We're here in Thailand on our summer vacation. Scott only has about a year of United pass travel left, so we're taking advantage of that (also in a couple of months we'll have a new baby and that might slow us down some, although it hasn't slowed us down much in the past!) Flying standby can be hazardous, and we have our share of horror stories, but this time everything went perfectly. We had a 12 hour flight to Tokyo, a 3 hour layover, and then 6 more hours to Bangkok. Other than a seatmate with bad BO on the last flight, it was fine. The kids did so well. We've learned to come well prepared with snacks, DVDs and gameboys. We also packed light so we could carry on all our luggage and avoid lost bags. All in all it went extremely smoothly.
Our hotel is nice - - we got 2 rooms, and it's so smart - - they're at the end of the hall and a door in front of them closes, so we can leave our room doors open and it's just like a very spacious suite. The view is beautiful. We had a wonderful breakfast - - all the fresh mangoes you could eat. After Ethan finished his second one he leaned back and said, "This is the life." These are the yellow mangoes, the sweetest ones anywhere. There were other unusual fruits, and smoothies, and chicken satay (for breakfast?) - - we couldn't pass that up. After we had stuffed ourselves to bursting we went back to the room for a bit and then went out.
We're here at the rainy season (also the height of mango season), but we didn't get any rain until afternoon. It was hot and extremely humid. The sky train (a clean but crowded elevated metro) was near our hotel so we walked over and took it. Taxis here are incredibly cheap, but Scott always likes to try out the transportation in foreign places. It ended up taking us a lot less time than a taxi would have because of traffic. Twice people got up to give Noah their seat. I really love the Thai people, they are so friendly and beautiful. The service at our hotel is great.
Noah, by the way, has gotten a lot of positive attention here. He gets his share of stares wherever we go, and some aren't friendly, just rude. But here a lot of people stopped to say hi to him. I wondered at first if it was like in the Philippines - - people with Down syndrome are considered lucky. But then I realized that he also bears a striking resemblance to the Buddha. Anyway people were very sweet.
We took the train to the Chao Phraya river and took a flatboat from there. It was also very crowded. There was a special section for the monks. We saw them everywhere, men and boys of all ages with shaved heads and bright orange robes. We got off near the Grand Palace, one of the main tourist (and religious) sites in the city. Actually we had a pretty good walk to get there. The sidewalk was completely lined with vendors selling all sorts of stuff, most of it junk. It was like a giant flea market. There were a lot of food carts as well, but we decided to avoid the possibility of dysentery :)
The Grand Palace has, according to the guidebook, more decorations per square foot than any other place like it. We got some beautiful pictures. Most of it was outside, so we were very hot, but there was a breeze blowing. One of the rules there is that you have to be dressed modestly, no shorts or tank tops or anything, so we were all in long pants. There is a place where you can rent clothes to wear - - it was funny to see so many people wearing the same style shirt and baggy pants.
The Grand Palace houses the famous (though I hadn't heard of it :) Emerald Buddha. It is in an enclosed room, highly decorated, with murals all over. We passed several artists touching up the murals - - the place is in beautiful repair because they're constantly refurbishing it. Gold is the predominant color of the decorations and they use a lot of gold paint on the murals. The Buddha is only a couple of feet tall, on top of a large stand, and carved entirely of Jade. You can't get a very good view and there were no pictures (or shoes) allowed inside. We're trying to help the kids be respectful of other cultures and religions, so this was a good chance to teach them to be reverent, even though they didn't understand the religion.
The kids were getting pretty tired and hot, so we left and took a blessedly air-conditioned taxi back to the hotel. Ethan and Noah fell asleep almost immediately. It took a long time to get back because of traffic (taxi driver in Thailand is now on my list of jobs I'm glad I don't have!) The drivers were pretty crazy, although I've seen worse. Scott once got hit by a motorcycle in Bangkok, but luckily it wasn't going very fast. You have to be careful when walking along the streets because the drivers are on the opposite side of the road and you can forget to look both ways before you cross.
We're here at the rainy season (also the height of mango season), but we didn't get any rain until afternoon. It was hot and extremely humid. The sky train (a clean but crowded elevated metro) was near our hotel so we walked over and took it. Taxis here are incredibly cheap, but Scott always likes to try out the transportation in foreign places. It ended up taking us a lot less time than a taxi would have because of traffic. Twice people got up to give Noah their seat. I really love the Thai people, they are so friendly and beautiful. The service at our hotel is great.
Noah, by the way, has gotten a lot of positive attention here. He gets his share of stares wherever we go, and some aren't friendly, just rude. But here a lot of people stopped to say hi to him. I wondered at first if it was like in the Philippines - - people with Down syndrome are considered lucky. But then I realized that he also bears a striking resemblance to the Buddha. Anyway people were very sweet.
We took the train to the Chao Phraya river and took a flatboat from there. It was also very crowded. There was a special section for the monks. We saw them everywhere, men and boys of all ages with shaved heads and bright orange robes. We got off near the Grand Palace, one of the main tourist (and religious) sites in the city. Actually we had a pretty good walk to get there. The sidewalk was completely lined with vendors selling all sorts of stuff, most of it junk. It was like a giant flea market. There were a lot of food carts as well, but we decided to avoid the possibility of dysentery :)
The Grand Palace has, according to the guidebook, more decorations per square foot than any other place like it. We got some beautiful pictures. Most of it was outside, so we were very hot, but there was a breeze blowing. One of the rules there is that you have to be dressed modestly, no shorts or tank tops or anything, so we were all in long pants. There is a place where you can rent clothes to wear - - it was funny to see so many people wearing the same style shirt and baggy pants.
The Grand Palace houses the famous (though I hadn't heard of it :) Emerald Buddha. It is in an enclosed room, highly decorated, with murals all over. We passed several artists touching up the murals - - the place is in beautiful repair because they're constantly refurbishing it. Gold is the predominant color of the decorations and they use a lot of gold paint on the murals. The Buddha is only a couple of feet tall, on top of a large stand, and carved entirely of Jade. You can't get a very good view and there were no pictures (or shoes) allowed inside. We're trying to help the kids be respectful of other cultures and religions, so this was a good chance to teach them to be reverent, even though they didn't understand the religion.
The kids were getting pretty tired and hot, so we left and took a blessedly air-conditioned taxi back to the hotel. Ethan and Noah fell asleep almost immediately. It took a long time to get back because of traffic (taxi driver in Thailand is now on my list of jobs I'm glad I don't have!) The drivers were pretty crazy, although I've seen worse. Scott once got hit by a motorcycle in Bangkok, but luckily it wasn't going very fast. You have to be careful when walking along the streets because the drivers are on the opposite side of the road and you can forget to look both ways before you cross.
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