Downtown Fun

Today, my son and I ventured to downtown Bangkok, while my husband got to spend his entire day at day 3 of his three-day training for school. I was to meet a friend there. She and I met a few months ago in the U.S. through a mutual friend. Since she is half Thai, was born and raised in Bangkok, and spent her school years in international schools, our mutual friend thought she could give me some pointers about living here. She comes back annually to visit her family and friends, and we both happened to be free today, which also happens to be her second-to-last day here. Good timing (and lucky me)! 

You'd think I'd be wary about going "out there" again, what with our trouble with taxis the last time we ventured out, but 1) I wanted to see my friend, and 2) well, when Bangkok calls, you just go. It did take me 30 minutes to get a taxi, though, and the only reason I did was because the guard at the gate of our neighborhood took me and my son on his motorcycle out to the street and got us a taxi within 5 seconds.

Once we got inside the taxi, I immediately received notice of what I'm not allowed to do while in the taxi:

My son asked me what the third picture from the left meant, and I had to lie and tell him that it meant "no wrestling" in the taxi. He thought it meant "no diaper-changing." I liked his answer better.

So since we've been here, this has been the seat belt situation for my son while riding in a taxi (glad we didn't spend the time and money lugging his booster seat across the world because it would've been useless here). The seat belt is required only for the front seats here, so sometimes a taxi wouldn't have any seat belts in the back at all. Or if there is a seat belt, there wouldn't be a buckle. I was pleasantly surprised when the taxi that took us home had BOTH (on my son's side, but not on my side).

[Side note: Holding up the camera and taking this picture with my left hand while my right arm provided me with the illusion of safety was no small feat either.]

The traffic was horrible as usual, even on a Sunday (and yet, there is absolutely no road rage as is so common in the U.S., at least where we lived).

Saw some interesting things en route. A tree decorated with lanterns at a yoga place:

A very tall double-deck bus, which isn't so unusual in and of itself...

Until you see that the lower level has a couch!

A taxi full of people.

Downtown Bangkok is just like the song says....Lots of traffic and traffic noises and lots of tall buildings. You definitely forget all your troubles and worries while there because you're so distracted and overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds. And I'm sure the lights would be brighter there than here if we had gone during nighttime. There are even pretty flowers.

This is where my friend and I met. It is one of several upscale, giant mega-malls (no, that's not redundant, trust me) here that has everything, including a huge supermarket on the top floor. There are guards in spiffy uniforms at the door that open the door for you and salute you as you walk through.

There are at least five stories to the mall. These pics are just from right inside the entrance.

A cute tea shop.

A view of half of the mall from the elevator:

So of course, since we're at a mall, we had to do a little shopping (which my friend had already done in the month that she's been here). I bought these cute shorts that my friend actually was wearing. When I admired them, she told me she got them at the mall for half off. The sale was still going on, so I got a pair too! My friend got another pair in orange.

(She and I actually wear the same size, but she's tall, skinny, and lanky, and I'm...not. And hers was loose on her! Made me feel downright stumpy!)

After we worked up an appetite shopping, we headed upstairs for some lunch at this place called Greyhound Cafe.

We ordered some cool drinks. My son ordered the Pink Cooler, which is a smoothie made with strawberries, pineapples, and watermelon, and I had the Thai tea grenada. Yummy!!

Lunch was so delicious too! My friend and I shared this interesting dish that came with square rice noodle (looked like wonton wraps, but much thinner and softer) and two sauces (one spicy) that you put on the rice noodle. You're supposed to then roll up the rice noodle to eat. The flavors came together so perfectly. It was amazing.

After lunch, we promised our boys some ice cream. As we were going up the escalator, my friend's son fell on the escalator and scratched up his shins. A mall employee immediately appeared out of nowhere and took us to the mall nurse office, where the nurse spent about 20 minutes tending to my friend's little boy!! Inside the office, there were even beds and a nursing room! Neither one of knew such a thing existed. What don't they have at this mall?

The rest of our afternoon was spent at this place called Funarium. We seriously need something like this in the U.S. I know many American parents would kill to have a place like this. There's a play area for the kids to entertain themselves while the parents can choose to get a massage on the side.

So there are the usual things like tall slides (bumpy and in-the-dark), climbing areas, and ball pits. There also is in-line skating, biking, zip lining, and rock wall climbing. My son had a blast trying everything (except the in-line skating). One hour was too short for the kids!

And the massage. OMG. For an hour, you can choose to have just a foot massage or a foot and shoulder massage. We both chose the latter. But it was way more than that! The woman worked on my head, neck, shoulders, arms, back, feet, and legs up to the knee!! And it was hard core! Sometimes the masseuse would dig her knuckles into my feet. At one point, she was pulling on my arms so much I thought they would come out of their sockets. AND then she pounded on my head and back, like she was punching me! Ouch!! Even my friend, who grew up here, was surprised. But I was so relaxed afterwards. I was prepared for the taxi ride home!

The taxi ride home was uneventful (so thankful to have my friend's Thai language skills to help me get a cab!). A nice way to end a fun and fabulous day for all before heading back to reality on Monday!

A Foodie's Paradise

In the week and a half that we've been here, we've had so many opportunities to try new and different foods. Everything that we've eaten so far has been so delicious. We've eaten street food a few times, and it's always lived up to our expectations.

The food here is usually super cheap, unless you are looking for a more western product or special item, such as organic. Cheese and wine can be very expensive. I was looking for them online and the cheeses I saw ranged from $30 to over $100 for a block. A friend told us that when he tried to make lasagne himself last year, all the ingredients totaled about $50. That is one expensive lasagne.

Otherwise, we've been able to have good-sized meals for $5 or less. The first time we ate street food, we bought two baggies of steamed rice, three cobs of corn, a dish of pork with pickled vegetables, and a dish of chicken with various vegetables, all for about $3. And everything was sooo good, flavorful, and fresh. It's almost cheaper to go out to eat than cook ourselves, and with the markets and restaurants being so close to our house, makes it way too easy to go out every night for dinner, so we haven't had much incentive so far to go grocery shopping.

Anyway, here are some pics for your viewing pleasure:

Dragon fruit.

 

Inside of a dragon fruit. It is very mild, with just enough sweetness to be refreshing. The texture is a mix between a pear and a kiwi.

Street food stands.

Villa Market, where many western products can be found. We found organic eggs here for $2!

Soy milk with basil seeds on the left. It's kind of like bubble tea, but there's no taste of basil. On the right is a yogurt drink that I've had as a little girl and in the U.S.

A friend took us to this place for lunch one day. The owner of the place, Mr. Ploy (phonetic) is super nice and friendly. When he saw my son and our friend's daughters, he immediately came out to play with them. We had fried rice, cashew chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and sweet and sour chicken, all delicious.

Love the little bottle.

The market where you can get all kinds of produce, where I've been dying to go. Notice the temple (wat) in the distance. Imagine grocery shopping with that as your backdrop? There's also a floating market near the temple, which we intend to explore in the very near future.

Fresh eggs of all colors, even pink! (Not sure what that's about)

Produce galore.

Not sure what these are, but their tops are similar to those on eggplants.

Bitter melon.

Bamboo.

Fruits.

Not sure what these are called, but I've had it as a girl. Maybe similar to a pear?

Rambutan. The one in the upper right corner is durian. Have heard that it has a smell to it....

Longan (dragon eye fruit), papayas, and dragon fruit.

Another food stand.

Freshly baked bread from the Italian restaurant for $2.

So, for veggies, we bought long string beans, something that looked like bok choy, and something that looked like Spinach for less than $2 total. For fruits, we bought a bunch of dragon eyes, a bunch of bananas, and an unidentified fruit that the vendor let us try for $3 total.

Of course, there are chains here too, like McDonald's and Pizza Hut. And all these places, as well as the big grocery stores, deliver. So convenient. Yesterday, I got on the website of one of the bigger grocery stores here, called Testco Lotus, and made a huge order of groceries to be delivered today. It took me a long time to get through everything. Even though the website was supposed to be in English, the names and descriptions of each product were still in Thai! To see them in English, I had to click on each individual product. And some products had pages and pages! Pretty tedious. I got many things that we took for granted in the U.S., but hard to find here: peanut butter, mozarella cheese, spaghetti, Philadelphia cream cheese (!). Also got a bunch of Thai stuff. I'm ready to delve into the world of Thai cooking!! Wish me luck!

Afternoon from Hell

So after he got home from his first day of work this afternoon, my husband announced that the three of us were going to a scooter shop immediately to rent a scooter. After that, things went steadily downhill. After almost five harrowing hours, we are finally home - hungry and tired - and my son is in bed (albeit way past his bed time and with an empty stomach).

Prior to this past weekend, we hadn't been considering getting a scooter. After experiencing the crazy traffic, we decided we weren't ready for a scooter. Instead, on Saturday, we went to a Costco-like place and bought a bicycle for each of us (we took the little one home with us, but the two big ones are being delivered tomorrow). Then, on Sunday, a friend dropped by with a three-wheel scooter for us to try out. After talking and thinking about it, we decided that my husband would get a two-wheel scooter to make it easier and faster to go grocery shopping and school with our son in the mornings.

Well, I didn't think that was going to happen for at least a few more days because we were getting our bikes soon and had been fine relying on taxis this past week. So when my husband made that announcement so suddenly this afternoon, I was skeptical. What was the urgency? Also, it was already past 4 p.m., and he was told it would be a 20-minute drive to the scooter shop (which, to me, meant at least 45 minutes since it was rush hour). But he insisted because he got hooked up with this particular scooter shop through a teacher at school (husband of the high-school assistant principal) and could get a good deal on a rental.

The arrangement was for my husband to call the scooter guy once we were in a taxi so scooter guy could tell the taxi driver how to get to his shop. So we called a taxi and the guy started driving us while talking with scooter guy. After a while, scooter guy asked for my husband to get back on the phone. Why? Well, because he had to tell him that the taxi driver was refusing to take us and that we had try to get another taxi. Should've known right then and there that nothing good would follow. But the taxi driver hailed another driver who agreed to take us, so off we went.

On the way there, I reminded Husband that it was already almost 5:30 and that we hadn't had dinner. He thought we could rent the scooter, have dinner somewhere, and then get a taxi to go home. I told him I thought that was risky. We may have more drivers refuse to take us home since we already had one driver who refused to take us there, and it wasn't even dark yet! I figured that by the time we were to leave the shop, it would be dark (the sun sets fairly early here, for some reason - usually by 7 p.m., it's pretty dark out), making it less appealing for a long ride out of town.

The ride was very long. What was supposedly a 20-minute ride took about an hour and 180 baht (approximately $6, which is pretty pricey for a taxi ride here; we usually spend $3-$4 on a 15-20 minute ride). We went through many interesting-looking areas (wish I had brought my camera), was bumper to bumper in traffic most of the time, and ended up somewhere we've never been or seen before, far away from home. It all felt very remote and strange (not that where we live now doesn't still feel a little strange to us). The "scooter shop" turned out to be a restaurant run by an Australian guy and his Thai wife who also sell/rent scooters on the side (they also rent out three rooms above the restaurant, as well as own a bakery down the street, but that's another story).

The wife showed my husband the scooters they had, he tried one on for size, and then we did the paperwork and set a time for delivery (9 p.m. tonight, to be exact!!). The entire thing took about 20 minutes, tops. Meanwhile, our poor little guy was tired and hungry. I thought about just having dinner at scooter guy's restaurant, but by this time, the sun had set, and dark, thick clouds were rolling in, so I was desperate to get home.

We stood in front of the "scooter shop"/restaurant for a few minutes, but no taxi was to be found, so we walked to the main street that intersected the side street we were on. After 10 minutes or so, we finally got a taxi. But the minute we told him where we needed to go, he shook his head and took off. The second taxi driver that stopped didn't even roll down his window, and just took off after stopping for a second. A few more taxis that were empty drove by without even stopping. 20 minutes passed. I thought I was going to start crying, but I didn't want to scare our son, so I held it together.

Finally, another taxi stopped. My husband told him where we needed to go. He hesitated, then shook his head. My husband asked him if he would at least go halfway, we pleaded and begged, and the guy seemed to waver. My husband then turned to me and said, "I'm going to offer him 200 baht for the ride if he agrees." Which isn't even that much, if you think about it, since our ride there was already almost 200 baht. I shook my head no, saying that if we started bargaining, he would sense our desperation. I continued to plead and beg, and I really thought the guy was about to agree to take us. Then my husband opened his mouth and offered him the 200 baht. That was the end of everything. The guy immediately shook his head and doubled the price, and my husband started to negotiate with him some more. I finally stopped him because the driver could see how desperate we were and was not going to budge. And as desperate as I was, I wasn't going to get taken advantage of and pay such an unreasonable amount. Stupid, maybe, but I still had my principles if nothing else.

After the driver took off, I made us go back to scooter guy to see if he could help. He seemed to know everyone and everything there. The minute we told him our problem, he walked out of his restaurant to the middle of the street, without even looking, stopped all traffic, got a cab to stop, said something to the driver, and got us a taxi home. I was so grateful I could've kissed him, but we were in the middle of the street and cars were honking at us. It wasn't a good time.

Then, as if all this wasn't enough, on the way home, around 8 p.m., scooter guy called and said the scooter had been delivered (it was agreed that it would be delivered to the entrance of our development, and my husband would have to pick it up there himself), an hour early!! It had been left with the guards at the gate of the entrance. Great, I thought. With our luck, it would be stolen by the time we got to it, and we would've gone through a nightmarish afternoon and paid a chunk of change for nothing.

Luckily, everything turned out fine in the end, and the scooter is picked up and safe and sound here. All I have to say is that this had better be one hell of a scooter that can fly us places or something because no vehicle is worth what we went through this afternoon!

Stories, Advice, and Tidbits

Having been here for almost a week now, we have experienced a few interesting things and heard many, many stories so far that I thought I'd share.

***

Ever since we arrived, we've been trying to get a cell phone, but something always comes up to keep us from getting a cell phone. Thursday morning, we finally had a chunk of time before we were to move out of our hotel at 11:00 a.m., so we decided to get a phone. There is a mall (called The Mall...very original, I know) within walking distance of the hotel that apparently has everything in it, and everyone had already been there, so we decided to go there to get our phones. We were advised  to take the shortcut and that we would see the shortcut because there is a sign that says "Mall."

So we get a simple map from the hotel front desk and are on our way. We walk, walk, and walk, past a stinky canal, over a bridge with very steep stairs, broken and narrow sidewalks, and brave the traffic, but see no sign for The Mall. Finally, my husband stops and asks a Thai woman in his broken Thai. There is a lot of gesturing for a few minutes. Finally, she probably decides we are too dumb to find it and proceeds to walk us at least half a mile to The Mall and only leaves us when we are right in front of it. Luckily, we know how to say "thank you" in Thai, which we do profusely.

By this time, it is 9:45 in the morning (we started out around 9:00), but we notice that the entrance to The Mall is still locked (with a padlock, no less). My husband thinks it will open at 10, at which point he thinks we can just go in and quickly get a cheap phone, then return to the hotel to pack and move. By 10:10, I'm thinking the mall won't open until at least 10:30. We find a person who can speak English, and he confirms that it's open at 10:30. So we leave without having gotten a phone. 

On the way back, we find the shortcut. It takes us only about 10-15 minutes of walking, but it requires taking our lives into our own hands. We walk on a ramp with traffic coming behind us, no sidewalk, and a six-year-old who is still confused about which way to look when crossing the street back in the U.S., let alone here. There are motorcycles zipping by us. I'm sure we were on the ramp for only a few minutes, but it feels like an eternity. I've never prayed so much in my life. The dirty sidewalk of the very busy main street never looked so good when we finally get there.

***

When we first arrived, we were advised to get on the house hunting thing because we would have lots of competition due to all the other teachers arriving and also looking for housing, so we decided on Tuesday, our second day here, to do exactly that. It was apparently the first day of the rainy season, according to my friend Amy in the States (I had no clue, not having watched television or read the newspapers in over a month). 

When we initially went out with the realtor in the afternoon, it was fine, but by the time we were looking at our third house, it was POURING. By the time we were to return to the hotel, there were several inches of water on the streets (up side to this - everyone drove considerably slower and stopped weaving in and out of traffic!). Our realtor drove us to a taxi station, which is basically a roadside stand that has covering, hoping to have one of the drivers get us back to the hotel. They all refused to even budge from their chairs. The realtor had to drive us around for several minutes around many blocks until she found a taxi driver that was willing to work in the rain.

Of course, it hasn't rained since then, now that we know how to time our outings to prevent the same situation from happening again. Overall, the weather here has been pretty pleasant. It hasn't been very hot at all, and the humidity has been tolerable. I'd dare say that, in the five days we've been here, I've sweated less than any day in D.C. in the week before we left. And while it's been overcast every day, it hasn't felt gloomy or dark. When the sun actually came out yesterday (Friday), it almost felt too bright!

***

Speaking of taxis, they are everywhere here. There are the traditional taxis, taxis that look similar to tuk tuks, and water taxis. A teacher told us that she was advised to be sure to keep her mouth closed if she ever takes a water taxi because of the typhoid. My husband calls them "typhoid taxis."

***

There are three animals here that, should you ever be bitten by any of them, require an immediate trip to the hospital and treatment for rabies. The three animals are bats, monkeys, and soi (meaning street) dogs (but my brain always thinks "vegetarian hot dogs" whenever someone mentions them). [Luckily, there are no bats or monkeys where we are. 

There also are king cobras lurking about that we should watch out for.

***

My son has been spending time at the school day care with other teachers' children while we run our errands. One of the teachers was talking to the day care provider about giving her toddler healthier foods. The day care provider responded, "I know about healthy, I have fried chicken for the children."

***

Health care here is very good and very affordable. The teachers at the school, as well as their children, are provided health insurance, but the spouses are required to pay for theirs. There is a teacher whose husband decided not buy insurance because health care is so cheap. He was in an accident once that hurt him pretty badly - he was scraped up everywhere and possibly broke some bones. So he went to the hospital, where he made a bet with his doctor that his bones weren't broken. In an effort to prove him wrong, the doctor performed every test under the sun. The guy basically received a very thorough physical exam. The total cost for all those tests? About $25. And in the end, the doctor owed this guy $10 because he lost the bet! Only in Thailand!

***

According to a former colleague who's married to a Thai woman, children of ex-pats, especially the boys, get very spoiled here from all the attention they get from the locals. A teacher friend who's been here for a year confirmed this. His little girls are like celebrities in this area, where farang people (foreigners) are not as common outside the school. Going down the street, people will point and giggle. People here will just come up to the farang children and touch them on the cheeks and arms. They will also grab the children for photos without asking! My son, being half Asian, has only had his cheeks stroked and touched a couple of times, for which I'm grateful, although he's been offered things such as food and toys. He's not as "exotic-looking" as the blond, blue-eyed children. 

The locals don't usually give me a second glance because I look like "one of them." It is only when they realize I'm with my husband, who is Caucasian, that they do a double-take. Then I can feel their eyes following us, checking us out, trying to figure out what our story is. I haven't experienced this type of scrutiny since the mid-1990s!

Our House!

We moved all our stuff into our house today! Cost us $40 to hire the hotel van to transport everything. I had previously mentioned that we had looked at three places in this particular development called Perfect Place. One of them had a bath tub and an oven, which are very rare in Thai houses, but we ultimately decided to go with this house. There are also other neighborhoods that are more urban and have more of a night life, but being parents, we're not getting much of a night life anyway, so we settled for family-friendly suburbia.

Our landlady is super nice and helped us set up internet connection, hired a person to do the yard for us, and bought us some food!

So without further ado, here are the pics of our house:

From the side.

Front.

Kitchen.

Kitchen.

Living Room.

Living Room.

Downstairs bathroom with shower.

Dining room.

Master bedroom.

Master bedroom, to the right of the bed.

Master bath.

Shower in master bath.

Bedroom #2.

Bedroom #3.

We also went with a friend on a tour of the markets, but that will have to wait. Good night!