After a 30 minute delay, three gate changes and a lot of cranky passengers, I finally got on the plane for the 3 hour, 25 minute flight to see my family. I picked the wrong flight to get on, apparently, as I got here almost 1am BKK time (2am Manila). Next time, I'll pick an earlier flight.
Methinks, coming here to see my family over the long vacation is exactly what I need in this crazy period in my usually uneventful life. Though I put my personal phone on roaming, I am receiving only text messages. The calls cost too much so I diverted all my incoming calls to my office number, which is turned off BTW. The text messages I've been receiving have been... inspirational so far.
Day 1: Dinner at 2am, sister bonding till 5am. I can't believe how much I missed my mom's adobo and ginisang munggo. I missed my dad's corny jokes and my sisters' chatter. Coming home to the smell of home cooking and seeing my mom's happy face wiped away all the chaos from NAIA and Suvarnabhumi Airport. Bro and Wifey arrived on an earlier flight but they waited for me (with my Dad) before we all came home. We ate dinner discussing our favorite food, our strange eating habits and the difference between international airports in the countries we've visited.
After dinner, we all stayed in the living room and chatted for a few more minutes. Then my mom and dad turned in. Bro and Wifey retreated to their room. The sisters and I camped out in the living room and chatted our heads off until 5am. Bliss!
Day 2: Woke up at 7:30am GMT+7 ... and the house was quiet. Nobody woke up until after 10am. I can't speak for Bro and Wifey, though. They may have opted for a little... loving time. Hahaha... So after a quick breakfast of sliced dragonfruit (sweet and grainy... unlike the waterlogged mess I get in Tagaytay), we were off to go SHOPPING! But before that, we stopped by a carinderia along Convent Road for some yummies! Among all the stuff we had, my favorite was definitely the som tam... the dressing is SO good... I even dipped raw cabbage and fresh mint into it for snacking. I think I ate a farmload of raw veggies yesterday.
So...shopping. Shopping! I went crazy, methinks. Although I bought a few pieces for my mom, I still think I ended up spending almost 7K THB (about 9K php) on that one shopping trip. Can you blame me? SIX floors of shopping madness! And that's only the beginning. I haven't even gotten started on bags and shoes yet!
My dad's condo is right smack in the middle of the CBD, so all around us are office buildings, right-hand drive vehicles, traffic in reverse (North-bound comes from the right side, South-bound comes from the left... it's disconcerting, I tell you!).... and food carts. Food everywhere! If we hadn't eaten lunch before shopping, am sure I would have bought something off every vendor I saw on the street.
Som tam stalls shared space with those amazingly good puto-like cakes that smell like pancakes and pandan (1 THB each... I couldn't stop munching on them). Beautiful fresh strawberries (20 THB, 100 grams... sweeter than a Baguio strawberry but crunchy), glistening emerald honeydew and brilliant papaya reposed on ice, fried tofu and a lot of other stuff - they may have made their way into my gullet!
Tomorrow, I vow to to brave getting lost (my crappy sense of direction is legendary), getting misinterpreted by the locals ("hoy" in Thai is... THAT part of the female anatomy), indigestion and being run over by cars and buses speeding in from the wrong side of the road... I will walk around the neighborhood. After all, there's a Starbucks a few blocks from home. Gotta go get my tumblers and mugs! Harharhar...
Methinks, coming here to see my family over the long vacation is exactly what I need in this crazy period in my usually uneventful life. Though I put my personal phone on roaming, I am receiving only text messages. The calls cost too much so I diverted all my incoming calls to my office number, which is turned off BTW. The text messages I've been receiving have been... inspirational so far.
Day 1: Dinner at 2am, sister bonding till 5am. I can't believe how much I missed my mom's adobo and ginisang munggo. I missed my dad's corny jokes and my sisters' chatter. Coming home to the smell of home cooking and seeing my mom's happy face wiped away all the chaos from NAIA and Suvarnabhumi Airport. Bro and Wifey arrived on an earlier flight but they waited for me (with my Dad) before we all came home. We ate dinner discussing our favorite food, our strange eating habits and the difference between international airports in the countries we've visited.
After dinner, we all stayed in the living room and chatted for a few more minutes. Then my mom and dad turned in. Bro and Wifey retreated to their room. The sisters and I camped out in the living room and chatted our heads off until 5am. Bliss!
Day 2: Woke up at 7:30am GMT+7 ... and the house was quiet. Nobody woke up until after 10am. I can't speak for Bro and Wifey, though. They may have opted for a little... loving time. Hahaha... So after a quick breakfast of sliced dragonfruit (sweet and grainy... unlike the waterlogged mess I get in Tagaytay), we were off to go SHOPPING! But before that, we stopped by a carinderia along Convent Road for some yummies! Among all the stuff we had, my favorite was definitely the som tam... the dressing is SO good... I even dipped raw cabbage and fresh mint into it for snacking. I think I ate a farmload of raw veggies yesterday.
So...shopping. Shopping! I went crazy, methinks. Although I bought a few pieces for my mom, I still think I ended up spending almost 7K THB (about 9K php) on that one shopping trip. Can you blame me? SIX floors of shopping madness! And that's only the beginning. I haven't even gotten started on bags and shoes yet!
My dad's condo is right smack in the middle of the CBD, so all around us are office buildings, right-hand drive vehicles, traffic in reverse (North-bound comes from the right side, South-bound comes from the left... it's disconcerting, I tell you!).... and food carts. Food everywhere! If we hadn't eaten lunch before shopping, am sure I would have bought something off every vendor I saw on the street.
Som tam stalls shared space with those amazingly good puto-like cakes that smell like pancakes and pandan (1 THB each... I couldn't stop munching on them). Beautiful fresh strawberries (20 THB, 100 grams... sweeter than a Baguio strawberry but crunchy), glistening emerald honeydew and brilliant papaya reposed on ice, fried tofu and a lot of other stuff - they may have made their way into my gullet!
Tomorrow, I vow to to brave getting lost (my crappy sense of direction is legendary), getting misinterpreted by the locals ("hoy" in Thai is... THAT part of the female anatomy), indigestion and being run over by cars and buses speeding in from the wrong side of the road... I will walk around the neighborhood. After all, there's a Starbucks a few blocks from home. Gotta go get my tumblers and mugs! Harharhar...
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