Month: July 2020

So, during this latest hiatus, the traveling expat family has travelled to Houston- where in theory we will hang out until we are able to head back to China. We are lucky that during this pandemic we have had so many people offer to put us up, we stayed with one set of parents for almost 5 months and now my lovely aunt has allowed us to stay in her empty place in Houston. So we packed up, rented a van and drove from Miami to Houston in 2 days. We’re still safe and healthy, and adjusting to our new surroundings. Keep in mind that I’m so behind on writing these that all blogs are from before coronavirus and that’s why there are crowds and no masks. And now, we will return to our regularly scheduled programming…

This trip seems like ages ago, and I guess it really was. We decided to head back to Thailand for our first Golden Week that we could actually travel. Golden week is the first week in October in China and is a national holiday similar to 4th of July if I remember right. The first year in China we all had to turn in our passports to get our residency permits attached, and last year Mark and Alex had their passports but because I had switched from working to being a student I had to turn my passport back in for a new student residency permit. This last year though, we were free and clear and decided to head to Thailand to deal with some medical issues and have a vacation.

If you’ll remember in one of the last blogs, Alex had all kinds of issues with tubes in his ears and it was recommended for us to get them taken out. Tubes are not a common procedure in China so rather than fight a language barrier to work on a unfamilar issue, we found an amazing hospital in Bangkok to take him. It was also a good time for dental check ups, which we have a dentist in Thailand if anyone ever needs one.

The week started with vacation though, and as usual, my boys voted for a cat cafe. I’ve now gotten to the point where I’ve developed a procedure to minimize my allergies while we’re there, and Mark and Alex have so much fun there it’s hard to say no.

This cat was very pushy and determined to eat all the chicken treats that Alex had, he was very friendly though.

And this derpy guy below, I don’t know why, but the cats with issues always come by me to be friends. In the first cat cafe it was the cat with the smooshy face that kept blowing boogers all over the place, here it was this guy. He had something wrong with his eye, and he kept trying to drink my tea.

I love the little bandanas and neck ties that the cats were wearing, it helped me tell them all apart.

Mark found (in whatever magic way he has) this famous place for pad thai, and since we didn’t have any other plans, we decided we would wait the 40ish minutes to get in. It was hot and humid out, but in that nice way you don’t mind in Thailand.

This was the line behind us waiting to get in, they also had a window service to get drinks while you were waiting. I couldn’t believe the constant line, no matter how many people went in, an almost equal number joined the wait list.

Almost our turn to get in, the people waiting varied from backpackers and clear tourists (us included) to locals. Although admittedly less locals than others.

When we sat down, the waitress recommended an orange drink- I was not into it at all, but when we got it, it was fantastic. It wasn’t really orange juice, more like Tangerine juice and it had chunks of tangerine (or orange or whatever) in it. It was sweet and refreshing and I could finally see why they had a walk up window outside for it.

I didn’t take any pictures of dinner, it was a different style of pad thai than we had had before, I believe it may be called wet? It was more saucey than other ones we had, with a fair bit of oil. It certainly wasn’t bad, but not my favorite either.

Since dinner had been a little less amazing than we had hoped for, Mark found a dessert place on the way home that promised good things. There was a little bit of a wait, but it was worth it. Mark picked Raspberry butter cookies, raspberries are always going to be his go to.

I got a box of their toffee cake to take home, this is one of, if not the, signature dishes of After you cafe.

And Alex picked a brownie ala mode, which was delicious and a lot of dessert for a 9 year old!

And what day in Thailand would be complete without a tea break? Mark and I got thai ice tea and Alex got an apple italian soda type drink that seemed to me to be 4 types of sugar in a cup, but it made him happy.

This trip we stayed in a motel that we had stayed at before, but overall I was less impressed this time. We had a crummier room, the service was lackluster at best- but the location is nice and the price is pretty good.

One of the things I love about this place is the flowers in the driveway and across the way. I love plumeria, it’s become my favorite flower, and there are so many variations of the blossoms.

The humidity and difference between the temperature of our room and outside kept fogging up the lens on my camera, but it worked out in my favor because I think this is a positively dreamy picture of the plumeria.

These pink plumeria are on a house just across the street from the motel, and I loved the pink and white and yellow- so bright and pretty.

The one downside to this trip is we were here during the rainy season again, and boy did it live up to it’s name. But there is something beautiful about Bangkok in the rain, and the hustle and bustle of traffic in the rain.