Bangkok

The month of December was such a whirlwind for us that Christmas seemed to come out of nowhere. Suddenly we were just a few weeks away and realized that we should take advantage of the holidays Joseph had and go somewhere. Christmas is peak season for all of the beaches in south east Asia, and we were too demoralized by the thought of going north and having to buy winter clothes again (we didn't bring any along), so a friend suggested Bangkok as a good option for an easy getaway. Sure enough, there were some good package deals, so we left the day after Christmas for three nights in Bangkok.

And we loved it! It has a certain reputation, and anyone who has seen The Hangover 2 probably thinks we're crazy for taking our precious two-year-old there, but the seedy underbelly of Bangkok isn't hard to avoid. We found it to be an easy city to be in with a toddler. The people were extremely helpful and kind, and we were amazed by how often locals would stop what they were doing to talk to or try to play with Evangeline. And of course, the food was incredible--we didn't have a single meal that wasn't completely delicious.

On the airport express train

On the way to the city

The biggest advice we were given was that hotel location was key. You want to be near Bangkok's sky train or metro so you don't have to deal with the legendary traffic:

Gridlock on a street by our hotel

We were very glad that we took that seriously and were able to zip all over the city, traffic-free. We got a big kick out of the motorcycle taxis, especially when you'd see a businesswoman demurely perched on the back of a motorcycle, clutching the driver as they weaved between cars. Not an option with a toddler, though!

Motorcycle taxis outside our hotel

A popular food stall nearby

Ko Ratanakosin, the area with most of the famous temples and palaces, did not disappoint. Since most of the area is sacred, visitors must dress modestly, which means no skin showing except for your arms. If you didn't get the memo, no problem:

Every time we went by a group of frat boy-types sporting their rented pants, we couldn't help chuckling.

Evangeline takes it all in

All of the lions got a hug from Evangeline

Evangeline was delighted with all the feral cats in the complex

The famous reclining Buddha

Evangeline's favorite thing from the whole entire trip, of course, was riding in a tuk-tuk.

A close second was drinking young coconut.

Singha for Daddy, of course!

The easiest way to get around by the Chao Phraya river is the Chao Phraya Express, a system of passenger boats. Very un-American--you just hop on and off the boats from little platforms that aren't completely fenced in. I was nervously clutching Evangeline the whole time, as you can imagine.

Our "station"

 A boat in action

The view from onboard

The food was so amazing; I'm still dreaming about it. We ate like kings for a fraction of what you'd spend here. And everywhere we went there were carts with fresh and dried fruit, which made dragging a toddler around a lot easier. Here's an (iphone) shot of a typical meal:

Spicy papaya salad, spring rolls (for E), pad thai, mussamun curry, rice, young coconut, beer, sippy cup :)

Besides eating, our favorite thing that we did was rent our own long-tail boat for a private cruise. For around $35, we had a personal hour-long tour of the river and up a canal.

A long-tail boat

Cruising up the river

Our driver

Wat Arun from the river

The faster our boat went, the better!

Buildings on the canal ran the gamut from the very nice...

...to the partially submerged

Canal life

It was a lovely trip and a welcome break from getting pushed around in Hong Kong. We will definitely be back to Thailand, although we'd like to see the beaches next time.

Macau

I'm sorry I've been so silent on the blog for the last two months! I'm way behind and hope to catch up soon, so bear with me. We've been busy, which is a good thing, right? :)

We had a great time hosting our good friend from Urbana, Dave, for ten days in late November and early December. His visit was the perfect excuse to go to Macau for the first time since we moved here. Macau, like Hong Kong, is classified as a Special Administrative Region of China. It was a Portuguese colony from the 16th century until it was officially handed over to China in 1999. Its major industry is tourism, as it's known as the Las Vegas of Asia. Just 37 miles southwest of Hong Kong, it only took about an hour via jetfoil to get there.

Dave, Evangeline, me on the ferry to Macau (iphone pic, so bad quality!)

Let me preface my customs anecdote by saying that over 70% of Macau's tourists are from mainland China. One of the hardest Chinese cultural differences for us to overcome is the "me-first" lack of civility, by our standards, at least. Hong Kong is a tiny bit better because it's so Westernized, but we still get frustrated in our day-to-day life. People crowd on to the metro as soon as the doors open before others have a chance to get off, despite the million posted signs saying to wait. Line cutting is common, and if I had a dollar for every time an able-bodied person took valuable elevator space at the expense of someone who actually needed it, I'd be rich! So the customs experience in Macau was a nightmare. We arrived at the same time as a bunch of ferries from China, so it was very busy. Instead of orderly lines in front of passport control, there was just a mass of people trying to get ahead of everybody else. We were penned in, with the feeling of people constantly pushing from behind. It probably took us the better part of an hour to get through, but once we did, it was smooth sailing.

We checked into our hotel and hit the streets. We ended up staying in Taipa, which is in between all of the casinos in central Macau and the newest hotel casinos on the Cotai Strip, which include the Venetian and the Four Seasons.

A square in Taipa

Evangeline takes in the scene

Dave's expression after trying some durian ice cream

Signs in three languages

You'd feel like you were almost in Europe...

...but then you'd pass something like this

The Grand Lisboa, an over-the-top casino/hotel

Stopping to refuel at a famous cafe

We thought their natas (Portuguese custard tarts) were the best on the trip

Based on the crowds, I think people agreed with us!

The busy tourist streets in Central Macau

Anyone fancy a sheet of beef?

Sao Paolo ruins at sunset

View from the ruins

There goes the sun!

Gelato? Yes, please!

Evangeline gets a fair amount of attention here in Hong Kong because of her curly hair, but she got a lot more in Macau because most of the people were from the mainland. Luckily, she didn't seem to mind having her hair touched everywhere we went, and even agreed to pose for some pictures:

The next day, we went to Cologne, which is the area of Macau furthest away from the casinos. It was beautiful and very sleepy.

Those mountains in the background are in China

A church on a square

It's a lazy life for dogs in Cologne

Trying out the adult fitness equipment in a park

Workin' it!

Post-nata grin

All in all, we liked Macau but it was very weird. Take the inherent strangeness of Las Vegas, mix in a lot of Portuguese, and put it in China, and I think you'd have it. There's certainly nothing else like it, that's for sure!

33

Joseph's birthday was on Thursday; he is now 33! Because it's his favorite cuisine, we went out to a "Mexican" restaurant in Kowloon. It turned out to be on a square right at the foot of the International Commerce Centre, the fifth tallest building in the world!

Since no one else was there, we had our pick of tables, and decided on one outside on the square...

...which was perfect for our squirrelly toddler, who was free to get up and run around whenever she wanted.

The food wouldn't have been anything exciting in the US, but since we hadn't had any tortilla chips since July, we thought it was great! It's amazing how your standards change after a few short months. :) I had a guava margarita:

Then we went home for birthday cake. I didn't have any trouble making Joseph's cake, although I had to bake the layers in shifts because our oven was too small for all three pans. It turned out great! Chocolate cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and a chocolate peanut butter glaze.

Very, very rich, but very good. It was more expensive to make here because all of the ingredients cost more, but hey, you only turn 33 once! Here's to another great year!

School Daze

If you told me a year ago that I'd be spending my October days and nights preoccupied with what schools we should have Evangeline apply to for next year, I would have fallen out of my chair laughing. The awful truth is that schools in Hong Kong are an incredibly big deal, even for preschoolers. At age three, children start going to school for three years of kindergarten before starting primary school at age six. All kindergartens in Hong Kong are technically privately run, but most are subsidized by the government. However, all "international" kindergartens are completely private and don't receive any government funding. Before we moved here, I thought we would definitely put Evangeline in a government-subsidized kindergarten so she could learn Cantonese. But almost all of the Westerners we meet are horrified by this concept and insist that we send her to an international kindergarten. The rationale is that it's fairly worthless to know Cantonese from an international perspective, people are worried about their children losing their English ability, and that generally, "local" schools are of lower quality and are designed to prepare students for the exam-heavy Hong Kong primary schools.

I've been researching schools and have narrowed the possibilities down considerably. First of all, we don't want to send her to a kindergarten that is far away because it's ridiculous for a three-year old to commute a long way every day to go to school for three hours. And we'd really like her to learn another language, either Cantonese or Mandarin. That weeded out quite a few of the international kindergartens in the area, since they just don't have enough Chinese to make it worthwhile. There is one international kindergarten that seems to have a good balance between English and Chinese, so we're going to go there this Saturday when their application period opens. They have a class that is in Mandarin and English, and then a class that is in Cantonese/Mandarin/English. The best "local" option so far seems to be a Lutheran kindergarten in our village. I went there last week for a tour, and on Saturday we went for their carnival and Evangeline's interview. They don't seem to have any Western students, but the principal said that they've had Asian students from other backgrounds that didn't speak any Cantonese and they have done fine and picked it up quickly through immersion. They do instruction in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, although realistically, I'm sure it's mostly Cantonese in their first year. I was a little worried about homework, since I have heard that many kindergartners have daily homework (at the request of the parents), but the principal assured me that they don't have homework until the final year of kindergarten.

Our interview was really weird. First of all, it's strange that they interview two-year-olds, although it's just the norm here. We sat at a little table with one of the teachers and she asked Evangeline some questions. She had Evangeline look at a book and name the parts on a doll's face. Evangeline wasn't really at her best, since we had been interacting with a lot of strangers already and it was right before her nap time. And there were some language barriers, since the teacher's English wasn't awesome and it's hard to understand a two-year-old no matter what language you're speaking. I felt funny walking out of the interview, finding myself wishing that we had prepped Evangeline better! I'm already getting caught up in the hype, I'm afraid.

Assuming Evangeline isn't restricted by the application process, we'll just have to decide what school will be best for her. As is so often the case with tough decisions, I almost wish we didn't have the luxury of options. Since all of the kids in the local kindergarten at least appear to be Chinese, it did occur to us that maybe she would feel isolated by being the only one who looks different. I've poked around on the internet and it seems like at least on the kindergarten level, that isn't a problem. The kids are mostly inclusive, and if there is any extra attention, it's almost always positive. If we were of another ethnicity, particularly a less desirable Asian ethnicity, that would be another story!

I will keep you posted as we learn more and go further through the process. Wish us luck!

Evangeline waits to do a craft at the kindergarten carnival

Getting a hand from one of the teachers