Swimming Through Jet Lag at the Conrad (Almost Home)

Our last stop on our way "home" was Bangkok, known in Thailand as Krungthep, short for the full name กรุงเทพมหานครอมรรัตนโกสินทร์มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลกภพพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถานอมรพิมานอวตารสถิตสักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์. What? You didn't catch all that? Here it is transliterated for you: Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit. Yikes, that's a mouthful. According to Wikipedia, the name roughly translates to "City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman at Indra's behest." But, we'll just stick with Bangkok for now and call it good.

Our view out our hotel window, picture by Young Man.

We arrived near midnight and after collecting all our bags, heading through customs and immigration, and driving to our hotel, we got to bed well after 1am. My Man had to be at work at 7 that morning!  Luckily our sponsor forgot to let us know that actually we were all supposed to accompany him for in-processing. Oops.

Instead, the kids and I slept in and then headed out to Lumphini Park, a large park just a few blocks away. By the time we set out around 10am, it was already 95 and humid. Darling Daughter thought we were trying to kill her. After the subzero temps we'd just come from, it was quite an adjustment.

After a bit of cajoling, however, we got her to come along and even pose for a few forced-smile pictures.

The boys thought it was heaven.

The best part of the park is that there are giant monitor lizards all around. We saw lots of big ones and even some babies.

There were some pagodas, playgrounds, lakes, and beautiful flowers. We finally got a real smile out of Darling Daughter when we agreed it was time to head back to the hotel.

On the way back home, just around the corner from our hotel, was a busy street market (I am totally kicking myself for never getting a picture--it was a fascinating market!). There were all sorts of strange street foods and fruits and smells and so many people! The kids got strawberry smoothies and Darling Daughter decided she liked Thailand afterall. They were that good!

Although Bangkok is full of wonderful things to see and do (and I had an ambitious "to do" list a mile long for our four days there), the combination of jet lag, heat, and Funny Guy's persistent stomach bug (bothering him on and off since Utah), kept us at the hotel more than I would have liked. Still, it wasn't a bad place to hang out. The pool was absolutely beautiful and we spent several afternoons swimming and lounging out there.

And, truth be told, even though I was disappointed that no one wanted to go anywhere, there was a part of me that was secretly pleased to just sit back and relax.

I did manage to talk the kids into one more little adventure. Bangkok's snake farm (the world's second snake farm) is famous and has a show where you can watch them milk the cobra venom to make antidotes (the farm supplies hospitals with antidotes for all of Thailand's poisonous snakes).

It was a fairly long walk, but we cut through Lumphini Park and saw lots more monitor lizards.  We also saw the first of many signs honoring the King (they are everywhere here!).

We made it just in time for the show, which was pretty cool (literally--by then we were so glad to enjoy a little bit of air conditioning!). We watched them milk several cobras, which was fascinating (they let the cobras strike a cup covered with plastic, so that the venom collects in the cup).

The snake exhibits, both inside and out, were also nice. The only negative was when I made the realization of how many different venomous snake species there are in Thailand!! Yikes. Definitely not the place to try and catch a pet snake.

We stopped at the U.S. embassy for lunch on the way home (hoping to see My Man, but no such luck). The whole embassy is surrounded by a wall covered in "Friendship murals," with each section painted by a Bangkok school to commemorate 180 years of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Thailand.

Later that day, Funny Guy finally lost the tooth he's been wiggling for weeks. He was very excited and even happier when he found out that tooth fairies in Thailand give you baht! Time to go get a smoothie.

(Little did he know that the other top tooth would soon follow. Now he's double toothless and it is adorable!)

Our last day in Bangkok, I got up early and went jogging in Lumphini Park. It was awesome. The park was completely transformed early in the morning. When the kids and I had gone earlier, it was practically a ghost town, but at 6:30 in the morning, it was hopping! There were hundreds of runners (many seemed to be in clubs or groups) and it had the feel of an organized event, like a 5K. Then there were tons of groups of people doing aerobics, yoga, tai chi, and other various exercises. What a fun way to start the day.

The kids voted on swimming for their last day, but we did head out for some street food for lunch.  The kids decided on a rice flour crepe wrapped around scrambled quail eggs and a hot dog (kind of like this except ours had two eggs and a little hotdog inside). I was proud of them for trying it out (personally, I was overwhelmed by the smells and heat and opted for just an orange juice, although when I say "just an orange juice" what I really mean is "the most amazing burst of flavor and sweet pure joy you've ever tasted, freshly-squeezed mandarin orange juice"). They also tried out a few satays (roasted meat on a stick), fresh fruit, juice, and some weird gelatin things that were not as palatable as they looked like they would be.

After that, we headed back to the pool. :-)  My Man had a much busier, crazier week than we did. Each day he headed to the embassy early where he finished in-processing, meeting everyone he needed to meet, and then shadowing colleagues so that he'd be ready to hit the ground running in Chiang Mai. Although it was busy, it was invaluable and made him even more excited to head up to the consulate to start work. Even though he didn't feel like he needed to do any sight-seeing in Bangkok, for our last evening there I set up a dinner cruise on the river (the easiest way to see the sights!).  It was pretty awesome.

The cruise ship had an international buffet, traditional Thai dancers, musicians, and of course, beautiful views.

We passed all of the main temples that Bangkok is famous for (most of which are featured on the back of the Thai coins). All lit up, they were absolutely beautiful (and made me want to get out and get a closer view!).

It was a great way to finish our stay in Bangkok. The next morning we packed our bags and said good-bye to the luxurious Conrad Hotel (very sad to be eating breakfast for the last time at the best breakfast buffet in the world!) and headed to the airport for our last flight in awhile, ready at last to go home.