Emmy in the Rice Paddy: Mom & Dara's Visit, Part 2: Bangkok

Due to the fact that I needed to be in Bangkok on the evening of April 30 for my four day Fulrbight mid-grant meeting (hard to believe), I quickly booked my Mom and sister on the same flight as me (I don't know what they would be able to do in Ubon on their own without me haha). It worked out perfectly, because we weren't split up, and we were able to get an extra room at the Ibis Sathorn Bangkok hotel- the hotel where the rest of the Fulbrights were staying/ where my meetings were. It didn't even feel like I had meetings because it was so fun having Mom and Dar just down the hall in the same hotel with me. While I went to my meetings during the day, they explored and went sightseeing (usually to places I'd already seen), so it was perfect. My meetings were great, and were over everyday around 430pm. So, every night we were able to eat dinner together and play in the evenings. We ate at a delicious Indian restaurant one night, and another delicious Chinese restaurant down the street the other night. We also tried a Thai restaurant down the road that wasn't the best, but we ate with a nice Canadian man who was traveling alone. Adventures :)

Mom and Dara went to the Grand Palace, Wat Po, Wat Arun, and Jim Thompson's house to name a few. They also had a few days of wedding dress shopping and custom-tailored clothes made at the Cotton House. In the evening, we were able to hit both the Sala Daeng and Silom night markets (where, sadly, vendors remembered "Am On (my Thai nickname) from Ubon!") and Dara and I met my friend I met earlier in Chiang Mai (Jim) on KaoSan Road for some GREAT shopping. We also celebrated my friend Travis's last night in Bangkok at Route 66 on RCA (a street literally just of clubs), so we saw lots of different areas of the city. Dara and I also made it to MBK mall (knockoff central!), and ran into my friend Ploy there! On our last day in Bangkok, and my last day of meetings, Mom and Dara joined me and the other Fulbrights at "English Camp." This was special to me because they got to see me teach, and to meet P'Tip, P'Kee, and everyone else at Fulbright. That night all of the Fulbrights and the few other parents that were in town went on an evening dinner cruise, hosted by Fulbright alum P'Ngae. However, between walking as a giant group to a nearby hotel, then waiting an hour, and then spending another hour in the cab, it took us nearly two and a half hours to make it to the boat! It really was beautiful to see everything on the Chao Phraya lit up at night, and I'm glad that Mom and Dara got to experience Bangkok by boat, too!