(Out of order, I know, but here are some

Miscelaneous Moving Moments

from Thailand to Cambodia)

A final goodbye to our orientation team in the traditional Chinese fashion - we ate out together and we treated everyone to dessert.

Grace trying out the babyfood supplied by Thai Airways on our way from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. It was chicken and sweet corn - a wonderfully staining yellow :o) But she liked it. Too bad I couldn't check out the ingredients - it was all in Thai.

Waiting for our flight to be called, and making the most of our supper in the new Bangkok airport. Notice the sticker on Liz's shirt. They give it to all international travellers to alert the airport staff to direct you in the correct direction (and not make you pay the departure tax again).

Phnom Penh Househunting

$150/month : a roofed over tiled rooftop with enclosed 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. An adventure of a place to try out. But 45 steep stairs carrying Grace and groceries? Grace learning to crawl and walk on an open rooftop with lowish railings? No thanks.

$200/month : a p'deah l'veng - a long, thin concreteblock house. Fairly new, windows down one side (usually have windows only in the front and back of the house). But only maybe available come December or so. Can't wait on a maybe...

$200/month : a p'deah l'veng with no windows and small rooms. Airless. No thanks!

$400/month : p'deah l'veng style, the equivilent of 2 and a half houses on top of each other. Has it's own tiled yard area. Bottom "house" is fine. Second level house? The "upstairs" rooms are only 5' 8" high with the doorways even lower! And one bedroom has a huge support beam running through it at 5'! Not so nice. Rather claustrophobic actually. And hot! No thanks.

$?/month : a traditional style wooden house. Nice idea and open style, but the only kitchen and bathroom are located under the raised house. And no glass or screens in the windows so a mosquito haven. No thanks.

$1000/month : what used to be a mini school and could easily be a guesthouse with no renovations. Not easily divided for appartments. No thanks.

$700/month : a western-style 2 bedroom appartment, with TV and most furniture. Tiny and expensive - and unfinished! No thanks.

Etc....

As you can see there are lots for rent, it is just not easy to find one suitable and that we like! The onnly way to find them is to know someone who knows someone or to walk the streets looking for signs. So it is rather tedious, hot work. Thankfully we are getting good help in this, as we need a place by the end of this week really - we can only stay where we are until Nov. 1st.

Grace is taking all this in her stride. Although she has been sick with a sore throat, her only protest has been wanting to drink and sleep more, which was easy enough to oblige. Thankfully she is getting better now. But now Michael is quite sick with a chest cold that is going around. This rather dampens our househunting as he is rather lethargic as his energy goes into coughing and breathing.

Oct. 29th:

We've signed a lease for a house! It is on the same street as the office, and has potential to be everything we need and a bit more. We move in on Nov. 1st and hope to have all settled by the 5th.
Michael is recovering as is Grace, and I don't seem to be getting it.

God is good to us!

I'll post some pictures once we move in.

Wierd and Wonderful

We accepted the ticket through our open car window and drove into the parking garage. it was very full and we had to go nearly to the top - 4 or 5 floors. Where were we going? To the local market...

Walking through the food section there was the usual assortment of fresh and dried meats, fish, poultry, etc. Woops! There we just passed a complete preserved pigs head! And look, here is the same thing without the skull....

Liz went to a cooking class - 4 hours long, 5 dishes made, and 6 eaten! Been a long time since I've been that full! The secret of Thai cooking is - palm sugar and fish sauce. Like flamboyant chefs we did the wok of flames thing. Cool but not about to be repeated often - if at all! (and this was after the flames had died down some!!)

Best of all we all got cookbooks so we can attempt to repeat the success without the tutor.

Flying to Cambodia we were 40 kgs overweight - and we didn't have to pay any excess fees!!

We looked at a few houses for rent this week. One was a covered rooftop one that had closed in bedrooms and bathroom, but the rest all open! A neat idea in this hot place, but a bit much for a mother's heart - a child learning to crawl on a rooftop 3 stories up with only a grill railing??!!! Don't think so.

Holiday Week

It began rather unforgettably. We took our mentors out for supper Sunday evening at a nice restaurant in a mall-like place. We ordered some foods we didn't know well to try them out. Near the end of the meal, Michael picked up what looked like a small greenbean and was going to give it to Grace to chew on. But being a good father, he decided he'd better try it out first. Was he ever glad he did! A few chews in and the explosion of chili heat in his mouth had him gasping, crying, and grabbing for anything that would cool his mouth down! We all had a good laugh - even Michael once the pain had receded! - and were reminded how important it will be for us to try anything we don't know befre letting Grace try it! For not warning Michael about the chilli, our mentors then treated us to icecream at a nearby fancy icecream parlour - which drowned the chili fire and topped us off with a good fix of chocolate.

We've been introduced to a new place to eat supper. It is more or less like a mall food court outside. The major difference is that you have to buy a book of coupons to use at the different stalls - individual stalls don't take cash. At this food court you can buy Indian, Chinese, Thai, semi-Western, and other types of food. It is quite cheap and not too far away. Thing is, it is part of the night market....

We passed a stall in the night market selling all kinds of beanies: lizards, frogs, girraffes, elephants, dinosaurs, etc. After a few passes we couldn't resisit buying this giant one (thankfully with polyester stuffing not beans!) to Liz's pleasure and Grace's delight. Here she copy's Geko's stance, meeting him nose to nose. Notice the tiny frog beanie to the left. The seller insisted on giving us a small one as well because we were her first sale of the evening, thus blessing her goods with good luck for many sales for the rest of the night. Also, after making the first sale, store owners take the money and flick it over all their merchandise to spread the blessing of good luck.

This is Jeremiah Htoo, Grace's playmate for this last month. Although he had a harder time adjusting to Thailand time and weather, they had good fun together at times! He is one month younger than Grace and headed to another country with his parents - unfortunately not the same one as Grace.

(She's only so clean because this picture was taken BEFORE breakfast!)

Lizards rule! Gecko sure has Grace intrugued. And, of course, she's discovered that his tail and toes are lovely for chewing on!

This week has been more and less of a holiday for us. More because we really have done very little outside our room or even on our computers! Less because Michael has spent most of it not feeling well. Now he has a cough-cold and spends alot of time sleeping, trying to improve before we leave on Saturday.
This morning we got Grace her 6 month shots. It was an interesting experience trying to sort out what she's had (we have numerous records as she's had some in NS and some in ON), what she needs according to the usual North American schedule, and fitting all that into the different system that exists here! In the end she got about $200 worth of shots - thankfully in only three jabs (one had 6 different vaccines in it!). So hopefully she is all set to remain healthy here, and will continue to charm with her vigorous exploration of her world and her delightful smile! )We have yet to see if she has any reaction to the shots as she's slept most of the afternoon!)

Grace has discovered her feet! And more precisely, her big toe. She seems to prefer sucking her big toe over her thumb or fingers...

Saturday Smatterings

This last week:

We found a place to hang the Jolly Jumper at the office so during training the babysitters used it lots. Grace bounced herself to sleep more than once!

We discovered that Grace gets bored if in the same place or with the same toys too long. She loves the Baby Boo book we have, though, and never seems to get bored of having this book read to her.

Michael finally got his ear unplugged and is enjoying hearing again! It took three trips to the hopsital, and each of the 6 times catching a songthaew to get there and back he travelled a different road so we still don't know where the hospital is in relation to where we are!

Liz slipped off the road while walking to the office one morning after the rain had made the mud slimy. She got rather muddy and cut up a knee and ankle. We were glad Michael was backpacking Grace that morning!

Grace added carrots and rib bones to her diet. The carrots she ate with enthusiasm (mommy's still finding remants/stains all over her chair, clothes, and head) and the bone she loved chewing on (a cheap teething ring?).

Liz discovered that banana actually stains clothes. and bibs. and facecloths. No success yet in getting it out of some of her clothes. :o(

Bangkok Trip

The whole group of us flew down to Bangkok for a whirlwind tour of the city (Thurs - Sat). A few VERY full days! A trip of many firsts - and not only for Grace. Take a look at a few of our photos:

Grace's first meal-time in a highchair. She enjoyed the novelty, and mom enjoy having two hands to eat her own breakfast! The Guest home where we stayed in Bangkok provided a delicious breakfast and this very useful highchair. Grace ate a mashed piece of papaya and sucked on pineapple. These pictures are taken after the cleanup!She could have used a pillow or something... a little short for this highchair anyhow!
Grace's first "basin bath". She loved it! Much nicer than a shower...
(The Guest House in Chiang Mai provided us with this basin for Grace's bathing just before we left for Bangkok. So these are not Bangkok pictures - but too cute to leave out!) She was quite fascinated by the results of her hands hitting the water!

Michael's first visit to the Royal Palace grounds. He went with the rest of the group into the Royal Projects. This is basically an experimental farm inside one of the Royal palace grounds. (The King was actually in residence there at the time!) The King is running this farm to help better the lives of the farmers of Thailand through better crops, healthier animals and people, diversity of crops, etc. For example, one of his successful experiments was to create a candy-like milk tablet so Thais would get to eat more milk products. He discovered a way for cheap production, so these tablets are easily accessible and cheap to buy. Makes you want to get to know this King - must be a really interesting man. The Royal Projects is not a tourist spot at all, this was by special invitation only. Babies not allowed, so we stayed at the guest home. Michael took many pictures, this one is from a demonstration on paper making.Our first time seeing tanks up close - and on the move! We went to the square where the coup had taken place. Since the coup, the two rows of tanks here have been the main attraction of an impromptu fair. Most of this was all over when we got there. In fact, after a few shots like this one, we were privileged to watch the tanks leave the square heading back to base. Noisy! Surprisingly manuverable and quick!

Our first flights in and out of the new airport for Bangkok. We actually flew in there on opening day! Brave perhaps, but we didn't fall foul of too many glitches. Just upon arriving we had to wait just over an hour for the one checked bag of our group. Which was better than others who had waited over 3 hours for their bags! Officially this was because the baggage carts hadn't all been moved from the old airport yet. In fact, on our way to the airport leaving Bangkok, we shared the highway with no less than 4 flatbed tractor trailers carrying - luggage carts! Leaving Bangkok, we actually had more trouble - the inevitable 40 min delay, the gate changes, and the worst: we couldn't find supper food. We spent 40 min before check in hunting food and then gave up and went through check in and security thinking to buy near the gates. Guess what? No food at all down our gate corridor! Thankfully the delay meant we could send some guys on a food hunt. They were partially successful...

The whirlwind tour was exhausting for all of us. I think we all envied Grace who is small enough to sleep anywhere, whenever she is tired! She quite enjoyed that extra 40 minutes of airport waiting!