Two nights in Bangkok

As our migrant journey continues, we have spent the last two nights in Bangkok, Thailand. We arrived on Saturday night at about 11:30 pm and were picked up at the airport and taken to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Silom. I got this hotel for us on Priceline and it is the same hotel that I got on Priceline 3 years ago. The lobby has been remodeled so much, however, that I wasn't sure that we were in the same place.

We were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived but by Sunday morning we were ready to face the day. We slept in a bit, had some breakfasts (noodles for Kaley of course!) while the rest of us stuck to more traditional western breakfast foods. After breakfast the mamma's went looknig for a mac machine since the best exchange rates for currency seem to come out of those. With being on the move so much it's hard to keep the currency straight in our heads, let alone in our pockets. I tried to pay several people in Bangkok with money leftover from Macau. They didn't want it.

Our main purpose in making a quick stop in Bangkok was to visit with some friends. There was a possibility that Cherie Clark, the woman who first arranged our adoptions in 1991, would be in Bangkok while we were traveling. That didn't work out, but we did get to spend the entire day with our friend Melita and her family. Melita is an Australian woman who worked in Cambodia for some years and is now working in Bangkok. She has two Cambodian born kids. Her son Vitha is 17 years old and her daughter Saray is 10. We first met them when we did the housebuilding in 2005 and have kept in touch a bit via email over the past three years. We also got to meet Melita's future husband, a delightful and talented Thai man by the name of Aud. (I hope I spelled that right!)

It was close to noon by the time we got moving and our first stop was the MBK Mall, a huge multistory facility. We spent some time in the food court watching Saray eat noodle soup with fish balls and sticky rice with coconut cream and durian fruit. If you have ever smelled durian fruit, you know what a "treat" it was smelling her dessert while she was eating it! Not so much! It must be an acquired taste. Vitha and his friend Philip (whose mother works for Melita) took the girls shopping in the mall a bit. Philip speaks Thai, of course, so he was very helpful. Vitha was wishing Brennan was along, however, so that they could widen their shopping experience from shoe stores to something a bit more interesting.

After a couple of hours in this big modern mall, we headed by taxi out to the huge weekend market on the outskirts of the city while Melita, Aud, and Saray went home for a little rest since Saray wasn't feeling too well. (It was a cold, not the durian fruit!) En route to the market our taxi driver, in traditional Bangkok style tried to divert us to a friend's jewelry shop. I explained with lots of hand gestures that we didn't want to buy jewelry that we wanted to go to the market to see unusual things. I had read in one of the guide books that there is a whole section that sells animals, including animals that should not be being sold like tiger cubs, crocodiles, monkeys, etc. I thought this would be an unusual site for the girls to see. Well the taxi driver said, "I don't know why you want to see monkeys. You want monkeys, I'll take you to the zoo." Maybe it would have been a good idea. But we stood firm and went off to the market.

It was by far the biggest market I have seen in SE Asia and seemed to go on for miles. We never did find the exotic animals and Melita said later that sometimes when there has been a raid they disappear for a month or so. We did find a section selling LOTS of puppies. Most were tiny little Paris Hilton style purse dogs. They looked healthy, pure bred, and many were in air conditioned stalls at the market so it wasn't so bad seeing them as I expected. There was shop after shop that sold doggy clothing and you saw lots of people walking around with newly purchased puppies. Vitha asked some prices for me and it seems that the going rate before negotiation is about $100. This is for yorkies, poodles, and all kinds of minis. We also spent some time looking at jewelry and watching Vitha and Philip eat some strange foods. The smells were phenomenal, but with our delicate western bellies we didn't chance trying the stuff.

I think the girls found it to be a little overhwelming since it was hot and very crowded. In relation to the markets in Cambodia, however, it wasn't that hot and about equally crowded. I'm not sure what the temperature was today, but I never got that "I am just going to melt into a puddle and die feeling." That will come later in Cambodia! Coming back from the market we used the subway which is cool, clean, and comfortable.

After a bit of a taxi misadventure (with more hand waving and attempts at communication) we met Melita and her family at one of her favorite traditional Thai restaurants called Ruen Urai. It is in an old restored teakwood house not too far from our hotel. Dinner was delicious. We had some fresh springrolls, fried spring rolls, Thai soups, a couple of types of pad thai, curries, and rice. Dessert included green tea ice cream and sa-ta-raw-berry ice cream. (It took us a while to figure out what the waiter was saying.... strawberry.) I decided to join Saray in trying the sticky rice with coconut cream but at this restaurant it came with mango instead of durian fruit, fortunately. It was delicious!

We had a wonderful time visiting with Melita and her family. Her years of living in Cambodia give her great insights into Cambodian people and the adoption legacy shared by our kids. She offered some good insights into meeting birthfamilies. Saray seemed to really enjoy spending some time with the Cambodian big girls and came out to dinner with her hair carefully placed in pony tails, just as Kaley's had been earlier that day. There is definitely a sense of connectedness that unites these Khmer born kids, even when they are growing up in places so far away. It was wonderful to see them together again and to spend some time catching up, even if only for a day.

Back at the hotel, Kaley, Deb & Marcy went downstairs to the spa for a massage which goes about $10 here. Me, I'm not big on people mushing me around like that. :-) This morning the ladies (Leanne, too) are going back for one more massage while I make a quick trip to Panthip Plaza. This is the big mall that sells all of the electronic stuff here in Bangkok. I also need to have some passport photos taken since my online Cambodian e-visa seems to have been swallowed up in a recent Cambodian contreversy where the online processing website was suddenly taken down. So I'll have to apply for a visa at the border which hopefully will go OK. I'll also be shopping for some good mosquito spray this morning since we'll have to start using that for the next leg of our journey.

At 1 pm we'll be leaving for the airport and a flight to Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh City. None of us have been back there since 1991 so I'm sure it will be shocking to see the change. In Saigon we'll be joined by Mike Konicek (Deb's hubby and Leanne's dad) and Julie & Hilary who are flying directly there. Once we're all there we'll load up into a van and get driven to the border with Cambodia. We'll get out of the van and literally walk across the border. Should be interesting... but interesting is good!

More to come when we're in Vietnam....

Hugs -

Lisa