Jobs fill your pocket, but adventure fills your soul

We started out our morning with (SURPRISE) another amazing breakfast buffet.  Little K is quite the celebrity and has made all of the hosts/hostesses and servers fall in love with her.  They all greet her each morning and come by to say hello.  Is this what being related to a celebrity is like? 🙂

After breakfast we headed to the lobby to meet our driver.  You can get a driver for the day (arranged through the hotel) for $80 USD ($10/hr) which is incredibly reasonable.  Our driver, Utama, was super nice and very knowledgeable and would be taking us on our adventure to visit the city of Ubud. Ubud is this adorable little town with a lot of art and culture nestled in between rich, lush forest and rice paddies. We actually thought about staying in Ubud given all of the lovely things we’d heard about it from friends; however, we passed it up to be able to stay in a location a bit more central to the things we wanted to do and to be able to introduce Little K to the ocean.

On our way to Ubud, we first stopped at Bali Bidadari Batik where we were able to see men and women doing batik painting and weaving clothes.  I highly recommend stopping by as it’s fun to see and it helps you appreciate the work that goes into creating such beautiful art and clothing.

The weather near Ubud was a little rainier than in Kuta Beach so we didn’t get a ton of great photos of the city.

It was cool to see the different areas outside of Ubud, some of which specialized in carpentry, stonework, or textiles, and others that were city-like with galleries displaying art or very rural with lush, thick greenery.

Our next stop was visiting the Tegunungan Waterfall. We were really excited to go visit, but we totally didn’t think about bringing along swimsuits (which we should have because it was HOT outside.)  We definitely recommend visiting the Tegunungan waterfall if you make it to Bali; it’s conveniently located just outside of Ubud.  There is a little bit of hike, but the view is worth it as it’s absolutely beautiful.

We kept trying to snag a photo of Little K on the hike to the waterfall, but she was NOT having it.  No paparazzi for her, even if it was just mom and dad.  J got a photo (above) of me trying to talk Little K into posing for a photo.  When we finally got to the waterfall though, she warmed up to the idea of a photo so long as we took it in the water.  What a negotiator!  As you can see from the other photo below of J, everything was so lush and pretty.

After the waterfall we had worked up an appetite so we planned to head to a restaurant to get some food, but on the way, we stopped at a carpenter’s place and saw the stunning hand-crafted furniture that he made from reclaimed wood.  I fell in love with a coffee table the gentleman had created specifically from the reclaimed wood from some old Balinese boats.  He sold me the table for an unbelievable $100 USD.  How amazing! Don’t get me started though on how I feel about importing this into our country.  Let’s just saying it’s costing us a lot more than we thought between export fees, handling fees, shipping/cargo fees and then legal fees and import taxes.

For lunch we headed to Bebek Teba Sari — our driver, Utama, frequently drives tourists to Ubud and recommended it as not only great food, but a fun experience.

While we waited for our lunch, Little K practiced her photography skills a bit more.  She is getting better and better at it.  She took the following photo all by herself.  Not bad for a 3 year old!

Little K was really excited to eat lunch in the little hut on stilts.  And seeing her happy made me happy of course.

J and I enjoyed some Balinese wine along with our lunch which was delicious!

After lunch we bid adieu to the adorable little restaurant to head onto another adventure: to a coffee plantation!

J was on his quest to try luwak coffee so we headed to the nearby Teba Sari so that we could try some fresh coffee, tea and chocolate.  Once there, we received a free tour showing us the various plants they grow for coffee, tea and chocolate and we got to meet a few of these cute little civets who are an integral part of making the luwak coffee.

On our tour we were able to see all the steps in making coffee and how they harvest a lot of the herbs for tea.  Little K even tried hand roasting some coffee beans herself:

After the tour, we decided it was time to try some of the coffee and tea.  Well…. J tried the coffee and I tried the tea.  🙂   Little K decided to be bold and try one of the herbal/non-caffeinated teas. She didn’t love it, but she didn’t hate it.

We liked the coffee, tea and chocolate so much that we decided we’d bring a bunch back to share with family.  It was really hard for me to pick a favorite tea since I enjoyed almost all of them, but I thought the mangosteen tea was really unique in flavor.

After we wrapped up our adventure in agrotourism for the day, we headed to the Ubud Monkey Forest to see what it was all about.  Be aware that as soon as you get there, you will be bombarded by people selling souvenirs and they can be a bit pushy.  However, you can walk quickly past them to go purchase your admission into the park that is a bit of a sanctuary for all the monkeys.

One of the things they tell you as you are going in is to avoid looking the monkeys directly in the eyes as they may think you are confronting them.  So we told Little K to be careful not to do that and she listened, but she did crouch down and wave to a monkey which made him start coming toward her for a second until she screamed the most piercing shriek and the monkey took off so fast it was like it was never there.  A few of the park rangers came running to make sure everything was okay.  Little K felt pretty brave after that and told the story for a few days about how she scared the monkey.

It’s under $5 USD for adults to visit and under $3 USD for kids to visit the Ubud Monkey Forest. If you are a fan of nature or animals then it’s a must-see in Bali.  On our way back from Ubud to Kuta Beach, we got to see some rice paddies since the rain had died down.

However, I think the stop that Little K enjoyed most was the last one on our way back to Kuta Beach.  We stopped at Mason Chocolate Factory where we got to see some chocolate being made and taste the final product!

It was another wonderful day in Bali where we got to witness the beauty of Indonesia and the wide array of things that make it such a unique place to visit.  Little K was pretty wired on the ride back to the hotel, but we all promptly crashed upon on arrival.  To bed we said!

On an island in the sun, we’ll be playing and having fun

So today was Saturday and our first full day in Kuta Beach.  We had no major plans really except to relax and enjoy our vacation.  As frequent travelers, we have status with Marriott and we got to enjoy a seriously AMAZING breakfast buffet each morning that was included in our stay.  You could literally get just about anything for breakfast.  The only thing missing was bacon… real  bacon.  (They only had beef bacon which, let’s be honest, is NOT bacon).  They made up for it by having things like this donut bar:

We also tried yellow watermelon because yep, that’s apparently a thing!  It originated in Africa and is quite common over in the eastern half of the world.  We were told that it would taste sweeter than the pink kind, but I beg to differ.

Our delicious fruit platter (clockwise from top left: Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Pineapple, Pink Watermelon, Yellow Watermelon

Because we had been doing so much over the course of the trip so far, we determined that the absolute best course of action for the day would be to relax by the pool.  However, before going to relax for the day, J and I had to take a moment to document our moment as millionaires…. yes we are each holding one million…..Indonesian Rupiah.  Slightly different than USD, but fun to pretend!

After having our moment, we headed down to the pool.  Little K was so excited to play with her mermaid Barbie and splash in the water.  She is such a water baby.

Since we were so busy soaking in the sun, we figured we’d lunch by the pool as well.  This meant ALOT more yummy fresh fruit and some Indonesian chicken and beef satay.

After lunch we headed back to the room for Little K to nap while J and I relaxed and binged on some more shows.  After our restful day we decided to walk around the city a bit so we walked through/around some of the little markets where everyone is offering you deals to purchase their goods.

We happened upon a cute little restaurant nearby and had worked up our appetites by then so we decided we’d see if it was any good.  And it was wonderful!  The restaurant was called Lemongrass and it was just about a 15-20 minute walk from our hotel.  They branded themselves as a Thai restaurant, but they also had a lot of Indonesian and American options too.  J ended up having some kind of fish with curry  and I tried an Indonesian dish called Babi Kecap… pork belly carmalized with garlic and spices and served with rice.  YUMMMMMMMMM.  After we had finished our main entrée at Lemongrass, we decided our second stomachs were game for trying a dessert.  Many of the Indonesian restaurants served up friend bananas with ice cream so we figured we needed to find out what all the hype was about.  It was actually caramelized/fried banana and served with a little sprig of mint, so pretty perfect.

By then it was getting late so we headed back to the hotel to get Little K put to bed and I went down to the spa for my pedicure appointment.  I’m not certain what I was expecting, but it ended up being a neat little experience.  I could hear the live music playing outside near the pool during my pedicure which was awesome.  No fancy foot spa (though they did have a massage chair still).

As I was sitting there, with my feet soaking in the hot flower petal-filled bowl of water, I could hear the band outside playing their own acoustic version of The Sound of Silence and I thought to myself how lucky I am and of course that THIS is what it means to relax.

I’ll be in Bali, beautiful Bali…

Our third full day in Bali meant our last morning at Mara River Safari Lodge/Bali Safari Marine Park so we relished our last “morning meditation” aka feeding the zebras and the gnus.  For those of you who don’t have kids, Little K enjoys a book series/tv series called “Llama, Llama” (created by Anna Dewdney) and LLama LLama’s best friend in the book is Nelly Gnu.  Little K was super excited to “meet” Nelly Gnu and her family in Bali.  

After our morning ritual, we headed back to Tsavo Lion restaurant for our breakfast buffet and to bid good morning to the meerkats and lions. 

We also met a Burmese python that Little K safely avoided.  However, J and I needed a picture of our new friend… especially since the snake and I had matching outfits. 

After breakfast we headed back to the room to pack up a bit and I got some morning snuggles in with Little K.

We had pretty much everything packed up for our upcoming check-out (e.g. we made good time) so we headed over to the Tiger show (also included in our package).  Before we got there though, Little K made a friend.

After the Tiger show, we headed to grab our luggage and some lunch before our ride to our next stop… Kuta Beach.  At lunch Little K asked to practice her photography skills a bit more.  She was able to capture a successful shot of mom and dad with celebratory drinks.

On our ride to Kuta Beach, we learned that Little K’s name means “rich” in Indonesian.  We also learned that our driver grew up farming rice paddies and he had recently decided to become a driver so that he could interact with people more.  He was young, in his early 20’s, and told us a little bit about how social interactions had been difficult for him having grown up mostly working in the solitary environment of his family’s rice paddies.  It was really interesting.

We soon arrived at The Stones Hotel, a Marriott Autograph Collection site located in Kuta Beach and where we’d be staying for the remainder of our trip. Upon our arrival we were greeted with a cool towel and fresh fruit popsicles.  Since our room wasn’t quite ready yet, we decided to walk around to explore a bit of what was nearby.  We needed to find an ATM (or so we thought) and man oh man does the bank make it hard to take out money in Indonesia. J ended up on the phone with the bank no fewer than five times during our trip.  Below is the view from our room, a junior suite on the 4th floor (the hotel had five floors).

Once we were able to check in and get our room, we decided to enjoy a little bit of the pool and we ordered pool-side dinner that evening.  We chose this hotel because we love the Marriott hotels, particularly the Autograph collections, and we initially chose Kuta Beach because it was somewhat in the “middle” of some of the places we wanted to visit yet still across the street from the ocean. Relaxation — we are READY for you!

In the jungle, the mighty jungle…

Day 2 at Mara River Safari Lodge, we began our morning by again greeting and feeding the animals outside our balcony.  Our “morning meditation” for the few days we were there helped all of us better connect with nature and the animals. If you choose to visit this place, we chose a second floor Twiga Deluxe room to be able to have this opportunity.

After feeding the animals, we got dressed and headed to the Tsavo Lion Restaurant again for the delicious buffet breakfast.  In between bites, we watched the lions and the meerkats again.  🙂

 

Tsavo Lion Restaurant

The bridge path from our room to the restaurant

the sacred Banyan tree

Each morning on our way to the restaurant, we passed by a giant banyan tree.  Banyan trees are all over Bali and I fell in love with them; the Balinese believe these trees are sacred and I can totally see and feel why.  Not only are they beautiful, but they give off a TON of super positive energy that you can feel as you walk by them (or at least I could before I even knew what they were all about.)  The belief that banyan trees are sacred is not exclusive to Balinese Hindus. We saw these beautiful trees all over Thailand too and they pretty much span most countries and religions across Asia-Pacific. Because this tree is so culturally important, the tree is depicted on the national coat of arms and is a symbol for the unity and power of Indonesia.

After our lovely breakfast, we met a binturong. Binturongs are also known as bear cats and are related to the weasel.  He was so cute; J and I wanted to adopt one and take one home, but we’re pretty sure they’d be illegal here.  Little K was a bit more skeptical of the cuddly creature (hence no photos of her with him); she warmed up when we said he might be related to Bucky Badger (a little white lie never hurt anyone…)

 

Next, we embarked on our day safari through the park (also included as part of our package).  

 

After the daytime safari, we headed to the map to check out our options.  Little K as our tour guide suggested we get some lunch, then meet the orangutan and finally head to the little waterpark inside the resort afterward.

 

 

Little K was brave and went down two of the bigger slides with J and I after getting comfortable on all the little slides and playing with the water features.

 

On our way back to our room from the waterpark, we walked past the Hindu temple at the resort which had a pretty cool stone carved statue of Ganesha, one of the Hindu deities.

By then we were all exhausted so we called it a day.  We headed back to our room for dinner and an early bedtime.

Lions & Tigers & Meerkats, Oh my!

Today was our first day staying at the Mara River Safari Lodge. We checked in late last night so we didn’t get to see much, but one of the really cool features of the hotel/resort is that we were able to get a room overlooking the safari park and you can feed carrots to the animals from the balcony each morning.  So we started off the morning by feeding some zebras right from our balcony and Little K adored every moment.  

After that we headed to the restaurant onsite for breakfast (which was a delicious breakfast buffet each morning included in the package we purchased.)  During breakfast we ate next to the lions who were also enjoying their breakfast.  Little K couldn’t stop watching the meerkats though… I think we may have a future zoologist or veterinarian on our hands.

In fact, Little K liked the meerkats sooo much that we decided we would take the opportunity to feed them.  It wasn’t too expensive, just around $30 US to spend about 20 minutes with the adorable little creatures.  They took pictures and offered to also take some with our camera.

After feeding the meerkats, we visited the petting zoo where they had a variety of animals we often see in petting zoos (goats, sheep, chickens, bunnies, llamas) and some we don’t see often(geese, parrots, very colorful fish that Little K said matched my shirt).

After the petting zoo we decided to check out the animal education show and feed some elephants.

The animal education show admission was also included in the package we purchased and we got to learn about many of the animals at the safari park as well as some others.  J wanted to feed the orangutan, but the poor little guys needed a break after the show so we decided to go and feed the white tiger instead.  

At that point we were all melting and hungry so we decided to head back to the room. We sent some laundry off to be washed (which was insanely inexpensive),  ordered room service for lunch and spent the afternoon resting up for our evening plans.  While Little K napped, J and I watched more of our most recent show addiction… Mindhunter on Netflix.  It’s seriously so good (well, if you are into psychology/sociology/criminology or just what makes people the way they are.)

Later that evening we went ate a delicious BBQ dinner followed by a night safari (this was not included in our stay and did cost extra) which was well worth it.  Little K’s adopted friend cheetah joined us for dinner and the night safari (and pretty much everything else on our trip after that).

After dinner (where I tried some Balinese Rose wine – not bad) we waited for the next night safari van to arrive and during that time we waited, we practiced our different emotion faces.  During the night safari, we got to tour the whole safari park, but seeing all of the animals in their habitats at night.  The best part of the tour was when the tiger jumped on top of our van to say hello!

Practicing our “sad” faces

Finally, after we returned from the night safari, we watched the Balinese fire dance.

It was a long day, but a really enjoyable one for our first whole day in Bali.

Goodbye Fon; Goodbye Thailand!

Today was our last day (if you can even call it that) in Bangkok.  We had our last breakfast at the MoMo cafe and our favorite server, Fon, gave Little K a cute little doll that she thought looked like her as a parting gift. 

We headed to the airport to prepare for our flight around 11:40am which would put us landing in Bali by about 5pm.  By the time we got our luggage and drove to our hotel, it was pretty late.

Observations and parting thoughts for the day:  the tax refund on purchases you make in Thailand is quite nice;  I’m still a fan of the express lanes/early boarding for people with little kids; our driver to the hotel in Bali reminded me of Obama; Obama visited Bali with his family and stayed in Ubud and the people there thought that was pretty cool as he’s apparently the only US president to do so; finally, I’m so ready to just do some serious relaxation.

 

Siam Paragon, Sea Life Aquarium & Kidzania

Day 4 was our last full day in Bangkok before continuing onward with our travel adventures.  Probably one of the least fun aspects of Bangkok is how dirty it is.  Add heat into the mix and it just feels gross outside.  So we chose to spend this day exploring inside.  After breakfast at the MoMo cafe (and yes if you haven’t guessed it the super amazing buffet was included in our stay so that’s why we ate there every morning), we headed over to Siam Paragon, one of their large shopping malls and home of both the Sea Life aquarium and Kidzania which we wanted to visit for Little K’s sake.

We started off by going to the aquarium which Little K loved as we figured she would, but J and I also enjoyed it.   We were able to see a variety of fish, turtles, seahorses and of course Little K got some fun photo opps that she actually enjoyed.

Little K learned about the plight of the polar bears and was pretty scared walking through the sea tunnel with the shark swimming above us.  Lis – that shark photo is for you!

Finally, toward the end of our aquarium adventure, we got to see the keepers feeding penguins.

After the aquarium we got lunch at one of the restaurants inside the mall and I was excited to eat my favorite dish again (Spicy Thai Basil Chicken):

After lunch we explored the mall a bit more and found our favorite macaron shop (Laduree).  Little K and I enjoyed a few macarons from the classic chocolate to their special orange blossom.  Delicious! We popped in and out of a few stores as well.  Side note: It was so interesting to see the stereotype of #crazyrichasians in true form.  There were people walking around the malls with four or five bags of designer goods… I imagine that it was probably more than what my car cost me to buy brand new hanging from many people’s arms.  Anyway,  my mini-me not only shares my love of macarons, but also my love of shoes.  However, she and I have slightly different tastes when it comes to shoes. 🙂

After exploring the mall, we headed over to Kidzania which in concept is REALLY cool.  Little K had an okay time there, but really she would have had more fun if she were a year or two older.  The concept of Kidzania is that kids get to role play various occupational roles and get some real life experience.  You go to the bank to cash a check when you first get there and then you can spend and earn money at different places (e.g. you can earn money for putting out a fire as a firefighter, you can spend money at a department store or a salon/barbershop).  There are also some free play places for toddlers which is where Little K got the most enjoyment from.  Since parents aren’t allowed into the the little shops (they can observe from outside), Little K wasn’t feeling brave enough to go into any.  If only her travel buddy Brandon had been with her!! 🙂

Here are a few pics of the free play areas:

And here are a few few photos of the rest of the “town” with all the little shops/buildings:

By the time we wrapped up at Kidzania and walked back to the hotel, we were all pretty tired.  Since J had gotten a massage earlier in the trip, it was my turn so I headed to get my massage while J and Little K headed to the pool for a bit.  Then later that evening we started packing things up and headed to bed early in preparation for our travel to Bali the next day.

Floating markets, a temple & relaxation

Day 3 in Bangkok and we decided to do a morning excursion to one of the floating markets.  After breakfast at the MoMo cafe and saying hello to Fon, a driver picked us up from the hotel and we took a car over to the river front.  Once at the river front we boarded one of these long canal boats (khlong boats) with our tour guide to begin our trip.  You can see here how excited Little K is.

On our scenic trip through the canals we were able to see how people live outside of the city of Bangkok. From the top left hand corner below, you can see 1) a waterway intersection in the canal system, 2) a spirit house, 3) more of the beautiful long boats, 4) a floating souvenir shop where Little K was able to purchase a Hello Kitty Fan for a dollar or two and 5) a floating “farmers market”.

After our ride through the canals, we arrived at the floating market.  We walked past this beautiful field of lotus flowers:

Then we crossed the bridge to head into the market.  Before that we wanted to document our moment with a family photo but Little K wasn’t having it.  She boycotted so J and I took a selfie instead:

It was pretty ridiculously hot so neither Little K nor I had much of an appetite, but the market was filled with all kinds of food.  Freshly cooked meals and tons on desserts and delicacies.  They also had a number of goods for purchase, but mainly we were there to check out the food.  As mentioned previously, we had already tried a number of unique fruits like the dragonfruit, rambutan and thai bananas; however, we had not yet had pomelo so we did try that.  I tasted chrysanthemum tea and liked it, and we tried a number of desserts like mango sticky rice, freshly made rice cakes, moon cakes, etc. Only J had enough of an appetite to get something larger to eat.

Making rice cakes

J and the giant tilapia he ate

After our time at the market, we hopped back aboard the canal boat to head back to the main part of the river. Little K took a bit of a nap on me as we rode back.  On the ride back, we were a little more observant and noticed that some things really are the same from country to country… the homeless living underneath the bridge for example.  I wish I could help them all.

From there we went to visit Wat Arun, one of the temples. Pretty much like all the other temples we’d seen so far except for the fact that this one was sort of a hybrid Buddhist and Hindu temple so you can see artwork, artifacts and architecture representing both religions/cultures.

By the time we finished at Wat Arun, we were farther past lunch time than we had anticipated so we grabbed a quick lunch and then spent the remainder of the day relaxing.  We went up to the pool for a bit until the clouds rolled in and it started to rain.

I enjoyed a glass of wine by the pool and Little K wanted a “fancy drink” too so we got her watermelon juice with a little fruit garnish.  Totally made her day.  Then, since it was raining, we headed back inside and made her day even more since she got to watch a little bit of shows on her ipad.  Only another day or so left in Bangkok!

Chatachak Market & Celebrity Sitings

Our second full day in Bangkok happened to be a weekend day so we were just in time to go explore the Chatachak market, one of the most popular weekend markets in Thailand. The popular weekend market covers over 25 acres and has something like 15,000 different booths selling food, souvenirs, home decor, clothing, accessories, trinkets and more.

We got there pretty early which was great because some shops were just opening and it wasn’t quite so crowded.  I was able to score two gorgeous necklaces with different crystals for quite a deal.  We were told that you can get great deals at the beginning if you are the first person to come to someone’s shop/stall.  It’s said to be good luck, if the first patron makes a purchase.  I like to think my purchase brought the gentleman good luck for the rest of the day.  After walking a bit, we were getting tired (especially after all the walking the day before) so we took a break to get a foot massage.  Yep, Little K got one too! 

The ladies LOVED Little K and thought she was the cutest.  So much so that they kept bringing friends by to show them their first customer was pint-size.  As their first customers of the day and making a purchase, we were also able to bring them all good luck.  (Or so we hope!) It started to get really crowded at the market and it was REALLY hot so we decided to head back toward downtown.

We got lunch at a restaurant inside the Central World mall which is conveniently a few blocks down from our hotel and we got their via the BTS Skywalk… basically a sidewalk to get through a large portion of the city on foot, but above all the traffic.  You can also of course hitch a ride on the train from certain stations along the skywalk if needed to.  In true Little K fashion, she made a friend at lunch. 

After lunch, we needed a break from the heat and the crowds so we walked around Central World to check it out a bit more.  Not only did they have a wide variety of stores and restaurants, but they also had a really cool kids play area that Little K fell in love with.

After letting her play for a bit, we walked around a bit more where J decided to join in on some art for fun.  Little K asked me why all the statues were running naked.  I didn’t have a good answer. 

Finally as we were heading out of the mall, we spotted a celebrity.  We have no idea who he was, but the crowd around him was quite insane.

By then we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel to relax in the room.  Little K wanted to watch a show on the ipad so she did that while I read and J went to get his first Thai massage.  By dinner time we were still over the heat and the crowds so we ordered room service in for dinner and I was able to enjoy again my new favorite dish (spicy Thai Basil Chicken).  Little K only wanted milk and fruit.  As you wish.   J actually headed out to meet up with one of his grad school buddies from his former program who happens to live in Bangkok to grab drinks and dinner… a fellow Boothie as they say.  What a day!

Are we in NYC? NO wait, it’s Bangkok.

So initial impressions of the city of Bangkok… it’s dirty, crowded and pretty unwelcoming.  I basically felt like we were in a parallel version of NYC.  One respite from the unwelcoming city though was our breakfast each morning at the hotel.  As platinum elite Marriott members, we get free breakfast in the executive lounge, but since we had our daughter with us, they asked us to take our free breakfast in the restaurant instead (totally fine with that… much better options on the buffet!)  Our server each morning was this lovely girl by the name of Fon who quickly connected with Little K and built great rapport with her.

After our breakfast the first morning, we headed to the Dusit Zoo.

After our visit to the Chiang Mai zoo and the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, (or maybe because she was tired) Little K was not impressed with the Dusit Zoo so we didn’t stay very long and headed back to our hotel for lunch and Little K’s nap.

After her nap, we headed to Lumphini park which in a way is like Central Park in NYC.  We were amazed at all the gym equipment at various stations throughout the park where it seemed as though half of the city was working out.  The park also had a pond where you could rent pedal boats (which we did!) and various playgrounds for kids. The pictures below show 1) the juxtaposition of the water and greenery with the skyscrapers right behind it and 2) the view from our pedal boat which Little K thought was pretty cool as she enjoyed the ride while J and I did all the work.  PSA: Think about what you’re going to wear if going on a pedal boat.  It’s much more difficult to pedal when you are focused on holding your sundress at the same time.

After our trip to Lumphini park, we headed to the Little Zoo Cafe.  This is a kitschy little place where you can play with all kinds of animals you wouldn’t expect to from an arctic fox to a meerkat, a racoon to parrot and many cats and dogs, among others.  For about $10 US, you can get admission to see the animals, a pair of socks to wear when you go upstairs to play with them, a waffle with ice cream and a drink.  Not bad!

After our stop at the cafe, we continued to explore the city via tuk-tuk and walking.  The pictures below are some of the interesting observations as we walked around the city: 1) it’s crowded, 2) there are motor bikes EVERYWHERE because it’s much faster to get around by bike, tuk-tuk or public transportation than car and 3) there is more art than we had expected.

Finally, aside from the zebras above and the animals at the Little Zoo cafe, J and I thought that Little K’s favorite spot was stopping in to check out the Hello Kitty Cafe/Store nearby.  She basically decided she wanted to buy everything in the store, but we were able to convince her she just needed a shirt.  #parentingwin