Asia Archives - Life's Tidbits

25Jan 2016

Phuket, Thailand Vacation

by Nicole ⋅ 3 Comments

Phuket for Thanksgiving was just what the doctor ordered. Beautiful beach, sea breeze, swimming, family time and a little break from the hustle and bustle of city life in Bangkok.

We stayed at the Le Meridien. Everything we needed was right there. A private beach, baby elephant and some different restaurants to choose from. Although we could have taken a taxi into town to try a restaurant or explore Phuket, we chose to keep it super low key and never left the resort. There’s always next time to do some exploring!

Le Meridien coordinated a ride from the airport to the hotel. When we arrived we were greeted with a seriously delicious fruit juice and the flowers (pictured below).

Our first dinner was at Portofino. The food was delicious and dessert did NOT disappoint. Yum, chocolate!

Le Meridien has a private beach, which is a great perk to this resort. GAHHH just looking at this picture makes me want to go walk in the sand and dip my toes in the warm ocean.

Raise your hand if you aren having a good time!

‘Meeting’ the baby elephant was fun … or really just viewing it from afar since Jellybean was petrified to get close too the elephant despite her initial enthusiasm and saying {or really screaming, because that’s the only volume a toddler knows — wink wink} ‘ellie’ over and over again.

We went to La Fiamma every day for lunch … if it ain’t broke don’t fit it, right?!!! The pizza from the wood oven was so yummy and the view wasn’t too shabby either. Oh, and they have mango-mojitos. Go ahead and order one. You can thank me later. ;)

The food was all amazing, but our favorite was the seafood restaurant next to Portofinos. Our Thanksgiving dinner, while not traditional, was absolutely the best meal of our whole vacation.

On our last day in Phuket the hubs took Jellybean to the beach and gifted me some alone time. I sat by the pool, had a drink, read The Boston Girl on my kindle and generally just soaked up the beauty {and quiet} around me.

The sunset on the last night was particularly beautiful.

I want to go back! We had a fabulous time at the Le Meridien in Phuket and would highly recommend it!!

17Jan 2016

Bits of Bangkok {Part 3}

by Nicole ⋅ 10 Comments

We are about halfway through our first year in Bangkok! I no longer have to sit in taxis with my GoogleMaps open. I can successfully navigate the driver to all of the places we frequent. We have favorite restaurants, street food vendors, manicure places and so much more. Bangkok feels more like home with each passing week and it helps that we’ve had family in town visiting. We’ve done a lot in the past couple of months and yet we still have so much of Bangkok and Thailand to experience.

This picture was taken at JJ Market in Chatuchak. A must see when in Bangkok!

Some tidbits about Bangkok …

Plastic bags are EVERYWHERE. If you purchase fruit from a street vendor they will cut up the fruit, put in a plastic bag without handles, and then throw it into another bag that has handles. We get food delivered sometimes and certain dishes will come in a plastic bag and tupperware. I find it so strange, why is so much plastic necessary?
One of my favorite things about seeing a movie in Bangkok is that you can reserve a seat when you purchase your ticket. The need to show up to movies half hour early to ensure you aren’t sitting in the front row of a newly released movie is gone! Woot woo!
As far as I know, in the States if you purchase something like dish soap and it runs out you just chuck the bottle and purchase a new one. In Thailand, you can purchase a refill bag. It’s pretty much a ‘plastic bag’ filled with dish soap, Head-to-Toe Johnson & Johnson, etc. and so you can pour into the plastic bottle to refill it. It’s kind of genius and I don’t know why we don’t do this in the US … and if we do, I am totally behind the times.
When eating at restaurants food comes our whenever it is ready. It rarely comes out all at the same time and often feels like you are eating in shifts. Whenever your food comes out you eat it, else it will be cold!
Another interesting thing about restaurants is the waitress/waiter will rarely, if ever, bring you the bill before you as for it. This is such a huge contrast from dining out in the States where the check is more often than not delivered to the table before being requested.
Walking down the street you can often hear the buzz of ‘live’ wires. The wires are all tangled together, some hanging down low enough you could grab it and how one would identify a certain wire is beyond my comprehension.
Living in such a heavily populated city one would probably expect to hear sirens, however the noise pollution is more often than not something other than sirens. In DC I became strangely accustomed to the sound of sirens and eventually hit a point where they didn’t wake me up at night. I’ve heard possibly only three sirens since arriving in Bangkok, and each time I feel my heart start racing with worry. Such a stark change from my reaction to the sirens in DC!
You can order pizza by the meter … just go ahead and wrap you head around that!
Despite many services being a lot more affordable in Thailand, manicures are actually more expensive than in DC. The manicures here are more spa-ish and include an arm scrub/exfoliator so I guess you are getting more, but I still found the price a bit surprising.
Motorbikes will often jump up onto the curb {with no warning} and speed down the sidewalk during rush hour in an effort to avoid sitting in traffic. Motorbikes would never get away with driving on the sidewalks in the States!

And if you missed it, please check out the first and second installment of Bits of Bangkok. More of our Bangkok adventures, to date, can be found here or please follow along on Instagram.

29Oct 2015

Bits of Bangkok

by Nicole ⋅ 10 Comments

Time is flying and we have just about hit the 3 month mark as expats in Bangkok. Not surprising, but we’ve learned a few more tidbits about Bangkok, being an expat and we are really starting to find our groove living abroad.

The funny thing about living abroad is, just like being where you used to call home, eventually it starts to feel normal.

It’s normal to start sweat almost immediately after leaving the house.
It’s normal that most people around us are speaking in a language I barely understand.
It’s normal (or at least starting to feel normal) not to be going off to work each day.

Not to say I’m taking for-granted this amazing experience, but it’s nice that life is feeling more normal and less like I’m on constant sensory overload. :)

Some tidbits about Bangkok …

Unlike the Metro, the BTS isn’t a free for all when it comes to boarding the train. People actually line up and board in an orderly fashion. It took me a while to realize it wasn’t proper social etiquette to just rush the train doors once people finish disembarking. {See picture above of Jellybean lining up at the appropriate arrow.}
Right now the exchange rate range is about 35 baht to the dollar. My brain cannot do the math quick enough. One day soon I know it’s going to click and the calculation won’t be necessary, but until then I often whip out the cell phone to figure out how much something is.
When I switched to a Thai SIM card a lot more changed than just my phone number. Instead of having a monthly plan I now just ‘top off’ my cell phone phone when my balance is running low. The craziest part is I can add money at the 7-11! The other day we were running late to a playdate and my cell died (that’s what I get for ignoring 5 text messages my balance was low) and all I did was pop into 7-11 to add money to my cell phone. I was nervous it wouldn’t work, but it was seamless!
Speaking of paying things at 7-11 … a lots of bills can be paid at the 7-11 OR by doing a direct deposit into a company’s account. Few places take check or credit card as far as I can tell. You pay in cash, direct deposit into their account or just go to 7-11. Who would have thunk?
There is an abundance of trash cans in DC. Here, in Bangkok, trash cans are few and far between. I’ve become strangely adept hoarding trash in my backpack {or back pocket} and discarding it at home or bathroom trash cans. I don’t really understand why there are no trash cans, but I kind of miss the trash cans on every corner.
Recycling is nonexistent, as far as I can tell, in Bangkok. I was obsessed with separating out bottle/cans/paper in DC and now it all just goes in one bag. I feel guilty sometimes when I throw a can into the trash.
Bangkok is a foodie city, similar to DC and NYC, you can find just about any type of cuisine you would like. While we haven’t been out to eat as much as I might like the places we have tried are really good!
I am now ‘adept’ at telling the taxi driver to turn (leow) left (sai) and right (kwaa). I can also tell him the number of my street and the number of one other street that we visit frequently. Some of the taxi drivers correct my pronunciation and others pretend they have no idea what I’m saying. I’m learning slowly, but in all honesty the Thai language isn’t easy and being tonal one word can mean 5 different things depending on the inflection in your voice. Ahhh!
Buying food labeled in a foreign language can be interesting. Like the time we bought that strange milk for a couple weeks in a row since it ‘looked’ like whole milk containers from the States. Turns out it was ‘sweet milk’ or whatever that is… Or the all-to-common experience of buying street food and convincing yourself it’s probably chicken, or beef, or pork (ish). But it’s sooo tasty!
Personal space is fairly limited here. It is socially acceptable to stand super close to someone, touch their child or push past someone without even an excuse me. While I’m still not comfortable with the person behind me in line practically touching my back as we wait, I have had to adopt the pushing past people in order to get where I’m going … though I do try to say excuse me (or thoot in Thai).

And if you missed it, please check out the first installment of Bit of Bangkok. More of our Bangkok adventures, to date, can be found here or please follow us on Instagram.

What kind of Bangkok tidbits would you like to know more about?

13Sep 2015

Life Lately

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

We’ve lived in Bangkok for over month now. That just sounds weird out loud! Seriously, how does the time go by so quickly? Overall we are still getting adjusted and slowly finding a new routine for the whole family. Jet leg was killer and I reverted back to when Jellybean was just a wee one and ‘slept when the baby slept’ for the first week or so.

After only about a week here a bomb went off in downtown Bangkok. It gave the hubby and I a moment of pause. Did we do the right thing moving here? And if I’m being totally honest I had the ‘OH $H!T’ moment and seriously considered aborting this whole living abroad thing for a few minutes (or hours … whateves!). Things are scary at home and abroad. It’s the world we live in, unfortunately.

Being a stay-at-home-mom has been even busier than I imagined it would be. Between exploring the city (indoor playground, outdoor playgrounds, museums, swim lessons and playgroups), running errands and keeping up with the general housework I am totally pooped at the end of the day. The hubby thinks his job is tiring, but I’ve got him beat. :)

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately …

Jellybean and I hit up Ocean World on our first day out just the two of us. It was a total success – not only did we both love the museum, but I managed to get there on the BTS without getting lost! Let’s just keep it between us, but I spent 5 plus minutes trying to figure out which BTS exit to take, hahaha.

I don’t have any pictures, but we’ve gone to a few playgroups and Jellybean takes swim lessons once a week. The swim lessons are amazing. A vast improvement over the classes we took when she was little. We took a little break from playgroups due to Jellybean getting a cold, but I hope to get back into the swing of them soon. I’ve located a few new ones I think will be a good fit for Jellybean and me.

Indoor playgrounds are all the rage here. They are super fun and honestly as I already mentioned, we should adopt this kind of play area in the States. Jellybean and I had a blast at Molly Fantasy. We plan to try out a new indoor playground called Funarium soon.

If you are okay with sweating (seriously you are in Bangkok, just OWN the sweating) then Benchasiri park / playground and Benjaritti park are both fabulous places to take the little ones. I would also mention here both parks have workout areas, which kind of reminds me of Rock Creek Parkway. At some point I will have to go to the parks on my own so I can take advantage of the workout stuff.

And, last, but certainly not least … we’ve had some DELICIOUS food!

What have you been up to lately?

For more on our adventures in Bangkok, please click here or follow along on Instagram (#BitsOfBangkok).

09Sep 2015

Bits of Bangkok

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

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!!

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Tag Archives: Asia

Phuket, Thailand Vacation

Bits of Bangkok {Part 3}

Bits of Bangkok

Life Lately

Bits of Bangkok

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