On the night train to Krung Thep

We decided it was time to take Sora to get her hearing checked. Technically, we're supposed to get it done every 6 months or so to make sure her "good" ear is still hearing like it should and that it hasn't changed from when we last tested it. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten it checked since March 2010 - about 15 months ago. There are a few places in Chiang Mai where we could get it done, but we've heard they aren't incredibly thorough, and they are pretty bad for small kids. Basically, they test kids hearing by playing a sound of a different frequency on either the right or the left. When the kid turns an animal pops out or something fun for them to look at. It doesn't work that great with very small children and when we had it done with Sora last year (around 12 months old) she actually failed it. It's not a surprise she failed on her "deaf" side, but also on the good side. But we know her hearing is better than what the test showed...just hard to know how good it is. The way the tests are done in CM would not work well for a 2 year old. After some research, we realized that there is only 1 pediatric ENT in Thailand. The Doctors in CM are ENT's but it's important to find someone who specializes in children. Another reason we decided to bring her to this doctor is that we need to get her a hearing aid. When she first had her hearing tests we got such conflicting reports on whether or not to get a hearing aid for her. Basically, audiologists are split. Some say kids can do fine with speech development without one and the other half say that it's really important to have good hearing on both sides, not only for speech development but for other types of development too. We were in the throws of planning to move to Thailand so decided to put it off and sort of wait and see. But now we definitely think she needs one. We're really looking forward to seeing what the Doctor has to say, and we're hoping she can get us a hearing aid that will work!

So that was the long intro to my post! We decided to all come down because Damien and I both waned to meet the doctor. It's about half priced to ride the train than to fly so we decided to do the train down and fly back. It's an overnight train. We rode it once in October coming back from Bangkok and the kids really loved it. It's not the best night's sleep I've ever had, but we survived. Unfortunately, this time, we had little problem. We ride in the first class train, because you can get a room that converts into a bunk bed and has connecting door to the next room. The three boys each get a bed and Sora sleeps with me. But somehow we ended up getting a train that I didn't even know existed. The first class cars are single rooms...with just one bed. Ugh, so we get there, we have the two rooms with a nice connecting door, but instead of 4 beds we get 2. I have no idea how that happened. And I could have sworn I talked to the lady about the beds when I bought the ticket but, who knows, I still miss things some times when I'm speaking Thai. :- ) I just can't imagine that she would think 5 people with two beds would work. We had no time to fix the ticket because the train was leaving. Thankfully the guy in charge of our car felt bad for us and let us buy a ticket for half price for another room. I'm still not convinced that he just didn't keep the money and give us the room. :-) The boys slept together and Sora (who is like a sleeping jumping bean) slept with me. I slept bad and woke up a million times, but I still LOVE riding on it. I don't know why but it's just relaxing.

The boys also think it's pretty cool! We packed dinner instead of ordering the ridiculously overpriced Thai food ... and when we were able to get the kids settle down and contain their excitement we had a relaxing night.

Sora didn't want to be left out of the picture taking.

Damien bought some Thai children's books and he has been practicing reading.

Not the best picture of me, but Micaiah was so proud of it. It only took a couple of tries of him getting just our legs. :-)

So this was a first - EVERYTHING was in Japaneses. Nothing was in Thai. Not only that but the plugs didn't work. Well, they didn't work for some things but worked with our computers. Than we realized that they were working for things using 120V but not the 240V (which is standard in Thailand). They must have bought the train from Japan and not changed a thing. Not even the plugs. There was even a tiny TV/VCR in each room which didn't work. So funny.

The lights and A/C control. We never quite got this figured out. :-)

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Another visa run behind us!

We did our third visa run in June! We had really wanted to go to Laos to visit some friends but Damien was taking his Thai reading/writing class and couldn't miss a day. And since it's about 11 hours to drive each way, we figured that was just too far to go for a weekend visit. So we just went back to Mae Sai and crossed the border up north.

I can't get over how GREEN Thailand is. I've never seen so much green. When you're driving in the mountains it's especially amazing because it's all around you. I wish I had a nicer camera because I would love to capture it. I actually do think this picture came out pretty cool though!

We stopped at our favorite pie place of course!

Orin's favorite drink here is Manao Soda. Manao is the Thai lemon/lime. It's similar but different from a US lemon or lime. He would drink it every day if I let him!

I can't imagine driving out these windy mountain roads for hours, sometimes in the rain, on the back (or top) of a Songthaew! I love that they've also stuffed two motorbikes on it too!

Ok, I think this is hilarious. See those piles of leaves and branches in the middle of the road?No traffic cones here! The branches are covering newly filled pot holes that haven't completely dried. They just put down the leaves and people don't drive over them.

I love agoda.com! We can get amazing deals for hotels here. We stayed in a beautiful resort for so cheap in the middle of the mountains. The only problem is that it's low season here and the place was a ghost town! We literally saw two other people there the entire time. The pool was a little dirty and they would actually turn the lights on in the restaurant when we went there to eat...no one else was there both nights. We lost water in the middle of the first night for about 12 hours and our electricity was going on and off because of thunderstorms. But our view was amazing!

Farmers burning their rice fields.

Another view from the room.

The market right on the other side of the border. The guys with the baskets are selling cigarettes and pornography and they have no problem showing it to Damien and trying to get him to buy it even with me standing right there.

I love that you can see the farmer out there working in the field.

Damien was brave and went swimming with the boys. It wasn't terribly dirty but enough to make it not very relaxing for me. Orin got his rash a few days later and we still wonder if something in the water caused the rash???

We bought some cereal (which we usually don't have) and the kids ate on the balcony in the morning. Cereal and pomelo made for the perfect breakfast in their eyes.

Photo's just can't do it justice!

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More Life in Chiang Mai

Ugh, seeing things like this is just sad. Why do we always have to try to be whatever we're not? In the US, tan skin is it. Tan = Beautiful. Growing up I got made fun of quite a bit because I was so white. Amazing how many nick names people can come up with. Even though we know that sun is bad for us, we still say things like, "People just look healthier when they are tan." Then you come to Asia and they have things like this. Body wash and cream to bleach you skin...because they want the skin that everyone in the US has. If only it were possible to be content being just the way God made us!

If you have to put silverware away, might as well look cute doing it!

Sora has really gotten into books lately. She wants to read constantly. So it's nice sometimes when I can just tell her to give it to Orin and he'll read it. :-)

One of the best purchases I've made in Thailand! Since all of my recipes are from the US and since we insist on measuring things in units that are different from most of the rest of the world I often have conversion problems. But the thing that was really getting to me was measuring butter! I get it in huge blocks because it's cheaper that way and also because it's not available in nice 1/2 cup sticks like at home. So every time a recipe called for 3 Tablespoons of butter or 1/4 cup so similar I'd have to let it soften and then smash it into a spoon or cup to measure it. And then it takes me 10 minutes to wash my cup well enough for it not to be greasy. I admit, not the biggest problem in the world, but man, this scale is so handy and it is totally worth the $7 I spent on it!

I found Sora like this recently. She had spread out her blanket on the floor and was just sitting and reading book. :-) Yes, not the most exciting thing in the world, but since 6 months ago she wanted nothing to do with books it's a big step for her!

Orin's last day of school. Every day many little vendors line up on the street outside of the gates and sell all sorts of goodies. So we celebrated the last day with a snowball - which takes him like 30 minutes to eat - the reason we don't get it any other day.

I can't remember if I already posted this but we had so much rain in May it seemed like we had street flooding at least once a week.

We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 (which the boys loved but it made Sora and I practically fall asleep) and the boys begged me to take a picture of them with the Panda outside of the theater. I only had my phone so it's not great but they were so excited.

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Mini Golf (sort of?)

So we heard that there was the Mini Golf place in Chiang Mai and decided to check it out. We had also heard that it was "different" and this was definitely true. Wow, the strangest Mini Golf I've ever been to. We actually went to the place three times before we ended up being able to play. The first time it had rained the day before and there were puddles everywhere. The second time it started raining right when we got there. Needless to say, the boys were dying to go. And it did not disappoint. They played every hole and were totally into it. I thought for sure they'd lose interested half way through. Sora was bored after the second hole but did ok after a little breakdown.

We had never played before so the boys were so excited to have Damien show them.

This hole was ridiculous. Seriously, no one could do it.

Here is Sora not quite enjoying it. :-)

Another funny hole. The ground was cement so the ball do strange things.

Ok, the craziest one by far. It was like a driving range! I've NEVER seen one of these at a mini golf before. You can see the fence in the distance which is where the hole was.

I took this picture by the hole looking back where Orin was hitting the ball from.

Around hole 13 Orin got pale and felt really sick. After some water and sitting for about 5 minutes he was ready to get back to playing. So strange???

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Life in Chiang Mai

Just some more random things about life here.

I had to get some tax papers copied the other day. I had noticed a little shop on the road that did copies. This place was hoppin'! I don't think there are a lot of options for this kind of stuff. But I couldn't stop chuckling as I watched them use this very dirty, ancient copy machine, where the paper kept getting jammed and they had to bang on it and restart it multiple times! But they made my copies!

Every morning I walk Orin to school. The quickest route is to walk through the campus of a large Thai school. Orin doesn't really like it because he says everyone is always staring at him (which they are) but we have both gotten good at ignoring it. Like I said, it is a huge school and I am always amazed because every single girl has their hair in two braids. Every.single.one. It's very cute but I also wonder if it's actually part of their uniform or if it is just cultural - so cultural that everyone does it? Sorry about the bad picture. I took it with my phone from far away as I tried to make it look like I wasn't taking a picture. :-)

I know that the average Thai man is 5'6" and woman is 5'2" but I don't think these chairs would be comfortable for people of any height!

Just had to throw in a cute one of Sora! :-)

These are back from right before Songkran. We were in a local furniture shop and the owners and employees were outside throwing water on people. It was the kids first taste of Songkran and it's so fun how they just let the boys join in. :-)

Orin absolutely LOVES to help Micaiah when he's reading. When I say "help" I mean tell him the word if Micaiah stumbles for even a second. :-)

I love this one because they are both so excited when Micaiah got a word right. :-)

There are also sorts of fun, crazy food in the grocery store around here. But for some reason, Jelly Fish just stood out more than most. I seriously did not know people ate this!

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