burkas with bling-bling: about Bangkok and more

I suppose now it is time for my annual “I love Bangkok” post – now that I have been freshly reminded of the place – and as usual, many of the things I have enjoyed about the city have been enjoyable again. The sense of freshness: pineapples, mangos, street vendors selling coconuts with a straws already in, tempting you to gulp down fresh coconut juice, palm trees, blue skies, the simple beauty of gardenias dotting the green landscape, diversity, energy, people… All those things are always true about Bangkok. There is also a sense of sweet familiarity with Bangkok for me too; granted, its reach only extends a few miles, a small strip of real estate, but within that area, life is predictable and does not disappoint.

This year in Bangkok has been enjoyable in a new way – Emma and Samantha now can enjoy things that they previously only glossed over on the way to and from our excursions. They enjoy the new fruits that they don’t eat often, the overwhelming glitter of shopping malls, the peaceful patter of fountains on almost every street corner. The swimming pool high on the rooftop of our hotel; looking out over the traffic reminds them of a line in one of their books, “the cars look like toy cars, the houses like toy houses.” They are confused when Asian looking faces don’t respond to their Asianese greetings and kind words. They are surprised that ladies wear black dresses (some of them jewel encrusted!) and face guards. They startle in surprise at the number of white faces that address them in English. They are apprehensive and reluctant at the fondness Thai people have for children.

Bangkok, so far, has maintained its status as one of my favorite places. Our first day in Bangkok, we headed to Outback for lunch and ordered two appetizers (one was free, thanks to a coupon!), a full rack of ribs and Alice Springs chicken. We were surprised to find the same waiter we got to know so well during Emma’s first few weeks still working there. They truly made us feel like important guests when they gave us dessert for free too! Except for the huge knot Samantha got on her forehead when she ran full-speed into the corner of a table, it was a great visit. We also went to Toys R Us that day and momma had to practice some serious restraint when it came to toy-buying. We ended up with lots of special gifts for Emma’s birthday, fun craft things to do with the girls, a new dress-up dress and several other things. Next door to Toys R Us is a fun bookstore, so we stocked up there too. Our last major stop that day was the preliminary trip to the grocery store (it takes me several trips). This is the place where I have to REALLY restrain myself…and I think I did an ok job. Get this: after exiting the store, josh was looking over the receipt and asked me, “Did you know this karo syrup was $10?” Um. No. I did not know that; and I had bought TWO. Two bottles of karo syrup for twenty bucks? I think not. I did something very unlike myself and marched right in there and returned them. Redfaced and all. No way would I pay twenty bucks for karo syrup.

Josh’s treat for day 1 in Bangkok was a meal at a Lebanese restaurant he has come to love; the girls didn’t eat up the hummus quite like the did last year, but we discovered that Samantha will eat sour pickles like you’ve never seen!

After only one full day in Bangkok, we headed down to a quiet little ocean town where we were going to stay for a few days. The place we booked was a little cottage just a few minutes walk from the beach and had its own spa pool that the girls could play in. Breakfast would be served on the patio amid the flower and rock gardens that were home to butterflies and birds. Translation: a run-down, “summer camp”-style building, with a green pool, mosquitos dining with you at breakfast, electrical tape patching holes in the mosquito nets, only one guy on the whole property who speaks English…yeah, you get the idea.

We were prepared to stay there and just deal with it the remaining nights. So what, the place wasn’t the Hilton, but it was true, the beach was less than 3 minutes walk from our door and it seems that Emma and Samantha had found their true life’s calling – beach bums. The first two trips to the beach were filled with shrieks as they ran in and out of the waves. They played “beach basketball” – a fun little game devised by daddy, who made balls out of sand, sort of like a sandball I guess, and they would run to the edge of the waves and throw them in with all their might. We bought a sandcastle building set and they have become busy little workers, transporting water and sand back and forth as they have built castle after castle after tower after house after…yeah, you get it. They love burying their toes in the sand, watching it trickle through their fingers, looking at the footprints it makes after the tide washes the sand away. With reckless abandon, they run forward as the surf laughs in and tumbles them over. Truly, I never would have imagined my girls would like the beach so much. Personally, I like beaches that have airconditioning, sand that doesn’t stick to you, and books. Exactly. Beaches like that don’t exist.

But, anyway, I ramble. The point is that they have already had hours of endless fun getting dirty, getting clean, building and destroying, transporting, collecting seashells and whatever else they can think of.

Enter my knight in shining armor husband who, unbeknownst to me, walks two minutes down the beach and finds a fabulous resort (one I had found online but decided not to book because it was too expensive) that has everything you dream a tropical vacation should have: bursts of bright pink and purple orchids everywhere you look, majestic palms lining your paths, oceanfront rooms, a beautiful sparkling pool with fountains and a fun kiddie pool – he found it. I didn’t even know.

He told me of his plan last night, to check out of our “bungalow” and move to this other place. This immediately threw my nonconfrontational self into a fit of worry, especially since the “bungalow’s” policy included all those “non” words – nonrefundable, namely. But he did it. He talked to them this morning. They were understanding and apologetic. They are giving us our money back. We walked down the street with all our twenty bazillion suitcases and now I am typing this with the free wifi in the room while my girls are sleeping and my husband is looking out at the ocean 30 feet away through our bay window bordered by palms, greenery and those bright tropical flowers I love so much. Truly, our room is close enough to the ocean that I could open our windows at night and sleep with the The five days I dreaded yesterday morning have turned into four days of bliss.

Once the girls wake up, our plan is to go swimming, play puttputt (at the resort) and get some pizza for dinner. What I thought could be a potentially ulcer-causing scenario has turned into quite the day.

Well, ok, since this post is long enough already, I’ll go back to my book I bought just for the beach (The Kite Runner, by Khaled Housseni, if anyone is interested) and write more of this later.

Adios.