Back on track: October

Ok so Shawn and I have fallen way off on keeping up with our blog. So I am going to do a little summary of somethings we have done:

October: Shawn turned 27! We celebrated with Marloes and Goof at a Creole restaurant called Bourbon St. He had cheesecake and we had a great time.

We also found out the most amazing news.. We are having a baby girl! We will welcome Shanel Marie Davis into this world sometime in February. Everyday watching and feeling her grow inside my body has been a blessing. We are truly grateful for this miracle that God has granted us.

We also took a trip to Bali. Shawn had to work in Indonesia for the week so I met him for the weekend. Being pregnant makes it really hard to travel sometimes. Getting dizzy at the airports and feeling way too hot at the beaches isn't fun, but it was a great trip. We really liked Bali. We stayed at a  nice beach where Shawn tried surfing and played volleyball.

 

 

Then our friends, Rachel and Andres (Mendez) came to visit. We took them to Koh Samet, a beautiful, white, soft sand beach. I also was their tour guide taking them to the temples, malls and around Bangkok. We had a great time and were so glad that we could share this experience with our friends.

 

Finally we enjoyed Halloween in Bangkok. I wasn't going to miss out on Halloween just because we were across the world. So it was an adventure trying to find the costumes we wanted but we succeeded. We also convinced our friends to dress up and they were scary! We had a great time dancing while the rest of Bangkok kept staring!

 

 

 

5 things I will miss

We recently went back to the US for a 2 week visit. It was a joyous time to see family and friends. We were also pleased to announce that we are going to have our first child due in February! Being back was an amazing experience and a perfect transition after being in Bangkok for 3 months. As soon as we arrived and throughout our whole visit we realized some things we were missing. I am going to summarize 5 things that we were so grateful to have and will desperately miss.

1. Open Skies: Being in Bangkok, all you see is skyscrapers, sky trains and muggy clouds. In Bangkok, you usually don't see tall trees reaching out for the sun, or precious clouds floating by. When we first drove away from the airport, we both noticed it but didn't realize what we were looking at. It wasn't until we hit downtown Houston and noticed the skyline as if for the first time, that we knew it was because we could see the skyline while driving. Maybe it is like this in Bangkok, and maybe it was just the beauty of being back home that we could appreciate it more. But open skies are one thing we will miss in Texas.

2. Open Roads: Along with seeing open skies while driving, it was a blessing to see open roads too. In Bangkok, there is always traffic. I feel like we can't go 10 seconds without our driver stopping short. Go, stop, go, stop. This is also partly because he's not a very good driver but the traffic doesn't help. Driving along Hwy 59 and through I-10 to Austin, it was just beautiful. The scenery was a sight
for sore eyes. Living somewhere else, really makes you appreciate how it looks back home.

3. Fast Food: The fast food back home is always delicous! It was great eating Whataburger, Jack in the Box, Pizza Hut, Peter Piper's, Taco Cabana, and Bill Miller's. From this list you can tell that we added a few pounds!

4. Comfort of Parent's home: There is nothing like coming home to a welcoming family. Our parents were so thrilled to have us home and we were equally excited to be back. Even though we don't live with our parents, being at their house just filled our hearts with joy and comfort. It was especially great for me to lay in my mother's bed. Oh how comfortable!

5. Comfort of home cooked meals: Besides seeing family in person and feeling their love, the one thing I will miss most is home cooked meals. Not only did family cook for us but our friends were generous enough to do the same. We had home made spaghetti, chicken enchiladas, rice, beans, calabaza, tacos, carne con arroz, bbq, and potato salad. Yum!!! It was all so delicous and the best food we've had anywhere on the planet.

We were truly blessed to have the opportunity to go back home. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends. We are thankful for all the love and support of family and friends. We will miss seeing and hugging you. And we will see you, God willing, big baby belly, in Decemeber!

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Saturday, Shawn and I went to Wat Muang. After the long 2 hour drive, we saw a Giant Monk and then the Giant Buddha letting us know we had arrived. We were a little disappointed to know that there was no guide to tell us about the statues we were going to see. We had researched this place on Somethingjam.com, a coworker of Shawn's website. Jam said that parents bring their children here to scare them and teach them not to do bad things or go against the Buddhist principles. There are 10 precepts Buddhists believe and must follow:

1. ..harming living beings.
2. ...taking things not freely given.
3. ...sexual misconduct.
4. ...false speech.
5. ...intoxicating drinks and drugs causing heedlessness.
6. ...taking untimely meals.
7. ...dancing, singing, music and watching grotesque mime.
8. ...use of garlands, perfumes and personal adornment.
9. ...use of high seats.
10. ...accepting gold or silver.

Therefore "according to Buddhist belief, depending on what kind of sin one commits while still alive (whether it be murder, adultery, etc) that person will receive the same or worse punishment back when they have passed on in hell before being reincarnated into the next life" (Sasi Aiumtamboon). Because Shawn and I had no idea what the statues meant, we made up some of our own stories based on the principles and what we thought. We saw statues depicting adultery, false speech, stealing, intoxication, and harming living beings (animals). Here are some pictures of the ones we guessed at:

Adulters forced to climb spikes naked

Liars tongues being rolled out

They harmed animals and so now the animals are torturing them

Thieves hands being cut off

After viewing these scenarios we also saw one of the largest Buddha's measuring 302 ft. Somethingjam.com said that if you touch the hand it is good luck, so we tried and I have to admit that I was scared I wasn't going to be able to do it but I did! So did Shawn! We had a great day.

Angkor Wat: Not just another temple

So this weekend was our weekend to travel. We could both feel the travel fatigue getting the best of us since we weren’t really that excited about this trip. But, we already had the tickets and we decided to make the best of it. After seeing so many amazing temples in Bangkok, we were fairly doubtful that Siem Reap, Cambodia and Angkor Wat had much new to offer. Boy were we wrong! Cambodia proved to be an altogether different experience and I’m certainly glad we went.

This trip was trippy right off the bad. Our flight was delayed by 2 hours and when the flight did arrive we had to catch a bus to get on it. Then we found out that we were seats 1a and 1b but we weren’t first class or anything. To top it all off, the airplane had exposed propellers like a crop duster and had cartoon fish drawn all over it. Needless to say we were a little apprehensive about the flight.

Our Plane to/from Cambodia

When we landed safely in Siem Reap (Thank God), we were surprised at how small the airport was and how few people were arriving compared to other tourists destinations we’ve been to.  Going through immigration was an adventure, since the immigration officials were sketchy. One guy asked Angel 3 times if she was from Mexico, and the other asked me for a tip on the down low. The nice surprise was that most all Cambodians speak English and take dollars, which feels like a foreign currency by now. The adventure continued as we were expecting a car to pick us up only to find out that there was a little guy name Bullfrog with a tuk-tuk who would take us to the hotel. After all was said and done, we were just happy to go to the hotel and get some shut eye.

Saturday was the day for us to go to Angkor Wat. We got up later than we wanted, jumped in our tuk tuk with our driver and our guide and made the 15 km or so trek. Even though Cambodians do speak English, it was hard to understand a lot of words because they pronounce “th” with a “shr” or a “fr” and they accent letters where Americans usually pronounce them longer. So “three dollars” sounded like “free dollars” and “meters” sounded like “mater”. But right from the start, both the driver and the tour guide were very polite and professional and hard working. I always have a special appreciation for people who do their jobs well without complaining.

The first impressions of Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples upon arriving was that there were quite a few tourists and it looked like all the temples were growing inside a jungle. Surrounding the whole area is a moat that I think is 4 km by 4 km and 3 meters deep. It’s a good way to prevent enemies from attacking you, that’s for sure. We were immediately treated to some monkeys and chickens that were cute. The downside was that almost immediately there were little kids trying to sell us postcards and little souvenirs. And these kids were relentless. They followed me one time for about 30 minutes and repeatedly told me to give them a dollar for what they were selling.

I won’t go into all the details of each temple since some folks may actually want to visit themselves. But we went to three temples; the Bayon temple, the Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider), and of course Angkor Wat. Each temple was amazing in its own way. One of the things that was evident right away was that the recent floods of Cambodia and the years and years of tourist activity had taken a huge toll on the temples. Most parts of each temple were closed because they were falling down or had fallen down.  But in a rare sign of cooperation amongst many countries, multiple countries had volunteered to sponsor the rebuilding of certain parts of the temple. The engineer in me was happy to be able to see how all the pieces were going to fit back together.  The Tomb Raider temple was beautiful with several little spots to duck in and get good pictures.  Also, the trees were growing inside the sandstone and causing the temple to fall. The temple rebuilders also took a poll; people couldn’t decide whether to cut down the trees to save the temple or to leave the trees since they have been there for centuries as well and have just as much right to stand. I tend to agree with the people who say leave the trees, because there are thousands of temples but very few with marvelous trees the size of the trees in Ta Prohm. We also found a neat little spot where you could make a loud Echo when you hit yourself on the chest at a certain spot (on your heart). The tour guide wasn’t really able to explain why, and although I’m sure there’s an official scientific definition, I’m just so amazed by all of these little details that people were able to come up with over a thousand years ago, purposely or not purposely.

After visiting the Banyon temple and the tomb raider temple, we were starving from all the walking and decided to take a lunch break. It was a good thing too, because just before we got in the tuk tuk it started pouring raining. The weather was pretty scary but thank God we were tucked safely away in the tuk tuk. I felt pretty bad for our driver who just had a pancho to cover him while he drove through the pouring rain and lightning. I’m sure we were all pretty relieved when we pulled up to lunch. After eating a delicious lunch, I was especially grateful to our driver and tour guide b/c they decided to take us to the outskirts of the park instead of having us eat lunch in the more jam packed area. We didn’t see either of them at all during our meal though, and I’m thinking there’s some law or code that prevents them from eating with the tourists. Kinda sucks though, b/c I hate the idea of people thinking they are beneath me. Anywho, the rain chilled out over lunch and we were ready to see the main attraction, Angkor Wat, the not so seventh wonder of the world.

Our visit to Angkor Wat

There is so much that is amazing about the temple, but one of the more amazing things is that it holds so much history and so much of the beliefs of the people. Like the temple at the Great Palace in Thailand, it holds multiple (hundreds) episodes of a story about King Rhama fighting against the demon God for the hand of his lover. This version was a bit different from the Thai version, but the art and the inscriptions were just as incredible if not better. Again, I was taken aback by the fact that someone did this a thousand years ago with the most limited technology. Those people knew something about hard work and attention to detail! Our tour guide also shared with us a very personal story of the reason that Buddhists in Cambodia drink their parents’ bones when they pass away! He had lost his father only a few months ago and we could see the love was very real as he explained how important the ritual is to show respect to his parents. Even though we probably won’t be taking it up, I can certainly appreciate his point of view and respect the importance of his parents to him.

As we wrapped up our tour of Angkor Wat, it started to pour down raining again. We hurried to our tuk tuk just before we got completely soaked and headed back towards the hotel. Good timing once again! The rest of the trip went by very quickly.   It was weird that when we turned the tv on in our hotel “America, the Story of Us” was playing and we couldn’t help but watch it. After getting some cheap delicious food from the hotel and lounging around till about 10pm, we called another tuk tuk and headed over to Pub street, a one block version of 6^th street. We had a late dinner at a place called Red Piano, which turned out to have good priced, good tasting, western food. (Also made famous by Angelina Jolie.) I decided to be brave and try a “fishy” foot massage where all the fish attack your feet and eat at the dead skin and other particles. Needless to say they were having a field day on my feet.  To close out the night, we partied at “Angkor What?” and Temple Bar for about 40 mins and then took it to the house.

Sunday we did some shopping (i.e. got hustled), had some cheap ice cream, and then road to the airport to the drum of even more rain. Cambodia was certainly an unforgettable experience, in both good and bad ways.

Weekends in Thailand

So Angel and I made an unofficial agreement to spend every other weekend doing something in or around Bangkok. There’s so much to do in Bangkok that we want to make sure we don’t spend all of our time traveling and forget to dive into the local culture. The first 2 weekends of this agreement led to our trip to the Grand Palace, the Floating Market, and then to Phuket. Angel wrote about the Grand Palace so I’ll write about the others

As instructed, we woke up early on Sunday to head to the Damnoensaduak Floating Market. Our driver and his son picked us up at 845 and the journey. It took us about an hour to get there and we parked at one of the boat renter’s place that actually had a restroom. To our dismay (especially Angel’s), their definition of a toilet is basically a hole in the ground. You have to buy your toilet paper or bring your own (luckily we were prepared).  To rent a boat and driver to take us to the floating market cost 2000 baht (~$70) for the whole boat, which I guess isn’t that bad. It was pretty much the only choice we had though since that’s where our driver took us and we didn’t know anywhere else. So, we paid the money and hopped in the boat. As we traveled along the river, we went from just us and a couple other boats to several boats in the water at once. The market itself was impressive because you could pretty much buy anything that could fit in a boat. I’m not sure how good a business model it is to have a shop there though because there are at least 10 other shops selling the exact same things. You would think that it’s good for the buyer, but you can still easily get hustled if you don’t know how to negotiate. In retrospect, it’s probably best to go to a couple places before you settle on one.  Negotiating is tricky because the shop owners will always say no first to whatever your offer is. The typical conversation goes something like this..

 “Me: I like that little trinket, how much is it? Owner: This one is very nice I give you special price 400 baht. Me: 400 baht??!! I’ll give you 100. Owner: No, no way, cannot go lower. 400 baht lowest price. Me: I’ll give you 150 Owner: Ok, I give to you for 250 baht. Best Price. Final. Me: I’ll give you 180. Owner: No, cannot. Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase. 250 baht. Me: No thank you, I am leaving. Owner: Ok, Ok! 200 baht for you. Me: Ok”

It’s fairly similar to our experience when we went to Mexico and I imagine it’s similar in any tourist destination. The biggest difference to me is that if you walk away after your initial offer the owners will let you leave, they always start about 50% over what is a reasonable price, and they beg! The begging thing caught me off guard the first time but I wasn’t gonna let them fool me twice. Anywho, the trip to the floating market all in all was a good time. We picked up some nice things and we had fun doing it. My personal favorite part was on the way back. We hadn’t eaten lunch and we wanted chicken and rice, so my driver stopped in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road at an old lady and her husband with a stove and a covered eating area. It was sketchy to say the least, but they had a little tv with the pacquiou fight on and they were extremely nice. The meal cost us about 5 bucks total after tip and it was delicious. Neither of us has gotten sick so I count that as a successful stop.

Upon returning to Bangkok, we made plans to go to church. This time we decided to try a Catholic church called Holy Redeemer. We learned from our past mistakes and had our driver drop us off. The most surprising thing about the church was that upon arriving we could see people flooding in from all sides. There were no stained glass windows on the side of the church. Instead, they had huge doors where the windows would be and they had all of the doors open. I searched the ceiling but I’m pretty sure there was no air conditioning unit, which meant that we were depending on the breeze outside and the 30+ fans that were blowing air all around. It was actually not that hot but the humidity prevented the fans from making it cold. The priest had a great and powerful sermon. He spoke about the fact that people put so much emphasis on the holiness of the church and the traditions but that we forget that it’s equally important for the people in the church to be holy. He shared a story of a priest who resigned from his church because although the members came to confession and followed the rules, they would not lift a hand to help an old couple whose house was falling down. This message resonated with me quite a bit. I also thought the whole atmosphere was nice and the people were generally very nice. The church was full of people of all different backgrounds. Probably the biggest blessing was that Angel met a lady who was a member of the Thailand Habitat for Humanity Chapter.

This past weekend (June 15-17) was our weekend to leave Bangkok, so we scheduled a flight to visit Phuket. Angel did most of the booking, but I was very happy to find that for a fairly low price we were staying at a beachside resort named Duangjitt. My cheapness actually saved us some money because instead of paying the 2200 baht that the hotel wanted us to pay for them to pick us up, we ended up getting a ride on a shuttle for 200 baht. Once we took the hour long shuttle ride to Patong Beach, we used Friday as a travel day and pretty much crashed as soon as we got to our room. The hotel was nice and the staff had made a heart on the bed to welcome us because Angel put “honeymoon” in the notes. Saturday morning after our free breakfast, we headed to the beach. The water was not as blue-green as we expected, but there were some hills/mountains in the background that more than made up for it. For 7 bucks we rented 2 chairs and an umbrella for the day and it was time to chill. After a couple good hours of relaxing, I decided to negotiate a 5 minute parasail for myself and a 30 minute jet ski ride for 2 for 80 bucks.

The parasailing was a fun first, even though there was a man with his feet on the ropes just above me directing the parachute and I didn’t go very far or high off the ground. Just flying through the wind and enjoying the elevated view was well worth it. For the landing, the man actually wrapped his legs around me from the back as he steered the parachute to the ground. It was definitely not a safe activity for him but I enjoyed it.  I got bored after about 20 minutes of jet skiing and we decided to head in for a nap. Our nap ended up lasting well into the evening and by the time we hit the streets for dinner it was after 8pm. After passing expensive restaurant after expensive restaurant on Beach Street, we settled on a pizza place that was also expensive. However, the pizza hit the spot and we left full and satisfied. We were beginning to be a little worried that the party district that we read about online was not existent in Platong, but after dinner we walked a little farther, turned the corner, and BAM! There it was, Bangla street! The best way to describe it is slightly cleaner than Bourbon street, a lot more shops and strip clubs than sixth street, and lights like Vegas blvd.

 It had just about everything you could get in trouble doing at night. There must’ve been 100 guys and girls inviting us to a “Ping Pong” show, which I was initially excited to see since I’m fond of table tennis and I assumed it would be some sort of special ping pong tricks. However, after looking at the catalog, I realized that this ping pong show they were referring to had nothing to do with table tennis. It was our first night out in Thailand and we had a really good time. We listened to some live music from a Korean looking band seeing American pop music. We met a couple that was in the US NAVY who were both a lot drunker than we were, we stopped by one club and started the dance floor to hopping, and we had a short but romantic walk along the beach on the way back. It was Definitely a good day.

Sunday we were pretty tired so we slept in and then decided to visit the hotel pool. It was the biggest pool I’ve ever seen. It was more a baby lake than anything, but the water was clean and refreshing. After we hopped out of the pool we pretty much only had time to shower and catch a taxi to the airport. This time I did have to pay the 650 baht that everyone was charging.

All in all, we’ve certainly enjoyed our weekends here so fare and we’ve added a return trip to Phuket to see the James Bond Islands to our already lengthy list of things that we “must do” over the next year. Until next time, Sawadee Kap!

Grand Palace, Wat Po, Temple of Dawn

We started our day awaiting our tour of the Grand Palace, Wat Po, and Temple of Dawn. It took about 30 minutes from our hotel to get to the Grand Palace. Once we were there, Khun Not was generous enough to drive us around the wall of the Palace so that we would know how to get to Wat Po and Temple of Dawn from there. We get down and are thrown right into husslers. Over the intercom, a woman was giving a warning to not be scammed and rightly so. A man standing right in front of the Grand Palace entrance was telling people that the entrance was around the corner. We were like dude it’s right there! Once we entered the Palace a woman wanted to be our tour guide for 400 Baht. We chose not to get her as a guide which was good because once we paid our entrance fee of 400 Baht (the palace is not free) we found a free guide inside. Walking around the Grand Palace was a little overwhelming because it was a very hot, humid and sunny day. Shawn and I were not prepared. We did not have an umbrella or cool towel and on top of that you have to cover up when in the palace. So we were wearing Jeans, tennis shoes and sleeved shirts! We also didn’t know what to when we got in the temple. This may sound closed minded, but being Christian we were a little unsure because we were going into a Buddhist temple, where Buddhists would be worshipping. But we also knew that we wanted to observe and even though we didn’t worship Buddha, we could still observe and delight in its beauty. Walking around the Palace, everything was very beautiful, and there was lots of attention to detail. All the art was symmetrical and beautifully hand crafted. It was an overwhelming amount of beautiful art mixed with very spiritual feeling and respect for the king. There was a mixture of art from Thailand, China, Europe, and India. All the walls were painted with the tale of the demon king (Ravana) vs. King Ramayana and the monkey army. In the story, the Demon took Ramayana’s wife and the monkey army fought to get her back. Our tour guide was awesome. She was very knowledgeable and stopped to take pictures of our group. At the end of our tour, Shawn and I were taking one last picture together, when suddenly Shawn was bombarded by Japanese tourists. We guessed that they thought he was famous or something! It was so funny! Shawn was very surprised but was a good sport about it.

After the Grand Palace, we walked over to Wat Po.  Wat Po was very beautiful as well. It is home to the school of Thai massage, thus the original Thai massage. We had the Original Thai massage for 30 min’s which cost 520 THB total. It was kind of rough because elbows and knees were used.  The weird thing was that we were fully clothed and sweaty. We left with all our bones popped and feeling refreshed.

After that we took a 3 THB ferry to Temple of Dawn which is 10 cents! Temple of Dawn is very tall. There were some steps you could walk up to the highest point allowed. The one thing I learned is that no one in Thailand is there to stop you or question your judgment.  So be a no one stopped us, we decided to walk up the steps. Going up isn’t so bad, but once we got to the top, I was a gonner! The walkway around the Temple was very narrow and there were sharp turns. So after we walked along the top it was time to get down! I don’t think I’ve ever had a panic attack or been so fearful of something in my life. I could not hold it together to climb down for the life of me. Shawn was trying to be supportive but I don’t think he realized that I was actually having a panic attack. He tried to calm me down and went down before me. He suggested going down like a ladder with your face to the steps, but I couldn’t fathom turning around on the stairs. So instead I went down holding onto one side of the rail and almost sitting on each step I made it safely. So when people come to visit I will be sitting at the bottom on the ground waiting for them to climb those steps!

Things we have learned

1. How to tell time: Thailand uses military time so midnight on a clock reads 0:00. And 5 pm is 17:00. Which for me is difficult, I have to do constant math! It's just subtraction but another ease or (laziness) of being American.

2. Converting Baht to US dollars. You just divide by 30, which seems ok when you get to buy lunch and pay 90 THB total for two meals, drinks and an appetizer because you know that's $3, but when you are trying to buy a shirt at the mall and it's 1490 THB! Your like um, around $55 for a t- shirt! That's why you must leave shopping up to the streets and not be afraid to haggle. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Haggling: get used to it! Ok you can't not be a compassionate person in Thailand. I know that sounds harsh but just listen. The sellers are going to over price everything to see if they can trick you and/or if you will come back with a lower price. They actually are expecting you to. But if they think you are being too cheap then they will do whatever it takes to get you to pay their price. For example, we have had several women beg us, " please sir, please, I can not" and one woman even said "I am 4 month pregnant." I do hope and pray for her if she was but around here I highly doubt it, lord forgive me for doubting such a delicate topic, but really saying you're pregnant to get a couple more dollars! On a side note we also saw a small girl sleeping at the steps of the subway with a dog and bucket attached to her. We gave her money, (and I do hope that it was a scam and her parents were around the corner in eyesight of her,) because it was a child in need, even if she was being used for pity by her desperate parents, because no child should have to live that way.

4. The Thai year is 2055. This is helpful when you are buying groceries and looking at their expiration date. Shawn said he saw the expiration date on the milk 050655 and freaked out because he was like "either this milk is good until 2055 ( starting from 2012) or I'm trippin!" The date is written day/month/Thai year.

5. And finally, mostly for women, how to squat and pee. Here in some parts of Thailand and I know across Europe too, they have squatter toilets. The toilet bowl, is on the floor. There is no place to sit, you just place your feet spread apart and squat! Not an easy task, and hopefully I can accomplish for my shoes sake!!

Thailand; Land of malls

While Angel prefers to do her blogging in more detail and on a day by day basis, I always prefer to write summaries and hit the high points. Hopefully the mix of styles is pleasing to read. I thought I should take some time to reflect on the week from Wednesday, May 31 through Monday, June 4, since we really got around quite a bit and had some interesting experiences. Next to the Tiger temple and elephant riding, the thing that has had the biggest impact on me is the number of places to shop. Since I hate shopping, this aspect of Thailand is amusing in thought but torturous when I’m walking through the streets with Angel.

So looking back on Thursday the 31^st, the most interesting thing was our first big argument in Bangkok. It all started once I went to work in the morning to take care of some HR business. Angel came with the driver to pick me up, we had some lunch, checked out the park next to our hotel (which was huge but surprisingly empty. We would find out later that that is unusual) and then we headed back to the hotel. To be honest, I was exhausted. But my mentor had told me about the racquet club where he remembered them playing basketball. We had about 30 minutes until our appointment to inventory the room so I asked the hotel where it was. They showed me a map and it was a couple blocks over on the corner of what looked to be two prominent streets. They told me if I walked fast I could make it there in 10 minutes. So, I made a few mistakes. 1^st, I decided to try to make it there and back within 30 minutes. Secondly, I tried to make it there and back within 30 minutes with Angel walking with me, not acknowledging that her walking stride is half of mine at best. Finally, I assumed that the big ass building and clearly marked streets they showed me on the map would be a big ass building and clearly marked streets in real life. I also didn’t realize how long one block on that freaking map was. 30 minutes after we left the hotel (which was the time of our appointment), we were lost and couldn’t find anyone to point us to the racquet club, Angel was pissed b/c she didn’t want to go in the first place, and we were both sweating our asses off. Finally, this nice Thai lady left her building and walked 3 blocks with us to show us the racquetball club. When we go there, we met this very nice man named Bruce who looked and sounded like the real life human version of Kermit the frog. He showed us the half court they had with nobody on it and also chatted with us for a while. Once he realized we had no idea where we were at, he was nice enough to walk us over to a smoothie store and get the lady there to tell our driver how to find us. He even bought Angel a bottle of water! Either he was super nice or he really wanted us to join that expensive ass racquet club.

On Friday, I started the day in the office again. We realized that Angel didn’t have a cell phone and she would probably need a way to contact me and the driver while I was at work. So, after work, we headed over to Central Plaza at the suggestion of some co-workers. This was the 3^rd mall we had been to and like the others, it was huge! It had at least 5 floors and there was a floor dedicated only to cell phones and cell phone related stuff. There is the little hustler booths in the middle and then the official stores around the outside. We went into 3 stores with people who barely spoke English before being directed to another store because we wanted a pay as you go phone. Unfortunately, nobody in the store spoke a lick of English. After trying for about 30 minutes to get the lady to explain to us how many minutes we would get with the Sim card and how much additional minutes cost, we gave up and called our driver. It turns out he doesn’t know how to say “minutes” in English either. Finally after about an hour and a half total we just gave them 300 baht and told them to give us whatever that would buy. Once we actually turned the phones on, she was able to successfully show us how we could look up our balance and with some additional effort she explained that we could recharge the sim card at one of the thousands of 7/11’s in Bangkok. Form Central mall, we decided to buy a camera for our Saturday trip. This time we gave MBK a shot. If Central mall is hectic, MBK is 10 times worse!! It’s just a collection of little booths on every floor with maybe 5 actual stores. With all these little shops, I would have expected the electronics floor to have a whole lot of cheap stuff and discounts. To my surprise, the cameras in every single booth were about as expensive as I would pay in the US. So, instead of taking a chance of getting screwed at one of the booths, we decided to dish out the cash and buy a nice Sony camera at the “Powerbuy” store. It was definitely an experience though, trying and failing, to haggle shop after shop to drop their prices. To close out the night, we decided we would meet my boss for dinner at the hard rock café. When we got off of the BTS at the SIAM exit, we saw just about the last thing I wanted to see, another big ass mall!!! Luckily, we didn’t go inside this time. We scooted on by and went across the street to the hard rock café. Although the food and drinks were as expensive as they are everywhere else, it was pretty good and the atmosphere was very enjoyable. Add the fact that we had company and they paid made this easily one of my favorite meals in Bangkok to that point.

Sunday, we started off by trying to find a good church to go to. There were a couple within a short distance from the BTS but we chose Calvary Baptist since they had a website in English. Even though the map showed one short street between the BTS stop and the church, we ended up walking to the end of the street, catching a tuk-tuk back to the other end, and then crossing to the next street only to walk back to the end we were originally on. Needless to say, we were pretty frustrated and sweaty by the time we got to the church, probably not the best attitude for the occasion J. I thought the service was pretty good. The pastor was intelligent and delivered a heartfelt message about not bragging or being envious. But there was something missing. Maybe it was the fact that we didn’t know anyone and didn’t really identify anyone who we felt comfortable approaching after service or maybe it was the fact that there weren’t any outside activities to get involved in to meet some of the members. Or maybe it was just me being overcritical, but for whatever reason I just didn’t feel “it”, and I am not sure we will be making that our church home. After church, we decide to …, wait for it…….., go shopping!!! By this point we were pretty broke and a bit tired, but my boss ensured us that the JJ (or Chatuchuk or something like that) Market was an event that we did not want to miss. I figured we’d hit an atm if we saw something we liked, since they seem to be plentiful all over Bangkok. Boy was I wrong!! I guess the good thing was that this market was outside so there was no multiple floors to travel. The bad thing was that this was I’m pretty sure the biggest flea market in the world. We walked for about an hour in one direction along the edge and the market still didn’t end. Then we turned and went inside only to find that we hadn’t even seen 1/10^th of the all of the booths. There was absolutely EVERYTHING being sold. If I had been a bit more patient I probably could have figured out the system of which type of products were being sold where, but I was so overwhelmed that I was ready to head for the hills before even considering buying something. To make matters worse, the least available thing in the market was restrooms and atm machines. By the time we walked the country mile to find those, I was pooped. So, to Angel’s chagrin, I put my foot down and we left without buying anything. Well, I take that back, we did eat street food for the first time. We had some semi-cold fried chicken that was pretty good.  Maybe next week?

Monday, I realized that my hair was nappy and out of control and I decided to follow up on my promise to let Angel take a shot at cutting it. After researching on google, I found that I could probably buy some clippers at a store called the Big C. So, we found the closest one and jumped on the BTS to get there. This store was more like a multi-level wal-mart than a mall. The big difference was that on several floors there were little shops in the middle. After being redirected to the 3^rd floor then the 2^nd floor then back to the 3^rd floor, we finally found the one set of clippers they had and I decided I wanted more options. So, we decided to take a chance on the store that the locals were calling pra –dee – num which we thought was the “Platinum” store that we could see out the window. After the journey of crossing the street and walking for what felt like forever, we finally got to platinum, only to find that it was a high end clothing mall and that they information desk referred us back to the Big C. After inquiring further, someone pointed further down the street to what we figured was “Party Plaza”. When we finally arrived there, my jaw dropped as again I was standing in the middle of a multilevel mall with thousands of little booths selling everything from dog food to playstations. It just seems impossible that there could be so many people trying to sell the same stuff in such a small area. What is even more appalling is that each place is crowded with people. The good thing was that I was able to find a good variety of clippers. I settled on some Wahl clippers since I remember my barber using that brand.  Somehow Angel convinced me that she needed to buy a curling iron too. After haggling with the clerk for a while, I finally relented after she begged me to agree to her price and not force her to go lower (you had to be there, but to see a boyish looking Thai woman beg is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen). We took the clippers home and Angel went to work. After 3 hours of fussing and fighting and cutting, I had a haircut with a messed up edge up but at least even and presentable. After all this vacationing, I could honestly say I was ready for a vacation from my vacation.

Kanchanaburi

This morning we woke up at 6:30 and had to rush to get ready for our big day at Tiger Temple! Shawn’s new boss told us about this wonderful day trip about 2 hours North of Bangkok to enjoy tigers and elephants, among other things. Going into this trip I was very scared. We were told that we would walk with tigers and take pictures with them in our laps! I thought, Oh no, I don’t want to end up on youtube with a tiger biting my leg off! But we both were ready for a new adventure and so scheduled our trip. Our driver Natani and his son came to pick us up and we were off. The drive through Bangkok was interesting; around every corner there is a picture of the King. There’s no mistake, we will know who the King is if we ever see him. Our first stop in our trip was at a WWII cemetery honoring fallen soldiers that were POW’s captured by Japan. During the war, Japan invaded Asia and was using POW’s in Thailand to build a railway for supplies. One specific railway is now called Death railway. We then visited the River Kwai Bridge. It is still a working bridge but is very old and reminiscent of the start of the industrial age. After walking across the bridge we asked a man at the bottom of the boat to take us to the monkey school, he said that he could not because the police shut it down! We could’ve also taken a boat ride to a cave but we were running short on time and needed to see the tigers promptly at 1 to walk them! So we decided to take a small boat ride to the Floating restaurant and grab a bite to eat. We enjoyed a quick meal of stir fry green vegetables in gravy, spring rolls, and shrimp cakes. It was delicious but Shawn was more fascinated with the giant bumble bee we were afraid was going to sting us. It was the size of a quarter, no joke!

After lunch, Natani drove us to the tiger temple. We were very excited and had no idea what was in store for us. Entering tiger temple was like something out of Jurassic Park! To enter the temple, you had to drive through a giant tiger’s mouth! We paid to go in and received a map telling us where to go to walk the tigers. Shawn and I started walking and saw this huge crowd of people, we thought, nah we are going this way because we want to be first in line. So Shawn wanted to walk through a gate to left of the crowd and just as we were about to, we both said wait what if we end up walking into the tigers, we will be eaten. So…we went to the safe area where the people were. Walking up to it we didn’t even realize that the tigers were laying on the floor and all of the crowd was looking at them! OMG!  It was so unreal. I mean an actual tiger was laying down right in front of us.  So our Australian guide explained to us the rules, in his Australian accent, “use a firm hand, the tiger is walking you, you are not walking the tiger, the tiger may spray you (to mark territory) take it on the chin because if you complain he will turn around to see what is making all that fuss, and then go and buy two lottery tickets because it is good luck, mate!”

We got in single file line, were told to put our right hand firmly on the tiger’s back, hold the rope and walk. Shawn went first. My thought was if this tiger does anything crazy, I’m running and not looking back. He managed not to get eaten and the guides took great pictures of him. My turn. Oh Jesus, was I scared. But it all happened so quickly, that in that second I had to suck it up and place my hand on the tiger. Wow, there is no way to really explain it. These creatures are so majestical and yet so wild that their demeanor can change within a second and then you’re a gonner. We had the chance to walk the tiger down to the canyon twice safely. Once we got to the canyon, the guides tied the tigers to a chain and we waited for all the tigers to be brought down. As each tiger made its way to the canyon, you had to stand up, and look in the tiger’s direction because he needed to see that you were not a threat. When they brought the largest tiger down, he began to “stalk” instead of walk, which meant he was on the prowl. The guide said that his natural instincts kicked in and he was looking at something that he may have seen as a threat.  I was just so glad that the tiger wasn’t looking at us because it was just like in the tv shows, where the tiger stalks its prey and then pounces in one swoop killing the oblivious animal. The guide that was walking this tiger, knew what was happening and turned in front of the tiger and slapped him on the nose. Shawn and I were like oh Mylanta! What is he doing??? After all the tigers were situated, it was time to take pictures. We decided Shawn would be the VIP and hold the tigers head. Shawn had to walk holding the guides hand, and I had to walk with both hands on Shawn’s shoulders, I guess this is the way to not intimidate the tigers. So we sat next to a sleeping tiger, Shawn cuddled his  head and I stood beside. It was amazing. I can’t believe we got to hold a creature so wild and yet so calm in our hands. I know it is an experience we will never forget. Thank God we have this opportunity to travel the world and pursue amazing adventures.

Thailand-First Impressions

Stereotypes and Expectations

                In general, the main thing I’ve thought this week is that I was mostly wrong with a lot of the stereotypes I had coming in and several of the expectations either from me or the things people told me. Here’s a few off the top of my head

1.       Asians are short:

Well, I don’t know the statistics, but there are several men and women here who are taller than me. My wife is still shorter than most people, so bummer for her. That said, there are not that many overweight people at all, which I see as a challenge to me. Not only are Thai’s not short, but there are multiple different cultures in Thailand. There was blacks, whites, Muslims, Christians, everything. I’m pretty sure Angel was the only Hispanic person though.

2.       Thailand, Land of smiles J

For a culture that does nothing but smile (according to orientation), these people sure do pack some attitude. The most surprising was the waitress at the pizza restaurant (Bisilicos) when we informed her that she brought us 2 one topping pizzas and we wanted 1 two topping pizza. She looked like I hit her in the kidneys or something. We felt bad, but I also thought she should’ve thought twice about bringing 2 pizzas to 2 people. But I guess with Americans you never know

3.       The smog

I mean, from our 36^th floor window you can see that the air isn’t pristine or anything, but I expected to need a gas mask the way some folks talked about it. I haven’t been running yet so maybe my opinion will change, but I don’t feel like the air here is much worse than Houston

4.       Thailand: 3^rd world country?

This is probably just my own misunderstanding. Somewhere between finding out about how crowded it is, the tuktuks, and the cheap prices, I expected a starving city. Well, there are several rundown buildings in Bangkok and many people do make their living on the streets, but there are more beggars and homeless folks in downtown Houston or Austin than we’ve seen so far in Bangkok. May be all the bums are hiding, I know it has only been 3 days. I’ll keep you posted. Again, I’m not an economic expert, but I wouldn’t say this part of Bangkok is even a second world country, if there is such a thing. There are more malls, restaurants, parks, and other places to spend your money per square mile than any other place I’ve been to.

5.       Thailand is cheap

Ok, this is true in many areas (haircuts, massages, taxis, public transportation), but I have yet to find any everyday goods that cost less than they do in the US. Granted, we have been in the tourist area and we haven’t bought anything from the street markets, but most everything we buy here is more expensive. All  the designer clothes are still waaaay to expensive, the electronics and phones cost as much or more, and general goods (cookware, books, movies) cost about the same. If we’re gonna save a bunch of dough here, we better learn how to use the street market

6.       Music

I’m sure there is some traditional Thailand music that most Thais enjoy, but everywhere I’ve been I’ve listened to some form of American music. We were the most surprised when we were riding in the car with our driver listening to what must be the Thai version of NPR when suddenly the uncut version of C Lo Green’s F*** YOU! Pops on the radio.

There are several other interesting things about Thailand. When I stepped outside at the airport, I felt humidity of about 200%. But once I got into the city, it was much better. Being in the workforce now, I’m used to getting in my car to drive to my office, staying in the office all day, getting in my car to drive home, and then going to sleep. Rarely will I go outside in the summer unless it’s for a sporting event, so just being outside more here has made for a lot more sweating. It’s actually not nearly as hot as far as Houston, although I think it’s at least as humid. When we finally got to our apartment/hotel room, I was pleased to see that it was very spacious, had an amazing view of the city, and was convenient. I was a little worried when we turned up the rundown alley and suddenly we were at the hotel. That’s one of the characteristics that Bangkok seems to have even more than other big cities, you can be in a slum or redlight district at one moment and then within the same block there’s a 5 star hotel or restaurant. I guess at some point we’ll have to get out a little further to see if the rest of Bangkok is different.

1st night out

After we finished our business during the day, Shawn's coworker invited us out to dinner. He took us to the BTS sky train and taught us how to use it. He was very knowledgeable and we were very appreciative to have him give us a tour. So after taking the sky train to Asok, we walked to the restaurant Cabbages and Condoms. Don't be fooled by the name, their proceeds go to benefit HIV/AIDS research and PDA social development. Walking into the entrance of the restaurant, it was very beautiful. Golden lights hanging from the trees, and it looked very serene. However, we came up to a manniquin dressed as a superhero made solely out of condoms! It was hilarious, and of course I had to stop to take pictures! The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere. Shawn's coworker gave us some tips on ordering: the waitress will stand around after she has taken your drink order so that she can take your meal order, she's not at all trying to pressure you to hurry, but as an American you are just not used to that. Eating Thai style, we had combination fried rice, dried pork with chili sauce, cashew chicken, vegetables, and grilled fish. Everything was really good and somewhat spicy. One of the great things about this restaurant is that after the meal, instead of taking mints home, you get to take condoms!

Our friend told us another tip: don't pick your teeth! If you need a toothpick you must do this discreetly because picking your teeth is highly offensive to Thai's.

Cabbages and Condoms

Once we left the restaurant, we walked up Suhkumivt Rd, which is a very long street and also where our hotel is located. One side of the street had a night market with everything you could buy, from shoes to movies, (and other illegal stuff). Then we just had to walk to some of the infamous red light areas. I say areas, because there is not one district, but several streets of this kind. We walked down NaNa street and also where the Hangover 2 was filmed. We didn't go in any clubs, but we could only imagine what was there. Our friend told us that they do have some nice bars and that the ladies would not bother a couple, but if a man is out alone, then they are really talking! He also showed us a great place to buy decorations, a tailor for men and women and some hair cut places. Shawn was very happy to see that there was some barber shops that cut black men's hair! After all of that walking we were very tired. We managed to take the right sky train home and called it a night.

Day 1-let the adventure begin

Our day began at 9am. We talked to family on skype, oh the internet, what would we do without you?
Afterwards, we went down to the hotel Emporium and had breakfast. All the staff are very nice and accomodating. Sawadee!! all the time :) After breakfast our day only got busier!

A woman from the Asian Tigers (Shawn's relocating service) came to pick us up. We first stopped at the hospital Bumrungrad to register and take a tour. Upon walking in, the hospital looked like a hotel. There was a McDonalds, Starbucks and a shopping center! The woman giving us the tour gave us an explanation of how the hospital system works. They have over 300 departments in this hospital. And when you need to see the doctor you just go to the speciality that you need. There is no reason to go to a "primary" doctor unless you don't know what is wrong. They also have everything in this one hospital, from vision, to skin care, to ENT (ear, nose, throat) to dentists. You name it, they got it. We also registered with the hospital so that when we return all we do is show up, show them our card and we  are in! Now, every business place we went to, everyone was dressed the same and very uniform. Let me explain, all the nurses had on white suits with little white hats like the 40's! I mean it looked straight out of a pearl harbor movie, where all the nurses were cute with their hairdo's and hats. Then the other staff had on green scrubs, except, they weren't scrubs more like business suits that looked like scrubs. Another part of the hospital that is different from American hospitals was the physical floor. When you need to come to get a physical you come to this floor and go through 7 stations. Each station leads you through the process of your physical. You start off at registration, move on to consultation, billing and then vitals. All your vitals are done separately and after you are done you get your results and post discussion because the labs are right there! There is no need to wait to have the doctor send your labs off somewhere, it is all done in one place! What amazed me the most was they have a free cafeteria for you to replenish yourself after you have done the main portion of your physcial because you often must go on an empty stomach. Wow! Why doesn't the US have such a simple and nice setting. Oh ya because we aren't socialist!

Ok, next place we went to was the bank. We registered for a Thai bank account. Here too, everyone was wearing purple, the bank's colors. Their entire outfit wasn't purple but they had a least some aspect of it. Women were wearing purple skirts, blazers, blouses, pants and men were purple jackets, shirts, ties, etc. It is just so different. After we did our business at the bank and took out some bhat, we went to Shawn's new office Chevron!

He had a great time viewing his new cubicle and meeting all the people. Ialso enjoyed meeting his coworkers and can't wait to have lunches, dinners, outings together. We are really going to enjoy this! Well, I will save our evening for later. Yes there is more! Sawadee!!

Our new journey

Leaving Houston, I have mixed emotions. I'm not crying or sad, I feel like I have let plenty out before this day, and I'm sure it will all come rushing in when I'm sitting in my new home knowing that I can't just drive to my mom's or friend's houses. I'm kinda indifferent right now, but don't get me wrong, I am excited to go and I can't even imagine what is in store for us, but right now it just feels like business. Ok, let's get this packed, this done and that. I'm also not looking forward to that 13 hr plane ride! But as I think about what could happen, I'm trying to motivate myself to make sure I do it all. I've always been the person that will do anything to achieve a goal. sometimes my goals are small, save money to go here, etc, and they have also been grand... Graduate from UT!  I did all those things and I know I can do more. Now, I'm setting my sights on helping, learning, becoming a better woman, a better friend, a better daughter a better wife. I want to enjoy this adventure. I want to help others around the world. I want to gain so much knowledge so that I can bestow it on my children. I am writing this and now they have become my goal. I have to do it. I realize that these have always been my goals but sometimes so many other things happen around you that you lose sight of them. Things get a bit cloudy. And now that I am going to one of the hottest places in the world, where there will be few clouds maybe I will begin to see them clearly.  Hmm, i just realized as I was writing, that those clouds were putting me to work . Those clouds were molding me to accomplish my goals. These goals are also something that isn't finite. I will have to continue molding myself to fit the person I want to be. So here I am, starting my journey not just 9633 miles away but a lifetime in the making.