We landed in Bangkok with a little apprehension. We had heard about the pollution, trash and crazy traffic. Although that all exists, we fell in love with the street food, friendly people, and easy-to-use Skytrain (BTS) system. Bangkok has a certain charm to it.

Our Airbnb apartment sat on the corner of an alley that was full of street food options, stores, and coffee shops. Dad found TOB’s Coffee, which he went to every morning. C and I found bubble tea and we had tasty grilled pork, ice-cream, fresh fruit, and smoothies. We’d run down and get a bag of street pork for a $1 for lunch–no kidding. Sure, the street wasn’t the cleanest and I swear I saw some ROUSes but we really, really enjoyed having all of these cheap, delicious food options right outside our apartment.

Despite our previous apprehension, we had been counting the weeks to our stop in Bangkok for months because our friends from the U.S. recently moved there. We spent a lot of our time in Bangkok with them and it felt great to do normal things like go to the park, play piano and bake! They generously helped us out with hosting us for dinner, mailing boxes back to the U.S., teaching us basic Thai phrases, and introducing us to Thai life.

On our second day, we went to Jim Thompson’s house, a historical site that was the home of the American, Jim Thompson, who went missing in the 1960s. He was intrigued by silk making and Thai life. We received a very informative tour, watched a silk making demonstration and enjoyed a beautiful traditional dance.

At the Royal Grand Palace, H was required to buy “elephant pants” because he was wearing shorts–no bare legs allowed. (Not pictured because he is too embarrassed, though we think he should wear them on the first day of high school next fall). Everything in the Grand Palace was shimmering gold. The pillars had mirror shards covering them, the room with the emerald Buddha was glittering and glowing. We were warned ahead of time to get there early to avoid the crowds. We took that advice and showed up early, we did not, however, avoid the crowds. The palace was full of tour groups. After we had had enough, we treated ourselves to a tourist-priced smoothie before haggling our way to get a tuktuk ride home.

The day we visited the Chatuchak market, it was dreary and rainy. We enjoyed smoothies (love Thai fruit and smoothies!), coconut ice-cream, and street food while shopping for our Christmas gifts to send home.

That evening, H, Dad and our friend went to go see Muay Thai boxing at the famous Lumpinee Stadium. They loved it!

We celebrated C’s birthday early with the same friends from the states as before.

That afternoon we shopped for C’s birthday presents at Terminal 21, an airport-themed mall where each floor is designed as a different international city like San Francisco, London and Istanbul. After our shopping trip, Mom, Dad and K took the BTS home but the rest of us stayed to watch a movie at the Terminal 21 theater. It was a unique experience–the movie was in English with Thai subtitles, and at the beginning of the movie everyone stands to honor the King (side note, it is against the law to say anything offensive about the royalty).

At Ayutthaya we had a wonderful time walking around the ruins and enjoying a (super cheap) Thai lunch. We were sad and disappointed to find that people were riding elephants around the streets right nearby. 😦

For C’s birthday gift, we took a Bavarian-style pretzel baking class. Yes, I know. We’re taking a German pretzel class in Thailand. Even though we didn’t expect this out of our Bangkok leg, it ended up being one of the best parts! The pretzels were DELICIOUS.

It’s C’s birthday! For her actual birthday, we opened gifts over donuts and fruit from our  alley. We had lunch and a tour at the American embassy with our friends and mailed the Christmas gifts we bought back to the U.S. Dad found out one of his old friends from rugby was working there, so they met up briefly as we were leaving the embassy. (Small world!) We ended C’s birthday with luxurious massages at The Touch–you can get a 30-minute foot massage for just a few dollars!

Next week–we head north to Chiang Mai, Thailand!