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!