Christmas at Khao Yai

Holiday season was very different for us this year. On the one hand it was really great because over the past years we have really been put off by the commercialism of the day celebrating the birth of Christ. Just really feeling like we would like to celebrate in a different way...so in that aspect, it was great. But on the other hand, it was awful being away from our family and friends, ESPECIALLY our children, Brittani and JR and the kids, and Nolan. It was really heartwrenching to be away on the first Christmas that Mia is really aware of the whole Christmas celebration and traditions. We shed some tears and really questioned our decision to make this move but we have learned that it's best to follow God's plan and not your own. So, with that in mind, we know we are supposed to be here, where Maddie is doing so well in school and with volunteer opportunities that will bring her into a closer relationship with God, and with the opportunities for us to grow spiritually. So, even though it was hard to get into the typical "Christmas Spirit", we got away for a few days to Khao Yai, a beautiful mountain area of Thailand, to walk in nature and celebrate our blessings and the birth of Christ. We heard that it was "really cold" there so we should take a light jacket. :) Yes, it's true, it is "cold" there! I guess we have acclimated because we were glad we brought the jackets. We were delighted to discover that, in Khao Yai, the flavor is ranches, cowboys (yes! Thai cowboys!) a good steak, and WINE COUNTRY, lots of Thai wineries believe it or not. Such an interesting place. We stayed the first two nights at "Jungle House" a very rustic cabin in the jungle. It had many hiking paths, great birdwatching spot, elephant trekking, just a really peaceful spot. The last two nights we had prebooked and it wasn't good. Too many falang (foreigners), too far away from the National Park we visited every day, and the room were so tiny we could hardly move. Jeff and I had to share a twin bed, Maddie and Ginger shared the other. Although that might sound romantic, it can get a little uncomfortable after a few hours! :) But the trip was wonderful, relaxing and a great get away for us to celebrate the birth of Christ in the midst of nature.

John and Erin

The day after the Christmas Party at Peter and Deb's we spent the day with John and Erin Macy, a couple from Oregon who quit their jobs and are traveling the world for 10 months! They are an incredible couple we have been emailing with the past couple of months. Our good friends, Tim and Nicole, in Oregon hooked us up and we are so glad they did!

They summed up our day beautifully on their blog (see Dec 23 and a video on Dec 25). Check it out: http://www.johnanderinmacy.com

They are currently in Cambodia, working at a women's shelter for about a month. They will return to Bangkok for a few days at which time we look forward to getting together with them again before they move on to Africa. These are the type of Americans we are proud to call friends. Love these guys! :) You can follow their whole incredible adventure on their blog.

Sunny, Susan and Maddie

Maddie and Sunny.

Maddie and Sunny making the day a little brighter for this beautiful lady. Sunny is an amazing kid. We met Sunny and her father in 2003 when Sunny was about Maddie's age. Unfortunately, Sunny's dad passed away last year when he contracted a deadly disease on a mission in Africa. Sunny continues on in mission work with a heart for Christ. Maddie loves hanging out with Sunny, she is like another big sister to her.

Here's Maddie and Susan cheering another patient. Susan is another amazing woman here in Thailand. She is nicknamed "the Angel of the Bangkok Hilton" which is a really tough prison here in bangkok. She works hard for the Lord, ministering to prisoners there, visiting hospital patients, working at the shelter for abused women and their families. Susan has become a very famous person in Thailand as of late, she is an author of a few books, and has done so much work for the poor and abused. She has become a great friend to us and Maddie is drawn to the work Susan is doing. We all look forward to doing as much as we can to help Susan spread the word and love of God through her ministries.

Delivering gifts, hugs, and kisses

One of the things Maddie misses most about America is the hugging. She was happy to hug all the patients and even give a few pecks on the cheek.

I love this picture!

Maddie has a heart full of love and kindness. We are so thankful to live in a place where she has so many opportunities to share God's love with others.

Christmas Caroling at the Hospital

We were invited to go Christmas caroling at the hospital this year. Unfortunately Jeff and I had to work but Maddie was excited to go. These are all heart, chest, lung issue patients and they were really happy to have Santa and his friends visit them and sing them some songs to cheer their day and they even got a few smiles.

Christmas caroling along with some dancing...

Jamie, Skip, Julia, Sunny, Maddie, Santa (Peter) and Susan.

Really getting into it with the nurses and even some of the people visiting the patients :)

Christmas in Thailand with Santa

Jeff and I are blessed to know missionary friends here in Thailand. On Jeff's first trip here in 2002, he booked a day of birdwatching with Peter, an expert on birds who just happens to be a missionary. We have visited and kept in touch with them over the years, eventually meeting the whole family including Peter, his wife, Debbie, Steven, Kenji, Sunny, Julia and Jamie. Last summer they made their first trip to America and we were blessed to have them stay with us in our home for a few days. We were all amazed to learn that they live about 10 minutes away from where we would be living in Bangkok. We are able to spend a lot of time with them volunteering at the orphanage, women's shelter, etc. We love to see more and more each day, God's hand in our move here to Thailand...

One little girl who may know who this guy is? :)

After the show, Santa shows up to talk with the children from the orphanage. "Santa" is our new friend, Tom. He is actually from Escondido, can you believe what a small world this is? He just met Sunny a few days before this and she invited him and his wife to come to the Christmas party. When asked if he would be Santa, he was happy to volunteer. Tom called Jeff this past weekend and told him the strangest thing happened after this party. He was at a hotel for business here in Bangkok (he lives FAR out of Bangkok and only comes in on business when he has to) and happened to be wearing a santa hat at the time. At the hotel that night, these SAME kids from the orphanage were performing at the hotel and they recognized "Santa" from the party! They ran up to him and hugged him and swarmed him, sitting on his lap and talking to him. He ended up staying with them for over an hour and missed his flight back to his home and stayed an extra night in Bangkok. He said is was really a powerful moment where God spoke to him and it really moved him. Tom has not been to church in a long time and only this Christmas is regaining his relationship with God. Isn't that exciting? :)

These kids did a really good job perfoming their skits and dances, they are really cute and we hope to get to know each one of them better this year as we visit them at the orphanage and just love them. It's hard to believe but some of these little cuties are just abandoned on the doorstep, infant, age 1, 2, 3, doesn't matter. Jeff and I wanted to take about 5 of them home with us that night but then realized we would probably regret it in about 10-15 years. Just kidding, but you parents of teens know what we are talking about...we are excited to start volunteering this year with these kids. In fact, this weekend we will be spending all day Saturday with them.

Tap Dancers

Sunny, Kenji, Jamie, and Julia learned tap this year and performed a couple of numbers for us...

Jamie and Julia are Maddie's age and Sunny and Kenji are in their early 20s...

They did a really great job...

Little Performers

Here are the little ones from the orphanage performing traditional Thai dance...

The little guys doing some pop/breakdancing...

More traditional Thai dancing by the older girls and boys...

Christmas Party

We attended our missionary friends' Christmas Party and it was fantastic. Maddie has taken to volunteering with the women's shelter group. Some of these girls are Maddie's age and have suffered abuse beyond understanding...tonight they perfomed a play (in Thai so I'm not sure what the message was...) and they enjoyed it so much.

Getting ready before the performance...

The stage...

Two Women Named Lois

2008 is almost gone and I have been thinking about resolutions for the new year...and that brings me to thoughts of two inspirational women in my life, Lois Bisbee and Lois Elwell. These are ladies from the church where I grew up. Lois Elwell was the pastor's wife, a Sunday School teacher and piano teacher of mine, and was the ultimate Proverbs 31 woman. Not to say she was the only Proverbs 31 woman that has inspired me but she was certainly the first. I am grateful to God for her (and her family's) HUGE influence on my very young life. Lois is gone now but her spirit lives on in her family. http://www.ehow.com/how_2158942_be-proverbs-woman.html

Next, Lois Bisbee...another huge influence at an early age, my Sunday School teacher, bible camp teacher, gave me by bridal shower and Brittani's baby shower. One year she held bible camp at her house out in the woods, she had the most splendid merry-go-round you could ever imagine and the woods was so fun to play in. This particular summer we learned about the fruit of the spirit and though I don't remember exactly how it played out, we were to seek out paper plates marked with all the fruits of the spirit and see which team could find them all first. I don't know about the rest of the kids but this activity made a huge impression on me. That we were to seek God and as we knew Him better we would acquire these fruits in our lives...I am resolving to seek God through prayer and being still with Him and hopefully acquiring the fruits of His spirit to make a difference for Him in this world...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22)

The word "Spirit" is with a capital "S" - which means these 9 fruits are coming directly from the Holy Spirit - not from us.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year. Please keep us in your prayers.

It was a great day on Koh Samet

Bauer toes in the sand...

On the beaches in Thailand you will see these mobile bbqs all over the place. It's great, this little old lady walks the beach with this pole balanced on her shoulder, and will stop to prepare you some bbq meat or spicy papaya salad, yummy...

Maddie snorkeling on the island...

Motoring around Koh Samet

The plants are beautiful...

Jeff and Maddie playing on the rocks...

So beautiful...

Koh Samet

The love of my life...

Relaxing on the beach...

Another love of my life...sweet Madalyn Rose...

Maddie and Nolan

We have all been missing Nolan this holiday season...some photos we cherish...

Eating lunch at a noodle house in Japan...

One year ago on a hike up Iron Mountain outside San Diego...we love and miss you Nolan. :)

Beach House!

Here's Maddie and Daddy enjoying an "American Breakfast" on the island of Koh Samet. We had our very first pancake at this restaurant since we left America and it was fantastic. We headed for Rayong (the house is actually in Ban Phe, a few miles south of Rayong) on Friday morning, just relaxed. I started driving and I feel human again! The shifting is no problem and I have a feel for where I am on the opposite side of the car so I now feel confident I won't mow anyone down with the left side of the car. We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant on the beach (only about 2 blocks from the house). Maddie and Ginger love to chase crabs on the beach every evening. Ginger comes swimming with us every day in the ocean. Last trip we had to drag her into the ocean every time, this time she just ran right in on her own. She loves the beach house!

Next morning we took a speed boat out to Koh Samet and had breakfast here. We then rented motorbikes and toured around the island for about 3 or 4 hours. It was really fun.

Maddie took this picture...very nice...

I'm not sure if any of you saw this around the rest of the world? This is not a good picture but Maddie wanted to take one of the moon with 2 planets that made a happy face (on our side of the world anyway) It was really cool...

The Imperial Phukaew Hill Resort

We stayed here in August 2003. What a beautiful place. It's up in the mountains in Petchabun Province and it is a little slice of heaven. http://www.imperialhotels.com/phukaew/location.html
We haven't been back since but we were just telling Maddie we are going to plan a trip there soon. I can't wait! This picture doesn't do it justice, the one on their website is much better. Back in 2003 we got a room here that includes breakfast for about $10-$15 per night. The rates look like they are a little higher now, about $45 a night including breakfast for a March booking, probably even lower in August.

These flowers not only look pretty, they smell fabulous. Another great thing about Thailand, the beautiful flowers...

Here's a white variety. The picture of the dog by the shrine was taken here at Phukaew too.

Past trips to Petchabun

This is one of my favorite pictures...a Thai dog sits by one of the many Bhuddist offering shrines next to the tennis court.

This is Jun and Joke. These are a couple of amazing kids. This was back in 2003 when they were about 13 and 11 years old. Their parents were both in the military. The whole family was in a car accident that took the lives of their parents. Not long after the accident, Jeff visited Thailand for the first time and our friend in Petchabun was telling him how she helps many people in the community in different ways, one of which was help in supporting orphaned children. Jeff asked if there was any way to help and next thing you know we were blessed to meet and be able to help with Jun and Joke. They were able to stay with their elderly grandmother and attend school. Jeff and I "adopted" Joke (the boy) and another friend of ours "adopted" Jun. It has been almost 6 years now and Joke is 17 and wants to join the military like his parents. Jun is 19 and attending school to become a dentist. We are so proud of these two!

There are so many families in need everywhere in this world. We feel blessed to do even a little bit to help out where we can. A lot of times, especially in the rural areas like this, the fate of children is grim. We are glad to have friends to show us ways we can do our part to help and we look forward to more opportunities in the future.

Bauers at the Sunflower Fields

More sunflowers...

Sunflower Fields

This place is so fun and beautiful. We bought fresh sunflower seeds...yum! If you are concerned about losing weight, Thailand is not your best bet. They have THE BEST food and desserts.

Mint and Maddie...

It was a wonderful trip!

Rainforest above Petchaboon

We had to cross the stream many times either over fallen trees like this one or on rocks.

The trees are very tall...

We have a long history of trips to Petchabun and hiking up here in the mountains. My very first trip to Asia was to Petchabun. A friend of ours that is from this area, runs one of her businesses here, and as of this year she has become an appointed Senator of Thailand. She has done so much for this province, she has written many books about women's health and eating organic foods, another business she has started is an organic foods store. We visited and bought organic brown rice, a mushroom based stock to put in soups, noodles, etc., macadamia nuts and tamarind. Petchabun is the capital of Tamarind. They have a statue of the Tamarind in the middle of town. Tamarind is a fruit kind of like a date or a prune. They make all kinds of things out of Tamarind in Thailand. It's a bit of an acquired taste, but I've grown to love it. Petchabun is a great province-it's clean, organized, the air is clean, it's all farming and open land and the city itself is small compared to Bangkok. Anyway, our friend is always promoting healthful programs for her employees like exercise classes on-site and this time when we were visiting all the employees were learning to make their own organic soaps and shampoos as most of the people there are poor and this can save them a lot of money for their families. OK, now I've realized that I am going to have to take a lot of time to talk about Petchaboon! I will continue tomorrow!

Cool Weather...

This was such a nice hike. The birdwatching was great!

So peaceful...

The sun peering through...

Phetchaboon or Petchabun

This week we traveled out to Phetchaboon, or Petchabun. Another funny thing about Thailand is that you can spell things practically any way you want to. Maps and directions are very interesting. We are finally adjusting though, another time when you just have to give up on the idea of anything being efficient or organized, you just have to think of how something "could" be spelled and go with it. :) Anyway, Petchaboon is about 4 hours northeast of Bangkok in the mountains. Maddie had the day off of school on Wednesday and then we kept her out on Thursday too. Mint came with us and we had a wonderful couple of days hiking through the rain forest, birdwatching (Jeff and I got about 6 lifers on this trip!), eating, and visiting with friends. These pictures don't do the gigantic plants proper justice. These palm fronds are at least 30 feet long. Everything is bigger in the Rain Forest!

Political Situation is Better at the Moment

Well, as you may have heard, the airports are preparing to reopen, the protesters have gone home for the moment. The political situation is very confusing and complicated so I won't bore you with the story...but, my prediction is that the people have solved things temporarily, like I said in previous posts, they absolutely LOVE and RESPECT their King and it is his birthday today, tomorrow is "Father's Day" a national holiday (the King's bday is Father's Day and Mother's Day is the Queen's bday here in Thailand) and so they would NEVER disgrace his bday with what was happening here before. I hope I am wrong but after this holiday is over, the political situation is NOT solved, so they could be right back at it again. I would hope they would never allow the airports to be taken over again but confidence is low around the globe after what DID happen! We will have to see if people will come to Thailand again, time will tell. We hope people will still come. Luckily, the issues have nothing to do with westerners, we feel very safe here.

Other than this, everything is going very well for us here. For the King's bday holiday we are taking off for Rayong (the beach city where we spent our first week here, where Jeff practiced driving!) and this time I am going to practice driving! Wish me luck! I am so tired of depending on others to drive and even though I don't mind riding the motorbike, it's not the safest mode of transportation and Maddie is pretty scared to ride with me. We only had to do it once and she talked the whole time about how she was going to die and telling me who to give all her possessions to! Silly girl! I dreamt the other night that I was driving and it was easy so...I think it is time! :)

Political Situation

Here is Part One of the political situation going on here. Since I wrote this the other day, the court ruled the current government to dissolve so the PAD has stopped the protesting and the airports are preparing to reopen...see Part Two for the most current news...

We are living day to day as usual here even though, as we speak, things could take a turn for the worst at any moment. They are presently awaiting a verdict after hearing from the 3 political party leaders to judge whether or not there was corruption (ha! they're politicians! In THAILAND to make matters worse!) in the last elections. Waiting on pins and needles and praying there won't be violence. The court is not far from where we live, as is the domestic airport, Don Muong, the 2nd airport the PAD overtook last week and where the most recent bombing was at 15 minutes past midnight this morning. Although it's not far from where we live, it's far enough that we don't feel unsafe. Last report I read there are 300,000 people stranded here! Things are still simmering, they are trying to settle it all peacefully, it's so confusing and frustrating. Their culture is to be peaceful but this situation is about ready to cause a civil war...this would never even come close to happening in another country and it's because of the culture. They look the other way all the time because they don't want to confront, just want peace, that's why there is so much corruption and no one does anything about it. They just say "maipen lai" (no problem) or "TiT" (this is Thailand). A good example is when our bank in San Diego for some reason thought fraud was occuring since we were using our card here in Thailand (of course we told them many times before we left because we didn't want that to happen, but it still did!) and one day we were getting $$ out of the ATM and the machine ate our card! We had Mint phone the bank that the ATM was with and after we explained what happened they said they would hold the card and we could get it back the next week. We thought, yeah! Right! So we called our bank and worked everything out and asked them to reactivate our cards, they said, we can't they are already deactivated. We told them that they had to because we had no way of them sending us new cards, so we got our lawyer involved and they said they would do it but there was no way we would get our card back from the bank in Thailand. We said, "this is Thailand!" The people at our bank just figured they would humor us I guess but, sure enough, a few days later, we went to the main headquarters of the bank in Bangkok and they gave us the card back! Only in Thailand! Good thing we are legit! :)

Anyway, the people mean well, the majority of Thai people ARE peace loving people that will avoid conflict or violence at any cost. It is this naivety (I'm not sure that's the right word but it's as close as I can come) that has made this situation so difficult. Just like in any country, politics is corrupt and we have to choose the best of the worst, then you throw into the mix the royalists, the poor people and their LONG history of culture, it is a tough situation and I just pray they can find a peaceful solution. It certainly has been a lesson in patience for Jeff and I living here! Everyone is always telling us that things take time, be patient, don't move so fast! But we are Americans! How can it be that things aren't done quickly, efficiently, the RIGHT WAY! :) It's been tough and I'm not convinced either way is the best way, there is a lot to learn from both ways of life.

But, anyway, for the most part, the everyday people of Thailand are embarrased and apologetic over what is happening in politics. This has ruined their economy and it is going to take a long time to recover from this blemish on what they are very proud of, their country and their King. Speaking of which, the King's bday is this Friday, he will be 81. The people LOVE the King and I can't imagine anyone disgracing his bday so I would imagine this will be over by then. Hopefully I am right. The other extreme would be that the country erupts into civil war and we will have to hightail it out of here. It's not probable but Jeff and I certainly have thought about "what if" so we do have a plan just in case.

It's really life as usual here unless you are a protester or anywhere near the heart of where they are protesting. You know the media, always hyping everything up, out of control. But, I will give them this, there is a potential for something very bad to happen, and I would would shocked if it happened, but it is POSSILBE...

Pictures of Our Last Trip to Rayong

Here are some pix from our last trip to Rayong. We went out to a nearby island (Koh Samet) three different days. It's a great island. We took the ferry boat two of the days--one day we rented motor bikes and toured the island stopping to swim and eat along the way, the second day we took a tour boat to snorkle, swim, fish, bbq lunch on the boat (which included the fish that were caught!), and went to a fish farm. The tour circled the whole island. The third day we pampered Maddie all day in honor of her bday. We rented a speed boat to go quickly to the island and straight to the beach where we rented jet skis for an hour on the ocean (Maddie LOVES to do that!). We snorkled for an hour or so after that. To top off the day for her she was pampered on the beach with the works--massage of head, neck and feet, manicure and pedicure, snacks and a coconut milk which she absolutely loves. She had a great day.

Day one on Koh Samet, relaxing after a swim...

Day two on Koh Samet, on our tour boat, circling the island, stopping along the way to snorkle, fish, bbq, visit the fish farm...

Going Back In Time

Well, here we go, I'm starting with some old photos, going back in time. This was 6 years ago! Gramma Chesta visited us for Christmas! Maddie was just a little baby! Here are some cute pix of her...sigh...

They grow up so fast! Um, yeah, that IS my booty in the background...sorry...

Here is one of my all-time favorite photos ever! Maddie and JR. They are both so cute! :)

Jeff had just started traveling to Asia and bought some cheap, cheap movies for the boys for Christmas. A couple were OK. Nolan is in the background trying out "8 Mile" and it was SO BAD! Remember that boys? :) Someone had, literally, taken a movie camera into the theatre and filmed the movie on the screen while they watched it! Ah Asia and their pirated movies! Gotta love 'em! :) That's what you get when you pay $1 USD for a movie! :)

Loy Nava Dinner Cruise

This is not the best picture but this is one of the traditional Thai dancers on our dinner cruise. We have taken dinner cruises before when we have visited Thailand but they were on a big cruising boat with hundreds of people and loud live bands with dancing--not traditional Thai dancing--but regular dancefloor where you can dance to the live band. Those cruises were fun, but not our "cup of tea". We prefer this dinner cruise, a small intimate setting of only 17 tables on a beautiful teak wood boat with quiet traditional Thai music played on an instrument similar to the sound of a xylophone and quiet traditional Thai dancing for a short period of time. The food was much better than the other cruises we've taken and the owner of the boat came to each table many times throughout the cruise to chat and make sure everything was OK. They had a nice wine list and they pointed out the highlights along the river. It was heavenly!

Here's the link so you can see how cute the boat was! http://www.loynava.com/welcome.html

Here's a picture of Jeff and I enjoying the Loy Nava! And last but not least for sure! We went to the State Tower Building and up to the 64th floor for the most spectacular view of Bangkok! Check out this link!

http://www.thedomebkk.com/web/sirc_gallery_04main.html

Sometimes websites look better than real life but this one is right on! These pictures show you how it really looks! We couldn't believe how beautiful it was! In the pictures you will see a beautiful staircase, it leads up to a dome and then to the side there is a stage where they had a wonderful jazz band playing soft jazz music. The end to a most perfect day...

Grand Palace including Wat Phra Kaew

I took this picture last weekend. This is the Grand Palace grounds which includes many interesting wats and buildings. The whole area was shut down that day though because they were using it for the activities associated with the Princess' funeral. The King's sister passed away earlier this year and they have been having the official mourning and funeral now. We all wore black last week and there was no alcohol sold for 3 days, etc, etc, etc. So we couldn't tour the Grand Palace that day but I have toured it before with Nolan and Maddie back in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace,_Bangkok

The rest of the pictures of the Grand Palace I took back in 2004. A very funny story (not to the Thai's) we have to tell is when we visited Wat Phra Kaew which houses the VERY SACRED Emerald Buddha. So the kids and I take off our shoes, making sure we follow all the rules, being very quiet and respectful, kneeling down on the floor and taking in the sight of the emerald buddha. Well, Nolan's legs, being so long, got tired and so he flips them out in front of him, pointing the bottoms of his feet STRAIGHT at the MOST SACRED Buddha in the land! Instantly, there were armed soldiers at our side telling Nolan to leave! Well, we still didn't know what was going on so I just thought, oh, they must think we've spent enough time there and we need to move along. So we get up and walk out quietly, noticing a sign on the wall stating "DO NOT POINT YOUR FEET AT THE BUDDHA...Oops...

Another one of the gold buildings...taken in 2004...

Wat Arun detailed tile work

Detailed artwork

More...

These are the guys that hold it up! :)

Wat Arun

We climbed these scary steep stairs! :)

And it was worth the risk for the beautiful view!

OK, back down again!

Sight Seeing along the River

Last weekend we did some sight seeing along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. We went to the floating market for lunch, did some shopping at River City Mall, took a dinner boat cruise and then ended the evening at the most incredible sky viewpoint I've seen so far in Bangkok!

To start the day we made our way to the Taksin Pier and rented a boat to take us to the floating market for lunch. They taxied us up the river where you can see all the beautiful sights along the way. This time of year is the end of the rainy season so the water level was very high and the waters were pretty choppy but once we got off the main river and onto the Klongs (small streams) it was fine. We say monitor lizards sunning themselves along the river house patios. Some people have called Bangkok the "Venice of Asia" because of the waterways throughout the city and it certainly reminded me of what Jeff's mom has described to us when she lived in Italy and visited Venice. On the way to the floating market we actually had to go into a lock with 5 other boats, and they lowered us down to another level before traveling on because they have to dam that area of the city during the rainy season or it would cover it! That was really interesting! We were in a tiny little boat! Then, of course, on the way back we had to go back in the lock and be raised back up to the level of the river! It was cool! :)

At the floating market we shopped a bit and then had lunch on the klong. We sat on floating platforms on the klong and the small boats are alongside the platform where they cook all the food! It was amazing! We have to go back when we have more time, the floating market is a huge place and we only spent a few minutes shopping there after lunch.

Back on the river we visited this place, Wat Arun, where we took these pictures. Here is the official website if you are interested in the history. It's soooooooo beautiful! And at night, when it's all lit up and you see it from the dinner cruise, oh, it is so pretty! I've not seen it at sunrise but they say that's the most spectacular view.

http://www.watarun.org/index_en.html




Jeff is concentrating very hard trying to get this picture of us! :) It's funny, our granddaughter, Mia, does this too! So cute! :)

This picture does not do this place justice. All of these tiles were given to Thailand by China. I will show some better close-ups of the dishes and tiles used in building this beautiful temple.

The Uniform

OK guys, this is proving to be a very hard task, getting Maddie to consent to a picture in her uniform! I was sneaky last week and caught her as she was walking in to school but I forgot to turn off the flash, it's through the car window and it's from the back! Ugh! I will be diligent in trying to get a better shot, but for now, this is it! :)

Ginger's Hang Out

Let's take a look outside in what we would call "the back yard" but what the Thai's would call "the Thai Kitchen". C'mon Ginger! Let's go outside! Oh! Look at that! It's Ginger's crate! Oh, Ginger could tell you some stories about that ole thing! She spent over 30 hours in there on her flight here! She went from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, changed planes in Hong Kong and then on to Bangkok. Then she spent another 6 to 7 hellish hours in a HOT warehouse! I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown but we finally got her out of there before she died. The airline had lost all her paperwork and she had been scared, freaked out and hadn't eaten for almost 2 days! Poor thing! We have all survived the trauma now. We would NEVER ship another animal this far, it was just too awful...

This is where Ginger spends her time when we are gone. Not quite as big as her backyards in Menifee or Carlsbad but she seems to do OK with it.

She has some nice shady spots under the trees. Eventually, we would like to make this more of a Thai style kitchen but for now it'll have to just be "the back yard".

More different bathroom stuff

Here you have only one choice for water and that is cool. It's not cold because it's so warm here so if you want a hot shower you have to install a heater and mount it in the shower! Here is what it looks like!

This is for my immediate family...hey guys, remember growing up in the big house we had the trusty ole "Health-O-Meter"? Well, somehow I inherited (ok, maybe I took it from mom when I moved out) it and Jeff and I have used it through almost 30 years of marriage! Well, when we moved to Thailand, we left it behind! It wa sad! We loved that ole thing! It was still precise after all these years! Does anyone even know how old that thing was? Anyway, we miss it but we got a new fangled scale, free, with the purchase of household items at "HomePro"... :)

More Thai Closets

Our dresser!

Jeff's closet...

My closet...

4th Floor

OK, up those last few steps! To our bedroom!

Can't remember if I mentioned it but people in Asia do not use top sheets. I have chastised all 3 of my kids all their lives because they WILL NOT use a top sheet. Well, guess what? There are whole continents that don't use them, don't know what they are, don't sell them! I still can't believe this! We found ONE top sheet in Malaysia and it was $80 USD!!!! They call it a "Hotel Collection" sheet! Wow! I'm still stunned on this one. So, my 3 children, you can know that I am sleeping with no top sheet! And I guess you should have grown up in Asia! :) p.s. when we go back to America in April, we are buying LOTS of top sheets!

Our room is so big (long), we had to put the tv in the middle of the room!

Speaking of...Keeping it Cool

Here is what the "Air-Con" units look like. We have one in each bedroom, one in the living room and one in the kitchen/dining/sitting area (the first floor). When we first moved in we only had air-con in each bedroom. It was soooooooo hot a month ago, I can't even explain it other than "oppressive". We broke down and bought the other two units and life feels so much more delightful now! We think it has cooled down a lot, but maybe we are acclimating? Maybe a little of both? I LOVE AIR-CON!!!!!!! Here's the bigger unit for the big room on the 2nd floor.

The smaller unit for the first floor...

Our home

Here's some people we miss! :) We bravely (stupidly?) shipped some of our keepsakes over before we left. Luckily, most everything made it. These two made it just fine, Nolan's graduation picture made it with one tiny little scratch on the canvas. Our 4 chinese prints we had framed didn't fare too well. Since they had paper on the back, customs took them out and slit open the backs and in the process, broke 2 of the frames, but luckily the glass didn't break! We were able to repair them. 2 out of 4 of our wine glasses made it but we are pretty sure our flatware and the 2 or 3 expensive vases we shipped are missing. We thought there was a whole box missing but it was actually sitting in an office where it was forgotten for a few weeks!

Let's go up to the third floor!

Here's our 3rd (extra) bedroom that we are trying to set up as an office. We have desks, chairs, our files and stuff in here but we never go in here! We are rethinking this plan...maybe just set it up as a guest room, it has it's own full bathroom too. This is the only room on the third floor. The blinds are orange, that's why it looks kinda funky. When it's opened up, it's nice and bright but I like to keep it as cool as possible in the house so keep the blinds shut.

Second Floor--Maddie's Room

Doesn't this look like a teen-agers bedroom! :)

Another surprise! Thailand doesn't have closets! They use "wardrobes" or you can buy portable hanging thingies (like we did) and shelves to put your clothes on! You can buy dressers but they are poor quality or super expensive or both! We opted for this style of closet...interesting, huh?

The Second Floor

On the second floor we have the living room and Maddie's bedroom. This is where we all sit to watch tv together!

Here's the view coming down from the third floor.

The rest of the first floor

Here is flight #1 of our beloved STAIRS! For some reason, Jeff and I were'nt thinking clearly when we moved in here because we took the master bedroom on the 4TH FLOOR!!! And gave Maddie the bedroom on the 2ND FLOOR!!!! Are we crazy? When we first moved in here we were exhausted by the time we would get up there! Now we are so fit, we hardly notice! :) It's really good for us to get this weight bearing exercise but I'm tellin ya...it's a WORKOUT!!!

Here's the sitting area when you first enter from the garage/laundry room.

Here's the dining area that we use as our home office. We have an extra bedroom on the 3rd floor that we were planning to use as the office but this has worked out better for us for now.

More of the Kitchen

Here is the microwave and my "cutting station" where I do all the fruits and veggies and breads. Also nice storage for our rice cooker, tools, etc.

Here's another cooktop and more storage. Jeff can really cook up some good meals with this kitchen! We had one of Maddie's teachers over last Friday night for a Mexican Food feast! It was great! He's from Iowa and hadn't had a home-cooked meals since he left home back in August! He's 26 (Brittani's age) and is doing an international internship at Maddie's school as an assistant music teacher. Our PA, Mint, joined us for dinner along with, of course, Maddie, and we had a wonderful time! We can't wait to have our next dinner party! :)

The Kitchen

I explained the kitchen in an earlier blog. Here are some pictures. Thai's don't have kitchens so we are lucky to have this! No stove, oven, dishwasher, nothing. The Thai's cook outside so we had to buy a couple of cooktops to use.

The fridge/freezer is very small but, believe it or not, this is one of the biggest sizes available!

Housekeeping

Here is the way we do dishes! I'm the dishwasher and here is the dryer!

Ladies, remember back in the 80's when we used to hang things like this on our walls as decorations? Who knew you were actually supposed to sweep with them? :) These are our brooms! They work really well too. I love them! Houses are not carpeted here. We have this white tile on the first floor and then wood floors throughout the rest of the house except all the bathroom are tiled nicely. There is a lot of sweeping to be done around here...that's why...

We take our shoes off before entering the house! (yes, that's Ginger in the window) Bangkok is a really dirty place and I have become OBSESSED with washing my feet! I knew I would be because I was thinking about it even before we moved here. I would like to make it a rule that not only do you have to take off your shoes before you enter the house but you must stick your feet in an antibacterial soak, scrub for 2 minutes, dry with a clean towel, lotion up, and then you may enter! That plan is not going over well with anyone...so, for now, I just wash my feet (as mentioned above) every night before bed. I do not want to stick those nasty things in my bed! :)

Our Garage/Laundry Room

Here is my cute little washer I spoke about in an earlier blog. Jeff calls it a "washer for dolls"! Everyone washes by hand here and it's RARE anyone has a dryer since the sun works very well! You can see where the hose hooks up to the washer and that's where the water goes in. I have to drain the water into the bucket (upside down in this picture) once after the wash cycle and once after the rinse cycle.

So the clothes get washed on the left and then they go into the spinner, on the right! For the first 4 weeks we were here we were washing everything by hand and it was KILLING my tendonitis! Especially the wringing of the jeans and the towels! But now we are set up with a laundry service for all the big stuff and we just do the small stuff and stuff we need in an emergency in this washer. I love it! :)

And, last but not least, here is our dryer! You just hang everything up, push it out into the sun, and there you have it! :) You have your hangers for shirts and then, in the back you can see these round plastic things with clothespins all around, that's where we hang all the undies and socks. So much fun! :)

Here is our motorbike

This is weird, don't you think? I had to get a shot of this! The writing at the top is in Thai!

Here is our Yamaha Mio XR Limited Edition. It's an automatic so no kick-starting! We bought this to ride around the neighborhood and, ocasionally, to take Maddie back and forth to school when needed. In fact, I will have to go pick up Maddie from school today! Wish me luck!

A tour of our home

Here's a view from the from the front door through our garage out to the street. During the day we leave the gate open.

At night we lock it up with the car inside like an open air garage!

On the left side of the gate you can see the mailbox and up above that is our doorbell!

Why do we Wai?

The Thai's wai to be polite or to show respect so it's like a man tipping his hat or any of us nodding our head at someone when we pass, kind of a polite hello.

Maddie and Nolan being polite and respectful along with Mr. Ronald. Nolan is being polite in his wai, hands against the chest and nose to index finger while Maddie is being respectful, hands away from the chest moving more toward the forehead. This picture was taken in April of 2008 when we brought both the kids to Thailand for their second visit.

Here's a funny story-luckily it was funny and not a disaster! I realized that you should be careful when saying "Sawasdee, ka" (hello) to little children--especially those riding bikes at the time! I didn't realize that children should wai to an adult that says hello to them! Poor little girl! She almost crashed! I felt so bad! She immediately let go of the handlebars and attempted to wai but she lost control and the bike fell over! She wai'd first, very respectfully, and then gathered up her bike and went on her way! I will think it out before I say hello to a little one again! :)

Laundry Day

So, I'll just finish up with the plumbing from yesterday, I just had a few more things to share about that...

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would pray to God for a good toilet. I have caught myself praying about this, I've said to God, "you are laughing about this aren't you!" :) I'm sure He has more significant issues than whether I will have a modern regular, clean bathroom with toilet paper and soap!

Another significant difference in that Thai's don't usually have kitchens in their homes. They most likely have a "Thai Kitchen" which means it's an outside kitchen where you have a gas grill, etc. So it's like bbqing all the time. Our place has a small indoor kitchen-type place which we have made into a pretty workable kitchen. There is no stove/oven so we had to buy a couple of electric grills and cookers, rice cooker, microwave, shelves and small tables for some counter space. Thai's usually go out to eat so they don't need kitchens but Jeff loves to cook and it makes him feel "normal" to cook every night and I love to help, it's really our favorite time of day when we make a meal together.

So today is laundry day. Laundry is very different here. People might have a washer that is outside but it would be rare for anyone to have a dryer since the sun works really well for that. Most people have a laundry service so that's what we do for most things. They come to your house and pick everything up and then bring it back to you 2 or 3 days later! It's great! 50 pieces for 600 baht (about $17USD). We will probably have 50 pieces every 2 to 4 weeks so it's pretty cheap. For all the little or emergency things I have a little tiny washer that came free when we bought one of our tvs! It sits outside in the "garage" (I'll explain that below!) Jeff calls it a washer for dolls because it is so tiny! I will take a picture of it when I get some batteries. Anyway, before we got that washer we had to do the small stuff by hand like almost all Thai's do ALL their laundry. I have tendonitis in my elbow and it's really hard to wash my hair let alone wash a bunch of clothes by hand and wring them out, etc. So I LOVE my little doll washer! It has a spin dryer on it so it gets the clothes almost half way dry before I hang them up outside. I can't believe I am washing clothes like this but now I am getting used to it, every Thursday is laundry day! We just hang our undies and socks out like everyone else, it's hilarious!

OK, the "garage". Another thing that is very different here. Your garage is like a carport that is all gated in. We have to close and lock the gate every night and unlock and open it every morning to get in and out with the car because the streets are very small and anyway, you shouldn't leave your car out or it will very like not be there in the morning--that's what everyone tells us--we feel very safe here and think everyone is paranoid but I'm sure if we ever get anything stolen, we will say the same thing. So, we lock everything up tight every night like they tell us. Our house is a 4 story townhome, about 2500 sf. 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms (one on each floor) and it's about $750USD per month! Nice! We really love it here, it's got 24hours security, gated community so it's really safe, and all the neighbors are really nice. Oh yeah, another thing that's different here, the zoning laws, you can have a business in your home, in fact, it's very common. So a lot of our neighbors are businesses; some also live there, some don't. We have a bioscience business across the street, a label business, a film studio, a bunch of other businesses in the neighborhood, it's weird but we are now used to it.

Something that is really great about Thailand is THE FOOD!!!!!!!!! I have not tasted any Thai food that I haven't liked. We also have no problem finding American foods to cook at home. We go to Foodland and Tesco and can find anything that we need really. 7/11 is everywhere and we have found a good coffee place. We rarely buy hot coffee when we go out because it is so incredibly hot here! We drink a lot of ice-blended coffee or ice-coffee. We bought a coffee-maker for the house and have hot coffee every morning though, just like in America. Thai's don't drink coffee so it's hard to find a coffee-maker but we found one, I think we paid close to $100USD for it, ouch! But it was worth it. Since the Thai's don't drink coffee, about all you can find in the restaurants or stores is Nescafe, yech! I guess they have no idea now horrible it is! But, back to the food, Thai food is great and cheap. Mint has been teaching us to order in restaurants and we are doing really well now.

Mint is our personal assistant. We were really having a hard time getting settled so we hired her and she has been a life saver! She started out PT but immediately we hired her on as our FT personal assistant and admin person. She has been translating for us and we get so much more done with her by our side! Today we started our formal Thai lessons here at the house. We have Ruby now to teach us Thai! Maddie is learning in school, she takes about 6 or 7 hours per week at school.

Speaking of Maddie, she started playing basketball on the school team yesterday. She was asked to join the high school team. They had their first game yesterday and won, Maddie had almost all the points! They won 31, 15. They are excited to have Maddie on the team! :) She is also playing on the badminton club! Remember that game? It's really popular here and she enjoys playing it with her friends.

Well, I will blog more tomorrow!

Jan

Let's Talk About Plumbing

OK, there are good things about living here and there are some challenges, plumbing is one of the challenges! One of the first things you will notice about an asian country is that it smells "different" than America. Wow, I'm having trouble even knowing where to begin on this subject so let's start from the beginning...

Long ago, all the bathrooms in Asia pretty much looked like this...

http://www.wikihow.com/Image:China_Toilet-1_611.jpg

Yes, the link says China, but it's like this all over Asia (except this is a REALLY clean one! Picture it about 100 times filthier than this one!)

Now, I don't know about you but these bathroom confuse and frighten me. I don't even know what to do when I am faced with this and I have tennies and jeans on! Needless to say, when you know you are going to be in an old government building for the day or you may be in the middle of nowhere for awhile, you may have to face this situation!

Even now, when I know I will have a regular style toilet, you may not get toilet paper! So I always carry kleenex or tp in my bag with me! Don't worry, we have nice, new, regular style toilets in our house. Oh yeah, another thing, there is always the sprayer hose next to the toilet, even the regular toilets, um, I don't get it...yuck! I guess it's a Asia/European thing because they have them all over Europe too! We have 4 bathroom in our home and they all have these sprayers, we don't use them...

So anyway, back to the point, the quality of ANYTHING in Thailand is poor, we are having to learn patience in EVERY area. Mint, our personal assistant, along with anyone else we try to get sympathy from, says "you will just have to get rid of your expectations, or you will always be unhappy". They are right. But we pride ourselves in being really efficient, productive people! We can get so much done! We are going to change Thailand! Yeah, right...I think Thailand will change us...Everyone keeps telling us we need to relax, don't move so fast! Are you kidding me! This is a whole new world! :)

So, the quality of everything is poor, and plumbing is no exception. The smell in the bathrooms a couple of times a day, for some reason we cannot figure out, is really bad. We thought it was because the pipes are in an L shape with no trap to capture water that blocks the smelly stuff from coming out so we changed all the pipes to the kind with the trap. Nope, that wasn't it. The plumber has been out 5 times now to fix leaks and now our shower drain is clogged on the 4th floor and we noticed that the toilets are not bolted to the floor and you can actually move them around! We asked the plumber to fix them and he just caulked around them. We said they probably need to be bolted and then caulked. He says, if this doesn't work then he will think about bolting them down! Yikes!

I have to go help with dinner. I will blog more tomorrow!

The Love Garden

They had a cute "Love Garden" at Dreamworld where people can get married, etc. There was a couple getting their wedding photos taken that day. It was cute. Maddie liked it and took some nice pictures.

Go Karts and Hurricane

Here's Maddie enjoying a few rides.

Snow Town

They have a place at Dreamworld called Snowtown where they give you coats and boots and you can go sledding! It's very different for Thai's to feel cold air outside because they have air con (that's what we call air-conditioning) everywhere. When our friends' son visits other countries where it's cool outside he calls it "air con outside". :) Very cute and very true. I totally understand what he means now!

Dreamworld Restroom Signs

The Thai's have my kind of bathroom humor! :)

Elephants at Dreamland

Dreamland is a theme park in Bangkok. It has roller coasters like Top Gun and Space Mountain and water rides like Splash Mountain and Roaring Rapids. You can ride an elephant if you like too. We have ridden them and even pass them in the streets while motorbiking in the very rural areas of Thailand. One time, we had the kids with is on the island of Phuket and we were staying in a very nice hotel when what comes walking through the lobby? An elephant! He was alone and walked through a doorway marked "employees". It was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen! I had never seen elephants in the streets of Bangkok until we moved here last month. We were sitting in traffic on a very busy street when all of a sudden an elephant came walking right past us and cut in front of the front of our car! It was unbelievable! Only in Bangkok...

This is Maddie's German Friend, Jorge

Maddie met Jorge on a previous trip to Thailand in April. They hit it off right away and remain good friends. He is amazing to me because he plays the piano beautifully by ear (you would love him mom!) and even more impressive is that he moved here from Germany last year, he did not know any English or Thai and had to start school not being able to communicate at all! Now he speaks fluent English, Thai and, of course, German, and some Spanish and Chinese too! Wow! These kids here are amazing!

It's been a year, and what a year it has been!

Hi all, I can't believe it's been a year since I last posted. A lot has happened in one year. As, hopefully, all of you know by now, Jeff, Maddie and I moved to Thailand in late September. We have been here a little over a month. I have so much I want to share so I had to start the blog again!

We live in a northeastern suburb of Bangkok. Maddie is attending an International School and is really enjoying it! Everyone has been really nice and friendly. She is the only American there, there are some Thai kids that have American fathers but no full Americans. Although, one of her Thai friends did live in Los Angeles for 3 years and just returned to Thailand about 6 months ago so they have a lot to talk about.

I am going to start off with some pictures we've taken recently and work backwards with the pictures we have taken over the last 6 years! This should be an interesting project! But I really feel like I'd like to share our travels with you since I haven't been real good about it in the past.

Save my blog on your favorites and check in periodically to see what we have been up to! Email us whenever possible. I always love to hear from everyone but especially now that we are half way around the world, it is extra special when I get an email from family and friends!

Love to you all, Jan

A visit from the Ramirez Family!

Gabriel's first day of "frontwards" in the Baby Bjorn...
Mia is very busy playing...

Grammy and Gabriel hangin out...
Such a smart girl!

Bye Gramma C!

Here's a picture Chesta took of Jeff and I at the San Diego airport before she left. Jeff and I are taking off this week for Thailand. I will try to keep up the blog while we are traveling so you can see what we are up to. We are going to be relaxing on the beach in Koh Samui for the first few days. I have been learning Thai and can't wait to try it out this time. Love to you all, Jan.

Thanksgiving Table

I've been reading Martha Stewart again...what do you think? :) Check Brittani's blog at www.rfamily-ourkids.blogspot.com for more pictures of our Thanksgiving, Gramma's visit, etc. Her blog is much better and she posts a lot more frequently than I have. I'll try to do better! Brittani is my inspiration! :)

Thanksgiving Day

Here are some photos from our Thanksgiving day. Unfortunately, Jeff was VERY sick in bed all day and missed the whole thing! We were all very sad. Jeff is the main chef in this household so Chesta and I had to step up and do all the cooking and everything turned out wonderful.

More from Brittani's house

They had a great time with Gramma!

Gramma Chesta visits Brittani

Maddie was out of school the whole week Gramma C was here so they went over to visit Brittani, Mia and Gabriel for awhile when we were at work.

Nolan and Maddie

Gramma actually got them to pose for pictures.

Gramma Chesta comes for a visit!

We had fun last week having Gramma Chesta visit.

Some pictures!

Brittani's wedding July 2005
Mia, about 18 months

Bauer Happenings

Hi Everyone,

I have no idea what I am getting myself into here...Brittani's blog is so much fun to keep up with what's going on in her family that I had to try it for our family too.

We are living in Carlsbad on the border of Encinitas, the community is called La Costa to be exact. We absolutely love it here. We are only 15 minutes from the beach. Jeff's business, DCN is going very well, I am working just 2 blocks from the beach in Encinitas in estate planning, Brittani and JR are expecting baby #2, a boy, October 1. Nolan will begin his junior year at Cal State U San Marcos in a few weeks and he's working at a lab very nearby our house/his school/jeff's lab. Maddie is 11 and going thru all the normal pre-teen girl stuff. She will start middle school in a few weeks...oh joy :)

We are going to Oregon in 2 weeks to my niece, Tia's, wedding in McMinnville. I hope to see those of you who are in Oregon.

I will try to make regular posts with lots of pictures like Brittani does...we will see...

Jan