September Explorations

Bangkok's Chinatown is pretty crazy! Pretty much all there is to do there is eat and buy gold jewelry. Its a cool part of town though with lots of interesting food stalls and restaurants. Lots of shark fin soup places, but we haven't tried yet. Maybe next time. We did get some of the best steamed pork buns I have ever had from a street stall!

The Chao Phraya river has ferries that run all day and its a great way to get from Wat Pho down to Chinatown.

A typical street scene downtown. Lots of fresh fruit being sold from these motorbike vendors. Lauren was shopping for clothes since she forgot to pack some and I was just waiting so I snapped a pic of this guy selling fruit.

Wat Pho is one of the most beautiful Wats in Bangkok with one of the most impressive Buddha statues I've ever seen! The Lonely Planet books are coming in handy, thanks Dip!

The city has water canals that run all over the place. You can get from one end of the city to the other by water taxi, which is much faster and cheaper than taking a taxi in traffic. The water taxi boats are actually pretty fast for their size. But the khlongs (canals) are pretty narrow and with constant two way boat traffic the water can get very choppy. Sometimes I bounce out of my seat or think that our boat is going to flip over, but nothings happend yet, knock on wood, and its actually become one of our preferred methods of public transportation. Just remember to keep your mouth closed when riding. Take a look at that khlong water and you'll know what I'm talking about! The key thing here is making sure your typhoid vaccine is current.
This is the khlong water taxi stop closest to our apartment. Its about a 10 minute walk. To go all the way downtown on the water taxi costs about 18 baht per person or about 50 cents. To take a taxi it would cost somewhere between 3 and 4 hundred baht!

Ron, Rajdeep and Shauna

We feel so fortunate and blessed to have Ron and Rajdeep here to help us. Rajdeep is the daughter of Mr. Udom, the chairman and owner of our school. Ron is her husband and actually grew up in Martinez. They met in California while attending college and then moved back here to Bangkok to start their family. Their daughter Shauna is very cute and refers to Lauren and I as Auntie and Uncle. They really are like our second family here in Thailand.

They were such a huge help to us in the first few weeks. They did everything from picking us up at the airport to taking us shopping for all the things we needed. They even let us stay at their house for the first few days unti we were rested and ready to move in. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

Here is a picture of Ron and Rajdeep as Shauna opens up her presents from her godparents Tutu and Pop. She loves pretty dresses and brushing her doll Hannah's hair. She also recently got a new set of Hello Kitty sheets and pillows for her bed, which she was thrilled about!

Home Cooking

After the first week of eating nothing but Thai food, this half-ass Italian meal was an amazing vacation for the taste buds.
On our table we also have some nam plow or bottled water, some french bread and a small bowl of extra tomato sauce because someone in this picture is a little obsessed with having a lot of sauce.
This meal kinda tasted like the pasta you would get at a Sizzler, which in the US, wouldnt be that great, but....in Thailand, Amazing!!! Let me explain.
Last night we finally got a table. It was probably our 4th or 5th attempt to get a table, but each time we went, the wait was way too long.
In Thailand, Sizzler seems to be a very popular restaurant and last night we finally found out why.
For one, what you and I call salad in America is almost no where to be found in Thailand, unless you go to a really expensive restaurant or... you guessed it, Sizzler!
All you can eat salad bar for about 4 bucks which includes 3 different soups, Fresh Mixed Fancy Greens, Iceberg, an assortment of cold salads, every fresh vegtable, all the American dressings, hot pasta, the most delicious texas toast ever, an assortment of fresh fruit and desert. Pretty good deal, huh?
While we were happily chomping away at our plates of cherry tomatoes and fresh lettuce we both agreed that this was the first time either of us had been to Sizzler since maybe 3rd of 4th grade.

A Few Things You Should Know Part 1

In this little segment we use pictures to emphasize a few things you should know when traveling here.

Traffic is bad. This is a picture of when traffic has died down. Notice that it's still bumper to bumper. Yes, those cars are stopped and will remain stopped for about 15 whole minutes. Many traffic lights here are not metered which means you stop at a red light and wait. Maybe get out of your cab, go grab some food from a nearby street vendor and then come back 20 minutes later, well rested and fed, ready to continue your commute.

Delicious and nutritionally balanced meals like the ones pictured above cost about 35 baht or $1.at all the local mall and shopping center food courts. The meals are all made fresh to order by the cook at each stall. No Panda Expresses. Imagine if every Target or Kmart had a food court and you could get food like this there for a dollar! Would you ever cook at home? Probably not.

and in case you were wondering, Yes. That dish pictured above is what we Banana Bay lovers so fondly refer to as Crispy Hinam Chicken with Garlic Rice, which is actually a famous dish from the city of Hat Yai in southern Thailand. Thanks Lonely Planet.

Welcome! Lets get this thing started!

Welcome to our blog. The objective is to keep you updated on what we're doing over here in Thailand without having to write individual emails everyday. Its not that you arent special enough to receive a personal email, its just that after working for 11 hours we're too tired to do anything else but eat poo and shower. Originally we decided that this will mostly be a photo blog, but since we already went through the effort of setting it all up, we might as well right something from time to time. Just don't expect anything witty. and dont expect correct grammar. we do enough of that already.