Bangkok

By the time we reached Bangkok, we were all ready to go home, so we were pretty nonchalant about sight-seeing. The first morning we started off walking through the busy city streets toward Golden Mountain but got lost. We found out from a passerby that the government was subsidizing gas for tuk tuk drivers (you can see a picture of a tuk tuk in the picture above) and we could get a driver to take us all over Bangkok for 30 Baht an hour (that's about $1/hour). That felt almost criminal--until we realized that the tuk tuk drivers got a kickback from taking us to certain stores that we did not ask to visit. We would be going somewhere (or so we'd thought) and we'd end up at some store and the driver would say, "No problem, just go in for five minutes. No problem." I was ticked! I don't like feeling like I've been fenagled into something I didn't sign up for! For lunch one of the days, we asked the tuk tuk drivers to take us somewhere good and inexpensive. They dropped us off at a seafood restaurant that was super pricey. So we walked out and got back in the tuk tuks without eating. We told them that wouldn't work, we need something inexpensive and less formal. They drove around town and dropped us off at another place. We went in, sat down and realized the drivers had just taken us to another location of the EXACT same restaurant. So we gathered up the children and walked out again without eating. Then, I ripped those drivers a new one and told them if they wanted ANY of our money they better damn well quit trying to trick us. They were pretty nice and straightforward after that. I'm not a woman to be trifled with!

We went to several Buddhist temples. This one had a giant golden Buddha and the kids were given small birds in cages to release in the temple for good luck. They thought that was pretty awesome.

Every country has its own take on Buddhist decor. In Korea they use a certain set of colors and paint lotus flowers all over the temples. In China they have golden dragons and lots of red paint. In Cambodia they use a lot of carvings and the temple roofs were a dark orange. In Thailand everything was made of bright, ornate gold.

This temple was actually a little bit different and really beautiful. Fifty years ago, Thailand's king set this temple apart as a holy dwelling of the Buddha. In Thailand, they are devoutly Buddhist, but they are also devoutly loyal to their king. Almost every home has a golden-framed depiction of the king. There are giant portraits of him on every corner and on every major building. For the national anthem at the show we went to, they showed video clips of the king visiting people and surveying the land, and the people came and kissed his feet like they were worshipping him. Coming from the U.S., that was a little weird to me. I can't imagine idolizing any political/national leader like that. The most allegiance they'd get from me is a vote every four years. So, even though Thailand is mainly "democratic" it still has strong roots in a traditional monarchy. That was an interesting thing for me to see.

One of our tuk tuk stops that we were duped into going actually ended up being the highlight of Brian's vacation. Brian was pretty bummed that he didn't get to certify to scuba dive. That has been his dream since we first dived in Puerto Rico almost two years ago. However, the next best thing was a custom tailor who fitted Brian for two customs suits made out of high quality (they say Italian but I can't verify that) fabric. For a guy that is Brian's size--a custom made suit is a big deal! He got two beautiful suits each with two pairs of pants and two custom made dress shirts and I got a custom made suit jacket with a pencil skirt for job interviews (someday). The total cost was less than if Brian and Oakley had certified to scuba dive. But the most amazing part was that the first day at lunchtime we were measured for the suits, that evening we were fitted and the next day at 2 pm we picked them up to go home with us. That made for a very Merry Christmas for Brian, seeing as he's only ever owned two suits in the last 16 years, and one was for our wedding.

The second evening in Bangkok, the tuk tuk drivers talked us into doing a river cruise down the Chao Phraya river. I had heard from others that this was supposed to be cool and we were a little sick of seeing Buddhist temples, so I wasn't against this. . . until we got there. The river was still very high from the flooding and it was filled with debris that had washed down from the northern areas of Thailand. The waves in the river were incredibly rough and they were smacking our little gondola around. . . and there were no life jackets in the boat. I had a hard time enjoying it after that. I gripped Giselle's t-shirt the entire time and wouldn't let her go near the side.

The sunset was beautiful and we saw the Grand Palace from the river and a couple other shrines and then we went down a side canal where we saw the King's grand boats in a small pier (they were gold and shaped like dragons and magical creatures--pretty amazing). In the middle of our river boat tour, debris got tangled around the motor and our tour was cut short. Like I said in an earlier post, you can plan the details, but you have no control over accidents, incidents and weather. Oh, well, right?

The first night in Bangkok, we went to a traditional Thai food buffet followed by a show called Siam Nirimit. I have seen several Broadway productions and seen the NYC Ballet and a plethora of other shows, and I will say that I have NEVER seen anything as awe-inspiring and breathtaking as this show. Even my children were in complete awe the entire duration. There were live elephants that came through the audience. There were flying dancers and a magical creatures. They danced and fought in traditional martial arts. There was smoke and fire and fog. And at one point, the front of the stage disappeared and revealed a river. One performer dove into it and then boats came across the front of the stage. The show depicted the history of Thailand as well as the philosophies of Buddhism and their afterlife beliefs. We spent a lot of time shopping in Bangkok and that was fun because things were beyond dirt cheap, but I will say, hands down, this show was the greatest thing about Bangkok.

They made everyone turn in their cameras at the counter and were searching people's bags and purses to ensure compliance. So we only got two pictures outside the concert hall. However, if you want to see clips of the show, you can click on this link:

http://www.siamniramit.com/index.php

We arrived at the airport at 10pm the last night and slept on benches until our departing flight at 1am. We arrived in Beijing at 6 am and then flew to Seoul, arriving at 11 am. We were welcomed back to Korea with a 70 degree temperature drop (it was cold, cold, cold--it felt worse than Alaska!) and the smell of kimchi and squid. If we hadn't been so wiped out from travel, we may have considered getting on a plane and going back.

All in all, it trulyturned out to be the vacation of all vacations. I don't know why, but I have felt over the last year that it is important for me to give my children the exposure to other cultures, lands, foods, customs, religions, etc. Not only was this meant to be a really fun family vacation, but it was meant to open my children's eyes to life around the world. It is very easy to become so accustomed and trapped in one's own circumstances and lifestyle that we forget how broad God's great design really is in its scope. I don't know what my children's callings in life will be, but I have felt strongly that these experiences will play a role in helping them do the things they need to do in life. My children were so open and gracious and they seemed to comprehend and accept everything that they saw (minus a few weird mystery meat dishes). It was a great experience! We decided from now on our family tradition will not to be to give gifts on Christmas, but instead we will pick somewhere in the world that we can visit as a family. Next year my parents want to meet us in Hawaii, and we're thinking Costa Rica the Christmas after that.