Today was a very special day! It started off with a Japanese pastor and his wife stopping by the Christian Guest House to pick us up after breakfast. Together we took the Sky Train to it's last stop at the end of the line, at the Chao Praya River. Then we waited for other Japanese brothers and sisters in Christ to join us. Next we all hopped onto a river boat and road down the river to a high rise apartment building. There we gathered to celebrate the New Year Japanese style. We had lots of yummy Japanese treats to eat. We sang Japanese Christian songs and listened to a little talk by the pastor. We all got to write a word, poem, phrase, etc. that summed up what we were looking forward to for the new year. I wrote 家族 (kazoku), which means family. Jay's hope was that our time in Bangkok would be a catalyst for a closer relationship with his Abba (Hebrew word for Daddy, as in his heavenly Father) and also as a daddy to Penny. We had great views of the river and the city from our hostess' apartment, as she lived on the 29th floor. At the end we all went up the stairs to the top of the building. From the roof we were looking down from the 32nd floor. We got some great pictures from up there. It was a really great way to ring in the New Year of 2009!
January 2nd, 2009
We noticed that the city of Bangkok seems a lot quieter than usual. More things were shut down and I think a lot of people had returned to their original hometowns. We didn't mind less crowds and noise. And we decided to get out of the city a little ourselves. We took a tour to the Rose Garden to see an elephant show and cultural show. Our guides were funny and cheerful. But, the driving was really SCARY! His usual speed was around 90 mph. The weaving in and out of traffic on the highway reminded me of Frogger or the Indy 500. And, of course, none of us had seat belts on. So, I was praying that we'd make it back in one piece. We really enjoyed seeing the elephants and feeding them bananas, but Penny didn't want to ride on them. The cultural show was fascinating, featuring different instruments, Thai dance, a Thai wedding, Thai kick boxing, etc. Because of the heat, they passed out cool wash cloths that we could all use to wipe our faces. It was very refreshing minus the frantic ride in the van there and back. I bought a wrap around skirt there with elephants on it. Penny got a realistic looking doll/puppet. Jay got a T-shirt with an elephant playing soccer on it.
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