Everyday things

For the last little while, I've been collecting pictures of some of the people and things we see everyday. Some good, some frustrating, but most... our favorites! Here is a little glimpse of our everyday life in Bangkok. (disclaimer: none of these pictures are great because I hate asking people to pose for pictures, especially people I can't communicate with. Plus, I hate to delay their work, so these pictures were taken quickly so I can still enjoy smiles from these wonderful people I see everyday!)

We have a lady we LOVE to buy dinner from. Her stand is right outside our building, we pass her every single day, and even before we started buying from her, she always greeted us with a big smile! We can buy enough grilled chicken, som tam, and sticky rice to feed the family for about $3. I was chasing the kids at this point, so unfortunately you can't even see her face! But check out that fish, I haven't tried it yet, but when I see people eating it, it looks delicious!

These are two of the people that work the front desk of our building. When we first moved in, they would always rush out to give the kids treats every time we came in or out. The treats ran out, but my kids were now conditioned to expect it, of course! So, once I got Jack and Janie trained to only get one a day, I started supplying the sweets to the desk, so they can go in once a day and get a treat and visit our wonderful staff. It was a good day when I discovered it's much more fun to get one treat from these folks then a handful at home, so this way we are both happy. Less treats for the kids, and less treats in the house. Nice!

My mom asked a while ago if we had a washer and dryer. I told her I would post a picture. This one is taken from our kitchen, looking into the "yard" (which we think it's hilarious that they call it that!) Yes, this is our yard. We have a washer and dryer, a small bathroom and the maid's quarters, which we use for storage (I can't imagine making anyone live in there, but many people do!). Very exciting, I know.

One of my favorite examples of sidewalks. I walked this every single day for months. NOT easy to navigate with a stroller, especially when the foodshops are busy and the vendors are all out. The good news is, this particular stretch has been repaired and is now one of the best. One down, 1000's to go.

This picture is one of the worst, but you have to be out at just the right time of day to catch this, and the fact that they are moving doesn't help. There is construction everywhere in this city, so there are loads of workers that are trucked to the construction sights in the morning and away in the evening in normal pick-ups. They PACK these people into the back of the trucks, standing room only. This picture doesn't come close to the amounts we've seen. Jack loves to see this, and he stands and waves, and always gets lots of smiles and waves right back.

Just an example of how some things are just smaller. I've mentioned before that when I shop, I feel like I'm in the Children's museum market because things are just small. No Costco or Sam's club here. We thought this UPS truck was hilarious.

This is the tuk-tuk that runs from our building to a few locations nearby. We take it very regularly to the train, Emporium, and occasionally, the hospital. The kids love it. Jack's always disappointed when it's not there waiting for us and he has to walk, but he's sure getting to be a tough kid because of it!

Here's the stop where we catch truck taxis home sometimes. We walk when we can, but since Jack's been out of school for the summer, and we aren't using the double stroller much, he gets pretty tired walking everywhere! So, it's always a treat when we can just ride home quickly. It's nice to have these available because there is always one there, they know exactly where to go, and the kids love them. The drivers all know us now and yell out the name of our apartment complex when we walk by, even if we aren't using one that day.

Here's one a little closer up. Safe? Nope. Convenient? Yes.

This day, the driver asked if Jack wanted to sit up front with him. Jack thought that was awesome. I sat in the back with Jane and watched as Jack asked about every little thing in the cab, and I'm sure the driver was telling him all about it. They were chatting it up the whole time, and Jack was loving it.
This is a woman I've bought som tam from on our soi. She was so sweet and knew that I couldn't have it too spicy. She washed the bowl out for me and everything (they make it all in the same wooden bowl, and sometimes the spice is left from other batches, so even when they don't add more peppers, it's still SO hot!). Thais always act so surprised when they see me eating or buying som tam. I will definitely miss how readily available it is here. I'm going to have to get me one of those bowls!

We see seamstresses on the street everyday. On this particular day, we were walking to a music store and Jack decided to swing on his "web" which just happened to be the backpack Jeff was wearing. It broke the strap. Moments later, we walked by this woman, so we asked if she could fix it. She quickly changed her thread and in about 5 minutes and 20 baht later, our backpack was as good as new.

This woman is one of my all time favorites. She always greets us with a HUGE smile and calls Janie by name, as well as "doll" and "lovely". I passed her one day and stopped to buy some pomelo and chat, and a young girl that sells pomelo down the street a ways was visiting with her. She informed me that she was her daughter. Now, they are both my favorite, and I look forward to seeing them everyday.

We pass shops like this all over the streets, especially along the main street, Sukhumvit, that we walk along everyday. I don't really buy clothes, but it's fun to look some days, and the vendors are always smiley and sweet with the children (what's new, right?).

A perfect example of a total disregard for safety. People are just much more relaxed here with this sort of thing. Maybe because they know they will rarely get pulled over, and if they do, they can bribe the officer (and I've actually seen this done, believe it or not). It makes me sick to even post this picture, or even remember this, because I didn't want him up there in the first place, but Jack took the driver up on his offer before I realized what was happening. Not my finest "mom moment", for sure.

Moving on...

This guard was terribly busy this day, so I didn't want to keep him, but he's my favorite. Especially before Jack got into school, we'd have an outing every morning. He was there every day when we would go to the train. He always stops and talks with Jane, helps Jack through the gate, and lets them play with his metal detector wand. Jane loves to make it beep. I find myself a little disappointed when he's not there some days because he is always so fun to see with Jane.

This is one of the playgrounds at our park. A little dangerous? Oh, yes. This was just one of the things that was in ill repair. We did visit there just the other day though, and the bridge had been repaired, so hopefully that's a good sign that things are on the mend. The reason I classify this as an "everyday thing" is simply because this is a perfect example of how things are not always kept up to any kind of safety standard. It's a little scary sometimes.

Home sweet home. It's called Baan Jamjuree ("Baan" is home, "Jamjuree" is a kind of tree). We are on the 15th floor, have a beautiful view, love the staff, and if you haven't noticed this yet, we love the city life.

When we first got here, I went out everyday with both the children, so we had the double stroller. There are very few elevators (only two I can think of in the whole skytrain system), and never any elevators going down, and sometimes not any going up. Anyway, I got pretty tough, pretty fast, hauling this thing up and down huge flights of stairs with Janie inside. Jack has gotten pretty good at the routine and I commonly hear him chanting, "I think I can, I think I can", when he's especially tired. Now, I mostly just take out our single stroller and don't get as many sympathy stares, which is nice. This place wasn't built for strollers or wheelchairs.

One more of my favorite vendors. I pass this fruit stand several times a day, and I just love this man. He always looks like he's on vacation, reading the paper in a floral shirt and his sun hat, and always wearing a smile. He always laughs at Jack who can't seem to leave his bungee cords alone that are attached to his stand. They are never the same when we leave, and Jack's always greasy. He gets a big kick out of this. I buy my pineapple from him more than anyone else. The other day, Jack talked me into trying watermelon again, which I haven't been impressed with in the past, and it was the best I've had in Bangkok. Delicious. He also sells mango, papaya, and guava.

If you haven't realized yet, people are just nice here. Just on Friday, after I had bought some fruit, I went a few steps only to find a plant stand rolling by. I stopped to look. After a minute, I looked to see what the kids were doing. Jack has plopped down on a stool at a food shop to start on his watermelon, and Jane had been pulled aside and entertained in the stroller by some other vendors. I bought my plants, collected the children and we all said goodbye. I look down and Jane's got a egg/crepe kind of dessert wrapped up just right and she's munching away. I look back to say thanks and the girl just smiles and tells me, "mai ben rai" (nevermind). So sweet, and a heck of a marketing strategy, I must say. My kids loved that, so we'll be buying from her again.

Good and bad, we love Bangkok! I only wish we could have gotten pictures of all our favorite people, places, and things, but this is a good start. Maybe we'll have to make this post into a series.

The main thing that strikes me about these people I've shared with you is how happy they are. They don't have glamorous jobs, clothing, cars, and I'm sure they don't have a fancy place to live. They work very hard, and in some cases, every day. I'm impressed with how simple their lives seem (of course, this is my perspective), yet they are so much happier than a lot of the people I've met here who have amazing homes, drivers, maids, nannies, and loads of money.

The quote, "what e'er thou art, act well thy part" is constantly running through my head as I see these sweet street vendors. These folks do what they do, and do it well. They are happy because they choose to be. They are a daily example to me that I can choose if I want to be happy too. And I am.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

Yes, you read that right, Mother's Day! Living in Thailand has many perks, but one of the biggest is that they have all these wonderful, random, Thai holidays that gets Jeff off work. For some of my most diligent readers, you might recall us celebrating Father's Day in December on the King's birthday (December 5th, also my baby brother's birthday!). August 12th just happens to be the Queen's birthday, hence the mother's day celebration! You may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with anything? Good point. And I will answer that question momentarily. But before we begin, here are a few pictures from our week.

We had a great week. We spent a day at Ocean World, had the Becks over to play, discovered a fantastic play group at the British club, and got to introduce the Beck family to some of our favorite Thai food we get off the street.

The traffic was terrible on our way home from the play group, so we hopped out of the taxi in the middle of the street, which is always a little scary with two children, and walked to the train. Janie was feeling like such a big girl because we didn't have the stroller, so she got to sit on a bench and even found a seat on the train when we got on.

I feel moments of success when my kids are content while I am trying to get ready in the morning, especially when they are playing together! This morning they both sat on the bed and looked at books together, enjoying each other's company. I loved it.

Another day this week, I was trying to keep Janie entertained while I got ready in my bathroom. I sat her on my bed with a book to look at. I asked her to find the violin. She was so proud of herself when she pointed it out. I proceeded to ask her to find the shoe, fish, etc. I then asked her to find the pretty girl (it was a book of princesses but she doesn't know what a princess is) and waited for the triumphant look I'd seen with the other challenges. She looked right at me and pointed to herself, "pretty girl". And she certainly is.

We met up with Jeff, Pink, and Luck for lunch on Friday at Fuji. We ate delicious Japanese food, visited with two of the sweetest people ever, and Jack got to open lots of chopsticks! After lunch, Jack had some money he had earned that he wanted to spend at 7-11. It's amazing how far 15 baht will go when Pink is the one that takes him in to spend it. He came out with a chocolate milk, ice cream cone, and 16 baht. She must be magic. Thanks, Pink and Luck!

Back to Mother's Day. Really, it just happened to be Mother's Day this weekend, all I knew was that it was the last 3 day weekend before Jack started school and I was ready to get away from the city with just the four of us. And, after a particularly rough week with Jack, it was even better timing than I initially realized.

We didn't want to travel far, so we took a recommendation from one of Jeff's coworkers to try Cha-am, a city just 30 minutes away from Hua-hin where we went with the Strate and Selway families in March. Although we didn't know anyone who had actually been there, we were hopeful it would be as wonderful as everyone said it was on travel websites. We were not disappointed.

We wanted to get out of the city, but after checking the prices of traveling, we opted to travel by bus/van instead of the typical expat mode of hiring a driver. We were feeling adventurous, and confident that we didn't need all the farang frills to have a good time. So, we showed up on this back soi at 5:30 am to catch a van down to Cha-am. No English was spoken here, so Jeff was able to show off his amazing Thai skills and after a while, we were directed to a van, hoping it was the right one. One lesson we learned: buying 4 tickets for 2 adults and 2 children doesn't mean you will get 4 seats. We were feeling lucky to get 3! But, we weren't complaining. The kids did fantastic, we were plenty comfortable, we got there faster than we expected and it was 1/4 the price of hiring a driver!

So, this is the most official looking place associated with the van business. We pay money, he gives us a ticket that says something on it, we hop on. Pretty simple.

Jeff found Janie some rice to eat for breakfast and she was certainly content with it!

We were so surprised to actually reach Cha-am in only two hours (the minimum time we had read) that we hardly knew what to do once we got there! We hopped out, unloaded our stuff and when a guy in a motorcycle taxi driver asked me where we were going, I told him the name of the hotel, expecting him to call us a taxi. People are just nice like that here. He promptly hopped on his bike and motioned for us to hop on! They loaded up our stuff (luckily we had very little) and the four of us on the back of two motorbikes, and off we went!

This is Jeff and Janie with their driver, although at this point, Jeff had already put the stroller down (I'm not kidding). Janie was loving it. She was putting out her arms like she was flying and Jack kept looking up at me saying, "this is SO cool, mom, isn't it?". We thought the whole thing was hilarious.

We got to Methavalai hotel at 8:30am, but check-in wasn't until noon. But I thought I would talk to them anyway, just to see if we could take care of some things now and possibly leave our things with them while we hit the beach. I'm sure it was because I was so prepared (I didn't have our passports or the receipt from the online agency we used), that they checked us in immediately instead of waiting 3 1/2 more hours. I couldn't believe it. They were fantastic, even welcoming us with drinks!

Here's the view from our room.

After family nap time, we set out for the beach! Jack was loving every minute in the sand. What kid wouldn't? I got these great swim outfits a few weeks ago and I think they are the greatest! I felt so much better with their skin covered. I've seen too many "baked" foreigners here and have lost my taste for the sun. With these swimsuits, sunblock, and visiting the beach later in the day, we didn't need an ounce of aloe. Yay!

Jane was funny. She didn't even want to take her shoes off at first! It took her a while to warm up to it, but she never loved it like she did last time we were at the beach. Although, she was plenty happy if we were right there with her!

I think our favorite part of this awesome hotel was the pool. We loved that we could walk across the street from the beach, shower off, and hop in one of the several pools to swim even more (but much cleaner!). They had an awesome kids area with slides, fountains, bubbles, etc. This is Janie during her first photo shoot when we got to the pool the first day. She makes friends everywhere! She's a trooper. I think her picture is on cell phones all over Thailand.

This would be photo shoot #2 with this father and son we played with for a while that afternoon. This little boy shared his blow-up wave runner which my kids adored. He was a really good sport!

Janie is an animal in the water. She had whole crowds watching her in the other pool. She would go down this big slide and plop right into the water without a fuss. She would bob herself up and down in the kiddy pool, and she and Jack loved that they could look at Jeff under water. We LOVE swimming together, it's a fun time for all of us.

Janie at breakfast the next morning. She's so messy and I didn't have a bib, so we just took her shirt off. I don't think that would be very acceptable in the U.S., but here people just smiled and laughed, I'm sure commenting on how cute and chubby she is. In this picture, she's dipping her banana bread in her orange juice. Yum.

Because we were so disoriented when we arrived in Cha-am the first day, we forgot to ask anyone about how to get back to the city! So, we decided that we'd better find a way to get home on Monday. We set out to find a bus station we had heard about, and decided we'd cover more ground on bikes. We rented these bikes for 20 baht/hour (about 70 cents) and rode up and down the beach road. I thought the kids would be nervous, but Jack was loving not having to walk, and Janie was so comfortable, we were constantly reminding her to "hang on!".

Just one of the sights while we were riding. Jeff and I kept asking each other, "how do you choose between these 5 food shops that are right next door to each other and they are all roasting huge pigs?" The question was so overwhelming, we just couldn't choose and kept on riding!


Another one of Jeff and Janie. The seat they had for her was great. We wished there would have been some way to strap her in though, but she certainly didn't mind. She was throwing her arms out to the side, playing with things in her lap, moving her legs all around. I was amazed. Riding the bikes along the beach was definitely a highlight for me. It was a simple, low key way to see a lot of this little town, and the kids loved it. I can't remember the last time I rode a bike. Very memorable.


In fact, getting around by bike was so perfect, we rented them again that night to get to the night market! It was at this little market that I fell in love with Cha-am. It was the smallest little market I have seen yet. Mostly food stands, with a few for clothing and odds and ends. We got some dinner here (chicken on a stick, fried chicken, pineapple, pomelo, som tam, noodles, and a fruity drink) and looked around a bit. This is the stand where Jeff got my som tam (papaya salad), one of my favorite Thai dishes. Currently, I eat this almost every day.

This is pretty much the rest of the market. Very small. It was so quaint, the people were so sweet (although that's not unusual), and we saw only two other farangs there the whole time! I just kept thinking, "I love this market, I love this town, we have to come back here!".

We tried to enforce a family nap time each day we were there, but this was hard to do when Jack really just wanted to swim, swim, swim! Before Jeff and Janie had even woken up (I didn't get to sleep because Jack was too excited to let me), Jack was ready to go! This is his Peter Pan pose.

Janie was having a little snack before we hit the pool. Her favorite, sticky rice. People always laugh at her because she eats it right out of the bag like this (kind of like you eat a hamburger with the wrapper around the bottom), but it is a GREAT on the go snack!

Jane, for some reason, always loved to lay on the pavement outside our room. What a nut.

We ate yummy Thai food all weekend, besides this meal, of course, where Jeff and the kids ordered fish and chips. But, it was fun to try out different food shops along the beach. We didn't eat at any places that had a front door (or even 4 walls), that's for sure.

The kids and Jeff being silly on the beach. I love these kinds of pictures. I really don't know how Jeff comes up with new faces every time!

I'm not quite sure what it is, but whenever I have been to the beach, it is always sad for me to go. I think it might be because I never quite know when I will see it again. I know it won't be long, but you know, I fell in love with this little town, so it was sad to say, "see you later... hopefully".

I really loved Cha-am. I loved how small it was, how few tourists we saw, how the vendors on the beach stopped to chat, how we could walk or ride a bike anywhere. I loved going to the sandy beach, hopping in the pool, then cleaning off in the hotel room. I loved eating at food shops everyday. I loved taking family naps. I loved playing with my kids all day, three days in a row. I loved the time together, just the four of us. It was my favorite Mother's Day weekend ever.

And in case you were wondering, we even found a way to get home. We hopped on a bus, Monday afternoon, and four hours later (they told us three, unfortunately), we arrived at a bus station in Bangkok. We busted out the DVD player on the way home to entertain the kiddos, although I think Jeff was enjoying Dumbo too, what do you think? On top of watching this, Jeff told Jack every story about his childhood he could think of, and Janie and I exhausted my vocal repertoire. I felt pretty bad for all those people seated near us trying to sleep!

It started raining about 1 hour into the ride, and about 2 hours later, it started to leak through the roof onto the seat. We couldn't help but laugh. The bus was full, so we couldn't move, but honestly, we've had worse. A few of you will remember our trip to Sattahip with Anutra (our Thai teacher). The four of us and three others crammed into a tiny pickup (the front) and drove for 3 hours. We think of that every time something seems a little uncomfortable. We always feel like everything is roomier and softer when we remember that experience. Funny how that works.

We pretty much had no idea where we were once we got off the bus, but luckily, the taxi driver we found knew how to take us home! So, by about 7pm, we were home, and loving it. We spent the taxi ride home evaluating what we would do again and where to go on our next adventure. Now that we've experienced other ways to travel, and Jeff continues to blow me away with his Thai skills, I'm feeling like we can take on anything! Any suggestions?

Don't pet the crocodiles

I had a productive week. I made a book on ancestry.com of Janie's first two years (thanks to Aunt Marilyn), had two different nights of guests for dinner (one of which I actually cooked for, which isn't too common since we moved here), 4 play dates, and I finally jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon.

The book was a lot of fun to put together. I really hate scrap booking, so my poor children were bound to not have anything put together for years and years when I finally would make myself do it. But, thanks to a deadline on Ancestry.com, I got something put together in just a few days. It pretty much took over our lives, and of course I thought of several things I wish I'd done the day after I submitted it, but it's done! And, thanks to this project, I'm excited about looking into digital scrap booking which seems much more up my alley then what everyone else does.

We had the Beck family over Monday night for dinner and Family Home Evening, although we weren't very diligent in actually doing a lesson, unfortunately. But, it was a great time and the boys played wonderfully together. I couldn't get them to look, or even talk to me really until we were together later in the week, so this was still in the "who the heck is this woman?" stage.

Tuesday was a playdate with Scarlet and Heather. They came over and played all over the house making special mixtures with all the soap they could find and torn paper. They called it "Konicain". I have no idea where they got that. Heather and I had an awesome conversation about her experience with Donny Osmond, who is one of the only reasons people in London would ever know where Utah is. She interviewed him (she was a journalist prior to coming to Bangkok) and had so many nice things to say about his book and family. Having also read his book, it was fun to discuss what a great family the Osmonds are! She was hilarious when she told me about Donny flashing "his smile" and her completely losing it, not knowing what to even say after already visiting for 30 minutes. She felt like a teenager all over again! I couldn't stop laughing.

Wednesday I took the children out to Nichada to meet up with some women for lunch. I dropped the kids off at my friend Jeanette's home and had a nice, quiet lunch without having to stop visiting to go for several walks, change diapers, clean up spilled food, etc. It was nice for a change, although it was also nice to pick the kids up after and hear about the fun they had without me! This is the kids with the Young Women who came over to play with them. I think they were watching Dumbo.

Wednesday night we had a neighbor (yes, an actual neighbor!) come over for dinner. Belinda lives just two floors up and is from New Jersey. We've visited several times at the pool or lobby, so when I learned that her husband was going out of town, I thought we needed to have her over. She is due with their first baby in just 4 weeks, and she is pretty nervous about it, so it was fun to get to chat with her about different things. No pictures of Belinda, but hopefully, we'll have her over again, with her husband next time!

Thursday, we met up with Catherine Beck and the kids at the Emporium play area. It was crazy that day, but they all seemed to have a great time! We planned our trip to the zoo for the next day and got to visit quite a bit while we played.

This is Janie while we were waiting to meet up with Catherine before the zoo. We were waiting by the park, so we stopped in and bought the kids some chocolate milk, always a favorite treat! Jane and I love these beautiful blooms!

This is the best we could do of a picture of the big kids! We met up with Mary Jane and her two little ones and had a great morning together. From the left: Jane (think her hat needs some adjusting or what?), Narissa, Jack, Lucas, and Isaac. The babies, Alena and Madeline, were in the strollers. We ate at KFC at the zoo and one of the smiling employees came over and said, "we like her (pointing to Jane) because she's chubby". I thought that was hilarious. Janie is losing her baby fat, so I love to hear that she is still at least a little bit chubby!

Some unique signs I saw at the zoo. A little gory, I thought, but luckily, the kids didn't really get it.
The scary thing with this one is that it wasn't there just 2 months ago, so does that mean they had an accident? Look closely. Very interesting.

Janie doing her crocodile impersonation. She's so cute. She sat there and watched these crocs the entire time Jack was dragging me around to read every sign about them he could find. I love that he wants to know so much about everything. As far as I can remember, I didn't care about that stuff at this age. Yet another wonderful thing he's inherited from his father.

From the first time I met Catherine, one week ago, she has been wanting to jump right into the culture, food, and shopping that Thailand is so famous for. I love her enthusiasm. It's pretty unique, from my experience with expat women, so it is quite refreshing! So, we spent Saturday morning, just the two of us, hitting the weekend market. It was GREAT! I didn't buy much, but it was still fun to look and help Catherine find some things she needed. It was a good dose of shopping for her first week. This is us with our "3 Baht" popsicles. This was just our first serving. We are such nerds, I know.

Saturday night, we rewarded Jack for reaching another landmark in his reading book by all going to a movie. We've never gone to a movie all together before, so this was Janie's first. Very exciting! We saw Ratatouille and thought it was fun, although it was a little intense in parts, and the sounds was REALLY loud at times. But, Janie sat through the whole thing and ate popcorn and a sucker. She was loving it.

As far as Harry Potter goes, I've been wanting to get started on the series for years. With all the hype for the 7th book, I just decided it was time. So, I decided I'd just start with book number 7 and see if I really liked it enough to read the rest. Just kidding. Actually, the kids took really long naps one day and I was dying for something to read, so I got out the book I'd bought at a used book sale months back and started into it. It is actually the 3rd book, and Jeff can't believe I am doing them out of order, but I was desperate! Needless to say, I loved it. I found myself letting the kids take super long baths, just so I could keep reading! THIS is why I don't let myself start novels very often. It's been so long since I read fiction (besides The Wealthy Barber which I don't think counts, and the fun books I read out loud with Jack), that I forgot what it was like to completely lose myself inside another world. It was awesome. I loved every page and can't wait to read more. Anyone want to mail me their copies?

Between the book for Jane and Harry Potter, Jeff's pretty much felt like he doesn't have a wife this week. Thank goodness for an understanding husband. On second thought, maybe you shouldn't mail me your copies.