Snapshots of Bangkok

Bangkok is such a big, crazy city.  There was so much to do! Every day, we got up at the crack of dawn, walked all day, and crashed about 9pm.  

The spiciest food I ate the whole trip!

As we wandered through China town, we walked down the auto parts street

Apples! A rare (and expensive!) find in Thailand

One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to wander through the alley ways and get lost.  You get to see real life when it's behind the stores instead of where all the tourists go.  As we walked through China town, we got a real glimpse of what Thai life is like--fish shops, hot naps, and bathing women.

 We made it through China Town to some museums, a Thai history and cultural museum and the largest teekwood house in the world.  The cultural museum was awesome.  My teacher-sense was going crazy! The perfect place to take a group of kids!  We saw a field trip of an international school... which made me so excited for moving to Indonesia!

Four layers of roads... and that's without the sky train.
It's like the Jetsons! 

Street-side seamstress.  All day, every day.

One of the best parts of being in a tropical country.  Mango.

Dinner.  On multiple nights.  Along with ice cream bars. 

Cool thing to do in Bangkok--go to the snake farm. Where they extract venom to make vaccines and such.

Return to Thailand: Bangkok

After 17 years living in the States, my family finally took a trip back to Thailand where we were missionaries when I was a young child.  The first five days we stayed in Bangkok, the capital city.  So much has changed since we were here last! But it is still such a beautiful city.

At the Alliance Guest House where we stayed while in Bangkok

These shoes were made for walking

Navigating the sky train--all two lines

View from our river taxi

Rambutan (furry strawberries) and mangosteen (odd black ones).  Both are so good!

On our first day in Bangkok, we went to do the super tourist attractions: the Grand Palace and the surrounding temples.  In the process, we got "touristed" by a fake guide who took us around to the sights... and then to his sponsors, where he wanted us to buy jewels and tailored suits.  No thanks!  But the tuk-tuk rides were well worth the trouble!

To enter the temples, you must remove your shoes.

The last trip I took to Asia was to China.  Hence, I compared everything in Bangkok to Shenyang.  And I missed so much of Shenyang, as I longed for something familiar to me.  And then I heard this group of people and flashed back to China, where every group of Chinese students asked to take a picture with the foreigner.  They were so impressed that I lived in Shenyang and that I knew three Chinese words!

Wat Arun

Dinner. 

One of the cool things we were able to do was see so many aspects of our lives during those four years.  Mom and Dad were able to show us all around the area that we once called home.

One of my few actual memories of when we lived in Thailand is of a playground.  I guess playgrounds are what stick out in the mind of a four-year old.  We walked into the shopping mall that we frequented, and there was the playground from my foggy memory.  Quite a bit smaller than I remember, but the same place!

Where Dad pastored

The old home

The location of our dining room table, a favorite spot of mine, used to teach my animals Sunday school

 One evening, we wanted to meet up with some of the  national staff from the church. It rained that night.  And rain in Bangkok means crazier traffic.  So we waited an hour and a half for the taxi, took a two hour taxi ride, and arrived at Noi and Nui's house about 9pm.  And Noi had a fabulous dinner for us! It was wonderful to catch up with them!  The ride home was 25 minutes.

Where Lyndsay was born!

More pictures on my facebook:
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