traveling Archives - Life's Tidbits

19Oct 2015

Jim Thompson’s House and Museum

In an effort to continue exploring Bangkok and taking advantage of our time abroad we decided to check out the Jim Thompson House and Museum a few weekends ago. I found it in one of the travel books we have for Bangkok we have and hoped it would be fairly toddler friendly. It’s probably worth nothing Jim Thompson House is #7 on the TripAdvisors list of ‘Things To Do’ in Bangkok.

Side note – why is the BTS Skytrain #2 on TripAdvisor? I mean sure it’s a convenient way to get around, but I wouldn’t recommend visitors go on the BTS just for the sake of going on the BTS. Okay … stepping off soap box.

The guided tour provided a lot of details about Jim Thompson who was an American and moved to Thailand after WW2. He was known not only for his silk business, but his antique collection. Touring his house, seeing the antiques he collected and learning more about Thai culture was really interesting and definitely worth the trip. It was kind of kid friendly, but the hubby missed out on part of the house tour because Jellybean wanted to see the fish. Mor’ fish, mor’ fish she shrieked. :)

After the tour and snapping some photos we made our way to the restaurant. There was a beautiful koi fish pound next to where we ate.

The hubby and I celebrated the successful sightseeing trip with a beer. It came with phet (Thai for spicy) peanuts. The perfect little snack to compliment a nice cold beer!

Seriously delicious coconut ice cream.

A few Tidbits for Visiting the Jim Thompson House and Museum:

It is located within walking distance of the National Stadium BTS station. DO NOT let a Tuk Tuk convince you a ride is required as you leave the skytrain.
Admission is 150 BHT per person (bring cash)
As part of the admission fee guided informational tours are provided (in multiple languages) and last about 30 minutes.

For more information visit the Jim Thompson House website.

Have you been to the Jim Thompson House? If you have any recommendations on where we should visit, eat, etc?? I am open to hearing any and all suggestions (even if it’s outside of Bangkok … we do plan to do some traveling around Thailand)!!

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).

20Oct 2014

Jet-setter Baby

by Nicole ⋅ 8 Comments

A the ripe ‘old’ age of 9 month little miss Jellybean has been to the east coast, west coast and Midwest! Pretty well traveled baby don’t you thinks?!?! Between the age of 3 and 9 months we’ve flown with Jellybean a number of times and taken two long car trips. During each trip I learn of something new I should pack as well as what not to pack. Finding the balance between enough and not enough stuff has been challenging.

The ability to wash clothes at the grandparents’ houses was clutch! When we were in Seattle clean clothes were hard to come by and, yeah, we totally ran out of diapers … the trip was only 4 days. The husband admitted (after the fact) he thought I over packed, and was completely befuddled when he had to hand wash a onsie and go buy more diapers on the last day of the trip!

Let me put my cards on the table here. Traveling with a baby isn’t as bad as I thought it would be! Do I want to travel with her weekly or even monthly?! No, not really. But all in all flying with an infant isn’t all that bad — even when taking into account the blowout we experienced on Mother’s day.

Traveling with all of the baby’s STUFF …. now THAT, THAT my friends, that is another story. :) For such a little person Jellybean’s suitcase and carry on bag {aka diaper bag} is overflowing every time we travel.

I did my share of Googling and surveying friends when planning how to best travel with our infant. While I am clearly not an expert when it comes to traveling with a baby I did want to share what I’ve learned so far!

Tips to make Flying with an Infant Easier

Gate check the stroller and car seat. It’s free so there is no reason not to bring them with you. Yes they are clunky, but the ability to put JB in her stroller/carseat and walk through the airport was amazing. While a baby carrier is great I find carrying the baby plus carry-on bag to be a bit much! If you little one is out of the car seat already you can check it for free after obtaining your boarding pass. Not shlupping that thing through the airport is SO nice.
Change baby’s diaper just prior to boarding. Even if the diaper is just a tiny bit wet it’s best to start fresh.
Boarding early . When able, that is, apparently United doesn’t do early boarding for families, boo! It’s nice to get on and get settled without having to navigate around others … or hold up the boarding process. Better yet, when traveling with another adult, have one person get on early with the gear and then other board last minute with the baby.
Allow for extra time to go through security. TSA is super chill about carrying on formula/pumped milk, and purees/food. TSA does do an extra check so it adds a tad bit of additional time for them to do the check.
Place the diaper bag and ALL baby related items under the seat in front of you. Inevitably something I thought we would not need became a MUST HAVE RIGHT NOW item during take off or landing – clearly if it’s in the overhead one will need it when we can’t access it. :)
Bring a baby carrier. For most it seems like the baby carrier and stroller are an either/or travel item. For me, BOTH are a must. The carrier was clutch when we were flying to Seattle. It was the only way I could have my hands free and allow Jellybean to take a nap. I wouldn’t ever travel without it again.

BONUS TIP! Cheerios and/or Puffs are great for entertainment and containing the little one in tight corridors.

Here is Jellybean on her maiden trip to the Midwest :)

Any travel tips? What is your must have items for baby when traveling?

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Tag Archives: Traveling

Jim Thompson’s House and Museum

Life Lately

Jet-setter Baby