Thailand - Part 1

 Welcome to Thailand!

Brian, Drew and I made it to my parents house early morning on December 31st.  Fortunately we were all able to get some sleep once we got there!  My parents had friends coming over to celebrate New Year's Eve with us.  I was glad that we had plans, because otherwise it would have been really difficult to stay awake until midnight.  As it turned out, Neil and Christine were extremely entertaining the lot of us stayed up until 3 am!

While the main firework show was at 12 am in Thailand, there really were fireworks all evening long.  It was quite the show!  The fireworks were really close to my parents' condo and it was a really neat showing.  Since they were so close, it was also really loud.  Everyone was pretty shocked that Drew slept through the party, but he did.  He was catching up on his much needed sleep!

View from my parents' balcony

Fireworks!

NYE Gang (post champagne)

 The next couple of days were laid back days.  We were taking it easy so we could get rested from the trip.  We went down to the pool and enjoyed the water.  Drew especially liked playing in the baby pool.

Baby pool at the condo - Drew's first baby pool visit

We also went to visit the Big Buddha.  This was fairly close to my parents' place.  While here, we realized that it was hot in Pattaya.  January is considered "winter" over there which means it's in the mid-high 80s F.  But Thailand is fairly close to the equator, and it felt much much warmer than the usual 86-88F.  I recommend not going in the summer. 

Around the big Buddha, there were other Buddhas as well.  There was one for each day of the week.  I learned that there are many many Buddhas.

At the bottom of Big Buddha

Monday Buddha

 

Happy Drew!  Lunch at Shenanigans (Irish Pub)

Brian enjoying his large beer at Hofbrau house.

On Thursday, my parents took us to Bangkok for a couple of nights.  Bangkok is about 1.5 hours away from Pattaya.  But as I learned while there, the time is irrelevent because every trip depends on traffic.  Once we arrived in town, we checked into our hotel room and then went and found lunch.  After that we went to the Grand Palace.  My mom had heard that it was nice to go through the Palace with a paid tour guide.  As soon as we got to the gate, she found a tour guide.  While Brian and I could only understand about every 7th word the guide said, my mom seemed to learn alot while we were there.  The Kings used to live at the Grand Palace, but now the place is typically only used for special events.  Also there is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  The Emerald Buddha is really made of jade.

After walking around the Palace, the tour guide told us he was taking us to see the Sleeping Buddha (there a lot of Buddha, so try to keep up).  So we set off following this old man out of the palace and into the streets of Bangkok.  He was on a mission.  We ended up walking through a very crowded street market and since we had Drew in a stroller I was getting a little aggitated at the situation.  Finally the guide stopped at a booth.  This was the point where we were to buy tickets from another man.  The tickets were for a boat because the Sleeping Buddha was across the river.  Apparently I was not the only one aggitated by the trek across town (it really was only 2 blocks), and we quickly said no way!  For one, I was not taking Drew on some random boat across a river and two, who knew what this shady tour guide was after!

It was also in the Grand Palace that we learned people liked to take Drew's picture.  I suppose it's because he's so pale, but it did not take long for this to get old.  I would try to step in front of Drew when I realized someone was trying to take his picture but it was super difficult.  We're pretty sure Drew's going to end up on the cover of some Thai magazine.

At the entrance in the Grand Palace

Emerald Bhudda

Sleeping Drew

Drew playing in the hotel closet - his favorite Bangkok activity.

The next day my dad had to visit the office, so Brian, Drew, my mom and I did some site-seeing without him.  We decided to go the Royal Barges Museum.  Perrin, my parents' driver, dropped us off near the museum (as close as he could get by driving).  The rest was up to us.  We turned down a little street that looked like a driveway, but was really a street.  Luckily there were signs to lead our way.  I was making mental notes along the way because I was a little worried we wouldn't be able to find our way back to the real street!  We walked down a street that was just wide enough for the stroller.  Turns out, this street was mainly for motorbikes.  We ended up meeting one coming the other way!  We were able to back up into an area to allow the bike to pass.  It was crazy!  We were talking past people's homes, their roosters and laundry all out in the yard.  But we made it!


The barges were pretty neat to see.  They were all very ornate and different.  We couldn't believe that they used to be warships!

Where we were dropped off for the museum.

Our trek from the main street to the museum.  Motorbikes were on this road!

After the barges, we headed to the Jim Thompson House.  Mr Thompson was an American who retired to Thailand and became a Thai silk business man.  He was also an architect so in Thailand he designed his own house.  Before all of this, he was also a spy for the OSS (the precursor to the CIA).  Of course, he disappeared in the 60s and his disappearance is quite the mystery.

Spirit house at JT Museum.  Drew slept through the tour.

Being a tourist is hard work!

 After that, we went to my dad's office to pick him up.  Then it was back to the hotel for us!

View from my Dad's office building.