Saw-dee-cha from Bangkok! We are having a great time here and slowly getting adjusted to the Expat life. Despite it being rainy season it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I had feared. I’m sure now that I’ve thrown that out there the monsoons will get their game face on and show me who’s boss. Hahaha.
- Saw-dee-cha means hello!
- The Thai drive on the wrong LEFT side of the road
- Speaking of driving the traffic is insane. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. A drive that took 10 minutes one day can take 35 minutes another. It’s miserable to sit in the traffic … not to mention as someone who’s clearly not from here we’ve been ‘taken for a ride’ out of our way on more than one occasion.
- And before we move away from motor vehicles, let me just add it’s like playing double dutch when trying to cross the street. There is NO yield to pedestrians like the States!
- Thai food is fantastic and actually closer to the Thai food we have in American than I thought it would be, but obviously there’s a lot more variety.
- Sidewalks are virtually nonexistent. I was told by many people who have visited or lived in Bangkok we should leave our stroller behind … and they were right. The sidewalks are extremely arrow if they exist at all. While I’m glad we put our big stroller into storage our little umbrella stroller has come in quite handy {when you have a child who won’t hold your hand and is on the move constantly, it’s important to have a way to, shall we say contain them!}.
- With blonde hair and blue eyes, my daughter attracts the attention of many most of the Thai people it seems. They smile, wave, stare and often try to touch or pick her up. Jellybean isn’t a fan of this unsolicited attention and often say “no, no, no” very loudly. I have had to ask people not to touch her, which has been a bit interesting.
- Pretty much anything you can buy in the States your can buy in Bangkok. The grocery store closest to us has Jiffy peanut butter, McCormick’s onion gray as well as Sorrento cheese. I was almost disappointed {for lack of a better word} to find everything so similar to home, but not to worry I quickly stocked up on all our go-to brands/foods. :)
- The heat isn’t what get to me … it’s the HUMIDITY! Everyone I spoke to and everything I read mentioned how HOT Thailand is. Don’t get me wrong it is hot, but the humidity makes the heat less bearable. Just standing outside for 10 minutes caused me to break a sweat {attractive – I know!}.
- Mall Life … or at least that’s what I’m calling it. The malls in Thailand are huge, beautiful and clean. They have everything you could ever possibly want to purchase and hanging out in malls is kind of the thing to do, which makes sense since it’s insanely hot outside. The indoor playgrounds are amazing. Seriously, I think it could be a huge money maker in the States, and if it was in my wheelhouse I would totally put together a business plan and open one of these play-areas as we move home.
We are learning a lot and trying new things. I started taking Thai classes today and well, I am TERRIBLE at languages in general and this is, unfortunately, no different! Despite my lack of natural talent for picking up new languages, I am going to stick with it and hope to learn enough Thai to carry on a simple conversation. Got to start somewhere, right??
I will share more tidbits about living in Bangkok soon, but if you have any specific question, please do hesitate to leave a comment below!!
