Columbus Day weekend

As luck would have it, Samantha and the kids drew Columbus Day weekend as their first weekend to spend in Bangkok. The government still bestows an extra day on this weekend, much to Eric the Red's chagrin, so the Martin family got a nice 3-day-weekend together to get everyone acclimated, orientated, adjusted and initiated to Bangkok. Given this opportunity, we took full advantage, cramming it full of good activities. (sadly not pictured: dinner in little Middle East, rides in Eliana's new favorite vehicle--the tuk tuk, more jaunts onto soi 11, etc.) For instance...

We went to Chatuchak Market, one of the largest weekend markets out there. With a 4-year-old and 2-month-old in tow, we covered just fraction of its expansive stalls and alleyways but still got everyone a good idea of what was being offered. Much as I predicted, Samantha had to shove her eyes back into their sockets and her money back into her pockets. Eliana was a trooper and, when there was too much heat and walking for her to bear, we found a nice restaurant to eat at or a good treat (coconut milk ice cream and popsicles) for her to eat. And, in the end, she got the Buddha she always wanted, now watching over her in her room.

 

 

After our hot morning/early afternoon at the market, it was time to hit the apartment pool. The water was the perfect temperature to cool off.

We also did some good old-fashioned malling, hitting many of Bangkok's most famous and most air-conditioned shopping centers (and their lovely food courts). Samantha, Eliana and Shane posed by the fountains outside Siam Paragon.

Perhaps most memorable, though, was our trip to MBK. It was supposed to just be a trip to get Sam's iPhone jailbroken, but it became quite the scene as Samantha and Eliana decided to get manicures, pedicures and massages while waiting. Firstly, the ladies at the salon howled at the sight of the kids walking by and shoved a pamphlet at Eliana. Upon return, they treated the kids like mini-deities. Eliana was surrounded, told 100x how pretty she is, given an impromptu hairdo, and generally adored. Shane, after being fed by Samantha, was snatched away and passed around the store, laid down on a massage table to be cooed at (he obliged and cooed back), had numerous pictures taken with cell phone cameras, was whisked outside the salon at one point (freaking Samantha out a bit) and given tons of kisses and squeezes. All in all, it was pretty wild. Hard to describe...I did my best. In a way, it was the day our kids became rock stars for a brief moment.

We also went to Ocean World at Siam Paragon, an aquarium at the bottom of the mall. Really a cool place with penguins, many varieties of fish, a huge walk-through shark tank and much more. Most of the pictures were lost, though, when Sam's phone was jailbroken. We do have this, though: