Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesday
Brian's been battling a sore throat since the day we left Atlanta. Fearing that it might be strep throat, Brian wanted to get it checked out, so my mom and I took Brian to the private hospital nearby for him to see a doctor. Good news is that it wasn't strep but he does have an infection in his tonsils and the Dr. prescribed 5 days of antibiotics and a medicated gargle. Brian was so impressed with the healthcare system here. We were in and out in about 30 minutes.

After the hospital, we walked over to the county office for me to pick up my citizenship card that I'd made last visit in January of 2011. We were in and out in 10 minutes. Brian and I were both super impressed with the efficiency of the county services and hospital. We stopped at a little place on the side of the street for lunch, stopped at the eye care place to see if I needed to update my glasses (I didn't, yay!) and picked up a box of contact lens so that I can snorkel at the beach! My mom went home once we got to our street and Brian and I continued on to Pantip Plaza. Brian just wanted to walk around and look at all the electronics and gadgets.

We had dinner plans with one of my mom's dear friend, Tuanta (I call her Aunt Tuanta). She took us to an amazing Thai/Chinese seafood restaurant. We were so stuffed.

Wednesday

We made plans to hang out with P'Neung and Care today. Since P'Neung doesn't have to go to work right now, he said we should meet for lunch and catch a movie because Wednesday is half-price movie day. We had a wonderful lunch at a Ramen noodle place and walked across the street to MBK to catch a movie. Since it's halloween, most of the movies showing were scary movies, but we settled on Frankenweenie :) 

After the movie, Brian wanted to go look in some camera stores and from there we moved on to Bangkok Art and Cultural Center. We walked in and view several exhibits. It was really interesting and free! We stopped at a little ice cream place called IceDEA that had really interesting ice cream flavors like mango-sticky rice, green tea and red beans, etc. IceDEA is also known for their ice cream art. They specialize in making the ice cream look like something else, for example, a plate of steak with fries and mashed potatoes, which is what P'Neung ordered. 

 There is strawberry ice cream inside the chocolate ice cream to make the "steak" look medium rare! The "mash potatoes" is made of whipped cream and the "french fries" are cut up banana bruleed.


Once Care got off work, she came to meet us and we went to the Madame Tussaud Bangkok Wax Museum in the Siam Discovery Center. There were figures of famous Thais as well as celebrities from around the world. We didn't take a lot of pictures with Thai celebrities because we didn't really know them but we had a lot of fun with the ones we knew.

 Gaan & Gandhi

 Brian for President?

 The Dalai Lama endorses Brian for President...

so does the David Villa...

 Every presidential candidate needs to show a talent.....

 Brian and the Beib, on the campaign trail

 Next stop, Oprah. She endorses Brian for President too...

 Jim Carrey said "I'd vote for this guy!"

Every presidential candidate must have friends in hollywood, 

so Gaan is making friends with George Clooney

and hanging with Will Smith...

 Sports celebrities are also good to have while campaigning, so Brian is helping out Tiger Woods...

..and working out with David Beckham.

We worked up quite an appetite after walking through the wax museum and headed to Oishi Grand Japanese buffet. Neung and Care treated us to a wonderful meal and we had such a great time visiting with them. We were having so much fun, we forgot what time it was until my mom called to check up on us. We wrapped up dinner around 10 p.m. and waddled home. It's been a fun low-key day for us.

Pattaya Part 2: Art in Paradise

Art in Paradise is an interactive "trick art" museum. 

We had a great time interacting with the art and taking pictures. 

 I'm making improvements to the Mona Lisa.

 Brian and my dad taking turns parting the Red Sea.

 This picture is just playing with perspectives of the camera. No editing at all. Crazy huh!

Brian enters Van Gogh's cafe 

This last picture is not from Art in Paradise. This is the baskets of fruit sent from some church members and my aunt: dragon fruit, longons, papayas, sala fruit, passion fruit, mangos, guava, rose apples, oranges and on and on....oh my!

Day trip to Pattaya

Today is my parent's 35th wedding anniversary. My mom had planned a wonderful day trip for us to go to Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden and "Art in Paradise" interactive art museum in Pattaya. Pattaya is a little beachtown about 2 hours away from Bangkok. The beaches are really yucky and the town is over-developed. However, I'll always have a special place for Pattaya in my heart because I grew up going to Pattaya every summer for church camps. In fact, we actually drove by the Baptist Convention campsite where I spent all those summers. It's strange because it's been 15 years since I've been on the grounds there and even though not much has changed, everything just seems so much smaller. In my memories, the place was so big and full of adventures, but it's funny how perspectives change once people get older. As for me, I'll always remember the Pattaya camp with a smile on my face as I think of being a kid again.

Our first stop today was Nong Nooch Garden. We arrived just in time to see the Thai cultural show, which consists of traditional Thai dances, forms of Muai Thai (Thai boxing), Thai percussions, and other forms of traditional Thai fighting (including, fighting from an elephant back.)!! After the cultural show, we walked to the next building to see the Smart Elephant show. The elephants did tricks like dancing, painting, playing sports, etc. Here are some pictures:

 Elephant throwing a dart.

 Elephant riding a tricycle.

Elephant playing soccer!

After the elephant show, we walked around the garden for a good while. Did I mention that it is so HOT !?! Still, we thank the Lord that it didn't rain and we had cloud covers most of the day. We had a good time sweating and walking around looking at the plants and exhibits.

 I'm standing between my mom and P'Somsri, who was my babysitter when I was little.

The two guys on the right were our drivers today. They are part of the young leaders at the church!

Feel free to add your own caption for this picture :)

Since the pictures are taking a long time to load. I'm going to load the Art in Paradise pictures in a separate blog. They are quite hilarious. So that's it for this one!

Back in BKK

Greetings from Bangkok. It's been a little over a day since we landed and we are wide awake at 4 a.m. Bangkok time. It's been a little under 2 years since our last visit but things haven't changed all that much. We're happy to have amazing street food and lots of time visiting with family and friends. It feels like home. On the ride home from the airport, my dad informed us that we will be the speakers for the youth event on Saturday night. With very little time to prepare and my very rusty Thai, we were able to share about what it means for us to love God and love people. We spoke of our community at NAPC and the mission of God of which we are a part in that community. We gave testimony to the love of Jesus that is shone through the people in our small group especially when Brian injured his knee earlier this year. We praise God for a sweet time of worship and sharing with the youth and young adults in the church here.

Today (Sunday) is my dad's birthday! Tomorrow is also my parent's anniversary (I think it's their 35th but I'm not completely sure....) It's nice to be able to celebrate these special family occasions together. Last year we got to celebrate my mom's birthday with her with a day trip to Kanjanaburi and this year we get to do my dad's birthday with the church here. My mom also planned a day trip for all of us to Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden on Monday.

The down side of things feeling more like home is the lack of picture-taking. Yesterday as we went out for lunch, there were some amazing photo ops of the busy Thai streets full of bustling street food, but we didn't even think to take the camera because it was just going out to lunch. We will try to do better and have photos coming soon.

We are really enjoying our time here in Bangkok even though we do miss our fur-babies back in Atlanta. We are so grateful to amazing friends and family members who are willing to take care of the beast(s). This trip would not be possible with their generosity in agreeing to take care of Jack and Ninja. To them, a big THANK YOU!

I'll try my best to keep the blog updated while we're here. Next post will probably be after our trip to the botanical garden tomorrow. Until then, God's blessings to you all!

Oh snap, there's a gelato festival in Florence!

We went back into Florence to go visit the "David" by Michelangelo at the Academy. Our appointment at the academy was not until 2:00 p.m. so we had most of the day to as we pleased. Most people went shopping but I decided that I was going to visit some more museums and churches. I started my day at the Bargello National Museum, most of the collections are statues, included Donatello's Davids. Photos were not allowed in that room but I took some pictures in the courtyard area.

On top of the arch in Piazza Republicca. 

L'ANTICO CENTRO DELLA CITTÀ

DA SECOLARE SQUALLORE

A VITA NUOVA RESTITUITO

                                              (The ancient centre of the city / restored from age-old squalor / to new life)

 Map of the city of Florence

Visiting St. Lorenzo church. This is the cloister area with an orange tree in the middle.

A visit to the Academy to see Michelangelo's David. Pictures were not allowed inside.

But they have a consolation prize David in hot pink and orange outside beyond the gift shop.

Then off to the Cathedral Museum...

...to see another one of Michelangelo's Pieta

 ....and a bunch more of Donatello's statues

Then I spent the rest of my afternoon at the Gelato Festival! Yay!