Bangkok

I'm sure there are a few of you out there that have been waiting for this one! I've been as eager to write it as you've been to read it. However with the change of events as of late it has been rather difficult to want to even go near a computer let alone sit at it for 2 hours recanting stories that already took place well over a week ago. But it must been done and the stories deserve to be told as well as heard.

For those of you following this that are unfamiliar with our family dynamics, we have been extremely excited over the past month with the news that my sister and brother in-law (yes, yes technical not yet... Stacey and I will be married soon...same-same but different lol) Jana and Mike were meeting us half way around the world in Thailand for two weeks! Very exciting news for us as I'm sure Stacey is getting tired of listening to my stories after 4 months lol (your not yet are you babe??). If anyone should be tired it should be me... no exaggeration, for the last month all I've heard has been,"I can't believe their coming","What are they going to think of this?","Only ten more days...nine more days...eight more days...". The waiting game is the hardest part - Tom Petty lol

But finally the big moment came...

They wouldn't be Braaten's if there weren't a few tears... (Mike and I were also happy but no "Man Tears" were shed on this occasion). Quite a moment... we honestly didn't know what to expect. I mean we knew that Bangkok would be a rush to the senses for any new arrival but after 26 hours in the air it's hard to predict how someone's gonna feel. So Stacey and I honestly just prepared for either scenario: 1) they crash hard 2) they wanna celebrate Being the Canadian troopers that they are I'm proud to say that it was number 2 lol. But first it was a subway ride from our airport to hotel.

Bangkok has a lot of great sights and energy and I can honestly say that it's definitely one of my favourite cities I've visited...

That last picture is of the street where we stayed known as Khao San Road (Cow-San-Road), heart of the backpacker scene of the city. Hard to sum it up any other way other than "madness". The street never sleeps which can kind of be a good thing if you just stepped off a 26 hour plane ride into a 32 C heat. You can slightly use the energy. We stayed up that night sharing stories and enjoying a swim on our roof top pool...

The next morning again we decided to play it by ear depending on Mike and Jana's jet lag (which still to my surprise was literally non-existent... which either means their really good travellers or that Jana's a really good mobile pharmacy lol). That being said we hit the pavement early, in a feeble attempt to beat the heat, and thought that we would see the Grand Palace. Unfortunately/fortunately it was closed for the morning due to Chinese New Years celebrations. We quickly decided to make the best of our situation and high tailed it to Bangkok's China Town to take in the festivities.

Of course being New Years, China Town was as lively as ever with everyone all dressed in red taking part in the celebration of the Year Of The Dragon. I'd be lying if I didn't mention that Stacey and I were extremely excited to show Mike and Jana a little taste of our reality while travelling throughout China. As I believe Jana put it, "It was definitely sensory overload"...

But not just sensory overload, because with the heat and crowds it was almost too much for even Stacey and I to bare (gross but worth mentioning - I've never had that much swass while travelling yet lol). Even with the elements being as extreme as they were we managed to compose ourselves and continue touring around China town for several hours until it became unanimous to retreat back to the hotel pool.

The views from the pool were unbelievable too. It was pretty cool to get a good view of Bangkok during both day and night.

This ones a shot of the Mens Bathroom on the top floor by the pool... best view in the house!

We needed the rest because we all had a big night in store for us... the girls were in for a heavy weight bout of shopping while Mike and I headed off to take in the Maui Tai fights... ringside... hells ya baby!

The fights were fantastic (still can't believe some of the weight classes though - 101 lbs, 105 lbs... we got dogs that weigh that much back home lol). Really good calibre of fighting though, but our friend Guido (Dutch friend we dove with in Ko Chang) summed it up best, "the feel each other out for the first two rounds, kick the crap outta each other for rounds 3 and 4 and by round 5 every Thai knows who's won already". That's dead one because Mike and I couldn't believe it. Every round 3 or 4 were super intense with Thais in the upper deck screaming and betting and by round 5, before the decision their all sitting... and no noise... like the fights over... and here we are looking at each other like, "There's still another round! Right?". So we decided to check it out. We actually opted to leave ringside and sit up top with the locals cause, well, that's were the action was lol. Got in on some bets with a few tuk-tuk drivers too and actually won some money lol. And to hold true to the story, at the end of the 4th round of the fight we bet on, the tuk-tuk driver comes up to us and pays us out our money. Mike and I are still perplexed so I ask him, "How do you know you lost?". He replies, "I'm Thai. I know", and hands us our winnings.

After the fights we met back up with the girls and all agreed to continue our night... which led us to the infamous Patpong district... (again... Stacey and I visited there the night before with our good friend Manj from Qingdao, and we also randomly ran into our friend Micah who we met in Vietnam... I love how you just randomly run into people around the world!)

• *Because the readers of this blog contains among others children, mothers and grandmothers I will not be going into the details of our affairs there lol... I know that that may disappoint some of you but I gotta keep this thing PG - if you want to hear stories you'll just have to wait until we're home or ask Jana and Mike about it upon their return**

We made it back to Khao San around 2:30am and indulged in a little good ol Mc D's to wind down the party lol.

The next morning we again rose early and this time made to see the Grand Palace. True to what we we had read there was a dress code being enforced there, which is perfectly fine if it wasn't like 100 C there! I'm not even kidding, it was probably the hottest day we've experienced travelling yet. That combined with the fact that we had to wear pants and shirts and that there was no A/C through out meant we were literally drenched in our own sweat. But the sights and the shear beauty of the Palace was stunning.

We ended up spending around 2 hours there (there was quite a lot to see)... oddly enough some of our favourite exhibits were situated close to big fans lol. Any breeze was a welcome one.

I still can't believe all the detail that went into making the Palace. So many little mirrors cut (probably 1-2 cm squared) and the mural paintings on the walls were like nothing I have ever seen before. Unfortunately in many of the rooms we weren't allowed to take pictures. But we still got some good ones.

We were all SO relieved to get out of our clothes! Next on the tour was a river taxi ride down Chao Phraya river. Not the cleanest river I've ever seen but still a really unique experience to take a boat down it to our SkyTrain transfer point...

Jana and Mike quickly became pros at using big city transportation. Plus Bangkok's SkyTrain has the best A/C in the city... much appreciated!

Downtown Bangkok is quite different than the rest of the city, and it's not really what you expect I guess. It's really nice and posh with extreme shopping malls and restaurants as well as of course a crazy amount of traffic...

It wasn't really a priority of ours to take Jana and Mike downtown but as it turned out we had to. You see a week prior to their arrival Stacey and I had to apply for our India Visas (Bangkok being the only place to get them before we go there), so we again had to surrender our passports for a week (the minimum wait time was 6 working days) so all we could do was just cross or fingers and hope they were ready in time. Thankfully they were!! We're going to India baby! Don't even get me started on their Visa process though... what a nightmare.

We toured around downtown a little bit more ( including one of the craziest markets I've seen yet) and then jumped in a Tuk-Tuk to head back to Khao San Road where we boarded a night bus bound for Chumphon, which is the jumping off point to the islands via catamaran. Next stop... Ko Tao! Stay tuned.