klong walks

I'm sure I've mentioned the klongs before on this blog. 

They're the canal system Bangkok was originally built upon, the fastest way to bypass traffic, and host to some of the most vile smells ever encountered. Our house nearly backs up to one. 

You can take the long way: down a busier street and up a quiet soi, past the cock fighters. 

Or the short route: over a ladder, through a trash pit, past the chickens on and straight onto the klong. 

I've been running along the klong for the past year or so but lately we've started taking the kids there for some walks and local Thai culture. Eliot loves to take her bike. Violet is not allowed to take her bike. Thanks to our ten bag luggage allowance, she just got a new bike for her birthday (a month late, but better than the two months late that she got batteries for her Christmas present). After riding it up and down our street at lightning speed, she announced she was ready to ride down to the klong. Dream on, my little speed demon

We don't normally take Scooter as he sometimes has a hard time walking down to the end of our driveway, but one day Rocky insisted on taking him. Eliot wanted to stay home and play with her friends and when she saw Scooter on a leash, the wheels in her head turned, she asked discerningly, "So I only have to go as far as Scooter wants to go?"

She and I both were in for a surprise when he spryly did the mile and a half loop. I had clearly misjudged him. Turns out when adamantly encouraged by Violet, he can also go up stairs, this is incredibly disappointing.

 We've also been taking advantage of the fast transport on the klong to get to T ball practice. By car, with traffic, it's about 1-1.5 hours away. By river boat it's 20 minutes. Not a hard sell. Besides Eliot and her T-ball BF love taking the boat.

Except that it never comes to a complete stop and we are always at the mercy of those around us. Thankfully the Thai people are incredibly helpful and there are multiple people that help lift the girls in and out of the boat. Not before they start frantically screaming, "Don't leave me! Don't leave me!"

 Eliot's favorite thing about the klong is getting drinks. Here she is drinking the traditional way. You buy a glass bottle of soda, and they dump in into a bag filled with ice. She still talks about this orange soda. Though she's mainly fixated on it's demise, "Remember that time I got an orange drink in bag. Then I fell down and it all spilled out. I really want another one."

I've learned throughout our moves,  one of the best ways to love where you live is to fully take advantage of the unique benefits of the community and location you're in. And for us that means walking to the klong and buying banana rotti (basically a fried crepe filled with bananas and cream), drinking soda in a plastic bag and watching the boats go by.

songkran!

This year we decided to up the ante with Songkran. In the past years we've just gone with the average tuk-tuk truck. This year we went big, we rented a real truck. 

We actually couldn't find a tuk-tuk. It's quite a bit harder to catch them from our new place, so Rocky went out on his scooter to bring one back. It true Smart form, he decided to think outside the box, or perhaps just inside of a much bigger, more exciting box. I only wish I had a recording of him trying to explain to the driver what he wanted to hire him to do. I'm not sure you could google image a picture of this:

We wasted no time in filling up a baby pool, also known as Violet's second home, and throwing it in the back. You might think we did this to contain the kids and keep them entertained, nope it was to refill our water guns. 

Get your Songkran priorities straight.

How many kids can you fit in the back of a truck? Legally? As many as you want. In Thailand the only safety law requires the driver to wear a seatbelt. 

Don't worry, Mom, Winston and Scout were relegated to ride in the van behind the truck. Violet's still dealing with some water trauma issues after her 8 week old Songkran debut. Since Winston played Songkran safe, he is guaranteed to love water but not be nearly as tough as his sister, right? I'm just hoping he won't try to scramble out of the bath tub every time I wash his hair. 

When they were stopped at a traffic light, I tried to take some pictures only to get slammed in the face by Abe. Well done, everyone's fair game on Songkran. 

I sent Rocky out to run an errand on his scooter and it took him 15 minutes to go 100 yards because he got caught in a huge water party. The people around him kept wiping clay all over his helmet visor, and then dumping ice cold water on his head. Bucket after ice cold bucket. 

On his way home he saw a bus stopped at a red light. The lights have timers and usually start their countdown around 180 seconds. The buses have no AC, so the windows are always open. It was full of people and as soon as it stopped at the red light, a man went up next to it and started spraying inside the windows with a water hose. He just kept spraying up and down the packed bus for the next 180 seconds. I bet those people sure loved Songkran. 

Some bad cell phone pics, that don't do Songkran justice,

We made our annual stop at this kids friendly water party. I got stuck on Violet duty in the bouncy house. Someone was spraying a hose over the wall, with all the toddlers inside I'm sure the constant flow of water was to dilute the urine level--which even with 8 inches of standing water, was still strong.

We drove home in the van. The perfect Songkran vehicle for six adults and ten kids. It also works well as for the ol' drive by sneak attack. We sure nailed a lot of kids and unsuspecting elderly people. 

That was a joke. We only got people if they were engaging in water activities or carrying umbrellas. Or if they just looked like they needed to cool off a little. 

Another great Songkran. E already has several new plans in the works for next year. Until then we'll  suffer through the rest of hot season. Is there even a difference between 100 and 120 degrees F? I can't tell you, I haven't left my house in 10 days. 

we went for a hike

We couldn't drive three hours outside of Bangkok without heading into the Khao Yai National Park. We clearly do a lot outdoorsy stuff as it took over five minutes to convince Violet it was OK to leave the pavement of the parking lot. 

After our 'born and raised in Bangkok child' finally came off the asphalt and onto the trail, she walked gingerly at first, trying to clean away the rocks and leaves. Then, feeling more comfortable, she took off at on a frenzied sprint and immediately tripped over an uncovered root--flying a good length and landing on her face. She got up and muttered something about the poor condition of the roads around this place and how this never would have happened if we'd brought her scooter on the hike. 

 We hiked over to this lookout. It looks out over a salt lick.  According to the posted signs, wild elephants come after they've eaten their daily 150 kg of fruit and plants to get more nutrients from the exposed salt and minerals.

We saw nothing. That makes us 0 for 3 on wild elephants in Khao Yai.

Though we did see some monkeys driving into the park. They were the wild kind, untouched by humanity. They were waiting on the road, when we rolled down our windows to get a better look, they stood up and put their hands out for food.

They were cool with us not giving them anything, they just started howling and showed us their two inch long fangs. Violet hasn't been requesting to sleep with her stuffed monkey anymore. If she gets rid of four or five more stuffed animals, there might be room for her to lay down in her crib.

 E really thought we were going to be OK with her bringing this stick back to our hotel and then home to Bangkok. She was quite confused as to why I wouldn't help her carry it to the car.

 I forgot to bring their protective eye wear. My bad.

 Isn't this how most hikes are supposed to end up?

We settled for seeing stone elephants while we cooled off at the pool. 

We packed the girls scooter and bike. When we first got to the hotel, I let them ride around the parking lot while Rocky checked in. It wasn't long before they were riding around the lobby and up and down the halls. We are optimal hotel guests. 

Winston rocks a seersucker pinafore like nobody's business. I bought it in the boy section. 

beaching

While Phylis and Cheryl were here, we took a break from their grueling touring routine and spent a few days on a nearby island. I'm posting these pictures in a shameless attempt to get more people to come visit us in Thailand

I'm sure Phylis and Cheryl were a little concerned while waiting for the boat at the pier. Especially after we explained that there was no dock on the island and they would have to jump off into the water. They rocked it--capris and all. 

We lucked out with good weather, a clean beach and clear water.

Not a bad way to spend February.

The best part was that Violet, who has spent most of her life with severe anxiety about the beach, played in the sand and swam in the waves. 

Winston had yet to don his little speedo (we did take him for a swim yesterday and he loved it) but that didn't stop him from wanting to spend his beach time with as little clothing on as possible. His preferred outfit is nudity.

I'm sure restaurants just love seeing us come in. Especially hotel restaurants, who remember how messy we were four hours before.

E caught a crab.

Vi caught a sea shell, slightly less impressive. She insisted on wearing her glasses like this.

Visiting the beach with grandmas who want to hold your baby and play with your kids is the best possible way to do vacations.

If I had a dollar for every picture that was taken of my kids on the beach by other tourists--mainly Thais, it would have easily paid for our hotel. But how cute is she on that swing.

Elie insisted she wanted fish for dinner one night. After seeing it she opted to share Vi's fried rice. Her loss, the fish was delicious.

Here's to hoping Violet's new beach love is around to stay and that Thailand was cool enough to get Cher to come back again.

tis the season

Christmas season in Bangkok is a bit strange. There's actually a lot decoration considering it's a Buddhist country. Having grown up in UT, it's just weird for Christmas to come around without cold and snow. We will somehow muddle through. Besides, I've still consumed an above average amount of peppermint hot chocolate. 

We had to run over to Ikea to buy some stuff for our new place and timed it just right to get one of their real Christmas trees. They were only $60 and if we return it we get half our money back. The only other option for a real tree in Bangkok is the imported German fir trees that runs over $300. Needless to say, we've settled for fake the last two years and as our real one drops 5 pounds of needles everyday, the grinch in me is remembering how great that was.

 Winston loved Ikea. Rocky walks through Ikea like he's competing in a speed walking marathon so Winston never had a chance to wake up.

 Nothing says, "fresh from the great outdoors" like tying a tree to your car in a parking garage.

I feel quite confident that Hollypop, our elf on the shelf, is significantly creepier than yours. We love her anyway. She seems to choose her spots in the greatest effort to scare Hannah--although her latest spot, in the freezer, was probably chosen with my late night snacking in mind.

We're loving having Hannah here. Here she is showing the girls how to feed her Ferbie. Normal grown up behavior. 

My favorite thing about Christmas in Thailand is the weather. It's winter here and everyone is getting out their coats, unless they are not from Thailand and they don't wear a coat if it's in the 80s.

Weather like this is pretty great. Don't feel too bad, you can all gloat for the other 11 months of the year. Let Bangkok have their thirty days of stellar weather.