Humid Bangkok!

32 degrees celcius as I write this post. Last summer the temperature could go up to as high as 38 to 40 . So hot and humid! But this summer is quite unusual for Bangkok, or for any other country in the world for that matter. We have had a week of really cold weather minus the rain– that was two weeks ago. Imagine the temperature went to as low as 19 degrees celcius! I was about to love the cold weather when news broke about floodings and quakes within Thailand. I guess the weather was too weird for us to even enjoy it. 🙂

So now it’s back to humid and hot. This is more like it. More like summer– summer in Bangkok. What I could not stand is not just the heat but the humidity! I guess we would need dehumidifiers to have comfortable afternoons and restful evenings.

But despite the heat, my sister and I managed to travel to Ayutthaya, the ancient city of Thailand for sight seeing before she went home to the Philippines. We beat the heat by buying wide-brimmed hats!

Very tourist-looking, eh? haha!

A visit to Bangkok!

While my sister Reyna was here in Bangkok for 10 days, I made it a point to take her to Wat Phra Kew, one of the famous Buddhist temples in Bangkok. It is where the Emerald Buddha is, and literally thousands of tourists flock this Buddhist holy ground everyday. Next to this temple is the Royal palace, home of the Royal family. But now this palace is no longer inhabited, since it has become one of the tourist attractions of Bangkok.
We admired the beautiful landscape of the place and how the lawn was neatly trimmed. I wonder if they use zero turn mowers? Although the Grand Palace is closed, we enjoyed taking photos of the grand structure—I feel like I was taken back in time and I have to say, I felt like a princess there. Haha.

Beautifully-manicured lawn of the Grand Palace

I took my sister to the reclining Buddha inside Wat Po, another temple within the vicinity. A visit to Thailand can mean a visit to a million and one temples, and lots of good food to taste! So if you plan to come and visit Amazing Thailand, get your feet ready for lots of walking, put lots of sunscreen on, thicken your purse for some shopping and yes, your tongue for some extra hot and spicy Thai cuisine! After all that, a nice Thai massage can be a perfect way to end your day.

Going around Bangkok

Just this afternoon I asked our neighbor how to get to the floating market. My sister has seen a segment of Discovery Travel about this historic tourist place in Thailand, and I want to take her there this week.

I was surprised to find out that there are actually many floating markets, but our neighbor said we could go to the most famous one.

It’s really hard to get around Bangkok and its neighboring provinces, especially if you don’t have a map and most locals do not speak good English. To drive around, one has to have a good GPS.

Speaking of a GPS, we would like to have one. But first, we should have a car! LOL. 🙂 But really, it would not hurt if as early as now we would look into gps reviews, right?

So when the car comes, we would not have trouble going around Bangkok– and take guests to these historic places worth going to!

Last supper

Before we left from LopBuri, a city in Central Thailand for our Thai language studies, we had dinner with language school friends. We jokingly called it “our last supper”.

We enjoyed this delicious meal with special people:

Everyone wanted Western food that night as we were always eating Thai food almost every day. That was one of the best restaurants in LopbBuri that I have ever been to!

I really think I have to be serious about losing weight. I guess I need to look into xenadrine reviews. Living in Thailand has definitely made me a certified foodie!!

My entry to:

Yummy Sunday

Thailand’s night markets

One of the things you would notice when you come to Thailand are the night markets you will find on parking spaces of department stores and shopping malls every single night. Thais are generally fashionable and consider fashionable clothing as one of the important commodities in life.

One of the night markets in our former community. They have everything: brand new and used clothing, branded goods, and lots of food. It is like having a huge party every single night! I wonder if they sell dereon? There’s so much choices it would be hard to find the brand you are looking for sometimes.

I usually do not go out lest I be tempted to spend beyond my budget. 🙂

Thailand’s Tuktuk

You have never been to Thailand if you have never ridden a tuktuk. A tuktuk is a unique mode of transportation mostly within the heart of Bangkok. You can ride on it to get from one big shopping mall to another.

Experience a fast and fun ride with the Tuktuk!

We rode on a tuktuk to visit downtown Bangkok’s biggest landmarks with my sister and her family when they visited last month. We had loads  of fun!  We went to buy some items she could sell in our home country so we had some shopping spree, too. Those crystal beads on the earrings she bought looked stunning. And they were not expensive at all! There were gorgeous necklaces, too. They were so gorgeous it was hard to pick the best ones, considering that we had little budget. Haha! Some necklaces had to have necklace extenders, though, but they were great.

It wasn’t really a “shop ’til you drop” kind of shopping experience, but the tuktuk ride we enjoyed!

Breath-taking!

This is my favorite photo of the sunset at Koh Lipe, an island in South Thailand (ehemm .. yours truly, the budding photographer took this. haha). I just stared at the beautiful sight and just marveled at the hues of blues, yellows, pinks and pale reds. I was at Koh Lipe with some very special friends, but I was missing the kids and hubby while I was there.

Maybe we could plan out a holiday sometime. Would it be at Outer Banks? I wish! I am sure it would be a vacation the family will remember for a lifetime.

I really think that we should include family vacations in our budget. I grew up not having regular family get aways but everytime we had one, it always brought beautiful memories.

Where is your favorite vacation destination? I have yet to find out mine.

On LLC Walls

Lopburi language Center is one of the Thai language schools that has the best reputation in all of Thailand.  It is such a privilege to be here.

We have our study room where we have our own individual study tables.  One of the things that I enjoyed doing was decorating it with photos of our kids.  It is meant to be for inspiration, but … many times I just find myself staring at those beautiful photos and would just be taken back to wonderful memories. Sigh.  Well, well.  this blog is about LLC walls.

This is my study space… A hot choco drink, a glass of water, photos that will serve as inspiration would be very helpful….when studying Thai, a messy bag would be forgivable. 🙂

One day I just can’t help but notice some writings on the study wall room.  Curious, I had to have a closer look.

Whoever wrote this, thanks buddy… you have cheered me up today!

This person never knows the word “surrender”– in fact he does not know how it is spelled! 🙂

Forgetting how the word “discouraged”is spelled correctly means that it does not exist in his vocabulary.. I like this guy! Yeah, man, keep going!! I will too.. Haha! 😀

This means “I am not giving in to failure”!! Wow!! I am in complete agreement to this one. Way to go, man! whoever and wherever you are..

So I got out of the study room that day smiling.  I wonder what was running through the minds of those “wall writers”.  I mean we all know writing on walls is not really good, but if it means that whatever you wrote on those walls will be etched in your mind as well, why not?  But I am not justifying vandalism, ok? I guess I have to end this post with this thought:  Thai language is undoubtedly one of the world’s hardest languages… and this LLC study room has been a silent witness to sighs, sobs, and tears of desperation.  But why the hassle of learning this language?  It takes God’s grace, and lots of lots of HIS love to do it.  With the “wall writers” I say, I will never be discouraged, I will cheer up, because I can do it.  By His grace I will not be discouraged and NO, I am not giving in to failure!

My entry to:

Suvarnabhumi Airport

That’s Joey and our boy, Jez at Suvarnabhumi (pronouced as Suwanabhum)– the International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand.  It is really huge, very overwhelming.

This was when our folks came to visit last year.  It’s funny how at that time we lost each other because my father took the wrong exit.  And my phone’s battery was dead, so we had to find ways to contact them.  It’s very hard to be lost in a big airport like this, in a country where people do not speak much English.

This structure is one of the   metal buildings in the country, with lots of glass!  I wonder how much it cost the Thai government to build this.

Sporty me

I have a confession: I am never sporty.  So this post is about the new me. Haha!  Well, yesterday I successfully went to the sports center and spent 25 hours on the treadmill.  Quite a breakthrough for me who never does this regularly… and today, we played volleyball after school!

It was funny because I really get scared of the ball and tend to avoid it many times, but I think that with more practice, I can do better.  It was just a fun game, but I plan to do more exercises in the future and play ball some more.  I do need some sports shoes though… rocawear has lots of good choices to choose from.  A good Christmas treat for myself! *wink*

Having fun after Thai classes.  I am becoming sporty! Isn’t it great? 🙂