Tag Archives: Thai

13Sep 2015

Life Lately

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!!