Easter in Bangkok

Wat Arun Temple

Grand Palace

Surprise, Emma found the "perfect" purse at the Floating Market!

Zach found a fedora (his favorite hat!) at the Floating Market!

Easter Brunch at the Asiana Hotel-yummy-but I sure did miss Mom's coconut cake!

We spent Easter in Bangkok, Thailand and had a wonderful holiday weekend. I was not at all sure what to expect and really didn't know much about Bangkok, but we were pleasantly surprised! While the city is not as spotless as Kuala Lumpur, it sure beats Chennai! We did encounter more people working in shops and restaurants that did not speak English, but we managed. We spent the first day on a boat ride through the canals of the city and visited the Wat Arun Temple where Zach and I climbed up I don't know how many NARROW steps to reach the top. We had a beautiful view of the city and then--had to climb back down. My muscles are still feeling it! Emma and Farid might have been smarter than the two of us and decided to bypass the climb. Next we stopped at a Snake Farm (part of the tour or we would never have been there). They did a cheesy little demonstration with some venomous snakes and then we walked around a sad little zoo where the animals are kept in wire cages with dirt floors. They had bears, tigers, deer, monkeys, etc in these enclosures. Zach and Emma were both ready to leave pretty quickly because it was pretty depressing. That was the least favorite part of our trip. Third stop was the Grand Palace which is a Buddhist temple, actually several temples, covering several acres. We were given a blessing by a Buddhist monk who tied prayer beads on each of our wrists.
Day two we went to the Floating Market where you ride in a boat through several canals and vendors are lined up in shops over the water or boats float by you selling goods. It was everything you could imagine from souvenirs to fruit, vegetables, even hot cooked meals cooked on the boats or docks. From there we went to the weekend market which is a huge flea market covering about 30 acres. Again it was sensory overload. Crowded and hot were the best two words to describe this place but still I'm glad we went. We saw one old woman with several bowls of "raw" ingredients that she would cook up for you at your request. However, since one of the bowls contained what we believed to be live grubs---we passed! So instead we went to a nice mall and had Thai food which was wonderful. Fear Factor doesn't need to worry about contacting us! Up at 4 a.m. Sunday morning, we arrived back in Chennai just in time to go to Santhome Cathedral and then to Easter brunch. It was a very different but fun holiday for us!

LIFE IS A CABARET OLD CHUM...

On Feb. 29 the school hosted a Cabaret night, including food and drinks and both Zach and Emma participated. Zach and his two friends who also happen to be our next door neighbors played "Without Judgement".(That is why they gave that title to the song!) It was Jake on bass, Sam on electric guitar, and Zach on drums. They had the house rocking and cheering.You could see how much fun they were having up on stage. "I guess they liked it," said Zach. Later in the show Emma played her flute with the sixth grade band. Toward the end of the evening, Zach performed a second number with a friend, Aravindan. Aravindan is an 11th grader who beatboxes. He mixed his beatboxing skills with Zach's drums. It was very entertaining! I was glad to see that these last few years of drum lessons were paying off. It was the first time Zach had performed in public and I think he'd say he's ready for more!

Hosting Pakistani students

Last weekend we hosted four students from the American School in Islamabad, Pakistan. They were here for a soccer tournament for 3 days and all 140 students stayed with families. It was nice, especially for Zach, since all the boys were about his age. Two of the boys were born in Pakistan, one came from Nepal, and the fourth one was born in England but his family moved to Pakistan when he was 10 years old. All four boys are planning to attend college in the U.S. Two of them had applied in Indiana and I told Zach that it would be so strange if one day he walks into a doctor's office and his doctor is one of these four boys! The boys asked us about Kentucky and they told us that Islamabad is beautiful and we should come and visit! Of course just before that they told us that they had only been able to play two games before coming to India because that was the two weeks leading up to the Pakistan elections so they were unable to play. I'll have to think twice (or ten times) about visiting there. But it's just so interesting the perspective of the people who actually live in a country--usually it's so unlike what we see on the news. When I asked them if they had seen or experienced any violence or demonstrations like we had seen on TV, they said that they had not seen anything like that at all. Who knows, maybe by the time I'm an old lady, Pakistan will be a hot tourist destination???

India Week

One week in February is Indian Week at the American School. As you can see Emma and I dressed up for the program at the end of the week. We are wearing salwars since we didn't feel comfortable showing our midsection in a sari :) Zach was not into dressing up at all but he did have some of his photos displayed for the Charity Fair held the next day. Emma worked selling baked goods which earned their club enough money to feed a meal to 150 children at a nearby orphanage.