Thailand: Bangkok Part 1

We finally made it to Thailand. Getting here was some intense travel…here’s how it went.

We all slept hard the night before but Ryder and I woke up and hung out at 4:30am the next day. We stayed in bed for a few hours before getting breakfast. Then we all made our way to the airport. Our hotel in Frankfurt was so nice and the people were very kind.

We hung out at our gate for a couple of hours. Kids did pretty well. I read. I haven’t read a fiction book in a long time, maybe 2 or more years I’ve been only reading non-fiction. I bought  “Big Little Lies” for my kindle, recommended by Brian, and I can’t put it down! I remember now how much I love a good story.

Thai Airways is a beautiful airplane. I didn’t know airplanes had 2 levels! How cool!

We were on the top level. We got situated for 10 more hours of flying. Ryder slept a couple of hours but the rest of us stayed awake with occasional eye closing in hopes of some rest. I did watch 2 1/2 movies though. I’m getting all caught up on popular culture. 🙂 A Dogs Purpose and Hidden Figures were both awesome. I watched half of Founder, the story of McDonalds…very interesting.

Excited and ready to fly!

Totally exhausted waiting in line at customs

 

Bangkok airport is big and bustling. We met Pon’s nephews who picked us up in a beautiful van. It was fancy inside…I must have been too tired, I should’ve taken a picture. It was gold and glitzy and intricately decorated. 

Bangkok is huge. When we made it into the city, the skyline went forever. The inner streets are filled with people and motorcycles hurrying everywhere. The sidewalks are lined with all kinds of things to buy. We didn’t explore this yet, we went straight to our hotel. I nodded politely when Pon spoke to her nephews and they laughed and enjoyed seeing eachother but we couldn’t understand a word. We just put our hands together at heart and smiled. Pon told me later her nephew asked half jokingly if I was real. They’re not used to seeing fair skin red heads in Nakon Sawan where they live. Haha!

We ate some snacks, had some tea and walked around the hotel a bit. Then, kids swam a bit while we waited for our room to be ready.

When our room was ready, we took long naps again before dinner. Kids were like zombies at dinner. They stared blankly ahead and didn’t speak. It was actually quite pleasant.😆

Dinner was wonderful. I remembered half way through eating that a handful of friends asked me to take pictures of food. I had Tom Ka Gai soup and Pad See Ew with delicious Thai Kale.

After dinner we all went to bed. It was 6pm. Tim woke around midnight, kids shortly after. I kept sleeping. They all went back to bed about 3am and at 4am I was ready to get up and have some morning time by myself. 

Good morning Bangkok

It’s funny, I’m reminded of the yoga and sleep workshop Diane and I taught a couple of weeks ago. At the beginning I said that in our culture, because insomnia is so prevalent, sleep is a portion of our conversations almost every day….how we slept, how little we slept, how tired we are or aren’t, etc. Well, that conversation is currently amped up here. We all have talked at length about our flight sleeping, bed sleeping, when we woke, how tired we feel, how surprisingly untired we feel, and every other detail about sleep you can imagine. 

Today we will visit the Grand Palace and later have dinner and see a well known dance performance of the history of Thailand. I learned a lot about the late King Bhumibol on the flights. Incredible man beloved by his people more than any king before. Now his son leads the country. 

So now, the conversation of sleep will need to move to the side, it’s time to explore this beautiful country.