January 14, 2008 Hot as hell

Well, I’m not seeming to have much luck doing this blog on a daily basis. Have really just been spending most of out time doing “stuff” with the kids. They’re back to school tomorrow (Tuesday the 15^th) – hooray – and then we’ll start being tourists again. When you’re this old you forget how tiring kids can be. By the way, we have yahoo up and running again – hooray!! Sure makes life easier for writing. As I said it's hot as hell these days. It's supposed to cool down to 30C in the next couple of days......... The mornings have very heavy fog - enough to affect flights coming and going. It's really bizarre.

January 8 – Happy Birthday Steve. Called but he wasn’t home so spoke to Jenn and Isabelle. Called Steve the next day and had a nice quick talk with him. Spent this day trying to get some paper work done. Pricing of everything seems on the rise so thought I’d better get our flight booked to Siem Reap, Cambodia as well as our hotel. We’d stopped in at a tourist agency but their pricing seemed a bit expensive so decided to do it myself on the net. Booked our flight no problem - that is until I was rechecking the e-voucher. Seems I’d booked the flight for January 20^th and it should have been February 20^th. I almost had a stroke right on the spot. Got on the phone to Bangkok Air and no problem. They walked me through their e-services and I was just able to go in and change the date myself. Is it that easy in Canada? Next, went into a hotel sight for Siem Reap. This is where you stay in order to see Angkor Wat (where a Lara Croft (Anjolina Jolie) movie was made). The trees and vegetation have overgrown the temples – it’s truly amazing to see. We were here about 5 years ago but it will be neat to see again. The town has grown a lot and there were some sights that we didn’t see and some we’d love to see again. We’ll stay at the Borei Angkor for 3 nights before our cruise down the Mekong to Vietnam.

January 9 – Tom and I decided to venture out and do some walking in the Sukhumvit area where we live but a few train stops away. I had 2 maps with me and still we got lost. Could hardly believe where we ended up. We dug out our trusty compass and were able to get where we planned to go. We’d heard about a place to stay in Bangkok called House on the Pond. It looked lovely on line and didn’t seem to far from Jennifer. We had her check it out but she said no way. It’s in the middle of nowhere and forever away. We thought perhaps she was being a little hasty in her judgement but guess what – she was right on!! Then we were making our way around streets (left and right, left and right) and this is when we got lost. Nothing is square here. Put a few steps on the pedometer that day!! Ended up at Bann Kamthieng which is a 19^th century traditional Thai home that has been moved from Chiang Mai and now is somewhat like a museum. It was a lovely spot to enjoy some quiet by a cool fan.

January 10 – Decided we’d all go to the Children’s Discovery Museum. I sort of thought it would be along the same lines as The Science Centre in Toronto but boy was I wrong. The museum is very well done but certainly geared to very young children. Also not everything had English translation and not everything worked. The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves though. There was an extra Disney feature featured as well so we paid the extra to be sure we saw it all. Tom and I are finding we’re getting in some places free or at reduced cost because we’re “seniors” – bonus!! Jenn and family stopped at a street side restaurant for lunch that really wasn’t to our liking so we just wandered around. Seems we were in the middle of aquarium place. Anything and everything you’d ever need or want

and then some.

January 11 – Took the kids to see “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. Obviously not a “great” movie but the kids sure laughed. There was a huge “Lego land” demo going on in the mall so spent some time there with the kids too. Jennifer had her last midterm exam so we delivered the kids to Gone and then went out to our new found Italian restaurant for supper. We weren’t really hungry so Tom had a pizza and I just had a Caesar salad and some bruschetta. It was very tasty. I had a couple of glasses of red wine but I should have stuck to beer. We’ve decided it’s simply not enjoyable to drink wine in this heat.

January 13 – Guess we didn’t do anything on the 12^th……Went to school in the morning with Jennifer to help her clean up her classroom – get rid of all the Christmas decorations etc. She had her lesson planning to do so we decided to cook dinner here. Made a lovely pork tenderloin stuffed with mushrooms, onions and apple in an oyster sauce. Had baked potatoes with sour cream and a home made Caesar salad that can’t be beat. Even bought a package mix of gravy. It was a lovely meal. I must admit I do get tired of vegetables and rice…..Tom thought the pork tasted different but I tell you the potatoes sure did. They really had a sweetness to them – it was good but weird. You know how invariably something goes wrong, Well I wish we could have gotten a picture. Tom was slicing up the meat for each plate and I was trying to finish up the kids food but getting them some yoghurt. Well, I dropped the bowl from about chest height and there was yoghurt everywhere. I knew it was falling but there was nothing I could do and the first place it seemed to bounce to from the floor was both of my eyes. Now I couldn’t even see. I was absolutely covered. Quickly recovered and supper went on. What a mess though……….

January 14 – Spoke on the webcam with Steve, Jenn and Isabelle
this morning. What a nice surprise. Today was the last day of holidays and we all went to Lumphini Park – one of the biggest green areas in Bangkok. Unfortunately the write up in Lonely Planet didn’t mention that Mondays are not good days to see anything. There was nothing going on, no vendors, no exercisers, no people. This park should be a model for some of the “participaction” sights we have in Canada. The equipment was amazing. There was a whole section for weight training. Plus, there was constant patrol by bicycle police ready to fine anyone for smoking or drinking alcohol (2000 Baht). There were loads of garbage cans and no “homeless” people. We just wandered around and looked at the monitor lizards that live in the man made lake. The lake is huge and there are peddle boats to rent if you’d like. The kids played on the toys so they were happy. Jenn and family took a taxi home and Tom and I walked around the streets and then took the train home. Have had an easy evening and watched “Amazing Race”. Tomorrow the plan is to just relax, hang out at the pool and read.

Happy Birthday wishes to Faye, Isabelle and Gary…………….. Friends from home (Lee and Harvey) will be arriving in a few days. Looking forward to meeting up with them for a visit before they head off on their 30 day Indochine Experience.