July 25 to 31—Back in Bangkok: Bloggin’ Fiends and a Bit of Fun

Dear Family and Friends,

Wednesday, July 25, to Tuesday, July 31, your Friendly Neighborhood Bloggers have predominantly been on their butts in the apartment, trying to catch up from about 20 days of blogging backlog. Martha’s rear is officially asleep for life, and Dani may be more sick of reading about our adventures than she is from the cold that has plagued her this week (poor lady). She asks, "Who goes to the tropics and gets a cold?"

We have managed to have a bit of fun along the way, however—an evening (Friday, July 27) at the Suan Lum Night Bazaar where we did some shopping and then were shocked at Sheila joining us! She had locked herself out of the apartment and, instead of waiting until our return, tried the off-chance of finding us among the many rows of the bazaar. She found us pretty quickly, actually. When she asked, “What are the chances of that?”

Martha replied, “About 100% it appears.”

We had a great night out (Sunday, July 29) to dinner at Rasayana’s raw café—where none of the food is cooked or meat-based—with Sheila, Chris, Chom, Sara, and Ty. It was a great night together once again, eating eggplant lasagna, zucchini spaghetti with nutballs, a sun burger of mashed almonds and coconut, Thai spaghetti made of coconut, a great papaya ring with guacamole, and sushi that was truly raw (but fishless). The kids were not fans of the food, but were fans of the fresh orange juice and mango smoothie that they enjoyed!

That same night, we even explored the Little Arabia part of Bangkok, sitting among the locals and smoking apple tobacco from a hookah for the experience (and the taste … really very apple-flavored!); one round cost us 50 baht at the Alif Laila restaurant, which also serves some fantastic Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine! We watched Middle-Eastern MTV and chowed, then walked through the diverse and enticing wares in the stalls that lined Sukhumvit, the road along which Little Arabia resides (it begins at Sukhumvit 3, for those who want to stop by ...).

And, Martha got to try out her new Thai cooking skills on Monday, July 30, making a completely-vegetarian green curry for the three roommates to enjoy over some rice. Mighty spicy, but also edible! (SCORE!) Chris joined us later to complete our viewing of the YouTube Democratic Debate! (Told you we were having fun!)

Today, Tuesday, July 31, marks our last day here in the Bangkok apartment. Our gut feeling served us well in choosing to live with Sheila here at Bangkok Garden. Her company has been amazing; we have enjoyed every day with her and her harmonious spirit. It has been a pleasure to share in this experience with you and engage in such lively and jovial interactions. We look forward to watching you do great things in life (but no pressure). We’ll miss you, Sheila, very much, and thanks for the great Indian curry tonight! (But, yes, we really are leaving tomorrow, no matter how much you ask, “So, we’re going to the Vietnamese place for lunch tomorrow, right?” Denial is so cute.)

And we cannot say enough about the kindness and generous assistance of our Palang Thai neighbors. Chris and Chom, your help has been indescribably invaluable to our getting around this large city. We wish you both blessed good health, calm, and success in life … and the same for your two wonderful children. Thank you so much for sharing yourselves with us. We’ll miss you all, too!

Tomorrow, we leave Bangkok to head to the border of Thailand in the East and cross into Cambodia. We will be on the road for about two months with limited access to the Internet. We will post as we can, but the style may be less ‘every little detail’ since we’ll likely be posting from Internet cafes. (I know for some, this is a relief after reading the other days’ postings!!)

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we are traveling these couple of months, especially! We’ll be as careful as we can in turn!

Much love to all of you, and thanks for joining us on this trip,

Martha and Dani