Finally. Adventures in Bangkok

This past week has been our first real week in Bangkok. The first week doesn't count in mind. It was such a blur with jet lag and all. So we've been spending all our free time falling back in love with the city (oh, and also remembering all the things we'd blocked out).

Wednesday night was our first night on the town. We went out to dinner at a local mall and went to watch a movie. Watching movies is a rarity in America for us it seems but here I love to watch them even more. The seats are cheaper and nicer and concessions are way better and cheaper too. We watched Indiana Jones which I couldn't rave about as much as the theaters.

Thursday we visited NightLight, a ministry we'll talk about in another post, and then had our first crazy Bangkok experience. A teammate Matt got a stomach infection last week and was hospitalized for several days. We went to visit him on Thursday night. Well, it was good to see him. Afterwards is when the craziness began. First of all it was raining. Then we noticed traffic was at a total stand still. So we decide to hop on the skytrain and take it to the stop nearest to our place so we can avoid all waiting. Well that didn't exactly work out as planned.

When we got off at the Ari station, no taxis would let us in. Some would drive up to us, stop, let us open the door, and then they'd take off again. We weren't the only ones having this experience. Tons of people were standing on the side of the road waiting too. A sweet Thai lady offered to help us but didn't have any luck either. She called the taxi headquarters and they said they weren't accepting calls. Weird. And remember it's raining and it's way past Adelaide's bedtime.

Finally we decide to fork up the dough and suffer through a rainy ride and take a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle converted to a 3 wheeled open air taxi of sorts. It's funny how just a few weeks ago I was worried about Adelaide not having a car seat and now I'm putting her on tuk-tuks in the rain. Anyway, we weren't alone either. Libby and Andrew were with us so we had to fit 4 adults and Adelaide in this thing.

It was awesome. The rain didn't come in that much miraculously but made it a nice cool ride. Rocky had to sit at our feet for us to all fit and he said his butt nearly caught fire, but it was so much fun. Adelaide was a trooper through it all and didn't complain even though she didn't make it to bed until 10pm. Below is a picture of us all in the tuk tuk sitting in traffic.

Saturday was our first real weekend in town so of course I had to take everyone to Chatujak Weekend Market. Rocky didn't take Adelaide with us. It's already hot in Thailand and being in the crowded rows of the market can send any world traveler over the edge at times, so he and Chris took the kids to the Bangkok Children's Discovery Museum (or that was the plan anyway). The museum was closed when they got there but that didn't mean the kids didn't have fun. All the outdoor equipment was open and free so they played there for awhile. It's amazing how big Adelaide is these days. She could play on the see saw and sort of hang with the big kids.




Saturday night was spent with Ped, our long time friend that we met while at Louisiana Tech, and his wife Tik. They just got approved for their first house last week and they'll be moving in while we're here. They've been living with Ped's parents since they were married so they are extremely excited. We went to go see their house and to eat dinner. Their house is alot like ours-- suburban, new, small, cute.

Afterwards we went out to dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant in Ped's neighborhood. They have a nice wood fired oven that entertained Adelaide for awhile. The food was great. I had one of my favorite things-- insalata caprese. Yum.

Sunday I stayed back while Rocky and the team went to church. Adelaide was a little fussy when she woke up. For lunch that day they went to eat at the best restaurant in all of Thailand, Mel's. I was so jealous. I asked them to bring me something back but the cold soggy take home meal was just not as good. That evening was Isabella Degarmo's birthday. We all joined her to celebrate at McDonald's (Adelaide is beginning to love McDonald's like all kids do. She loves the "chic sticks" here) and for a party at the CCC office.

That brings us to Monday which started out great. We met my dad and his girlfriend at Siam Paragon, the largest mall in Thailand, for lunch and to go to the aquarium. The aquarium was very fun. My dad actually bought us a pass so we can go back as much as we'd like for the next few weeks. I think that will be a fun thing to do to get out of our cramped room while Rocky's working.

Anyway, on our way home from the mall I noticed Adelaide felt a little warm, well alot warm. She seemed exhausted and fell asleep in my arms in the taxi. So when we got home I checked her temperature. It was 103.5! At that point Adelaide was just totally lethargic. She's lay down and fall in and out of sleep for hours. Even with Motrin her temperature wouldn't really go down. We called our pediatrician in America and he suggested that we wait it out and see how she did.

Well, she did OK. She threw up once and was generally exhausted (above is our exhausted, sick, little girl resting with her dad) but slept a decent amount that night. When she woke up we checked her temperature again and it was 103.6. At that point (after conferring with our SOS insurance doctors and our pediatrician) we decided to bring Adelaide to the doctor.

The doctor was one that the SOS clinic recommended. He studied in the US but he definitely wasn't an American doctor. He had the nurse restrain Adelaide's arms and head so he could check her out. I've never heard her scream so loudly. She was angry. I don't know how he saw anything honestly. Adelaide was kicking him so hard. And I don't know how much I trust his diagnosis of a sore throat. That's it. That's all he said was wrong with her. He said her throat was red because of post nasal drip and that's it. Well, I don't know how many times Adelaide's had a sore throat from post nasal drip and she never complained that badly, was that exhausted, or had such an extreme fever.

He went on to order the entire pharmacy worth of drugs for me-- a decongestant, a medicine for coughing and sore throat, an antibiotic, tylenol, motrin. . . I knew I wasn't going to give Adelaide most of the stuff but we're in a different culture, one that doesn't challenge authority, so I just went with it. The drugs were ready for me by the time I got to the check out counter (a feature I wouldn't mind if America had). Total everything was $56. Not too bad considering they didn't take my insurance and I got 5 bottles of drugs out of the deal.

Anyway, Adelaide is feeling much much better today. She still looks like someone punched her in one of her eyes (I don't know what caused that), but she is playing. She is eating a little bit. She is not nearly as exhausted. My pediatrician in America told me to hold off on all the drugs right now since she's making such good progress on her own. I still don't know what really happened but I'm so glad she's more like herself today.

Anyway, that's our week in review.