We had 2 days in Bangkok. Girls loved it immediately because, there are pink cars driving all around..  Staying at our friends, Alp & Basak’s house has been a great advantage in our first stop of the world tour. Especially as first timers in Bangkok, not knowing the language or anything about the country, their introduction to the city has been extremely valuable and easy start for us. In this trip, we have decided not to put ourselves under pressure of any “must to see’s or must to do’s”. We would like to take things easily, as they come. Sometimes we might miss some important landmarks of a city, but we can see other things instead. That’s fine.. This approach is difficult for any achievers who feels that they must get most out of things, who study and plan things before hand. And I am usually like that. However, one of the purposes of this adventure for me is to learn to let things go.. and take openly what comes.. So, in Bangkok we didn’t visit the most popular places, such as floating market or to the Grand Palace or Wat Po.. But instead we were happy to witness the expat life of our friends, chill and chat at their home, let the kids swim in the pool, ate in a child friendly Mexican restaurant near the house and had late night foot message in the neighborhood. 🙂

The next day we were a bit more touristy. We left home at 7:30 am and took a canal tour. Not in the most popular river, but more authentic one in the back canals.  This was great. Because boats on canals were used as transport traditionally, many interesting sites are along the water way.

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I had a bit mixed feelings when we got all wet with the canal water, especially in the face. Locals swim in it, but it definitely didn’t look clean for us. But as said, we take things as they come.. including canal water in the face..

First we stopped at Morning Fresh Produce Market. Thanks to our guide’s introductions, we tried several fruits and food from street sellers. I must admit that I was not as open minded as I thought I am.. Trying a new food in a restaurant is something else, than in open street market. All the smells, and people are different then what I am used to, I felt a bit uncomfortable. (Maybe having kids made me a bit more cautious) On the other hand, my 5 year old Lara has been extremly open minded, willing to try everyting and not disturbed by anyone or anything. I’m very proud of her.

Our next stop was my favorite, Temple  Wat Khun Chan. Girls loved watching the ceremony of the monks. According to our guide, this head of the monks in this picture is about the become the most important religious man in Thailand as the last one died a year ago.

We were all amazed by the glass sculpture of the building and the painting of heaven on the sealing.

As last, we stopped in Orchid Nursery. Thai people really love flowers, and give them great importance. Honestly, we were a bit hot and tired at this point and wanted to go back home.

In the evening, we visited hipster part of Bangkok and had a lovely dinner with our hosts. We had the luxury of leaving the kids with their nanny. However while we enjoyed our usual late night massages, apparently both of our girls woke up at home, were afraid not seeing us around and cried half an hour waking everybody else in the house. Poor Basak, who skipped the massage because she was tired and wanted to sleep early, managed to calmed down 3 simmultanously crying kids, after a fair freak out moment… This is the guilt and shame price we had to pay, feeling like failure as parents… Luckily Lara woke up in the morning and told Nico “I forgive you, father”. In summary, Bangkok is a colorful and chaotic city.. Thai people are extremely friendly to children. (They even give place in the metro and buses.) They smile all the time.. It felt really good to be here.. I’m more curious now how it must feel to live in a society where people meditate and gets massages all the time.. (Especially compared to the aggressiveness in Turkey nowadays.) kop khun kha, Zeynep

• zeynep and nico
• October 19, 2014
• Uncategorized
• bangkok
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