out and about.

In between meetings and appointments, we've ventured out around Bangkok.  Usually it's a trip out for dinner and we search my Rough Guide for somewhere nearby to see.  The times we have used taxis, they never fail to pop in English music for the ride.  Knowing the driver understands very limited English, we've been surprised by some of the obscene lyrics they play for us.  :)  (Don't worry, this video is clean!)

Friday night we rode the skytrain over to Siam Square to grab dinner.  Here are some of the sights:

We had no luck finding the restaurant from the guide book and stumbled upon a Japanese restaurant called Pepper Lunch.  The place was packed yet no one was brave enough to sit at the two-seater table next to us.  Guess they were scared of the farangs?

The meals come out on burning hot skillets with the meat and veggies uncooked.  You have to wait a few minutes until the meat is ready to eat.  K enjoyed some yummy curry.  

Sweet P and I shared rice, a couple vegetables and salmon.  Actually she ate white rice and whatever shreds of salmon I could sneak in.  This girlie is going to have to learn to love vegetables if she is going to have a full belly at home!  

She really liked seeing the skillets when they came out of the kitchen.  Here is how she was telling us about the steam:

The Thai new year celebration begins the day we fly home.  Miss Oh has already threatened to meet us at the hotel for our flight with a big bucket of water.  You can't be in Thailand on the new year without getting soaked!  She also told us during Songkran, you will see many people on motorbikes driving around spraying huge water guns at pedestrians.  I sort of wish we'd be here for the fun!  These little guys must be prepping for next week.

This street vendor is nearby our hotel and we've eaten lunch there.  She suggested a meal by pointing and we agreed.  We never know exactly what we are going to get, but so far we haven't been disappointed!  Foreigners are supposed to be careful about eating certain things, especially some street food.  Thankfully we have enjoyed trying new things and have felt fine afterward.  Lately we've enjoyed a lot of fresh papaya and pineapple from a fruit cart across the street... when it is there.  The only thing about the street vendors is you never know when they will be around or not.  Weekends are sparse.  

 These shrines are plentiful.  Miss Oh said they are places to worship and keep the evil spirits away.  

These are also plentiful:  tuk tuks.  

Might be time for underground wiring.

Home Kitchen was suggested in my guide and it's excellent.  Traditional Thai food but they have an English menu to make it easy for us.  The bonus is it's right down the street so I bet we'll be there again soon.

There are two Home Kitchens almost side-by-side.  One has indoor eating and this one has outdoor.  You can see K holding Sweet P in the left corner waiting for our order.  

K was gutsy and ordered a seafood dish... it contained pieces of squid and a few other undecipherable items.  You could not have paid me to eat them.   

That's it for now.  Blessings, angela

truth be told.

Let's be honest, friends, not everything is sunshine and happiness on the 20th floor above Bangkok.  I don't want you to get the wrong idea about how things are going.  Yes, our sweet one is a bundle of blessings, but she is going through a tough transition.  All she has known is her little orphanage a few miles away.  She was plunged into the rest of the world where there are lots of males, lots of vehicles, lots of smells and sights and sounds she has never experienced.  It must be frightening at times.


The first night she cried for a really long time at bedtime even as we rocked her, sang to her, hummed to her, and rubbed her head.  All the while we said silent prayers over her, that the Lord would help her trust in us to grow and allow her little body to rest.  All she has ever known is a room full of matching, metal cribs in Cottage 5 at her orphanage.  I'm positive a lot of talking and playing went on at bedtime!  The nannies did not tell us much about her even after we asked, but one thing they did tell us what she was usually the last one to go to sleep at night.  


During the daytime, she has trouble with things feeling out of control at times.  If I leave the room for too long she gets upset and is almost inconsolable by K, probably because she isn't used to men.  If we have to take something away from her hands, she can quickly go from our smiley girl to sobs.  Even today, she was being silly with me but then hit me, so K told her with a calm and soothing tone, "gentle."  That tipped her over the edge in an instant.

All thanks to our Lord, although today was a little rough, each night here it seems better.  Tonight she only had a couple whimpers.  We would love to have more of you praying with us.  It hasn't even been a week and we are so ready to be back home.  I truly think Sweet P will benefit greatly from being with her big sister and brother, and I need some hugs and kisses from them!  

Goodnight from Thailand!  angela

taken for a ride.

More appropriately, I should say we went for a taxi ride and got taken.  Friday we, along with another family, decided to venture over to the Dusit Zoo to see the animals.  I was most excited to see the royal elephants! Anyway, Miss Oh told me it would be about a 100baht taxi ride over to the zoo, so we hopped in taxis and started out for the day.  Our drive seemed to go on an on, and I finally noticed the taxi fair well over 200baht.  We asked the taxi driver where he was taking us, and he said "I am follow that taxi" pointing to the taxi with our friends ahead.  Once we figured out from signs along the way he was taking us to the Safari World, I grabbed my travel guide and looked it up.  It told me Safari World is "a long way from city center"... hence the 400 baht taxi fare.

Notice our driver checking me out in the mirror, probably wondering how quickly I will become aware of his scheme.  :)  K unsuccessfully tried waiving down the guy in front of us to get him to pull over, and all we could get from our driver to help was two cursory honks and a helpless "I follow him."

I'll admit, I was annoyed.  I don't like being a tourist if it means I am going to be tricked into doing something I never intended.  We thought we were going to the zoo and ended up very far from there... but thankfully Safari World was worth the trip and we had a really fun time!  


If I remember right, we arrived just past 1:00pm and missed all but the final dolphin show. 

Meet our new friends T and J, their adorable girl D who was adopted from China, and their newest baby C.

We ate lunch overlooking a canal filled with black swans.  D is so stinkin' cute and I wish Peanut were here to play together!

Minus the phrase at the bottom of the sign, K was pretty sure this indicated a "bird squashing zone."

Sweet P was her usual somber-and-staring-in-public self until we met up with these hairy guys.  She pretty much flipped out at the sight of them, and I guess I have to agree.  They were crazy big orangutans!  

I walked down the way to let Sweet P calm down after the monkey encounter.  We took a little snack break and then kept on our way...

Who knew the elephants would be out and about with their trainers, getting ready to go in for the day?  She caught one peek of them and was back in wailing tears.  The only animals we saw around the orphanage were a few stray dogs that are common around Bangkok.

 T took the chance to feed the elephants while we tried to get a photo of Sweet P with her country's iconic animal of royal power.  Didn't go so well.

While I took Sweet P to calm down again, the walrus trainer appeared to give them their last feeding for the day.  The park was about to close so he gave an impromptu show for our group.  Have you ever heard a walrus whistle or seen one give a wai?

Seeing these monkeys was the first time I realized just how close the park allows you to the animals.  Until now I hadn't thought any of the animals dangerous but wondered if this guy would bite me if I gave him the chance.

By the time we arrived in front of this puma, I was a little frightened for any children whose parents aren't keeping a tight watch over them.  The chainlink fence was the only barrier to him attacking us, and it's obvious how a tiny finger or child's arm would be devoured in an instant.  Scary!   

 Have you ever seen so many giraffes in one place?  

 Have you ever been this close to a herd of giraffes?

T bought some bananas to feed them and their tongues are a sight!  Yuck.  I'd hate to get licked by one of those.    

 Once he finished, the workers urged him to wash his hands... then directed him toward a sink with no soap and a community hand towel.  Sanitary?  I think not.

Three tigers were leisurely resting in their cage as we approached.  Once again, a mere chainlink fence separated us from their jaws.  That wasn't a huge concern until they spotted D, cute as a button in her striped dress and started pacing back and forth along the fence.  She got playful with them, running back and forth between columns just outside their fence, but they quickly began charging the fence and getting serious about dinner.  

 Memorializing our unexpected trip to Safari World.

 Paying respects to the King of Thailand.  

Our taxi ride home got us exactly where we wanted to be, our hotel room, but not before witnessing a few other safety hazards:

unexpected turn of events.

The first 24-hour day we had with Sweet P didn't go as expected.  She coughed throughout the entire first night with her, and it was bad enough we thought it would be best to see a doctor.  An appointment was set by Miss Oh for just after lunch, so we took off for Lumpini Park just down the street.  It is well-known because it is one of the few green spaces in Bangkok.  It is a gorgeous sanctuary from all the hustle and bustle of the big city.  Since the weather was still in the 70s, we did not even notice the pollution that has been inescapable since it hit 90 outside.

Lumpini Park was filled with runners, children at the playground and groups of people doing tai chi.   

We took a little walk and saw paddle boat rentals for 40baht ~ $1.33.  A bag of bread pieces was 10baht ~ $0.33.  There is a lack of safety requirements, we've noticed, and that was no different on the paddle boats.  After paying, we had to ask to get a life jacket for Sweet P.  The smallest was the one pictured.

As we paddled around, we noticed a little head poking up out of the water.  Slowly this big guy made his way up onto the ledge and freaked me out!  We saw quite a few as we continued around the lake.  

 There was just enough time for a quick lunch stop at Uncle Noodle on our way back to the hotel.

Miss Oh met us for the doctor appt.  Thailand has public healthcare, but that hospital has extremely long waits.  Those that can afford it go to private hospitals.  We were seen in pediatrics by a kind doctor who spoke very good English.  She was most helpful and told us Sweet P arrived in our arms with a sinus infection and bronchitis.  

In regard to her coughing, the doctor told us to "get in front of her and cheer her on" so she could learn to clear her chest.  Sweet P got a quick breathing treatment, medicines, and we were finished.  Miss Oh was a blessing to have with us, helping us navigate the hospital, register and find pediatrics.

Not exactly what we had in mind for our second day together, but she was a trooper!  ...and she is feeling much better already!  Thank You, Lord.

Dinner this evening was with another adopting family.  I forgot to snap a picture but I will share them with you when I write about Friday.  The day ended looking over the lights of Bangkok.

grandmas are the greatest.

An enormous thank you is in order for K's mom.  Peanut and Buddy were so happy she would be with them these two weeks, they were outside chanting her name at the tops of their voices hours before she arrived.  I caught the end of the excitement on video.

(I just watched the video, and goodness, do I miss those two.)

Grandma has activities planned for each day, and they have been charting our flights and counting down days as we are away.  They had a camping day one rainy day, complete with a tent and marshmallows.  They had a "Pops" day in honor of their grandpa who could not make the trip too, popping balloons and drawing pictures to mail to Pops in Oklahoma.  I hope they aren't too disappointed when we get home and each day isn't quite this exciting!  :)  

Thank you again and again, Grandma!  Love angela

personality.

There seems to be two sides of Sweet P.  The first is the somber, stoic one you saw in our introduction at the orphanage.  This side comes out immediately upon leaving our hotel room and going into the world of new things.  It's a bit overwhelming for her to be out and experience so many sights and sounds and smells for the first time.  


What is so incredible is how the other side comes out when we are alone with her in our hotel room.  The day we brought her home, shortly after getting into our room, we gave her a gift from her big sister.  A crown with jewelry, of course, from our Peanut who loves not much more than being dressed to impress!  Immediately she began smiling and talking.  It was such a blessing to see her open up so quickly!  We have waited so long to see her sweet smile and it is priceless.


What is so fun, is she wants to wear the necklace each time she wakes up and all day long!

Here's a little talking as she checks out her gift.

This was the first time we got a good look at our one-toothed wonder... so cute!

She was hungry so we got some grapes at the market.  She quickly discovered the green were sour and the purple were sweet, so she only ate purple ones.  The green ones were given to us to eat, and as we ate them, she made a sour face.  

We ventured down the street for dinner to a restaurant recommended by my travel book.  It was delicious!  This picture shows how Thais hold silverware:  fork in left hand and spoon in right.  She is really good at using them and getting the food into her mouth without much mess.  I would guess when you have to feed yourself from a very early age, you get really good at it so you don't go hungry.  She uses smaller silverware and holds them at the very tip.

 Sweet P again yesterday with her necklace.

I hope we see more and more of this side of Sweet P outside our room as each day passes!  Blessings, angela