Initial thoughts on Bangkok and Trip Recap
The trip is flying by. It’s been a challenge to explore Bangkok to the extent that I want as Kate has been working this week, and I’ve been watching the kids during the day.
On Sunday before her work week started, the family made a trip to the Grand Palace. Based on what I’ve read, this used to the be residence of the royal family from the late 18th century to around 1925. It’s a massive complex with a mix of business relate buildings and temples and shrines. It is an incredible place with fabulously intricately designed buildings ordained in gold and mosaics. Check the photos page for a few pictures I took. We were allowed into only one temple which didn’t allow photography. Inside was an absolutely beautiful buddha shrine. I would have enjoyed spending more time there, but it was oppressively hot and we were required to wear long pants inside the grounds.
On Monday, the boys and I took a tour of BASIS International School Bangkok, which is the school my wife will be working at and our boys will be attending. It’s like a miniature college campus! A truly phenomenal facility with world class teachers. We’re so excited our boys will be attending here for the next three years!
All of the classrooms are state-of-the-art. They have the most beautiful covered outdoor swimming pool, where all students are required to take swim lessons once a week. The indoor gymnasium is enormous with two full-sized basketball courts. There is a lovely covered playground, and a HUGE wide open sports field. To top things off, there is a Thai cultural center where all students take Thai culture classes and learn some of the language.
The tour took about a half hour, and afterwards, we went to the nearest rock climbing gym. For those of you that don’t know, my older son, Henry, has been very involved in rock climbing for the last couple years. He belongs to a rock climbing team in Northern VA, and is very excited we have a gym relatively close to where we’ll be living. We’re hoping to work with this climbing gym to start a school climbing team.
It’s a really nice gym with plenty of ropes walls as well as a nice outdoor bouldering wall with many routs for varying skill levels. However, the gym doesn’t have very effective air conditioning, so it gets HOT in there. We’ll be looking to climb at night once we move here.
On Tuesday, the boys were able to attend a full school day at BASIS and shadow their respective classes, and I was left to my own devices for much of the day. I did have a very informative meeting with some of the folks at BASIS to gather info on the logistics of living here, which was very helpful.
I spent most of the rest of the day walking around the shopping area, checking out the mall more thoroughly as well as some other shops in the area. I logged nearly 20K steps that day! But still not much of an opportunity get into the central part of the city. It looks like that is going to have to wait until we move.
On Wednesday, I took the boys to the indoor playgrounds at the mall, where they spent most of the day, and then we met up with Kate after she finished her work day. The boys are showing a bit more willingness already to try some of the food here, so I’m feeling a bit better about that.
Today was a pool and tablet day. I needed a chance to slow down a little and let the boys fend for themselves a bit. We went out with some of Kate’s colleagues in the more central part of Bangkok, which was lovely. It was great to have an opportunity to talk to others that have been here for a while and gain a little bit of knowledge from them. They are also a really great group of people. It brings me comfort to know Kate and the boys will be surrounded by them.
Bangkok is a really interesting place. I haven’t had much opportunity to really explore yet, but from the places we’ve driven around, it’s this fascinating combination of absolute first world glitz and luxury with developing world abject poverty smack in the middle of it all. There are these tall, beautiful modern sky scrapers, with corrugated tin-roofed shanties filling the blocks between them.
I lived in NYC for 17 years and witnessed both the highest levels of opulence along with the not-so-nice parts of the South Bronx or Bed Stuy prior to gentrification. NYC was always largely sectioned off between the rich and not-so-rich. Bangkok doesn’t seem to have those delineations.
Traffic patterns are definitely different than what I’m used to. They drive on the left side of the road with the driver-side on the right side of the car. Out where we’ll be living, there are not a lot of traffic lights or stop signs. They have some blinking signs that seem to be more of a suggestion than an actual traffic device. It appears to be more of an honor system of taking turns. Where there are traffic lights, however, most have countdown timers, which is nice. But the timers are LONG. We’re talking some lights having four minute countdowns between light changes. Bangkok streets are would not be the place for the impatient.
There are buddhist shrines on nearly every street. On the way to dinner tonight, we drove by an outdoor enclosed area where it appeared there were evening prayers, which was really cool.
We have one full day left tomorrow, and we fly back on Saturday with a midnight flight to Seoul. I hope to take the boys to a waterpark tomorrow during the day. There are a handful within close proximity, but the really great ones look like they’re about two hours away from us. Once we move, I’ll be sure to get the boys out to them. I’ll have a tough decision on whether I get a Thai drivers license. It may be a good idea to get a license so I can rent a car for these day trips rather than using Grab for all car rides, which is what we plan on doing for at least the first year.
I’m learning a lot so far, but still have a ton of questions. I’m glad we were able to make this trip so I could see first-hand what we’re getting involved in. As I meet more people and get to see more of the city, I’m getting more comfortable with the thought of living here. It’s still tremendously scary and feels like a huge leap of faith, but we seem to have a lot of people here to support us and ease our transition.
