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.

 

Over the hills and far away

Up super early today, so early that we were ready before breaky was served, which was a shame because we actually slept really well!  Even Tony who is a shocking sleeper at the best of times.  Today's planned outing was a day trip to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and then the Rose Garden Village Cultural show.  We had an extra stop to make on the way so we needed to leave at 7 am so we could make it in time.  Our wonderful tour guide Wazza was waiting downstairs for us with our own private little tour bus right on time.

First stop was at Samut Songkhram to have a look at the Railway Market.  SS province is 75k south west of Bangkok, right near the ocean, and sitting at the Mouth of the Mae Klong River.  There are a lot of things to see here, but we're going to see perhaps the most unique of them.  The railway market is a very busy market that sits right on top of an operational railway track.  8 times a day the train rumbles through here so the vendors madly pack up their stalls and move their wares out of reach of the train - some stalls actually just let the train run over the top of their produce.  When the train is not there the laneway is covered with canvas awnings - when the train toots it becomes an empty railway track.  We all agreed it was something we will never forget and worth the trip there alone.  I captured some good video which Ill share here later.

So pre train it looks like this.

During the train pass it looks like this:

And then immediately after its business as usual :

Back on board the bus and we were off towards Damnoen Saduak floating market which is in Ratchaburi about 109 kilometres south of Bangkok.  Most people here live densely along both sides of the canals - more than 200 canals were built here by the locals.  The people that live here often grow several different kinds of fruits and vegetables for sale at the floating market. We boarded a long tail boat and took off for a lookie.

The boat ride was great because it was quite cool  at the river and in some parts we were travelling at speeds that allowed us too feel a nice breeze.

Once at the markets we left the boat and had a look around by foot.  Of course there was the usual souvenir shops, but in one section there was still alot of the fruit and vegetables and food. The boats selling food are really quite ingenious, although I dont think Id like to sit there for hours cooking noodle soups for hours at a time.

On the last little long-tail boat sitting at the dock was this gorgeous little 84 year old Chinese lady selling chinese pancakes.

We finished wandering through the market and found our way back to our mini van waiting for us to take us to lunch.  I managed to find a snack of fried bananas on the way which were completely delish.  We had an hours drive back towards Bangkok for the Rose Garden Village.  By the time we arrived we were hungry so enjoyed a lunchtime buffet in the air conditioned restaurant.

After lunch was a two part show.  Before I get to that though I have to point out that something has happened to our son on this trip.  His confidence and bravery has really amazed us.  Today's example was with a great big yellow python.  He so wanted to have his photo taken with it, and showed absolutely no fear of it at all - hes growing up before our eyes.

The first part of the show was a very short little program with a couple of elephants.  Kinda cute, but we'd had a much bigger meet and greet with elephants before.  Still, I love watching them and am still amazed at their mobility considering their size.
 

We then moved over into the pavilion for the main part of the show.  It really was a cultural show in that it did highlight a fair part of the ceremonial aspects of Traditional Thai life.  They did some dances, they did some mock Muay Thai boxing and they even showed what a Thai wedding was like (took particular note of that).

Once the show was done we climbed back on board the bus for the hour journey back to the hotel.  The traffic was really heavy as it is still a public holiday here.  I did a bit of a giggle because I think Don and Anna hadnt really thought the traffic was too bad here at all - I knew that sometime we'd get stuck in bumper to bumper.

Back at the hotel we joined up with the rest of our tour party who had just arrived here after their visit to Khon Kaen.  Mum and Dad had a great time there and Ill add some of their pics as soon as I can get access to them.  Today was certainly a very long day, but I think we got to see a lot of different facets to life here.