Potty Training

Well, I think we got something here. I started Thursday morning with the potty training and it was going really well... With the kitchen timer on 15 minutes I kept asking and reminding. WEW! What a job! I don't remember doing this with Natalie. He did really well on Thursday and since there was no way back, he had to go to school on Friday in his big boy underwear. He did not want to try for the teachers and finally after lunch he had a major accident. Teacher Pam actually threw out the underwear but I made her retrieve it... I can wash anything and get it clean, I am not scared! That afternoon and Saturday we ran errands and found all the public bathrooms, corners in parking garages and trees by playgrounds. (Boys are much easier that way!) Sunday we had 4 accidents and I was ready to give up, but didn't. Monday he did great all day, even at school and he had no accidents. Last night he woke me up at 3am because he had to go...! Today Tuesday he is a pro! I can't believe how big he is getting. YEAH!

Bangkok Trip Pictures

Cari, Me, Boukje, Christy and Julia

Local Fare at the Jatuchak Market

(chickenfeet and liver?)

At the Cabaret Show

Taling Chan Floating Market

"Restaurant" on the dock

The Damage!

Here are some of the things we bought (not just me!):
5 wooden tapistry hangers, 2 wooden elephants, 3 winebottle holders, 4 woodenmusical instruments, 39 DVD's, 18 games boy games, 4 large tapistries, 2 small tapistries, 1 pair of glasses, 4 rice boxes, 4 wooden trays and 1 set of coasters, 10 meters of red silk, 1 table cloth, 2 place mats, 3 purses with matching toiletries bag, 1 wallet, 2 wooden candle boats, 1 wooden fruitbowl and 2 smaller bowls, 6 sleeveless shirts, 18 pashmina's, 2 rings, 2 paper umbrella's, 1 purse, 4 pairs of shoes, 2 hats, 8 headbands, 3 sets of pajama's and one of us had 1 dress, 1 shirt, 2 skirts and 2 caprie pants made (copied from clothes she brought with!) all in about 28 hours.

Bangkok Shopping Trip

Day 4:
We left the hotel at 8 am, carefully packed all our luggage into the car (it all fit!!) and took off for a floating market. There are large floating markets outside of the city but we also wanted to see some cultural sights today and did not have enough time. This floating market was more a floating restaurant with a market on the street right next to the river. There was a dock with small long boats on either side where they were cooking/grilling/frying the food. On the dock itself they had low little tables (no chairs) where you could sit and eat your breakfast, lunch or dinner. The fish they were grilling was scooped up out of the river right there. It all smelled and looked very good. We did not spend much time here. Off to the Grand Palace. A huge area with gardens and beautiful buildings. I think you can spend the whole day here. We saw the Emerald Buddha, much smaller than we expected. Walked around the grounds to Wat Pho, where the Reclining Buddha is. I never realized how big it is.. Unbelievable to see it in real life. We actually took a break and had some icecream before we decided to go to the Thai Traditional Massage school and enjoyed another 45 minutes foot reflexology massage. We all took a little nap during this. Mr. Chai dropped us off at the airport at 4 pm for our 630 pm flight home. A little nervous about our delicate luggage and "sensitive" (illegal) items we made it thru all the check points. The airplane pulled out at 630pm and 30 seconds later all the lights turned off and the engines shut down. A mechanical! at this point we just wanted to get home. We stayed on the runway for about 2 hours before they decided the problem could not be fixed and we had to go back to the gate. We waited for another couple of hours without any information. After being told we had to spend the night in Bangkok and fly home the next afternoon... (we could have been at the nightmarket at this point instead of the airport!) they found a plane that could take us back.. by now it is 1am and we are sooo tired and hungry.. we had not really eaten anything decent for a few days! We finally landed in Singapore at 330am on Monday morning. The good thing about getting in this late was that customs did not pay attention to us and we made it right thru. Our driver had been waiting since 10 pm the night before (our schedule arrival time) and took us all home. I slept from 5 am till 630 am which is when Natalie ran into the bedroom all happy for me to be home. Monday was a long day.. but its good to be home.

Bangkok Shopping Trip

Day 3:
After breakfast Saturday morning we drove to the big Jatuchuk weekend market. 15000 stalls of stuff to buy! We walked around and bought all kids of cool things while Mr. Chai followed us around, carried our things and made sure we did not loose each other. They had a huge section with animals: snakes, lizzards, dogs, cats, mice, bunnies, birds... you name it, if it fit in a cage it was there.. the smells were horrendous and the sight was very very sad. Another interesting area were the food courts.. the people here really eat everything, roasted cockroaches on a bbq skewers, chicken feet, livers, and lots of unidentifiable things cooking in big metal bowls. The smells in the food court area was probably worse than the animal smells. It took a lot not to throw up as we were practically running by. When we were "done" shopping (we only saw a fraction of what was there) we wanted to be dropped off at MBK to check out a few more floors. We took a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel to take a shower as we had reservations to have dinner and see a Cabaret show at one of the hotels. We travelled by Sky Train to the hotel and sat down for lunch/dinner at 730pm. The Cabaret show was pretty weird. The girls in the show all used to be boys. They were beautiful though and most of the time you could not tell! After the show we took the Sky Train to the river where went on a taxi boat to the Oriental Hotel for a drink. We tried to find a metered taxi to take us home and got back to the hotel early (about 130 am) since we still had to pack all our items for our departure the next day. (When the distance you want to go in a taxi is not very far, the taxi drivers will just tell you a price instead of turning on the meter. Our "special" price ranged from 200-500 Bath, which is between $6 to $15. When we finally found one that would turn on the meter it ended up costing us a whopping 45 Bath which is $1.37) We wrapped everything, "hid" the movies and other illegal items, and finished packing about 3am. A long day but oh so good.

Bangkok Shopping Trip

Day 2:
Friday morning we over-slept till 9 am (big mistake not to get a wake-up call) and Mr. Chai picked us up at 10 am (after a quick breakfast) to drive us to the Jim Thompson store. They had rolls and rolls of fabric at really cheap prices (we are planning to go back here and buy all the fabric for our homes in the States when our time is up here in Singapore). They also had home decorations, bags, clothing, table runners and pillow cases, bed linnen's. After that Mr. Chai drove us to Narai Phand, an indoor market (with airconditioning!!). Lots of great stuff here too. We all bought the newest release dvd's and a bunch of kids dvd's. All illegal to bring into Singapore, but that was not of any concern until Sunday when we would go home. After shopping here for a few hours (mind you we still had not had lunch) we had Mr. Chai drive us to one of the biggest malls called MBK. The locals shop here and they also have everything you could ever need. It has 7 floors with merchandise from clothing, shoes, handphones, ipods, movies, gameboys, luggage, furniture, houseware's, decorative things, you name it! We bargained and bargained! Very fun but very exhausting. This place was so big that we spent more than 2 1/2 hours on one floor. At 530pm we decided we should have some lunch/dinner and they had a fabulous food court with all kids of Asian food that was really great. (Oh, I forgot to tell you something very important... Mr. Chai had given us a handphone with his number programmed in it so we could call him to pick up all the items we bought so we did not have to carry everything around!) After a "little" more shopping the mall closed at 10pm and we still had not had enough. We had Mr. Chai drive us to yet another night market (a better one than the one in the red light area) called Suan Lum Night Bazaar. In the middle of all the little alleys and streets, with hundreds of stalls, they had some restaurants and bars. Very cool. We finished the night with a well deserved foot reflexology massage at 1230 am and a glass of wine. I think we got back to the hotel at 2 am.

Bangkok Shopping Trip

Day 1:
I went to Bangkok last week with 4 friends. Just to go shopping. The prepartions were tough, but well worth it, especially since there were 5 of us. We left (with empty suitcases!) Thursday afternoon. We planned it so we could be home for the kids to get off the school bus that day. Most or our husband were travelling over the weekend also, so our helpers were there to take care of the kids. We arrived in Bangkok at 830 pm and our driver, Mr. Chai, took us directly to the Night Market in Patpong, which is in the Red Light District. It was very crowded and very different to say the least (if you want to know more about the Patpong area, google it and it will tell you what goes on there). On the market they sell anything from knock-off purses to gameboys, jewelry, belts, kids clothes etc. Very fun to walk around and EVERYTHING can and should be bargained for... they start the prices really high for all the tourists. We checked into the Novotel at 1am after our first little taste of shopping in Bangkok. We had a 2 bedroom suite which turned out the be plenty big for all of us.

Top 10 things ...

to do before a 4 day shopping trip in Bangkok with shopaholics.

1. Search internet for cheapest flight that has maximum weight
limit on suitcases.
2. Search internet for cheapest (decent) hotel that is close to all
good shopping locations.
3. Find out where all the different markets and malls are.
4. Find driver that speaks English that can take you around
to all the places.
5. Buy small backpack that fits shopping essentials (money, pen,
paper, calculator to convert prices, wipes for bathroom break,
granola bar for lunch, camera).
6. Buy rolls of bubble wrap to protect breakable items during flight home.
7. Pack carry-on with minimum amount of clothes to last 4 days
into large suitcase.
8. Research all shopping area's and plan each day out.
9. Make list of all items you want shop for.
10. Prepare family for your departure.