Bangkok

We had the opportunity to visit two families we love in Bangkok and we jumped at the chance to spend the weekend in Thailand.  Our family has changed a little since our last trip there!  This was actually Alex's first flight from Singapore to Bangkok in October 2008.

 

 
October 2008:

November 2017 (and don't you love our pants??  We forgot the temple dress code this time around and had to buy clothes to cover our legs and my shoulders.  I'm wearing 3 shirts, shorts, and pants in this picture.  I am NOT pregnant)

We arrived late on Friday and caught up with the Smith family, who so graciously hosted us for the weekend.  First thing Saturday morning, we went to a wet market they recommended hoping to see a little bit of everything.

Pink eggs!

Once we made it out to the seafood and meat, things started to get interesting...

Pig faces, anyone?  I was dying to know what people did with these.

The chickens were very fresh, and the next round was on deck.

Mmm...eel...

 

The kids did okay through the pig guts and the skinned frogs, but they were losing it by the time we got to the huge piles of insects.

Pretty sure these were rats.

And naturally, huge durian at the very end!

After we finished walking through the market and the kids lost their greenish faces, we went to the Grand Palace.  It's such a beautiful place that I couldn't wait for the kids to see it.

The palace itself hadn't changed in 9 years, but the crowds were unbelievable.  Many places were wall to wall people, so it wasn't nearly as enjoyable to explore but we still found some quiet places to investigate.

I asked Ben for a picture of us in our awesome elephant pants and he zoomed in so much you can't see the palace at all!

A very serious guard on the way out.

Ben was absolutely dying to ride in a tuk-tuk but traffic had been bad and several streets were closed because the late King's ashes were still open to the public, so it was difficult to find a good place.  Finally we hopped on one for a 30-second ride down the street and made him happy.

Finally, we made it back to the Nichada expat compound to spend some time with our friends.  Ben and Alex were beyond thrilled to see Maddie and Michael, neighbors from our street who moved 3 years ago.  They picked up like no time had passed at all.

 Meanwhile, the adults got to do the same!  We always loved having Jen and Dan as neighbors.

Next, we were off to dinner with Clint and Candi (and Jen and Dan joined us later) to complete our reunion. It was SO wonderful to catch up with families we will always love!

 

And while the kids were all busy with a babysitter, we also jumped at the chance to do a little late-night race car driving.  Another great fashion statement for the day, since every one of us had open toed shoes and we had to buy closed toed loafers to race. We tried hard to get the Smith's driver to join us but he prefers driving real cars.

 

 It was a really quick trip but so wonderful to see friends and explore a little.  Definitely an upside to expat living in Asia!  Candi even made Ben a doggy bag of real American bacon to take home and he broke into it the second we got on the plane. 

Cub Scout Campout

We were pretty excited about our first Cub Scout campout.  We were staying inside the Taman Safari park but the campground is hard to reach, so we had to load our bags on a truck and pile in a big bus to drive up near it, then walk another 10 minutes down a small road to reach the grounds.

 

Meals were provided in the big mess hall, which had a gorgeous view.

 

Thankfully, tents were provided and they were raised up off the ground.  We were grateful since we brought very little of our own camping gear.

The campground was scenic and right next to the river, so we got to sleep to the sounds of the water running just past our tent and the rain falling on the canopy over it.

 Unfortunately, about 30 seconds after we picked our tents, I met my first Asian hornet and got a nasty sting on the head.  I've never had such intense pain from an insect sting or had it last for so long.  I was miserable for hours because the pain didn't let up all afternoon.  Because of the traffic and different travel times for everyone, there were no organized activities all afternoon so I rested while Matt and the boys explored.

I ventured back out for dinner and the night safari, which was really interesting.  Afterward, we got to meet a few of the younger cats up close and personally.

 

 

 
 On Sunday morning, we enjoyed the beautiful campgrounds after breakfast.

The boys cut sticks and ran around chasing one another...a perfect way to enjoy the outdoors.

Several of the kids, including Alex, managed to pick up leeches in the wet grass  *shudder*  We met lots of local wildlife on this trip.

The boys had slingshot tournament.

They also got to line up for the flying fox zipline.

Alex couldn't wait to get to the top.

I think he passed about four kids in his rush to the top.

Superman!

My head still hurt the next day but not nearly as much.  I was still hitting the ground every time I saw a flying insect, though.

The boys were awarded the badges they had earned so far this year and we packed up to head home.

It was a fun time and I'd love to do it again one day when I'm fully conscious the entire trip!

Turns out the hornet sting was a gift that just kept on giving.  When we got home Sunday afternoon, I noticed my face was swelling so I popped some more benadryl.  By that evening, I looked something like this!  It was time to see what Jakarta medicine could do to help me.  I've now had two rounds of steroids and I'm hoping and praying the swelling doesn't come back.