Let's Go to the Mall!

One thing we've noticed already in our 6 weeks in Bangkok is that malls are happening places. It's tremendously hot (and often rainy) here so anywhere with AC is a big draw. We have a mall near our house that is 7 stories tall. It has most of what you need from office supplies to groceries, like a really spread out Target. A lot of extra curricular fun happens at malls too. Two weekends ago we decided to take Forest to do something fun, and noticed that most of the kid's educational or play places were located in various malls throughout Bangkok. We decided on the Ocean Life Aquarium in Siam Paragon Mall, which was pretty crowded on the Saturday of Chinese New Year, but still had some great displays. 

My favorite were the sea turtles whereas Forest, as always, loved the penguins and snakes. He rushed through the displays because we made the mistake of mentioning that this particular mall  was where the LEGO store was housed. 

Forest got to go to the LEGO store, Jonathan got to peruse the various luxury car dealerships also housed in this mall and I got to eat legitimately good Mexican food at La Monita Taqueria (other than the queso being a bust- in all my travels I still haven't learned the lesson to never order Queso outside of Tex-Mex territory). 

After eating a scrumptious Mexican lunch (biggest craving this pregnancy!), Forest spotted a McDonald's and said 'There's McDonald's, where we should have eaten.' He's so my child. We love the Ronald McDonald statues in the wai position (bowing with hands clasped in traditional Thai greeting).

Such a perfect East meets West example. Last weekend was a long weekend for F's school so we went on our first adventure outside of Bangkok. We had an amazing time exploring Chiang Mai with some friends who moved there just a few weeks before we took the ex-pat plunge ourselves. Stay tuned! Here's a pretty incredible sneak peak:)

Also, one thing I wasn't prepared for with this move is that Forest basically became a 'school aged kid' versus a preschooler. He's still in "PreK" but attends school 5 days a week versus his old Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday schedule. This means our fun local excursions happen on Saturdays with the big crowds, versus on a quiet Thursday morning. And since not every weekend is a long weekend anymore, we are relegated to traveling during school holidays, also a bit more crowded. I'm glad we really took advantage of travel opportunities when we had more flexibility. The good thing is there seems to be a long weekend every month remaining of the school year, plus a week for the Songkran holiday. We have Cambodia booked in March and a trip to the Maldives for our last big 'pre-baby' spring break. It is definitely exciting to get to see a new part of the world!