Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Hello Thailand

Max did such a great job recording this in his journal I'm just going to let him tell this story.

Max, "Hello Tieland! (most spelling I correct, but I just had to leave this one) Yesterday we flew from Nepal to Tieland.  We are now in an apartment in Bangkok.  We left the house and went to a snake farm.  We got there just in time for the 11:00 show.  They started off with a King Cobra.  It was so much bigger than I thought.  It was a bit longer than 9 ft and an inch thick.  The biggest one was 15 feet!  Amazing.  Then he showed us tons of other snakes like 2 Siamese cobras, a venomous yellow banded one, and one that bit the man.  We then saw snakes and learned all about snakes.  We learned about the anatomy of a snake by seeing it on a dissected snake.  We learned about how to treat a snake bite.  We learned mythology about snakes and saw an albino snake.  I was very informing."


We hold a Burmese python.  Burma is Thailand's neighbor.


No problem pilling all the people you want in a tuk tuk or a taxi.  Hooray.

"Then we went to the famous mall, the great Siam Paragon.  We got on a little tuk tuk, that was fun.  As we got close and the first thing we saw and smelled was a Krispy Kream Doughnuts!  We got some Thai skewers and rice.  For dessert we had cinnamon rolls, waffle, and a smoothie.  It was good.  Then we wandered around the mall until we found a bookstore and we read.  Then we got doughnuts and went home, but the day isn't over yet."
I have never seen a kid so excited about doughnuts.  As we approached the mall he casually commented, "I smell doughnuts."  ok.  He often dreams of doughnuts. But then the traffic parted  revealing the glow of the round neon Krispy Kreme sign.  Elation!  He would not have been any happier if we would have been entering Disneyland.  He summed it up when he exclaimed, "It's been so long since I've seen a Krispy Kremes, it just makes me happy!"
So much beautiful food at Siam Paragon.  Especially refreshing for us was that all the food was clean.    Even the whole chickens, head and feet included, cooked and ready to serve were clean.  Wow!  Some of the groceries were outrageous though, like cherries and strawberries for $40 a quart.  Aaron even saw a single cantaloupe for $35.  Even more than the food I think my kids were elated to devour English books.  We have kindles for each child, (a travel necessity) and they can get many different books from our library on their kindles, but there is something special about the texture of real pages turning through little hands.  Something captivating about walking up to a shelf and being able to peruse, pull one off the shelf and soak in the pictures.  They could have stayed for hours.  

"We had quiet time until we went to the night show.  We got there and went to the small fake town and I played an instrument.  It was fun.  Then we had a buffet dinner.  Then we saw the first little outdoor show.  My favorite part was when they did a fighting demonstration.  They fought and one man beat them all.  It was cool.  Then the real show began.  Some of my favorite parts was when they demonstrated the punishments the Buddhist believe in like if you robbed from temples you were reborn as a monstrous demon and if you drank alcohol you were boiled in a big pot and made to drink boiled oil. (Alcohol was a big no-no).  They had good actors in some parts it was really fun.  Like when the giant dragon came on and in the heaven scene the best thing you could get was a chance to float around with no legs.  It was a good day."     May 21, 2016






We took one more day to visit some of the local markets and temples.  Above is a flower market.  Everywhere we go the kids draw a lot of attention.  This is fine, except for the sweet Thai ladies cannot stop themselves from reaching out and touching Jonah.  He hates this!  He snarls back at them, "Don't touch me!"  Which they think is hilarious and of course they reach out to touch him some more.  Many times the end result is tears.
Always neat to see monks walking down the street.
All the images below come from the Wat Pho complex.




These Phra Chedi Rai (spired structures above) hold the ashes of members of the Royal Family.  The larger ones hold relics of Buddha.  Below are statues of Chinese guardians and instructors.




A few of the statues and temples of Bangkok.  That Buddha is over 150 feet long!



We had a great time in Bangkok even if it was so hot that the poor boys were completely drenched with sweat.  We drank lots of water, stood in front of every fan we could find, and lingered in the few buildings with AC.  It was super easy, and super cheap to grab a tuk tuk or a taxi to get to every where we needed to go.  So far Thailand is leaving a good impression.

Jonah, "Everything about me is awesome!"  5/21/2016

1 comment:

  1. Hi! This is melissa. I love this last pic of Jonah! I think that must be a tired look you see often in your travels! So glad you got to do this!

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