Bangkok, Thailand

The best laid plans of mice and men...If everything had gone as planned Marie and I would have spent 5 days in Bangkok on our own relaxing by the pool and enjoying the silence. Not so. Ya see Marie's parents were supposed to have come two days before we left for our trip. They were going to watch the kids while we went to Thailand. Saudi is very particular about processing paperwork and this time it bit us. To make a long story longer if I had processed their paperwork they would have gotten a one entry visa and would have to stay in Saudi for their entire visit - no trips to Bahrain. If Cheri processed the paperwork (blood relative) they could get a mutiple entry visa and go back and forth to Bahrain as they pleased. This is where the trouble started. Cheri's birth certificate is in Vietnamese. This threw the Saudi's for a loop. It needed to be translated into English by the State Department. By the time things got all sorted out Marie's folks would not make it here in time for us to leave for Bangkok. So our choice was either for Marie to stay in Saudi with the kids while I went by myself or we tried on just three days notice to get the kids on our flight and take the whole gang along for the adventure. The travel gods smiled on us and we were able to get the kids tickets. So our once quiet weekend in Bangkok would now be a family adventure. Bring it on!!

After a 6 hour flight we arrived in Bangkok at noon. We were traveling with our good friends Eric, Reina and their little one Claudia. We all got a cab to our hotel together. We were all pretty tired and the weather was HOT. This is the hottest time of the year in Thailand. Temps were in the upper 90's and very humid. This was not a big deal to us as we are now quite use to this.

The Hotel - To keep it short and sweet we stayed at The Shangri-la. It was reeeeeeally nice. Check out the web site. As The Nile is to Cairo the Chao Phyara is to Bangkok. The hotel was right on the river. Lots of cool boats to look at and a great way to get around the city was to hop a long tail boat and zip up river. These boats are pretty cool in that they are powered by car engines that are loaded onto the back of the boat - radiator and all. They can really move. This is a picture of Marie and the kids enjoying a ride.

The Food: Marie is a huge fan of Thai food. She has therefore converted me into a Thai food nut. So as far are we were concerned this was a pilgrimage. Yes I was here for a conference but this was all about the food and drink. So let's get started. I will start with Bangkok itself. It is big, dirty, crowded, pollution ridden, loud, and very much alive. I loved it. As you walked down the street your senses are just bombarded by the sights and smells. There are street vendors everywhere selling all sorts of crazy foods. On our first afternoon we went out exploring and picked up some pork dumplings and fried banana. They were great. It seemed that every few feet there was a new food vendor selling something different. Here is a "taste" of our first stroll through Bangkok.

Upon finishing our meal on the street we decided it would be a good time to sit down and eat again. Let's face it this was a pilgrimage and who am I to disappoint the food gods. We found this place right near the Shangri-la (on a side note there was this guy on the plane who seemed well traveled and wanted everyone to know it by talking loudly about what you should see and not see in Bangkok. He kept referring to the hotel as the Shangriluh pronounced like tequila. I am a professional eaves dropper and I was ready to smack him. I wanted to jump up on the plane and scream "IT'S SHANGRI-LA LIKE LA DEE DAH YOU PUTZ!! But I didn't.) Anywho, we found a street vendor near the hotel that had the best food of the entire trip. To start off with the beer was cold. Singha - the national beer of Thailand. Mmmmmm beer. I drank a lot of it. The food at this place was amazing. I had this coconut chicken soup that was one of the best things I had ever eaten. Sarah agreed. Here is the soup and Sarah and I eating it.

In the end it seems that all we did was eat and drink. We went accross the river one night with Eric and Reina and had a wonderful Thai meal in a locals only type place. Very cool. I think the most enjoyable meal we ate was at the Shangri-la on our last night. The hotel had a beautiful Thai restaurant right on the river. The meal was delicious and the atmosphere was incredible. A traditional Thai style teakwood house. Live Thai music and authentic Thai dancing. The kids loved it and it was the perfect end to our journey. Here are some pics.

Dumplings, fried banana, coconut soup, pad thai, prawns, deep fried something I am still not sure of what it was, green curry, red curry and fruit of every shape, color and size. The food kicked gludious maximus.

The Tourist Thing: I spent 3 of the 5 days in Bangkok sitting through conference sessions. Marie and the kids on the other had struck out for many an exotic local in Bangkok. On our first day in Bangkok we headed out to the Grand Palace. This is a compound that houses the most sacred Buddha in all Thailand: the Emerald Buddha, as well as the royal palace from years past. The Buddist decor is over the top and very cool. Here are some pics.

Marie is all about shopping and spent the next two days at the Chatuchak market. They only have this market on weekends. It is Rice's Market on crack. Marie went with Reina and the little ones one morning and took the big kids back on the next. The kids loved it. Sarah and Jack love to shop. (BTW - my camera battery died on the third day so I have no pics of the market. The above link does though. So enjoy that guys shots.) Anything you could possibly want you can find there - and the prices are awesome!

The following day I had the afternoon free so we took a long tail boat up the river to see The Temple of the Rising Sun and The Temple of the Reclining Buddha (aka Wat Phun and Wat Pho - I know there is a joke in there somewhere it just isn't coming to me right now.) When we got off the boat we took the below picture of the kids. The Thai people are always trying to make a buck (or a baht). I suspected that that was the case here as well. No sooner had I taken the shot (with a disposable camera) then some guy comes running up asking for 40 Baht. That is the equivalent of $1.50. Under normal circumstances I would pay it. But the sign that said you had to pay was hidden in all the colorful paint in the bottom right hand corner. You can see in the below picture I have it circled. I sternly told the guy no and we high tailed it toward the temple in the background of the picture. This was shortly after we were taken for 20 Baht above our agreed to price for the boat ride. Yes, we sure are the savvy travelers.

In the end it was a great trip. I am so glad we were able to take the kids with us. I think they liked it more then we did. Now it is back to Saudi for parent visit number 2. Man, time is flying. We will be back stateside for summer repat before you know it. Mmmmm cheesesteaks.