Christmas in Bangkok
Despite going to bed at 3:00am, my body woke up at 7:00am…just in time to catch the Christmas Eve livestream from our church, with additional viewing of the replay of Christ the King’s livestream (super sweet moment captured in this one of young adult children waving to and taking photos of their parents singing in the choir). Pastors and church-going friends: I know continuing to livestream worship might feel burdensome at this point, but I was incredibly grateful for that gift today, and I know others are too. You don’t need to keep doing it every week, but Christmas and Easter are great times to get a stream going.
As a pastor on synod staff for my 3rd Christmas, I was just getting used to not having major responsibilities on Christmas Eve. I have to say though— this one brought that feeling of disorientation to a whole new level. The festive signs of Christmas were all over throughout our travel— there was Christmas music playing in ICN Airport and on our flight as we boarded, then a Christmas setup in our hotel lobby when we checked in. Thailand isn’t home to a huge amount of Christians, but it IS a destination for tons of international travelers who celebrate, so Christmas decor is actually all over. Even with that though, our day felt largely like just another day in Bangkok where I had to consciously remind myself that it was Christmas.
There was no itinerary set for today. The only goal was to listen to our bodies and adapt to the new time (13 hours ahead of home). We eventually had to wake Miriam up around 9:30ish to make it to breakfast which ends at 10:30. Ya’ll…I’ve been thinking about this breakfast buffet ever since we left Bangkok last year. It’s going to get its own blog post in one of the days ahead.
After breakfast Miri got to take her first tuk-tuk ride! Our hotel is at the end of an alley that connects to a major road in the area, so they provide a shuttle between the lobby and the main road. Adam was feeling ick between having a sore hip, lack of sleep, and his med schedule getting off, so the first adventure from the hotel was just me and Miriam. Our destination: 7-Eleven for drinking water, sunscreen, and some toilet paper to bring with us when we go into the city. Miriam’s body must be pretty accustomed to winter, because despite wearing a nice, light-weight outfit she complained of being hot. Even with the heat, we made it there and back all in once peace.
Next on the non-agenda was taking some time to cool Miriam’s body off in the pool! We spent about two hours at the pool alternating between swim and sun time. There were multiple families with children who came and went into the pool area, but these kids were not as keen to jumping into play as the kids in the ICN airport. Miriam still had that big American energy, so we had had to have multiple conversations about how to come in easy, and we came up with strategies for playing when there’s a language barrier. Spoiler alert: none of those strategies actually worked in this scenario.
As you can imagine, all the swimming made for an appetite. The thing is: we didn’t have any snacks, and street food isn’t really out during the daytime in our area of the city. This meant another trip out of the hotel was necessary, but a certain 5 and a half year old was too grumps and hungry to actually make that trip. So…I got a solo outing in Bangkok!
I didn’t think to take many photos, but I loved the city vibe as I walked to the nearest supermarket. Because we are in a touristy area, there’s a real international feel to the rhythm of the area. There’s countless languages being spoken, different ways people carry themselves, and fascinating fashion differences. If found this walk to be invigorating!
The supermarket also brought me great joy— I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved a good walk around a grocery store in a different country. There’s something about the differences in the selection of foods available, and there’s something about seeing the different flavors and varieties of foods we don’t have in America. Perhaps my most exciting find (that I didn’t purchase) was Président butter — a brand of butter that comes from France and it’s literally the best butter I’ve ever had. I’ve been looking for it at nearly every grocery store I visit for the last 20 years. American grocery stores carry Président cheese, but not the butter. I’m excited to be in a place that carries the butter and I hope we can find it in a store once we get to Chiang Mai! Things I did end up purchasing so we would have some provisions in our room: apples, cucumbers, babybel cheese, crackers, cups of noodles, tangerines. Our kids is grazer — she’ll eat at meal times, but generally not a lot. These things I knew would be essential for the next few days.
It wasn’t until this point that I realized that even though I successfully bought some groceries, I still hadn’t found the lunch I had set out to get. My walk back to the hotel included many stops to look around and see what was available for carry-out things. Again, there’s not a ton of street food during the day. I ended up wandering into the small Korea Town Plaza and finding a place to carry out Korean fried chicken and rice.
As one would expect by this point, the 5 1/2 year old ended up not liking the chicken when I got back, and instead she ate plain rice and an apple (which made me really glad I made the trip to the supermarket). She was hot mess, and I could tell that a nap was needed. Once again, the Tonie Box came to the rescue, and she was in such a mood that she would only listen to it if I snuggled her as well. I wasn’t going to say no, which then resulted in a 2-hour nap for both of us. I awoke around 5:30pm and realized that if we let her sleep she would wake up way too early in the morning. Though I debated about it, I then engaged the hard work of waking her up and keeping her awake for at least an hour before a decent bedtime came. Ya’ll…this was some WERK!
After nearly 40 minutes of trying to keep her awake, we eventually got there and…she was WIDE awake. Around 7:00pm we told her it was okay to go to bed at this point, but her body couldn’t do it so we had to pull out the melatonin again. We thought she was asleep for about 40 minutes, then she busted in our room and admitted she wasn’t asleep, but did reflect on how she was sleeping “so hard” when I had to wake her up before.
Good news: the melatonin has now won. Hopefully she’ll wake up at a decent hour tomorrow morning. Jet-lag, ya’ll!
