Hard Rocker in BKK

Bryce and I meet our friends Ben, Sam and Jordan for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe last week. It is a great place to take kids, they gave us bibs, crayons and personal attention. The kids were the highlight of the evening.

Ben teaches Bryce about the Rubik's Cube,

"I will teach you the 7 logarithms before your 3rd birthday."

Bryce is 3 weeks older than Jordan.

Dancing with the staff.

Bryce gives Jordan a kiss. What a heart throb!!

Now every girl in Bangkok wants a kiss from Bryce. They are lining up at the door.

80's Party

Alphabet Soup

Bryce had his 18 month check up and is growing like a weed and developing very well according to the standards test. He is in the 70th percentile in all 3 height, weight and head circumference. He is 27.5 lbs and 33 inches tall. No wonder he fits the 2T clothes already. We play in the kitchen all the time because Bryce loves to get in the cabinets and drawers and pull everything out, like all toddlers. Here are some pics of Bryce making alphabet soup with the fridge magnets.

Bryce Gets New Wheels

And Tees Off...

Ramiro left for a one month business trip this afternoon, but not before spending some good quality time with the family. Friday he was entitled to the day off work, so we spent the day taking Bryce to gym class and out to lunch. The afternoon with a group of families in our building and as per our Friday tradition Ramiro planned a special date night. We arrived at the tallest hotel in Bangkok The Baiyoke Sky Hotel. Dinner is on the 82nd floor with a panoramic view.


After dinner, we walked up to the 84th floor to the revolving sky deck to get a view of the city sites at night. What an amazing view.


We then went to the rooftop golf range and practiced hitting balls. Aside from mini golf, this was my first time just hitting balls. Maybe while I am in BKK, I should look into a few lessons??

Ramiro had a few amazing swings at the ball. He acted like he knew exactly how to play. It looked to me, by the way he hit many of the balls, he had a pretty good idea. So I asked him.
Bonnie: "Have you done this before?"
Ramiro: "Manuel and I did this once or twice on our lunch break, in Connecticut, when I worked at Fire-lite." (about nine years ago)
Bonnie: "Where did you learn which club to use?"
Ramiro: "My cell phone."
He has a video game on his phone, he was pretty good for a virtual golfer.

Thongburi Klong Life

On Saturday a group of us hired a boat to see the klongs in Thongburi. It is a klong (or canal) off the Chao Praya River. Here are a few of the people and places we saw.

Summer Palace

On Saturday we visited Bang Pa-In Palace a summer residence of the Thai Royals, a very short drive of 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Bangkok along the banks of the Chaopraya River. This is the summer palace of the kings of Thailand. We recently purchased a GPS system so we decided to drive our selves. Bryce fell asleep on the way so we had a chance to drive around for an hour and see other sites.

This is an old city so there were many ruins.

An old train station with great carved wood eves.

The palace dates back to the 17^th century, pre-dating the establishment of Bangkok as the capitol, although it did fall into disuse for a long period. The buildings there now date from its revival by King Mongkut (Rama IV) in the 19^th century. The palace is set on 46 acres, so we rented a golf cart, actually it was more of the novelty for Bryce, besides being mid day and 95 degrees.

There were many fish in the pond below and they must have guessed Bryce was food, because about 6 feet below a fish spit a large stream of water and got Bryce right on the nose. It shocked both Bryce and myself. It got him pretty wet too.
Today, the palace is only used infrequently, and then mostly for state occasions rather than as a royal summer residence.

This lookout tower is an observation deck for viewing the surrounding countryside.

Our favorite part was seeing the georgous manicured gardens. Life sized topiarys of elephants, rabbits, lions, and deer.

walking under the topiaries.

enjoying the shade.