This is my first attempt at a blog and decided to create one at the suggestion of various friends receiving my emails. I also created it for the benefit of those friends of mine who refuse to use Facebook - you know who you are! It is difficult to email video so this way I can post narrative, pics and video on here for all to enjoy!
So I've been busy sending out tons of pictures and videos this week of sights around town. However I have not sent out a narrative in about a week. The daytime can be somewhat lonely since we haven't met too many people that don't work here. Joe goes to work and I stay home and clean! I miss the human interaction that an office structure provides. I sometimes go out during the day to run errands and while I come in contact with humans - they are all Thai's and I am unable to communicate with them. I hope to do something about that soon - in July I will start with private Thai lessons and have an instructor that will come to our house. She called me this week. I cannot wait to start. Joe is hoping to benefit from this too as he is truly struggling with how to say hello and thank you in Thai. He is constantly mixing the two up which is quite funny. He is constantly asking me as well as other Thai's how to say both words. This is quite surprising as most of you know he is bilingual - one would think it would come naturally to him! Aside from the Thai instructor calling me this week to schedule a time to start lessons, I also received a phone call from a lady who we will "try out" as our maid starting in July. She will cook, clean, do laundry and ironing, do our grocery shopping and run errands. Amazing! She called and at first I thought she was Joe's mother. Her accent sounded just like that of Joe's Mom. I was just about to say oh Hi Irene when all of a sudden she says, “You work for me?” Then I was like, “Nope, this is definitely not Joe's Mom.” It took me a while to figure it out but it was our future potential maid. She does not want to start until July as she is going to visit her father for a few weeks. Apparently you do a trial 1-2 week period with them and if you like them, then you get them to sign a contract. She will likely work from 1-6pm about 3-4 days per week. I was told it would take about a month to train her, especially if I want her to cook any "western" dishes. So that leads me to something else. Joe and I decided to start cooking at home this week. We've learned it is quite pricey to do so and you actually save money by eating out. We've also learned that the "western" dishes that you fix don't always taste the same as back home. We made fettuccini alfredo one night where the sauce was made from scratch - sooooo not the same. I think it was the Ricotta Cheese - it didn't even look the same! Since then we have made Mom's special pancake recipe and chicken tacos - both tasted fantastic. So we'll add those to the list of recipes to teach the maid!
Last week we toured two of the JW Marriott hotels here in Bangkok. We were told that the hotel chains (Marriott, Sheraton etc) have these membership programs for people who live in Thailand. You pay around a $150 one-time fee to be a member and you get all these certificates for free nights at various hotels in Thailand and 50% off at all the restaurants. We decided to check it out. We got a taxi and told him to take us to the Marriott - thinking he'd take us to the one closest to our apartment. We ended up at the JW Marriott at Chao Phraya River. So we tried to get the membership there but they told us we had to go to the one in downtown Bangkok. The guy there was really nice - he gave us a slip of paper with the address of the hotel in downtown on it written in both English and Thai so that we could give it to our taxi driver when we were ready to go. He did the same with our home address as we have no idea how to tell the taxi drivers here how to take us home - so instead we tell them Chong Nonsi BTS and they understand that - it's one block from home so we just walk the rest of the way. Anyhow, this Marriott was like a palace - likely one of the nicest resorts that I have ever visited. They had a restaurant that had outdoor seating right on the river and a water taxi boat that was pulling up to load and unload passengers. The food was excellent - I had King River Prawns that were about the size of my hand. We were there at about 8pm and the weather was perfect so Joe and I have decided that perhaps this is going to be our weekly date night place and that we are always going to go at 8pm at night because it has cooled down by then. The following night we went to the Marriott downtown. We took the BTS instead. It had rained just before we left and here in Bangkok if you want a taxi when it is raining or has just rained, the price is practically 4x as much. The Marriott was only about a block away from the BTS so we just did that instead. It was nice - but not nearly as nice as the one on the river. The sales office was closed but they had us complete the paperwork and we will go back today to get our membership packet and card. While there we dined at their Thai restaurant, which was very good.
Over the weekend we visited Lumphini Park, which is sort of the central park of Bangkok. It was enormous and had something for everyone. It has a couple lakes and you can see turtles, fishes and these enormous lizards there. The lizards were everywhere. There were people lying in the grass napping while these things were lurking everywhere. Must be safe to do so but I doubt I'll try that out anytime soon. It was a scorching hot day - by the time we even got there - our clothes were soaked in sweat. We walked around the park for about an hour. Then Joe asked if we should go home first to cool off before going to Chatuchak Weekend Market or just go straight there. My response was - if I go home and get in the air condition, I may not go out again! So we decided to go straight there. We had been warned ahead of time that it would be crowded, you'd see all kinds of characters, tons of stuff being sold and various animals for sale too and some that you wonder if they are even legal. There is this wonderful map here called the Nancy Chandler Map - it is a street map of Bangkok with every restaurant, hotel, tourist attraction etc marked on it. But it also has a detailed map of every stall in Chatuchak market. At first I thought it was great until I got there - then I was just overwhelmed with all the stuff and all the people that you just could not follow the map at all. The place went on forever and you are constantly moving to keep up with the flow in there. I had never seen so much "stuff" in all my life and after about an hour of walking around we decided we had had enough and tried to get out of there. Only we had no idea where we were and how to get back to the BTS. So we took the next exit out and found someone that spoke English to ask - she was very helpful and pointed to a red bus that is a free shuttle back to the BTS - we hopped right on it! By the time we got home - we could smell ourselves and it was not a pleasant smell. We showered and got cleaned up, then ordered from our favorite restaurant - Beirut - and watched a Netflix.
Sunday we decided to check out our pool in our apartment complex. We've decided this is the best-kept secret in the building. I think we'll go to our pool nearly every day now knowing how nice it is. The pool is enormous and has a couple lap lanes for the avid swimmers. It is on the 9th floor of our building and has the most riveting views of the city. The water is the perfect temperature - you can jump right in without the shock of oh my god this water is too cold. You don't have to worry about your body adjusting to the temperature because it is just right. There is actually a little breeze up there too so you even feel good just lying out by the pool. I think we'll be making good use of our pool. They have lots of rules though - you have to take your shoes off before entering the pool area (Thai tradition - no shoes in the apartment either), take a shower next to the pool before going in it (I never saw anyone obey this rule though), no food around the pool, and no using the bathrooms in the spa next to the pool. So basically you have to go back to your apartment to use the bathrooms - unless you are a spa customer. A bit of a pain, but so be it. Regardless I think I am going to spend most of my days by the pool perhaps with a good book. I have no books with me, and no idea where to buy American books here so I am going to look into ordering some on line - any suggestions??? I haven't had time to read books in years so I am going to enjoy this time while I have it and do some reading!
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