Autumn Moon Festival = Holiday in Thailand

The holiday school schedule is much different in Asia then in the western world.  There are less 1/2 days or part weeks and more full week breaks.  This past week was the first big holiday break.  It was to celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival.  For the ex-pats it is a time to go on holiday (vacation).

We decided we should take the opportunity to go somewhere because it is the last chance I will have to travel before the baby comes and also, we will stay home for the Christmas break because we will have a newborn.

Sidenote: One of the reasons I agreed to live in China was to travel.  I am rolling my eyes writing this because I don't enjoy traveling.  I am content to be at home.  Travel is stressful to me.  I do not enjoy flying, at all.  I am also very content to read about places in a book.  Most people will think this is crazy (unless they hate traveling also).  However, I do feel there is value in experiencing different cultures and seeing how others live.  I want that for my children.  So part of the "deal" of me coming to China was that we would travel nearby locations (plus I have a sister in Japan that I am very excited to visit).

Thailand hit the top of our list early on because we have considered having the baby in Thailand.  We have decided against that option now but at the time we figured it would give us a chance to check it out and visit the hospital if that was the route we chose.

Marcus has a customer in Bangkok so we flew into Bangkok so he could do a visit.  We flew in Thursday night.  Our hotel was awesome (you can tell because I took pictures of how clean it was - minus our mess:)). We had two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room for about 100 USD.  We were thrilled.  The breakfast was great (Asian food is always a risk) and the kids and I went swimming while Marcus worked.  In the afternoon we walked down the street and had smoothies and then went to the mall.

The kids were thrilled to watch TV even if they couldn't understand a single word.  I guess a cartoon is a cartoon.

The swimming pool was on the second floor and wasn't heated.  It was cold water but the outside was hot and the kids had a blast.  It was a little harder on Paige but she had fun also.

 It was really cool to see the food vendors at the mall.  The smells were amazing.  Marcus was trying to find a petting zoo that we had been told about and had asked someone but she didn't speak English.  She asked a woman walking by (that she apparently knew) and the woman stopped to help Marcus.  It turns out she is from Thailand but lives in St. George Utah.  She owns a Thai restaurant there but had come back to Thailand for a month or so.  She is also a Mormon.  She stayed with our family for the next hour showing us around.  We hope to show up at her restaurant sometime in the future when we are back home.  

This was like a crepe and then filled with the strings (in the bags) and they called it cotton candy.  It did taste like cotton candy.  

trying coconut water and fresh coconut (none of them liked it)

Coconut ice cream, they all loved that.

The sweet lady that owns the restaurant in St George.

The kids were patient with my sore body.  The flight took its toll and the hot weather in Thailand was also difficult.  The first flight caused my body to swell (I was really bummed about this) and I was moving pretty slowly.  We didn't bring a stroller and realized right away that we should have.  We ended up purchasing one at the mall and were SO GLAD that we did.  Day one of our adventure was a success (mostly) and we crashed in our comfy hotel beds.