Bangkok: Grand Palace

As we made our way back home from Pattaya to Tokyo we spent a day in Bangkok and figured with our kids we could do one cultural site and that was it. We chose to visit the Grand Palace. What an amazing place!

Unfortunately for Shelley and me, we've finally become honest with ourselves and admitted that we're just not in the stage of life where we can wear those headsets and get an audio tour. As much as it pains me to admit it, we probably have to do our scouting and studying up of the sites we visit ahead of time. You just can't do the headset thing AND keep track of three kids. You either keep the kids in line and lose the explanation or you hear the explanation and lose a kid.

The other thing that we learned is that Anthon will likely become a pretty good street photographer. He had no qualms taking pictures of random people sitting around...many of them girls.

It's hard to describe the Grand Palace. It's huge, but it's packed together tightly. It's a series of temples and palaces - probably the most famous of which being the Emerald Buddha...a statue dating back to the 14th century. It's pretty impressive and the reverence that people show to it is pretty cool. There's not picture taking allowed inside the temple itself, though people snap shots through the doorway. Upon entering the hall, you sit down and basically end up staring at the glowing jade buddha. Pretty darn cool.

The buildings and the grounds date back to the 1700's and are intricately designed from the building architecture down to the glass mirrors and semi-precious stones that make up the outside of the walls of many of the structures. It gives off a perpetual radiant glow which adds to its mystique.

The Sanctuary of Truth

We spent a pleasant afternoon visiting the Sanctuary of Truth - truly something we didn't know anything about. In a nutshell, the Sanctuary of Truth is a work of art in progress. Started in 1981, the goal of its patron is to create an all wooden, hand carved structure that embodies traditional Thai (and other local and regional - Cambodian, Vietnamese, etc.) religious, cultural and architectural principles into one building. It's interesting that this project has gone on for almost three decades.

It's a giant, airy structure. We had to don hardhats upon our entrance and I was floored at the balance between the enormity of the structure and the attention to the detail of the various image and figures carved into the various wooden beams and walls. It's pretty impressive.

Click on either of the pictures to see a small gallery. If you're in Pattaya, I would say this is a must see.

Dreaming of a White (Sand) Christmas

I know everyone should be dreaming of a white Christmas during the holidays, snow, wool sweaters...the whole bit. But I certainly didn't grow up that way. I remember heading outside to play tennis with my Dad after we opened presents. But that cultural imagery is strong for a kid born and raised in the US even though I never experienced that myself first hand. Compound that with the fact that Shelley and I are sort of searching for our own family Christmas traditions. It's kind of silly to say, but we an ever-so0-slight tinge of guilt over our plans to spend Christmas in tropical Pattaya, Thailand.

Pattaya's beaches stretch for miles, and where we were staying were largely devoid of any tourists. This allowed us to have lots of fun at the beach - as you'll see in the photos.

Having the beach basically to ourselves allowed us to have some of the the best sunsets I've ever seen. And in doing so, I learned something about Shelley I hadn't known before. To me the sunset is the actual sun setting...the time before the sun actually dips below the horizon. Once it's gone...it's basically over for me. For Shelley, the sunset is the sun once it has set...the afterglow if you will. I never knew that before.

Anyway, these were probably the most tranquil parts of our days. We enjoyed the sunset, while our kids played in the mild surf, collected sea shells and climbed around rocks at the head of the beach. Quinton usually slept. Afterward, we would eat dinner at an open air restaurant - which usually had tables set up on the sidewalks overlooking the beach and surf below. Dessert was usually provided by a local cart which served up a banana and cream pastry-like dish. As hot and humid as the days got in Pattaya, the nights were perfect.

It was at these times when we were feeling pretty good about our white (sand) Christmas. The slight pangs of guilt we felt about turning our collective backs on the whole US centric Christmas tradition may in an of itself turned into a new family tradition of our own.

Sri Racha Tiger Zoo

I think one of the best things about Pattaya for families has to be the Tiger Zoo in Sri Racha. This is the kind of zoo that people want to go to, but for better or worse wouldn't last a day in the States because of the outcry of animals rights groups.

The attitude of the zoo is to give people a chance to get close to some of the animals and to interact with them in different ways. So, do you want to pet and play with baby tigers? Sure, $5, please. We did and it was amazing. We played with three baby tiger cubs for about 20 minutes. They were so cute. They were playful and like any other cat, liked to be held and pet. They certainly didn't mew like a cat. They gave out a raspy and high pitched roar when they were displeased with something. But it was so cool to interact with what will become fairly large and strong cats. Anthon loved it, Ella was more into the rabbits.

It's that way throughout the whole zoo. Want to feed the tigers milk? $1. Why not buy some bananas and feed the elephants and take pictures with them? You can feed the crocodiles...or have one sit on your lap (luckily with their mouths taped shut). There was an orangutan who was there posing for pictures with people.

Then there were the requisite shows - the tiger circus show where circus masters had tigers doing tricks - like jumping through fire and standing up and walking. The best was the crocodile show, mostly because these crocodile workers were putting their hands in the crocs mouth and sticking their heads in. As you'll see in the video below one of the crocs struck back and got a guy's hand.

Anyway, this is a wonderful zoo. If you're ever in Pattaya with the family this is definitely a place to check out.

Check out the video below or click on a picture to be taken to a small gallery of photos from the day.

Renting a car in Thailand

I've driven in only two countries, the United States and Japan and have long had a fear of driving in South East Asia. While I feel like I'm a pretty competent driver, my biggest beef with driving in SE Asia is the hordes of motorbikes that swarm cars like flies. And then there's the whole propensity to treat lanes of the street as mere suggestions or guidelines...so you end up with four or five rows of vehicles across three lanes.

We decided to rent a car in Pattaya for our week long vacation. You know how after you've done the paper work you walk around with the agent to inspect the car for dents and damages? This is what we came up with:

Why not color the whole thing in blue...and thanks for the reminder at the bottom to have a safe journey! The best part about this experience is that when we walked around the car the guy casually told me that when the car was returned this morning, the driver's side mirror had been whacked off somehow. And since they only had this car to rent me, and didn't have time to get it properly fixed that they had duck taped on a small bicycle mirror instead.

It was at that point I made sure to ask the guy for the comprehensive insurance option.