Last night in Bangkok

October 19th--Since we loved our apartment so much here in Bangkok and didn't know what our accommodations were going to be like over the next couple of weeks, we decided to take the opportunity to just hang out for the day. There are 3 televisions, so plenty for everyone to watch what they wanted to watch as well. Abby and I did a lot of schoolwork this morning before heading out to the pool. We spent several hours swimming at the pool before...you got it...it started raining. After going inside, we all hung out watching movies and packing up our suitcases. Mike and I had arranged for a babysitter for the night so that we could go enjoy our last night in Bangkok and some local Thai food. We had KFC delivered to the room for the kids before the babysitter arrived at 7:00. Mike and I left via taxi heading to Baan Klang Naam restaurant. It took our taxi driver a while to find the restaurant. He had to make many turn arounds and pull over to ask another taxi driver. But, we got there nonetheless. The restaurant is open air and right on the river. We were able to enjoy some wonderful Thai food including crab sushi, fried prawns & fruit salad and a spicy shrimp salad. They aren't kidding when they say spicy either. It was probably the hottest thing I've ever had. It was a nice night out. When we got back to the apartment, the babysitter had the place all cleaned up and had even got our laundry out of the dryer and hung it up. She also told us that she rubbed Austin's back to get him to go to sleep. She was wonderful! After she left, we went to check on the kids and saw the funniest thing. Austin was in his 18 month footed pajamas that he carries around as his "blanket". He couldn't even straighten out his legs from being so crammed in there. Mike and I had a good laugh thinking about what the babysitter must have thought as she crammed him in the pajamas. She probably thought it was time for us to get him some new pj's! Anyway, after taking a picture we changed him back into his normal pajamas and headed to bed.

Shopping in Bangkok

October 18th--Today, we would experience the two extremes of shopping in Bangkok. We headed out this morning for the Chatuchak Market, the huge weekend market in Bangkok. We tried to get there before it got too hot, but I don't think that there is any good time to avoid the heat and humidity. This market is by far the biggest outdoor market we have seen along the way. It was endless stalls combined together and there was everything from souvenirs to food to clothing. It is such an experience on your senses, both smell and sight. We actually enjoyed walking around because unlike in China, we were not bothered at all while shopping. No one pressured us into buying anything. It was nice to walk away from the market with a headband and dress for Abby for under $5.00. Now, I told her she better wear the dress before we wash it because it might fall apart after one wash, but she was happy with her new dress. After we left the market, we were going to let the kids play at the playground by the market, but it was covered in water from the rain so we headed back to the apartment. We went swimming for a little while this afternoon before the usual Bangkok afternoon rain came rolling in. So, we then just hung out for a couple of hours before deciding to go to Siam Paragon. Siam Paragon is 5 story, high tech shopping mall...very impressive and better than any shopping mall we have ever seen in the States. The ground floor has a huge food hall. It was here that Mike and I got to enjoy all the street vendor food, but safely. We had grilled bananas, crispy pancakes, chicken satay, and a traditional Thai sweet. We enjoyed all of this food while sitting with the kids in McDonald's. We still aren't able to get them to be too adventurous in their food. After dinner, we made our way up the escalators passing all the shops to the top floor where the movie theater and bowling alley is located. We were going bowling. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a wonderful time. It doesn't matter where you are in the world...bowling is still all the same!

Took by a Tuk-Tuk

October 17th--Today was our day to get out and do the major things that Bangkok has to offer. We left the apartment and caught a taxi to take us to Central Pier. Either the taxi driver didn't know where Central Pier was or he didn't understand us because he didn't drop us off at the pier. It is so hot and humid in Bangkok right now that when we get lost, it is hard to concentrate on how to get to where we need to go. Luckily though, the taxi didn't drop us off very far from the pier. Our plan was to see Bangkok's Riverside sites. So, we started by hopping on the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat that makes many stops along the river. As we approached our stop, on the left, we saw the Wat Arun, The Temple of Dawn. It was a beautiful temple to see from the river. We got of at Tha Tien to go visit Wat Po. We made the short walk to Wat Po, but not without having our smellers seriously tested. I'm pretty sure I've never smelt anything worse than walking through the market filled with fishy stuff. I say fishy stuff because I don't know what all the stuff was...I didn't stop long enough. But, we quickly escaped the smell and were standing at the Wat Po. Wat in Thai means Temple. The Wat Po is also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. We pretty much went straight to see this enormous Buddha measuring more than 140 feet long. The statue is brick, covered with layers of plaster and gold leaf. The feet are inlaid with mother of pearl. From the Wat Po, we started our walk to the Grand Palace which was only a block away (although a very long block). However, it was a very hot and humid walk to say the least. When we arrived at one of the entrances to the Grand Palace that was for Thai citizens only, we were greeted by a guy that clearly looked like he worked at the palace. He informed us that the palace was only open from 2-4 today and it was about 11:30 at this time. I immediately walked away to stand in the shade to try to comprehend all of this while Mike spoke with this guy. Mike then came over to me and showed me on a map a couple of other temples we could visit until the Grand Palace opened. The guy had a tuk tuk driver waiting to take us to these places and then bring us back. We were told it would only be 20 Bhat (less than $1) for all of this, and we didn't have to pay until we arrived back at the Grand Palace. So, we thought why not...and we climbed into the tuk tuk. The first thing out of Mike's mouth was "I feel like this is a scam, but can't figure out how yet." We were first taken to Wat Intrarawiharn. This is a temple with a giant Buddha standing over 100 feet tall. The lady driver told us to take our time and that she would be waiting for us. Before going inside the temple, we got some drinks and chips to tide us over since it was lunch time. When we got out of the Wat Intrarawiharn, the tuk tuk driver was waiting for us. We climbed into tuk tuk and she told us that she had to go to the toilet. Behind the tuk tuk was a man sitting at a table. He started talking to us...asking us where we were from, etc. He quickly informed us that it was National Gas Holiday today and that tuk tuk rides are so cheap because they get free gas. I was the only one talking to this man at this point, asking him all kinds of questions. As we pulled away, Mike said "Now I remember what the scam is and it's this thing with the free gas." The driver pulled a couple of blocks away before pulling over and telling us she was going to take us shopping. She was telling us all kinds of stuff like "I get free gas" and "just for 5 minutes". When we told her to take us to the Golden Mount Temple (which is where we were told she would take us ), she told us it didn't open until 1:00 and it was 12:30. Mike kept saying "No, no shopping. Two kids, no shopping." She started driving again, very frustrated and talking on her cell phone. She only drove a couple of more blocks before pulling over at a temple and saying "Golden Mount. I'll wait for you here." When we got out of the tuk tuk, we immediately knew we weren't at the Golden Mount and turned around to see our tuk tuk driver speed off. We walked around for a minute just trying to figure out where we were before finally finding a group of Police officers. They were able to point out on our map where we were. Luckily we were not too far from the Grand Palace, so we stood at the curb to hail a cab. Once inside the cab, we came to the conclusion that the Grand Palace was probably open and was never closed today. When we arrived back at the Grand Palace, it was as open as it could be. We were a little angry that at this point in our travels we fell for this scam, but at the end of the day, we got to ride in a tuk tuk for free, see another Wat and we didn't fall for the shopping scam. What they do around here is get you in their tuk tuks, drive you around for a while to see a couple of temples before taking you to a shopping area that is outside of town. The driver goes into the shop to get their gas card and then leaves you at the area. Unfortunately, I'm sure a lot of tourist fall for it. Anyway, back at the Grand Palace...we get our tickets to enter and go inside. The Grand Palace houses not only the royal residence and throne halls, but also a number of government offices. We were first directed to the Wat Phra Kaew, Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It was spectacular to go inside this temple and see a beautiful emerald Buddha way up top. It was definitely not the size of the Buddha's we had seen in the past, but was impressive nonetheless by it's color. This temple is one of the most revered by Thai people. We left the temple cloisters and moved into the grounds of the Grand Palace. If it weren't for the golden rooftops, we would think we were in Italy. The buildings have a Western look to them with columns. We stopped off for some ice cream before exiting the Grand Palace. We hailed a taxi and got in. The taxi driver was trying to charge us 200 Baht and Mike just kept saying "Meter" until finally he started the meter. Halfway through our taxi ride back to the apartment, Mike asked to see the map. At this point, we felt like everyone was out to scam us so he wanted to make sure that we weren't going in circles, but the driver took us directly to the apartment and it cost us much less than 200 Baht. When we got back to the apartment, we went swimming and then ate dinner again poolside. Even though we got scammed (which in the end makes for a good story), we had a great day in Bangkok.

and the world's our oyster!

October 16th--We didn't have a set agenda for the day so after eating breakfast downstairs, we got dressed and headed out. We really wanted to just get adjusted to the area and walk around. So, we walked to the subway stop that is closest to our apartment. On the way, we saw many food vendors, clothes being sewn and flowers being washed all on the streets of Bangkok. Apparently a lot of the life of Bangkok happens on the streets. We got to the subway station and went two stops to Siam. From here, we saw more of the street action as we made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe. This is our 20th Hard Rock Cafe to visit since leaving the States and the best by far. The minute we walked in two waitresses were very attentive to the kids. They brought them temporary tattoos and the two women, Tippy and Tooly, immediately sat down and started putting them on the kids. We got all kinds of fun, free kids stuff while there along with getting to take pictures up on the music stage. The world was definitely our oyster at this Hard Rock. After leaving the Hard Rock, the rain started blowing in so we quickly headed back to our apartment. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting, watching the Disney Channel and then swimming after the rain passed. The pool here is very nice with a bar/food area. By the time we were finished up swimming, it was time for dinner so we ordered dinner out by the pool. It was a fun evening of just hanging out outside. There is also a glassed in game room right by the pool where the kids played and watched TV until it was time for bed.

One night in Bangkok...

October 15th--We all woke up this morning finally feeling back to normal and rested. This was a good thing since we had to get all our stuff reorganized among the 4 suitcases in order to head to the airport. We left the YMCA without a minute to spare...we checked out right at noon and caught the 12:10 Airport Express shuttle bus to Kowloon station. When we arrived at the train station, we were thrilled to find out that we could actually check-in for our flight and check our luggage as well. It was nice to get rid of the luggage here since we still had to take the 30 minute train ride to the airport. We got to the airport and went through security and immigrations fairly quickly. So, we found the Cathay Pacific lounge and were able to hang out in there until our flight. It was great because we could help ourselves to all kinds of fruit, food and drinks which were really good for us at this point. Our flight left at 3:50 for Bangkok. Once again, our plane was very nice. We are getting really spoiled to these big planes with TVs and meals. Our flight was about 2 1/2 hours and we arrived in Bangkok about 5:30 (1 hour time difference). We went through immigration, got our luggage and got in a taxi. The taxi ride was very interesting to say the least. We never feared for our life, but we are lucky we didn't kill each other during our ride. First of all, when the driver popped open the trunk, there was a huge tank (like a large gas tank) inside the trunk. We immediatly knew that all 4 of our suitcases were not going to fit in there. Mike and I just gave each other that "uh oh" look. The driver put our big suitcases in there sitting straight up and then used a bungee cord to hold the lid from flopping open, because it certainly wasn't closing. Our other 2 suitcases rode in the passenger seat while the 4 of us piled in the backseat of the taxi. It was an hour long drive with most of it in some pretty heavy traffic. Of course it was hot and humid and we were all tired from a day of travel. We were so happy to arrive at the Marriot Apartments and were greeted with some much needed lemonade. Our apartment here is really nice...it's 2 bedrooms, but the big thing is there are televisions in all bedrooms with the Disney Channel. The kids are loving it! Since it was after 7pm (8pm to our bodies), we settled in and then ordered pizza for dinner before heading to bed.

Back in Hong Kong

October 14th--Well, after a night's sleep on the train, we all woke up around 7:00 a.m. Unfortunately, that left us about 3 1/2 hours left until our train arrived at Shenzhen. The kids slept great and were feeling great. Mike and I were still not up to par at all. We had horrible headaches and being confined in a sleeper compartment did not help the situation, but we gladly arrived and quickly got off the train. We arrived about an hour later than expected so it was about 11:30 when we got off the train. It took us again about an hour to go through Immigrations in order to enter into Hong Kong. We then got on the 45 minute Subway ride back to the YMCA. We were thrilled to know that our room was ready. All we could think about was getting into the family suite, cranking the air conditioner down and resting. By the time all of this took place, it was about 2:00 so we decided to just go to the lunch buffet in the YMCA. We only had 30 minutes before it closed, but that was long enough for us to eat a light lunch trying to recover from the bug. After lunch, we headed back to the room and rested for several hours. I then took Abby to swim for about an hour while Mike and Austin did the laundry. It was about 6:00 when we all finished up so we got ready for bed. We then all piled in our bed and finished off the evening watching The Wizard of Oz.

Yangshuo bug

October 13th--Well....Mike and I woke up this morning sick with some type of stomach bug. Neither one of us slept well with stomach cramps, but luckily Mike was feeling better than me. So, he took the kids to eat breakfast and came back with some medicine for me. I debated taking it for a while because I didn't know what it was. It was a small bottle full of what looks like BB pellets. I was supposed to take half of the bottle with room temperature water. I finally decided to take it because I felt that bad. Come to find out it was an all-natural herbal medicine. Mike and the kids returned with news that we could have one of the 2 rooms for the day. So, after resting for a little while, we moved all our stuff in the room the kids had stayed in. Their room had 2 twin size beds in it so we all piled into the beds and watched a movie. It helped that it was raining outside so that the kids weren't wanting to go outside to play. By early afternoon, Abby was starting to not feel so good. At about 4:00, Austin asked to go eat so Mike took him to do so. While they were gone, it became official that Abby was sick. So, at this point everyone was taking the natural herb medicine. Around 6:30 and still feeling bad, we all packed up and headed to the front desk to check out. There was a driver there waiting to take us to the train station. So, off we went with him...only to be disappointed that we were getting in a rickety old taxi. Our vehicle the other day from the train station had been a nice, air conditioned van. This had to be the absolute worst taxi ride we've had so far and it certainly didn't help that we were sick. First of all, it was dark and raining outside. Second of all, the driver didn't take the tollway /expressway, he instead took the curvy, dark back roads. Third of all and most important, he drove like a crazy person. He passed cars to our right as a car was coming towards us while driving really fast. I said many prayers and thought to myself "Why am I afraid to fly? I'm more safe in a plane than I am in this taxi right now". Mike says it took 276 Lord's Prayers to get from Yangshuo to the train station. Once we arrived at the train station, the kids were sound asleep in the back seat and the taxi driver wanted to drop us off across the street (in the rain) so that he didn't have to pay to pull into the train station. Mike and him were having a language barrier about getting him to pull up to the station until finally Mike yelled "I DON'T CARE. JUST DRIVE." And he did so...almost to the point that he drove up on the curb of the train station. We quickly got out of the taxi and headed into the station where we found a really nice waiting area. We made spots for the kids to lay down on the benches and they both went back to sleep. It took all Mike and I had not to fall asleep too at this point. Luckily, we made it to 9:00 when we were able to board our train. The kids immediately crawled into their beds and went back to sleep. Mike and I were not far behind them before we were fast asleep too.