day out.