One Night In Bangkok...

We only spent one night in Bangkok..because that was what the silly 80's song told us to do...boy did we regret it!  So much to see, do, eat, buy...we were bummed to not have MORE time!

We arrived mid afternoon and braved the subway (with all of our bags).  We now had one extra giant bag full of Greg's hand tailored suits and shirts that he loaded up on.  We found our high rise place and checked in, sweating all the way. The humidity is about right if you live in Atlanta or Florida, however coming from a place with no humidity it was rough to adapt.

We found a New York Pizza place and had to try it, it was right by the place we stayed.  Not bad, certainly better than the pizza in SA where it is all cooked in a wood oven with very little sauce and cheese.
We headed out to find a shopping mall as everyone said the shopping in Bangkok is supposed to be amazing.  We didn't find much in the way of stores our first night but we did find some American favorites- Dairy Queen, Dunkin Doughnuts...so fun!

 The kids thought Jay Parece would have been proud of us for choosing DQ!

 Another tuk tuk ride- traffic is crazy here...tuk tuk isn't as much fun as it is a tight squeeze and its hot sitting at the stoplights, but the kids still like it!

We go to bed early-we did not take advantage of the crazy nightlife as we wanted to be up early to beat the lines to see the Palace.  Everything I read said get there early to beat the heat & the lines!

We had to make a stop in the outfit rental place and check out some skirts for ladies and pants for men.

 Yes travelling with a six year old boy is everything you can imagine, fun for a moment like this but incredible amounts of whining when he is done looking at culture or needing breakfast or a break.  We may have set the speed record for the fastest ever visit to the palace as we did a fly by of it all...in an effort to get Charlie to some breakfast after we left.

We did duck in to see the Emerald Buddha, it was in a neat room with tons of gold and people were praying and bringing gifts for him.  They had a neat museum shop too, it was the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. They had beautiful handmade fabrics and outfits on display, some of which she had worn, I've always been a big fan of the First Ladies Exhibit at the Smithsonian, so this place was right up my alley.  Sadly, we did a speed visit due to whiny six year old that needed food!

After food we went to a floating market, not the one we were planning on, but the one the cab driver took us too.  Cab rides were an interesting affair, they were trying to scam us like typical tourists, however now with phones and GPS we a bit harder to fool!

 I think this sign says, "Teenagers, don't let the sweet faces and smiles fool you"!

Here is what the ladies had to sell from the boats.  Was really neat to see!  We did all of our shopping on the land based shops though, only because it was all stuff we could take home.  Tons of fun things to buy!

Our next destination was one that these New Zealand ladies in Phuket had told us about...a giant mall where they were planning to buy electronics and million other things.  Called the MBK Center...

 On the way we find an A&W and duck in for a root beer float-nothing better- South Africa doesn't know root beer- only ginger beer- so we are tickled to have our floats!

I have never seen rice served at an A&W in the states-crazy huh?  We did watch the kid next to us eat rice and curly fries, so not to worry our junk food continues to dominate the world.

The MBK center is CRAZY...a floor of electronics, other floors of clothes, shoes, luggage-you name it and they had it.   Much of it was like a flea market, booths of individual people selling stuff.  There were also real stores too.  We barely make it through any of it.  Greg decides to buy out the electronic section, if you see some Hughes family members wearing Beats headphones..know that we bought them there...at a fraction of whatever they really cost!

Sadly we have to hurry out and head back to pick up our bags and head for the airport.  We wanted to stay and shop! 

Our flight home takes us through Singapore airport for a few hours and we discover something we missed before....

A Dunkin Donuts- with Strawberry Frosted! Charlie's favorite treat in the planet, so we buy him a box of them to take home on the plane!

Long ago for her birthday wish, Katie wished she could fly...we finally almost made that happen..I have no idea what the giant wings were for, but they sure would make a cool Halloween costume!

We fly home to South Africa, feeling lucky to have had such a great family adventure and getting to see so many neat places, however we are sad to come back to the every day grind.  Of everyone I am the happiest, I missed my soft bed.  My joke was that Thai massage is such an institution in Thailand because everyone sleeps (or attempts to sleep) on a rock hard mattress!