Happy Birthday Mumsie

Happy Birthday to you....I wont go on - you know how it goes!.

Today was Mum's 60 something Birthday.  What a great place to have a birthday!  As they only joined us yesterday we thought that they could do with a day of rest. The most stressful thing we did all day was figure out where to have dinner.

We opted for the seafood platter in one of the restaurants.

As you can see there was lobster and salmon, calamari, muscles and a whole lot of seafoody goodness.  This was pretty much the only time we were disappointed during our stay here - the food took a long time to come. 

We had ordered a cake to be bought out after dinner to surprise mum for her birthday.  Unfortunately we were upstaged by the hotel!.  I went to great depths to keep it secret and then in the late afternoon they got a knock at their door and Mum was surprised with a cake courtesy of hotel management.  Of course she thought it was from us and till we disowned it.  Little did she know that a second cake would be on its way after dinner.

 Cake one!

Cake 2

The only sad thing about 2 cakes was that we had to eat lots of cake  haha

I dont like Mondays's (unless Im spending them at the pool in Pattaya)

Wow Monday rolled around so quickly.  Today Mum and Dad re join us after their second mini trip to Laksi.  They have been spending the last two days visiting with Wazza (aka our tour guide extraordinaire).  There are certainly no rules about how you find friends in the big wide world.  They first met Warren way back in 2008 when we did a couple of tours for us.  They've been keeping in touch via the inter webs and Im sure will continue to do so way after this trip.

We spent the day here doing what we have been already the last few days - resting, swimming and eating.  We decided that tonight we should probably have some proper food as it was time for something larger than a canape.  We decided to go to Flames restaurant which is a BBQ grill place here at Centara that overlooks the ocean.  This is the second time we've eaten here and I'm still really not sure what the best feature is, either the delicious individually grilled BBQ buffet, or the sounds from the ocean that provide the backdrop to the meal.

Tonight we had two extra little treats.  The first was a visit from a couple of Brazilian looking showgirls who did some booty shaking dances in front of our table for about 15 minutes.

The second was the chef of the restaurant making us feel absolutely like this was our own personal little restaurant.

Too lazy to post...almost

We spent Saturday morning bumming around in our room, watching TV and willing our belongings to jump into the suitcases themselves, counting the minutes until checkout at 12.  We had a taxi booked for our final destination at midday also because we've grown a little tired of sitting around in hotel foyers' waiting for time to pass.

For Tony's reward for suffering holiday boot camp for the past 3 weeks I'd booked the last 6 days of our vacation at our all time favourite hotel.  We stayed here at the Centara Grande Mirage in Pattaya only 9 months ago but it was so amazing we wanted to come back here and also to share it with Mum and Dad.  Mums birthday will be spent here so what better reason to take the 2 hour drive down to the coast.



We arrived in Pattaya a little after 1.30 pm, and 10 minutes after that were bumming around in the club lounge having a light lunch.  We decided to book club rooms this time so we could enjoy all day drinks and snacks.  Soon after our delicious soup and sandwiches we were pool bound for the rest of the arvo.

Sleep certainly came easily on Saturday night.  Our room was cool, and dark, and just peace full.  I had to make a concession when booking this room.  Last time we were here we had a king size bed which was just heaven.  This time, to fit little Natey in, we had to suffer having two double beds instead.  It was so funny seeing Nate stretched out, his tiny little body only covering a small bit of the bed.

Sunday, well Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday night.  About the only difference was that Tony ordered himself a couple of Martini's at the club lounge rather than last nights Mai tai.

The evening dinner canapes, were spring rolls and teeny weeny pork dumplings - we ate so many we had no need to order food tonight.  Last night we ordered some room service after our 'snacks'as it just didn't seem right to eat snacks for dinner.  We got over that tonight!  I even managed to stumble back to the club at 8 30 to see what the "evening cordials' was all about.  I didn't see any cordials, but I did see liqueurs, homemade chocolates and cookies.  Yep you guessed it, I took a sample of each back to our room for supper.

Stepping back in time

Nate has been looking forward to today for a while now.  He got to show off himself at the Thai Red Cross Children's Home (TRCCH) and also got to show off the centre to his Grandparents.  For those of you who didn't know, Nate, the joy of our lives, was adopted to us from the TRCCH in 2006.  My introduction to blogging was then as I kept a record of that adventure at "Nate comes home"

We set off early and found our way there right on time for the 10 o'clock appointment.  We were really surprised as the grounds have changed somewhat - they're building a huge new nurses home adjacent to the Children's Home which looks very modern and almost enough to make me want to work there, not really.

I'm not sure why but I always feel nervous coming back here.  I guess because it was such an emotional time for us when we collected Nate from here.  Tony and I can recall pretty much every minute of the days we spent there waiting to take our little man away from there.  Don't get me wrong, he got great care there, it just wasn't his home.  Home is where the heart is so his home was and always will be with us.  Anyways I digress.

We had to wait a few minutes before we could go visit the littlies so we got to chat with one of the social workers for a bit.  She was full of questions about Nate - is he healthy, what does he like to do etc etc.  We asked tactfully how Yoda Dr Sarre was doing - she was the head Doctor here over seeing the care of the children when we first came here.  She is an amazing lady - she retired sometime back in the 1980's but somehow just kept turning up to work!  Apparently she is doing very well but wasn't in today as she was at one of the other sites.

The role of the TRCCH has changed a little since we were here last.  They tend to take the kids from other orphanages who have medical problems and make them better before they go to their new families.  Today, they have 55 kids here, some have been placed and are just waiting for health to improve and others still are waiting to see.

The place is exactly as I remembered, very clean and dare I say it sterile.  We had a look in the babies room and then went up to the toddlers room - a large bare room with white walls and a very polished wooden floor.  It was "quiet" there at the moment as the older kids were off at school.  Our arrival was met with mixed responses from the kids, some appeared scared and others couldn't wait for their hugs.  I noticed the reactions to Nate straight away - from the kids the looks on their faces were certainly confused.  You could almost read their minds - why does he look like me because he doesn't sound like me at all.  I think Poppa and Grandpa were the favorites as they were the first ones to score clingers.  Nanny had bought along some pencils and colouring books so Nate got busy handing out pages and pencils.  At first they had no idea what to do with them - was only a few seconds before many of them got tasted!.

We stayed for about half an hour just basking in the joy that comes from spending time with these little souls that you just know are somewhat starved for attention and affection.  I  owe this place such a debt that can never be re-payed, well maybe I can a little by raising our boy and guiding him through life in such a way that he will be grow into a man that can make a difference in this world.  Today's visit was partly about remembering the past, but more importantly for Nate, he got to make new memories of being here with his Grandparents and Parents who love him so much.  I know none of us will forget it.

Once we were done here it was time for Don and Anna to say farewell to Bangkok and make their way home.  Their flight took off at 4.40 pm so we had to have them packaged up and delivered to Suvarnabhumi Airport asap.  Although I think they had a great week, I'm pretty sure that the heat took it out of them somewhat.  Regardless, if they got a better idea about Nate's heritage and a bit of an understanding of why we love Thailand so much then mission accomplished.  Amazingly the airport was pretty quiet so their departure was swift and trouble free.  The boys were both teary after they left and we all hoped they got a good flight home.

A river runs through it

Our final day of touring has come around so quickly.  To round out the Bangkok experience we booked a longtail boat ride through the Khlongs in the old Capital of Bangkok - Thonburi.  Before getting there the little boat travels up the Chao Praya river which always has some great things to see.

Petrol station

Long tail boats

Thonburi was the third site of the capital from 1767 to 1782 after Ayutthaya was lost to the Burmese.  Many people still live here and I truly think that no where else here in Bangkok shows such stark contrasts to the way people live.

Of course today it decided to rain so we took off under very cloudy skies.  Shortly into the trip it started to rain which was only a minor inconvenience really.  The journey though the canals took about an hour and half way into it we stopped to feed the catfish outside one of the temples.  Well jaws eat your heart out - these fish are thriving here as they are not able to be fished up near the temple.  We fed them some bread and they splashed so much that Don and I got soaked from them.

We saw some other wildlife too that are quite common in this area - monitor lizards.

As the rain was starting to get heavier we had to put off getting out at Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn.  This is another beautiful temple, covered with pieces of Chinese porcelain and seashells which were found in the first trading boats from China in the early 1800's.  As we didn't get to stop Ill put in additional photos of what we missed - taken on my last visit in 2008.

2008

2008

Once back on dry land we went off in search of food and also some art supplies for Anna - we got both so all round was a good day despite the rain.  We had planned to have a grand dinner over at the Marriott Hotel but alas they had a special function on and we had to miss out unless we wanted to eat at 9pm!.  So, we went back to the regular spot and although the food was great yet again, it was no buffet.

Around Thailand in a day, actually in only a few hours

Back on the tour bus for a quick trip around Thailand.  Actually it was a trip to The Ancient City.  I guess you could describe this place as a historical theme park.  It is a huge park laid out in the shape of Thailand filled with various buildings and monuments all showing off Thai icons and culture.

There are a couple of things that are quite interesting about this place.  Firstly all of the buildings, or ruins, or Wat's or statues are made to look exactly like the original.  It was kinda strange to go past the replica of the Grand Palace as we were at the 'real' one only yesterday.  The second thing is that the features are placed into the park in the areas that they really would be in Thailand.  For example the displays from Chiang Mai were in the northern part of the park.

I had a read parts of the website for this park, and a statement from its creator certainly sums up how important parks like this are.  He says "When most people are not given any chance to access and understand their own country’s cultural heritage, how can they appreciate and be proud of it?"

Nate would tell you that the hands down best part about this park were the golf carts we had to ride around on.

There were a number of school buses of schoolkids touring the park today also except that they used pedal power.  I think we had the better option.

We travelled around for about an hour and a half before we got back in our van and headed back to Bangkok proper.  We asked our wonderful tour guide Wazza if dropping us at the MBK centre would be ok as we still needed to do some more shopping (Nanny needed a birthday pressie!).  Of course it was no drama at all so after a hearty lunch of McDonalds we spent a couple of hours shopping for shoes, shirts, scarf, bag and groceries.

Oh yes I meant to mention yesterday that we found an absolute gem of a place for dinner.  Tucked down the side street right next to the hotel we found a tiny little restaurant called Feuang Nara.  Everything about this place is great, the range of food, the price, the service and the taste.  Last night we all agreed it was the best food we had had here and tonight was no different!!

Anna, the rest of us, and the King

The action packed Bangkok week for Grandparents Tossell continues today with a trip to two of Bangkoks' most famous attractions.  No tour bus today as were going public.  First up the sky train to Saphin Taksin pier and then onto a water taxi.  The ride up the Chao Phraya river was short and very cheap - 14bht each!.

Our first stop was the Grand Palace.  This is a complex of many buildings that was built in the late 1700's during the reign of King Rama 1.  The third capital of Thailand was a place called Thonburi and was on the west bank of the river.  This king decided to create the fourth and final capital city on the other side of the river, now of course known as Bangkok.  This ancient and very beautiful place is still used on occasion by the current royal family - last year it was used for the funeral of the current King's sister.

This is one of the hardest places Ive had to blog about.  There are so many beautiful areas with in these grounds so l will try to only include 5 photos showcasing the place.  There are 4 palace buildings, a number of ceremonial buildings, many many statues and of course a temple.  The temple here is called Wat Phra Kaew and it is home to the Emerald Buddha.

 

This was not our first visit here, in fact it may well be the third or fourth trip for some of us.  The last time that Tony and I came here was after picking Nate up in 2006.  We had only had him with us for 4 days when we ventured out here with him.  Being that he was only 17 months old he slept his way around the place, and I remember it vividly - both because we carried him around the whole time we were here, and the palace is always really hot.   Anyways, on going back through my laptop photos I found pictures of our last visit to compare with the current visit..

After the palace it was a quick tuk tuk ride over to Wat Pho.  This is another very famous landmark as it is a temple housing the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand.  The construction of this temple started in 1788, about the same time they made the first settlement at Botany Bay.  The temple is also known as the birthplace of Thai massage and throughout the complex there are a lot of images related to massage, yoga and medicine - there is a school for massage on the grounds also.

The main star of the temple is definitely the huge gold Buddha.  He is 46 metres long, 15 metres tall at the face end, and each foot is 3 metres high and 5 metres long and inlaid with mother of pearl.