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Published: July 19th 2009
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Tan's House
Tan, Gregg, Sydney and Graham July 1-12 - Thailand - Wow, the trip of a life time!!! In at least 3 installments...
Bangkok - July 2 and 4
Day 1 - We left Timaru on July 1st. Our flight from Christchurch left at 1:30 heading for Bangkok via Sydney. In the Sydney airport we ran into a group from Timaru Boy's High School and a friend of Syd's, Ryan Ammar. They were headed to London also via Bangkok. We had smooth sailing straight through to our destination and arrived with our bags on time. Tan, my Thai friend from Williamsburg, Virginia, met us at the airport with her daughter, Dia, a former school mate of Graham's. Tan's brother, Pui, a Bangkok resident also met us at the airport and helped us get back to Tan's house where we were staying. Tan, Dia, Pui, and the whole family, we amazingly hospitable! Tan's Bangkok house is gorgeous. She gave us the master bedroom/bathroom which is far bigger and more beautiful than anything I have seen for a long time. The house was big but very comfortable, and by the time we left, there were a lot of us staying there! Day One, exhausted, we headed for
bed around 2am.
Day 2 - Shopping, Bangkok Style😊! We woke up pretty early but had a leisurely start. We toured the neighborhood, had a unique Thai breakfast of lots of fruits - very intersting and yummy - sticky rice, meat on a stick, and almond bisquits. At 10am our driver for the week, Web, came to take us into town. It was a search for someone to make a ball gown for Syd. MBK was a massive market type shopping mall were we spent hours in search of dresses. It was all a bit overwhelming for us. You want to buy it all but have to refrain. After lots of looking we found a dress maker. She couldn't make Syd's dress from her friend, Robin's, sketch, but she did have a dress style that Syd was happy with her making. I got the same dress in green while Syd ordered blue. Tan did her fair share of damage as well. The boys checked out eletronics, PSP games, memory sticks, but were really quite bored with the shopping. Gregg managed to find a vendor willing to tailor a silk and wool suit to his measurements, and a few shirts
as well. We left for lunch and were driven to Peninsula Plaza, a beautiful up, up scale shopping center. There was no bargaining here - this was a top dollar place! After a delicious food court Thai lunch, the boys were thrilled to find the top floor was a luxury car showroom - Lamborginis, Ferreris, BWMs, Mercedes, Mazarattis, etc... more shopping. I must say, it is so painfully hot and humid in Bangkok and cruising in and out of air conditioned malls was the way to go on our first day. Dia and Gam (Dia's cousin), were less than thrilled when we had to walk outside. But we did have to experience the street vendors and outdoor markets as well! At one outdoor market there was a large screen broadcasting Michael Jackson's last live concert, timely as he had died earlier in the week and somewhat surreal to be watching on the big outdoor screen in Bangkok. A tribute to the amazing power of music all around the world. Last stop was at the Erawan Outdoor Temple, our first of many, where Tan taught us how to light insense and give thanks, Buddhist style.
Headed back to Tan's house for
MBK Market
The group shot with Tan, Pui, Ngag, Gam, Dia and the Shivers some pool time and R&R before dinner. I don't think I had been in an outdoor pool since we were in Austrailia last Oct - It felt amazing! We spent 3 hours at the pool.
Dinner was a real treat. We went to a local place, no tourists, called The Waterfall. It was a lovely outdoor place over water - lots of variety, a live band, indoor seating, Karoke. Tan and I had a wonderful catch up. Avery slept, the older kids caught up. Dia was a great equalizer for our kids. She's Graham's age, and good friend, but so mature and smart that Syd loved her company, and Dia has apparently always wanted a younger sibling, so Avery was a great little brother to have for the 10 days.
Tan and Pui left at 11:30 to head back to the airport to pick up another American friend, Greg Homayoon, from New York who was arriving at midnight.
Day 3 - Ayutthaya, former capital of Thailand - This was such an action packed day of Thai culture that it deserves its own posting.
Ah, but we did get back in time to take a quick late night shopping spree
Taking a break.
Shopping is exhausting! at the night market. Again very overwhelming for most of us - so much to buy, so little time, so much haggling! We also had a traditional Thai dinner at Tan's neighborhood place, again a huge restaurant with lots of service. The boys got a kick out of our "Waiteress", a "Lady Boy" .... we would see many more in Phuket. Tan's mum, cousins (Gam's parents) joined us for dinner as well. All of Tan's family are so lovely, as were all the Thai people that we met along our travels. It's a great culture of very happy people.
Day 4 - Okay, it was another amazing day, but it did not seem like an American holiday! It was one of our favorite full on days. We had lots of ground to cover so we were off early, 8am. Our first stop was on the outskirts of Bangkok-Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo. First stop was the crocodile wrestling show. These guys did horrifying things like stick their heads in the crocs mouths, picked them up, allowed the audience to pelt the crocs with money, wrestled the crocs, and to my horror, invited the audience down to have their
Ferreri
Graham and Avery pick out a car. photos taken with the crocs! No way were my kids going to do this...uh, I caved, see the photos, and they lived to tell the tale. Wow, only in Thailand and this was the first of many things I would never have thought I would allow. The kids stroked tigers, played with monkeys, fed baby tigers, and we saw some really frightening handicapped crocs. There are over 60,000 crocodiles at this place! Well, we blew the whole morning there - it was fascinating!
Off to see some temples! Grand Palace, next stop...with only a short period of time, Tan hired an English speaking guide and gave her a time limit in which to show us all the important things - Wat Phra Kaeo, the bot with the Emerald Buddha, the Ramakien Murals, ...lots of photos. We grabbed a takeaway lunch at La Bon Pain, not a fast choice, so we ate in the van enroute to Vimanmek Palace, the world's largest teak building and the residence of Rama V in the early 1900s. Moving on, off to see the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. I was desperate to get out on the canals of Bangkok. Greg H. and our family,
took an hour tour on a Long Boat through the Bangkok canals. This was fascinating to see the poverty and some wealth and some temples all along the water front. The water looked very polluted but there were lots of kids, and giant lizards, swimming in it. We grabbed a few cold beers and sodas from a boat vendor - very refreshing!
Phew, and we still had to head back to MBK for our final fitting for our dresses and Gregg's suit and shirts! Grabbed a couple of donuts and some coffee at Dunkin Donuts and we were ready to go. This all took much longer than expected. Syd found all sorts of stuff, including 2 pairs of shoes, the boys found shirts, Gregg socks, and we left with our dresses and suit. Dinner was at MacDonalds - ugh - but the boys were happy and as Tan said, "it's different in Thailand, you must try!" Back to Tan's at 10pm exhausted!
Bangkok was great. You could spend a lot longer there, but we were on a limited tour and Tan wanted us to see some of the country as well. So that's it, we pretty much did Bangkok
in two days! Off to Kanchanaburi...!
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Uncle Steve
non-member comment
Awesome!
I loved Thailand when I visited. At least you got 2 days, I only had one. This could be my place of retirement!