Thailand In Their Words

I'm sitting at a desk on the 23rd floor of the Novotel Pratunam overlooking central Bangkok on our last night in Thailand. This is the same hotel we stayed in our first night as part of the Test and Go program where we quarantined overnight while awaiting our PCR test results. The Novotel is one of the certified hotels included in the program and so we had hoped they could arrange our tests for Fit To Fly – the outbound testing certification that allows us to board a plane and fulfill the US entry requirements. The Novotel was less helpful with arranging Fit To Fly for complex reasons I won't go into – but we stayed here nonetheless and because of their great pricing, one of our rooms is a suite – with this great view.

Ending the trip where it started has a poetic feeling. It helps mark the time. While in some senses the trip flew by, it also feels SO long ago that we were here at the Novotel. So much has happened – so many moments have taken place. For example, at 3am Emily woke up and violently threw up all of the deep fried whole chili snapper she had for dinner. Emily loves having whole cooked fish the way they do it in Thailand and decided to enjoy it one last time on Ko Samet. It may end up being the last time she enjoys it at all. So once we arrived in Bangkok, I let a tired and queasy Emily hole up in the Novotel while I took the kids out for a few hours.

Over dinner at a ramen restaurant on the top floor of the neighboring CentralWorld mall, I asked Ailyn, Sennen and Bailey a set of questions to see what each took from this trip to Thailand. Here's what they said:

Ailyn

What's one thing you've learned during this visit to Thailand? "That you always need to say Ka at the end of your sentence" Is there anything else you feel you've learned? "No, except some of them speak a few words of English"

What have been a few of your favorite parts of this trip? "Ice skating, seeing the fishies, swimming with elephants, late night parties on Ko Samet, and the day when Sennen and Bailey were sick because Mommy and me got too have special time."

What were your favorite foods? "Those dumplings from that place (the dim sum restaurant in Chinatown), Pad Thai and fried chicken"

What was your favorite thing in Bangkok? "That one day when we got to do nothing and go to that swimming pool."

What was your favorite thing in Ko Samet? "When I got through being scared and went into the ocean with Mommy."

Has anything about this trip changed you? "Yes, I've become more pickier because I'm not used to having this type of food."

What was it like having Bailey with us on this trip? "It made it funner."

If we come back, would you want to do anything differently? "Not really."

If we come back, what would you want to do the same? "Swim everyday in Ko Samet."

Did you learn any Thai? "Numbers. And say toilet instead of restroom or bathroom."

Sennen

What was one thing you've learned about Thai people or culture? "No matter their level in society, whether they're poor or rich, they're always happy. People in Bangkok live in sois and their homes look like they're not the richest but then they come to this fancy mall where everyone is educated. That the malls here are more than double the size of the malls at home. A lot of the dogs don't have owners. On Ko Samet, people live very poorly I notice, and yet they're always walking around doing their stuff everyday acting like normal people. Ko Samet looks like South America – if you were going to go on an airplane tour above it, you would see it looks like (the shape of) South America. They eat a lot of pork and shrimp here. I also notice they barely eat beef."

What are a few of your favorite things this trip? "Going to the beach everyday, fire twirling, shopping at Chatuchak, the Sky Train, the long tail boat and the speed boats."

What are your favorite foods in Thailand? "Khao neow (sticky rice), fried rice, crepes that were good – not the fortune cookie tasting crepes, the donuts we got in Bangkok from the dessert food court (which were cut in half and filled with flavored cream fillings almost like an ice cream sandwich). "

Has anything changed you? "Physically, I got fatter! (laughter). Emotionally it made my school day harder because I was independent and it was really hard. I think the way I feel about dogs. I've seen that there are a lot of dogs that don't have owners and I'm sad for them because they deserve an owner. Not only an owner, they deserve a good owner too."

What was it like having Bailey with us this trip? "Different – but in some ways it was hard. It made me kind of jealous because I had to do school work and Bailey just got to play."

If we come back, what would you want to do differently? "I would like to come for two weeks and only go to the beach area, not go to the city because I would not like to do independent studies. Unless we come back during the summer. I would like to visit Chiang Mai because I like Chiang Mai."

If we come back, what would you want to do the same? "Everything I didn't list to do differently."

Did you learn any Thai? "Dai mai krup" (may I/can I/could you/is it possible)

Do you see the world any differently because of this trip? "Thailand really needs to change its gasoline, its fuels and its motors."

Bailey

What is one thing you've learned about Thailand or Thai culture? "That their religion is a lot different from what I expected. I didn't expect to see wats (Buddhist temples) on the side of the road and all of a sudden there are just people praying. In LA there are Jewish people and a variety of religions and people go to temple, people go to church – that's how I pictured it here."

What were your favorite things on this trip? "Tuk tuks, food, sitting in elephant poop, seeing everyone's different style, Wat Pho and the Grand Palace. And Ko Samet of course. And late night dessert taste testing."

What are your favorite foods here? "This ramen, fried tofu, Thai iced tea of course, fried rice obviously, and I really like the (green) curry.

What is your favorite thing in Bangkok? "The Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha (at Wat Pho)"

What is your favorite thing in Ko Samet? "Our days. Our last night. Snorkeling and boat day."

Has anything about this trip changed you? "The perspective on how I see things now – how different the culture is, how I see different people live, everyone seems more like a community kind of – more in agreement."

If we come back, what would you do differently? "No – I loved everything about this trip and seeing everything and learning so much. Maybe knowing there was soda water before (coming) and that the service is really bad."

If we come back, what would you do the same? "I would go to all the markets again. I would go to a lot of night markets maybe.  Maybe more massages. and I'd take Ailyn to get the jelly feeling. I would see more markets."

What was it like to travel with us instead of your family? "It was a lot different. It definitely helped that we are family. With my family we still would have seen the major things, but we wouldn't have known about the train market. I don't think I would have been able to see some of the things I did see without you guys – some of the markets, some of the sois, some of the vendors. It's a lot different with younger kids. Haydie is a lot neater than you guys (looking at Sennen and Ailyn), But I think when I'm at home me and Haydie are always together, but we're still in our own worlds. When you're with younger kids, you have to combine worlds to help them and be aware of them. When I was sick it was a lot different. If I'm away from home and I'm sick, even if I'm not at home, it feels like I'm at home because I'm around people I'm with everyday (meaning us). I've known you guys my whole life so it still feels like family but it's not the same family."

Have you learned any Thai? "Hello and thank you."

What would you tell a friend considering a trip to Thailand? "Service is terrible, so be ready for that. But I would tell them that a lot of things here are different and the first few days it might be difficult to get use to, but at the end of the day you'll learn a lot, take a lot of things in and a lot of little things like the vendors – you'll remember those most. And you should try to go to the markets and do the things people who live here do – try to live their lifestyle. be ready to get food poisoning from pizza. It might happen – you never know…."

Anything you want to tell your later, adult-self? Like your 30 or 40-year-old self? "To enjoy the little things. Like I said, you're gonna remember the little things. I'll always remember last night and our dinner nights and New Years and the big laughs. And if it's been a hard day, you can always find something to make it better – and that better made the day ten times better – and we always had big laughs – and you should always cherish those laughs."

Bailey trying durian