Taking It Easy

We took it easy today. Still recovering from our stomach problems and catching up on laundry :)

We went out to lunch and had the intention to go to Suan Pakkad Palace but we didn't make it to the Palace in time...so we went to a see a movie at Siam Paragon instead. We figured it's best to stay close to home and not far from a nice clean restroom so Siam Paragon was the obvious choice. Siam Paragon is a luxury mall that sells anything from Armani to Lamborghinis. We stayed clear of the stores but we did enjoy their food court and the movie theator :)

I have tried to eat dessert everyday while in Thailand....especially Thai dessert I can't find back in the U.S. :) Today's dessert was "Lod Chong Singapore" It's a short noodle made with Pandan leaves served with sweetened coconut milk and crushed ice. The pandan leaf gives it a green color...making it look like a big bowl of snot. It doesn't look appetizing but it's yummy :)

The dessert made me think of the Peterson boys, how they would have really loved to have a bowl of dessert that looks like a big bowl of snot! So this one is for you, West & Cole (and Cash too.)

some beach pics

Heading out to "Skull Mountain"

Beautiful & Peaceful

hanging out at the bottom of "the Skull"

I call this the "band pose"

My Best Friend's Wedding....and Honeymoon

So Saturday was the big day for Neung and Care. I have known Neung since grade school and Care since we were babies!! Brian and I were so honored that they asked us to take part in their wedding. It was a HUGH wedding....1000+ guests. Care's dad is the "pastor to the stars" so there were a lot of Thai singers, song writers, actors and TV show hosts as well as a good amount of dignitaries there. It was too bad that I hardly know who's who.

The wedding was a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of friends and catch up with a lot of people. We sat at the table with David Johnson and his lovely family. I was glad that we sat with English speaking people so Brian wouldn't be bored. The reception was a traditional Chinese table dinner. Brian tried a few things that I knew that he wouldn't have tried a few years back.....things like "thousand year old egg and fish stomach soup!! I was impressed.

When we got home, we stayed up and watch a movie on TV with my mom and packed for the trip to Pranburi with the newlyweds.

We left for Pranburi on Sunday morning around 9 a.m. with Neung and Care. Stopped at a little place on the beach for a yummy seafood lunch. We had some awesome grilled banana shrimp (they are called banana shrimp because they are about the size of a banana!!) and we continued on our way. We stopped and toured the Marukhathaiyawan Palace in Cha-um where Care and I both had to wear "borrowed" cloths. She was wearing shorts (had to borrow a long skirt) and I had on a sleeveless dress (had to borrow a shoulder cover.) Once again, not to our surprise, no pictures allowed inside the palace. We had a fun time just walking around and taking some pictures on the ground anyway!

After the Marukhathaiyawan Palace tour, we stopped again at Plearnwan in Hua Hin. Plearnwan is a vintage village full of old-timey shops and lots of good snack food. We walked around and had our fill of snacks, then we headed back to the van to continue our journey. We stopped one last time at a supermarket to get a few things and then we were off to the hotel. We had managed to make a 3-hr trip into an 8-hr trip. It was fun!

We arrived at Villa Moroc around 5 p.m. The place is a beautiful Moroccan themed boutique hotel. We were in neighboring buildings but in the same courtyard area. We went to our rooms to get settled and we met for dinner. We went over to this seafood restaurant near the hotel and once again had some great seafood. When we were done, we walked back to the hotel on the beach, back to our rooms and called it a night!

Monday morning, I woke up with hives all over my neck and torso. It wasn't a mild case either, it's the kind that makes me look like a freak. I was not happy. Thank God I'm pretty much a traveling pharmacy, I had Benedryl and Zyrtec with me. Benedryl didn't work but Zyrtec did. By the end of the day, the hives were practically unnoticeable. Around noon, we called the driver and went out to lunch at a recommended seafood place and had another great meal.

We spent our afternoon taking wedding photos for Neung and Care. They had brought their wedding garbs with them and I did Care's hair and make up. It was a lot of fun but it was pretty hot. Neung had to keep wiping off sweat from his face because he was so hot! Brian and I both took pictures (using Neung's D90 and Brian's D7000) and got a lot of good ones! We took pictures until there was no more sun light :)

We had dinner at the same place we did the night before and then we met for a late night swim. Neung didn't swim but he sat by the pool with his laptop. Care, Brian and I thoroughly enjoyed swimming and giving Neung a hard time about not swimming!

At some point, Care and I ended up on one side of the pool having girl-talk and Brian and Neung on the other side of the pool having what I assume to be boy-talk :) Good bonding time! We made plans for the following morning and returned to our rooms around midnight.

We met for breakfast and had quite a feast! After a quick break to digest our food we went biking to "Skull Mountain." We had fun on the beach for a while and then biked back to get cleaned up and packed just in time to check out.

We really enjoyed spending time with Neung and Care. Even though the trip was short and we were plagued with hives(me) and stomach problems(both of us), we had so much fun. We would do it again in a heartbeat!

Jim Thompson House, Night Light International and Wedding stuff

Thursday

We spent most of the day shopping for a new camera lens. We ended up trading in the kit lens for the 18-200MM. After that we made it to Jim Thompson House/Museum and the Bangkok Cultural Arts Center. Once again, no pictures allowed inside the House. We took a good bit of pictures around the garden and on the property of the Jim Thompson House. It was very interesting. Apparently, Jim Thompson was an architect in NY before he was drafted during WW2 and sent to station in Thailand. He fell in love with the Thai culture and especially Thai architecture. His house was built using mainly Thai architecture but with a little Western twist here and there. He ended up settling in Thailand, making a fortune for himself through the Thai silk trade. He disappeared while taking a walk when he was on vacation in Malaysia when he was 61 years old. Noone knows what's happened to him even until today.

Friday

We had an appointment to meet and tour the Night Light International Ministry. Their work consist of helping women who are working in the redlight district called Nana get out of that profession by teaching them jewelry making skills. Nightlight provides them with an alternative employment, in jewelry making. They also deal with some of the women who's been trafficked. They told us that the Thai women who are working in this trade in Thailand are not trafficked, they can leave at anytime but they don't because they just feel like they don't have a choice and they do it to feed their family. However, there are women who's been trafficked from Central Asia and some from Africa into Thailand that they've help. They have a small unit within the ministry to help trafficked women. They can only give them a safe place to stay and help them get back to their home countries since these women are not Thai, thus Nightlight cannot hire them. They currently employ about 80 Thai women, all coming out of the redlight district, to make jewelry. You can support their ministry by buying the jewelry online since they can't pay their employees by donation, only through the jewelry sales. However, donations can be used for facilities,teaching programs, building and such. It's the beautiful and holistic approach to helping these women help themselves. Brian and I were both impressed.

We spent Friday evening at the wedding rehearsal for Neung and Care's wedding. It was a really long rehearsal!! We grabbed dinner and then went home to crash. It's been a long week!

A Day in the Old City. A Night on the Town.

We had an early start on Wednesday! My dad was taking us on a day trip to Ayuttaya! The assistant pastor, Ajan Vee (Ajan is a title that means “teacher”), was our driver! Ayuttaya was the capital city of Thailand from the 14^th-17^th century before Bangkok became the capital city. We had a really fun day and we got a lot of good pictures! Here are some samples :)

Wednesday night, we decided to go hear my cousin, Sunny, play at a restaurant in the swanky district called Soi Thonglor. Sunny is a professional Jazz pianist. He teaches at 2 universities, teaches private piano lessons in his home studio, and performs with a group of friends at different hotels, Jazz bars or restaurants. This particular night, Sunny was playing at a restaurant called “To Die For.” The food can be classified as contemporary American food with Asian fusion, very comparable to a nice contemporary American restaurant (and so was the price!) We sat outside in an open patio that is enclosed by the restaurant. The weather was just perfect! Brian and I had a great dinner while enjoying wonderful Jazz music. Sunny would come and sit and hangout with us during his breaks. We told Sunny that the singer sounded really good. All the songs she sang were in English and her English sounded good. He told us that her English is actually not that great if we hear her speak but you can’t tell when you hear her sing because she’s learned and memorized these songs to a T! She’s a recorded Jazz artist in Thailand and has quite a following! Brian and I had a lot of fun. Great food, great music and great company! Cheers (with Thai Singha beer) to a great night!

Tuesday Pictures

Starting our afternoon at MBK shopping for camera stuff for Brian

Dinner with Neung and Care.

Neung manning the grill while Care is on the phone taking care of wedding stuff

Gaan and Care gabbing. Brian cooking :)

Yummy Yum Yum Yum.

The end of the meal :) Stuffed and happy!

More Monday Pictures

Pretty flowers in front of the gate at Vimanmek Mansion

Gaan and Winit trying to decide where to go next


The grounds at Vimanmek

In front of our dinner....

Group picture after family dinner with (another set of )Aunts and Uncles

Monday Pictures

With my dad after touring the Vimanmek Mansion

At Vimanmek, we decided we need to take Brian's "senior portrait" picture...hehe

One of the side buildings of Vimanmek Mansion


In front of the Vimanmek staircase. I had to wear this ridiculous skirt because my pants (capris) were considererd too short (not down to your ankle.) Since it's a palace, you have to dress respectfully and shorts are a no-no. I even made Brian change into jeans but I didn't realize that capri pants were unacceptable as well. sigh.

Part of the Vimanmek Mansion

Sunday Pictures

Sunday night: Lighting and letting go a Thai hotair balloon with the gang after hanging out at Neung's house

Hanging out at Neung's House

A picture with my 90 years old Ah-Ma (grandma)


Sunday night dinner with some of the family

Sunday afternoon in front of Siam Paragon Mall with my mom

Pictures from the first few days

Picture with my parents at one of the props on top of Baiyoke2 building (sky bar)the view from the 87th floor.

The Christmas decoration was still up when we got here. They were taking the tree down the next day as we were walking through. The background of the tree is the walking bridge for us to cross the street. It's lit up too! The reason we walk A LOT

Brian's techno-geek heaven. Puntip Plaza, the technology/IT mall.

Monday & Tuesday

Monday

I woke up at 6 a.m. had a snack, went back to bed, and slept in :) I woke up with a slight earache and a super stuffy ear. Not fun. I had to keep asking people to repeat themselves because I just couldn’t hear anything out of my right ear. We just lounged around the apartment until around lunch.

Monday is my dad's day off....so today he's our tour guide. We had lunch with my dad at the restaurant near the church and headed out to the Vimanmek Mansion. It’s an old palace made of golden teakwood for King Rama the 5^th. The architecture was beautiful. The whole place was built without a single nail. There was lots and lots of beautiful and valuable gifts from different countries displayed. It was quite interesting but we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside. Boo. We got some pictures outside but it just wasn’t the same. However, It was fun just to walk around and go to a different part of the city.

We had dinner with 2 of my uncles and their wives who weren’t at the dinner Sunday night. The food was once again, fantastic. As we were leaving the restaurant, Brian didn’t see one of the steps as he was coming down and rolled his left ankle. It’s not a bad sprain but we got ice on it quick after getting home. There’s almost no swelling after we iced it but we knew that we’ll need to take it easy the next day.

Tuesday

My right ear was driving me crazy and I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t anything serious so I went to the doctor. My mom had called one of the private hospitals near our house to check the availability of the ENT doctors before she left to go to work and left me the information. I called a cab and headed to the hospital. It’s the hospital I’ve been to as a kid, so when they asked if I’ve been there before I said yes. Sure enough, they still have all my medical history there! :)

I have to say I just love the whole medical experience here (granted I know it’s a private hospital so it probably isn’t indicative of all the medical facilities in Bangkok.) I got to see the ENT almost right away, maybe a 10 minutes wait as best. He checked my ears and nose and throat. It turns out that my right ear severely impacted. We walked over to another room, the doctor performed the procedure to unblock my ear with this tiny vacuum tube and all was well once again! They even had these 2 screens that I could see inside my ears as they were performing the procedure….gross.

I got back around noon. Brian and I decided to walk over to Siam Paragon for lunch. We had a hard time deciding what to eat. There were just too many choices! We ended up with a hodgepodge of things. They were all yummy!

After lunch at Siam Paragon, Brian said he’s up for a walk over to MBK to go see a few of the camera stores he’s been reading about….so off we went. We walked around and found a few things that Brian was looking for but we decided to wait and do some more research before making a purchase. There are tons of places across from MBK that are tourist stuff (like the Jim Thompson House, Bangkok Cultural Arts Center, etc.) but Brian didn’t feel like walking that much so we plan to go back there on Thursday.

When we got home, the internet was finally working again! So we got on and checked our email, fb and updated the blog. Then we went to meet Neung and Care (my childhood best friend and Neung’s fiancee) for dinner. Brian and I walked to BTS (the sky train stations) and took the sky train. We met at the BTS station near the restaurant. Care spotted Brian immediately as we were walking down from the train! Care and I had so much to talk about, we just picked up where we left off!

Neung and Care treated us to a delicious DIY BBQ dinner since Neung knew that it’s Brian’s favorite! It was fantastic. We had a lot of fun cooking and talking and eating. Care and I had so much fun talking, I felt like I might have neglected Brian for a bit during dinner. Of course when I looked over to Brian, I knew that he was just so occupied with cooking and eating that he didn’t even noticed. I forgot to say that it’s all you can eat. We were so stuffed!! After dinner, they walked us back to the BTS station and we were on our way home. We got in around 10 and we were done for the night!

PS. pictures are coming soon. It's taking a while to process them!

First Weekend in Bangkok

First off....sorry for the delay in posting. We were so busy on Sunday that we didn't have time to get on the computer at all. Then, the internet was not working all day Monday! It's working now so here's the weekend update.

So we started our Saturday by going to the dentist with my mom. We got our dental check-ups (no cavities for either one of us…yay) and a good cleaning. I also got one of my old fillings fixed up. We went to my mom’s dentist who was also my dentist when I was younger. The dental office still had my dental record from when I was 12! My mom was so proud that neither one of us had any cavities.

After getting our teeth clean, we proceeded to go to lunch at Fortune Mall. It’s another one of the mega malls we have in Bangkok right down the street from the dentist’s office. Brian read about a good camera store there so we went for lunch at the Fortune Mall Food Court. We walked around the mall for a bit after we were done but we never found the camera store so we were ready to go back home. We had a hard time getting a cab to get home and the reason was not for the lack of available cabs! We flagged down at least 5 taxis, when we told them our destination, the taxi drivers just shook their head and said they will not go there because the traffic is too bad. The main street that my parents live off of is quite a nightmare so we knew that we weren’t going to get home if we kept waiting on a taxi so we decided to take the bus and walk home instead.

When we got home, Brian looked up the camera store again on the Internet and realized that he got the wrong shopping center. The store is actually at MBK center J All I have to say is that there are WAY TO MANY shopping centers around. Here’s to an unabashed culture of materialism and consumerism!

When we got home, we spent a few hours hanging out with my parents. My dad was pulling out old stuff (if you know my dad, you’d understand) to show Brian and then he put Brian to work. His job was to research and look up the value of the different items. My dad has collected TONS of antiques through out the years and some of them quite are interesting. It was nice just to sit around, talk, and spend time together.

We had to go back to Central World shopping center to exchange a pair of running shoes I bought the night before (I got the wrong size.) Somehow we’ve managed to go to Central World (the shopping mall where parts of it was burned during the riots) everyday so far. It was actually one of the places we spent a good deal of time in the last time we visited. It’s about a 20-25 minute walk from my parents place so we’ve gotten a good bit of exercise!

There is a medical mission team from Australia and Canada staying down stairs at the church. They had come for 3 weeks to serve the Burmese refugee population around the border area of Thailand. They’ve just gotten back in to Bangkok from their trip to the Border. My dad had planned an evening for all of us to go to Baiyok2 Sky restaurant. It’s a restaurant on top of this 87-story building (tallest building in South East Asia.) There’s a moving terrace on the top that we can step out and see the city. It was a 10-15 minutes walk. It was super crowded (total tourist trap) and the buffet was ok but the view was spectacular. It really was a pretty amazing sight. We were completely beat by the time we got back. We took our showers and went straight to bed…..only to wake up at 5 a.m. J

Sunday

We woke up a little late Sunday morning. After waking up at 5 we went back asleep around 6-7ish and woke at 9 40. We had missed Sunday school hour and were rushing to get ready for church. We got down a little before time for the service to start. It was quite a homecoming experience especially for me. J Everyone wanted to talk and have a picture taken with us. Apparently my dad talked about us a lot in his sermons, even the people who became members at the church after my time here knew me! That’ a life of a PK (Pastor’s kid) for you.

2 things I hear all the time (more than I can count) are “Gaan, you look exactly like your dad” and “ When will you have a baby?”

We had lunch at the church, sat around and hung out with my cousins and old friends. Before the day was over, one of my aunts had organized a family dinner at the Narye Hotel restaurant in honor of our homecoming. Neung who came to visit us in Atlanta in April of 2010 also invited us to go to his new home. He’d arranged for one of my cousins, Sunny, to give us a ride after our family dinner.

My mom took us to Siam Paragon shopping center in the mid afternoon, showing us a short cut of how to get there. We had our afternoon Starbucks and some yummy Thai snacks there. We didn’t walk around since we had to be back by 5 or so to get picked up by my aunt and uncle for dinner. Siam Paragon is a pretty fancy mall with a really awesome food area. We’ll be back for the food, for sure J Plus, it’s a much closer walk than Central World.

My Aunt Paaw and Uncle Wichian went to pick up my grandmother and then came to pick us up. I was bummed that my dad didn’t join us for dinner because he was still taking care of the mission group from Australia. The dinner was fantastic. We had such a fun time with my aunts and uncle and Ah-Ma (grandmother.) Ah-Ma is 90 years old and she is in great health. She walked up the steps by herself at the hotel and she doesn’t want anyone to help her. She lives with my cousin, Sunny and his new bride, Air. Sunny recently bought our grandmother’s house from her. They were telling me that they hardly see her. She is so independent and she just wants to do everything by herself. She doesn’t really like to be driven around, she’d rather take the bus and walk! She is an amazing Christian. Every morning, you can hear her sing songs of worship and read/ memorize Bible scripture. Sunny says that her scripture memorization is impeccable (in Thai and Chinese.) She attends 2-3 churches every Sunday, she worships at some and preaches at some. I asked Sunny if he remembers when we were little, how Ah-Ma would bribe us to memorize scripture….he says that she still does… now with the great grand children! Air (Sunny’s wife) said that she’s been so inspired by Ah-Ma’s walk with God.

When we were done at the dinner, Sunny and Air drove us to Neung’s house where the rest of the gang were hanging out. Everyone is working on helping Neung with his upcoming wedding (this upcoming Saturday.) We hung out and had such a fun time. At the end of the night we went out and released a Thai hot air balloon J Sunny and Air drove us home and we got in around Midnight. It was really nice to get to know Sunny’s wife, Air. As we were walking up the step, Brian said that he had such a great time. He really could see himself living in Thailand.

It was a fantastic weekend. It’s been an amazing homecoming. I haven’t felt as out of place as I thought that I would. Everyone has been so kind and generous to us. Sunny’s mom, Aunt Mala, sent us fruit as a welcome gift. When she told us that we thought it would be a fruit basket but when we got home we saw that it was a crazy amount of fruit. We got over a hundred oranges and a ton of mangoes (green and yellow!) There is no possible way we could eat it all. My mom took some to her office and we still have a boatload here!

Day 2: It's a small world after all....

Earlier today I was thinking that jetlag is for amateurs, here I am, I’m typing up this blog at 4:13 in the morning Bangkok time. Ha. It seemed like we were adjusting pretty smoothly until our second day (which is normally when jetlag is the worst.) Brian and I have been going to bed around 3 a.m. our first 2 nights (those who know us well know that that’s kind of an Akers night owl thing) and waking up a little before 8 a.m. feeling good and refreshed. We didn’t even feel the need to take a nap, we just kept ourselves busy walking around, shopping, running errands (like figuring our internet and picking up stuff I forgot to pack.)

Anyway, our second day here was filled with more good food and good people. We didn’t see a lot of people on Thursday, other than the church office staff, but that was remedied on Friday. By the way, I have got to give some serious props to the Immanuel Church office staff for all they do. P’Nong (P’= signifies a way you address someone who is older than you) has been my dad’s secretary for over 20 years. I’m pretty sure we’d all be lost without her. She’s helping us plan and organize our time here. She just makes things happen. It’s awesome!!

We started out Friday with going to visit some of my family who lives on the next street over. We had a little bit of time to catch up with some of my cousins, aunts and one of my uncles. When we were done with our visits, we walked over to this little restaurant near the church for lunch. As we were walking in, we saw P’Nong and a Caucasian woman sitting in a booth so we joined them. As I suspected, the woman is a missionary recently assigned to Thailand (pretty logical guess for a Caucasian woman having lunch with a church staff.) Her name is Karen B. and she’s originally from South Carolina. She’s been in Vietnam for many years and she travels a lot around South East Asia and supports different missionary families. We talked about her work and we somehow started talking about my Kenya trip this summer. As I was talking about my time with our Wycliffe missionaries in Kenya, she had a look on her face and then she asked me, “Did you get to meet Brian and Karen Anders?”

My eyes got really big and I just couldn’t believe it. I just had a small world moment! I told her they were the reason we were in Africa this past summer! The Anders are our home church’s Wycliffe missionaries! Brian Anders came to know Jesus and felt the call to the mission field at North Avenue Presbyterian Church where we are now members! It turns out that Karen B. grew up with Karen Anders and is from her home church in SC as well!! How cool is that!! We finished our very tasty lunch and sat and talked for a while. It was such an unexpected treat!

After lunch, Brian was getting tired so he decided that he’s going to take it easy and maybe take a little nap. He’s been working a bit at night. We have an awesome house sitter in Atlanta, Andy Golden, who’s help Brian coordinate some logistics with uploading files and setting up renderings as Brian talks him through the steps. On a completely random note, the Magic Jack (a device you plug into you computer that gives you phone line,) is completely worth every penny. Brian and I have been using it to call back to the U.S. As Brian would say it, we would really be “up the creek without a paddle” if we didn’t have that device!

So while Brian took an afternoon nap, I went to the county office with my dad to renew my Thai citizenship card. Going to sit in line to get a new ID card was not something I was looking forward to (think going to the DMV to get your license) but I had a really great afternoon just spending time talking with my dad. We talked about life, Biblical hermeneutics, and a lot about the church. After we were done at the county office, we walked over to the BSC (where my mom works) to say hi.

I woke Brian up a little before dinnertime. My mom was going to be working late and my dad had a prayer meeting Friday night so Brian and I were on our own for dinner. We walked to our old haunt, Central World Shopping Center (which parts of it was burned during the Red shirt riots, but it’s back open for business,) and had some DIY Korean BBQ. We had a nice time walking the streets of Bangkok after dark. The streets are just packed with people, street vendors and food carts. I just love the hustle and bustle on the city streets after nightfall.

We got back round 9ish and I was completely beat. I hung out with my mom, took a shower and went to bed by 10:30 or so. Brian decided that he’s going to go and work a little down in the church office. When he was done in the office, he realized that he’s managed to get locked out of the apartment (since my parents thought that he was already in our room.) Thankfully, our church’s IT guy was still in the office so he called up to the apartment so my dad could let Brian in.

That’s it for our 2^nd day in Bangkok. I’ll try to upload some picture soon.

Day 1 Part 2

We wandered around some shopping districts this afternoon. There's an electronics and technology shopping center that is 6 stories(....think all things computer and digital camera.) Brian was pretty much in heaven!

I gotta say, there is nothing better than Asian foodcourts. They are full of ridiculously good and cheap food! We did some serious eating at lunch. Oh how I've missed real Thai food!

We are also thankful that there isn't a shortage of good coffee shops around. There is even a Starbucks in walking distance from my parents' place. I have a feeling that coffee is going to be an important part of our time adjustment. We're exactly 12 hours opposite of Atlanta. We have managed to stay up all day so hopefully we will not have a hard time with jetlag.

We're pretty tired and a nap sounds really good about now.....I think I'll go drink another cup of coffee :D

And our adventure begins....

There must have been some serious praying going on for this trip to happen for us. I say that because out of all the flights out of Atlanta, we were one of the very few flights that weren't cancelled. More importantly, God provided us a way to get to the airport!! We made it thanks to Brian's parent's all-wheel drive vehicle, a handy dandy hammer that we used to hammer the ice so that we can get ourselves and our luggage down the front steps to the car, and Zach, who possesses mad driving skillz!

Our flight to Seoul was pleasant. The plane was not completely full (a rarity these days) so we got an empty seat between us to stretch out a little. We landed at Incheon Int'l Airport and had about an hour before catching our next flight to Bangkok. We were quite hungry so after getting through security, we headed to the food court for some delicious Korean food. As we were leaving the food court, I asked Brian to check for his passport and boarding pass. He pulled his passport out of his pants but (you guessed it) his boarding pass was missing!! PANIC TIME!! After searching everywhere in the food court we finally went back to the food ordering counter to see if anyone has turned in a boarding pass. Sure enough, someone did. Thank God. We thanked the cashier, grabbed the boarding pass and ran to the gate. We made it just in time!

We arrived in Bangkok a little after midnight (Bkk time/noonish ATL time.) My parents were there to pick us up. It was so good to see them and give them a big hug. After some catching up and getting settled, Brian and I went to bed around 4:30 a.m. and woke up around 7:45 a.m. We went for a little walk, got breakfast at McDonalds where they serve Chicken Mc Porridge (no kidding), and went to a 7/11 to get some odds and ends. We don't have internet up in the apartment (we're having problems getting connected to the Wi-fi) but we can get on the internet in the church office so we've been hanging out in the church office most of the morning. It's about lunch time here now.....I think we might venture our for some street food soon!