Thailand Day 1 - Bangkok

After a 5 hour flight from Shanghai to Bangkok we pulled into the Sheraton Royal Orchid Hotel about 2pm.  It's a gorgeous hotel right on the edge of the river. 

The weather here is tropical, about 85 degrees Fahrenheit.  Lots of flowers and greenery. What a nice change it was from the freezing temperatures of Hangzhou and Shanghai!


After dropping our bags, we took to the streets to get our first taste of Bangkok!  I love the interesting Thai script!
 

Peter, Jack and Randy - it is sure nice to see Randy and Linda again!  The kids were in 7th heaven to see their grandparents again!


Sophie in front of some flowers next to the hotel, and Peter stuffing his mouth with watermelon in January!
 

Sue also enjoyed some tropical fruit!


Linda and Peter exploring the streets - Linda protected Peter from the traffic so he could keep his attention focused on that watermelon!


A woman bargaining for a ride in a tuk-tuk taxi.


We wandered into a neighborhood that was all about recycled auto parts, and auto parts stores.  I don't think this truck is going anywhere soon!



Peter, marvelling at all of the sights...


We stopped at a little Buddhist shrine and this man was dancing and jumping all over to entertain Sophie.  She loved it!
Amazing how high he could jump - he was something of an acrobat!


More of that interesting Thai script on a street sign.

We jumped into a little tuk-tuk taxi ourselves and asked the driver to take us for a little spin.  Here are some shots from the street.  If you want to get the full effect, breathe in some diesel fumes as you look at this picture!


At this little Buddhist shrine, Sue stopped to pay her respects.  Sophie is kneeling in front of her.
 

We sat by the river and watched the sunset, having a drink in the 80+ degree weather.  Wonderful!






Randy took Jack to a foot massage that they both really enjoyed. 
 

We see them here completely relaxed after their massages and ready to take on Bangkok!

All-important Layers

One of the fruits we really love here is the pomello; basically a giant oversized grapefruit.  For each section of the fruit, like  you'd find in an orange or a grapefruit, you peel away the thin white skin.  On an orange you eat this part; on a pomello you peel it away and only get the pieces of citrus inside.  It's delicious!  It takes me 2 to 3 sittings to eat a whole pomello; they are quite large, and we all love them!
The Chinese Medicine doctors expound their healing properties as well!  The pomello has just as many layers on as I do!

Today in class I wore 2 shirts, 2 sweaters, a sweatshirt and a coat, plus long underwear.  I was warm but felt so stiff under all of that clothing!

Tonight, Sue could not get warm.  I had my arm around her and I could feel her shivering!  So she got the comforter off of our bed and wrapped up in it.  Eventually her body heat took over.  It's somewhere in the mid 50's in our apartment and the small space heaters are having a hard time keeping the cold out!
 
Sue got onto the field with her art teacher, Jin to check it out.  We may play some soccer there tomorrow but we will have to share it with the goats!
 

Today they took the scaffolding off of our building!  We hope this means they will hook up our air conditioning unit soon so that we'll get real heat.