Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived in Bangkok on Friday evening.  As a group we were able to go to Asiatique, a big night market where we had dinner.  We had some good Thai food and got to see some cultural dancing.  It was all very nice.  What was funny was that we all hopped on the bus and drove TWO BLOCKS to get there.  There was one person in our group who had trouble walking so I'm sure that bus ride was for her benefit.  

After dinner we enjoyed doing a little souvenir shopping for the fam.

The next day we went to The Grand Palace.  It had some really beautiful buildings.  There were tons of people and we were constantly reminded to watch our belongings for the pickpockets.  I had been very excited to see the famous jade Buddha.  We took off our shoes to show respect before entering the building it was housed in.  For years I have been interested in seeing this huge buddha.  I thought it would be about twelve feet tall.  HaHa!!  The jokes on me.  It was just over two feet tall and was place on a high pyramid pedestal about twenty feet in the air.  It looked so small!  Not what I had been imagining after hearing about it so many years ago.  We were not allowed to take pictures so there are none.  But here are some pictures of The Grand Palace.

After visiting the palace we hopped on a boat to get to our lunch.  Just after we got onto the boat it started raining.  When we got to the restaurant it was absolutely pouring.  We each had to make a dash to the building and when we got inside we were all laughing because we were soaked!  Plus I was wearing a white shirt!  Oh boy!!  But we made a memory and had an awesome buffet lunch!

After lunch we got to walk through the flower market.  So many beautiful flowers and so inexpensive.
There were thousands and thousands of marigolds.  Come to find out marigolds are an offering the people give to buddha to bring them prosperity.  I didn't even take any pictures of the marigolds but all of the flowers were beautiful.

Beautiful fruit as well......

I loved all of the hanging paper lanterns.

That night we went to the night market again to finish up our souvenir shopping for the trip.  I had to find one more kimono.  I had purchased three the night before but needed one more.  We looked all over the market the night before and could not find any!  Finally after searching again we found what we needed.  I even bought a couple to bring home to DeeAnn and Kathy.  I bought a scarf for Ruth:)  Not sure if she would like a kimono.  

After getting some ice cream from Swenson's (so yummy) we walked home.  this sign caught my attention and we laughed and laughed about the "fried crap with curry sauce".  We took pictures and a video.  It just really caught us off guard and was so funny to us.  I thought it was supposed to be carp and they just spelled it backwards.We did talk to the young man in charge and asked about it.  He said, "Oh you know, you can have it in or out of the shell."  Then he found some pictures online and come to find out we realized it was supposed to be CRAB.  Oh. My. Gosh.  This just struck our funny bone.  It was late and had been a long day!

The next day we skipped the group tour and went to all three meetings of church.  Boy, did I need that.  We attended an international ward which was given in English.  It was the Primary Program and was so sweet and tender.  I cried through a lot of it.  The simple truths of the Gospel are so precious to me.  After seeing so many people worshipping idols in the last two weeks I was so thankful to be reminded, out of the mouths of babes, pure and simple truth.  What a blessing for me that day.

After church a sister from the ward offered to show us where the temple will be built.  It was just a few blocks away from the meetinghouse.  

What a blessing this temple will be for the Saints in Southeast Asia.

After church we had lunch and then took a nap.  The day was very low key and I was able to get caught up on my blog.  Later that night we took a ten minute round trip boat ride from our hotel to see the lights of the city scape.  We did not have our camera so no pictures of that.  

Our hotel room did look right over the river and so boats were constantly floating past.  Each boat was lit up so beautifully.  We had a nice view over the pool as well.   

The next morning was our departure day so we got up early and went for a quick dip in the pool.  We got our things packed up and started our long trip home.  We flew from Bangkok to Singapore.  From Singapore we flew back to LA and then on to home.  

What a wonderful opportunity for us to visit so many different places these last two weeks!  It is wonderful to see how Heavenly Father is so good to all of his people and loves each of us.  Even those who know nothing of Him.  He provides his children with so much.  This trip has made me realize that there is so much work to be done in gathering Israel.  I'm not sure how that is all going to happen but when President Nelson says to "take your vitamins because there is much more to come" that makes me excited for the future of the Church.  

So happy to be home and to experience the light and joy of the holidays!