Lizards in Lumpini Park

I realized that the picture I originally posted did not do justice to the lizards we saw in Bangkok. Our friends Erik and Melanie took these and I believe get the point across: These are huge lizards and made (and I believe will make) me scream. These 3 lizards are 3 of over 200 that are believed to live in Lumpini Park, just down the street from where we hope to live. If you come visit us you can see one for yourself!

Mission Accomplished

The Amazing pool.....

We can definitely swim laps and enjoy the spa jets.... Also on this floor (6th) is a track around the building, a fitness room, a study room, and small yard.

Since it's a condo, each room is different because of the owners, but the layout will be similar. We will bring some of our own things, but not everything. The building was designed to always have a cross wind, plus being high off the ground doesn't hurt either...

The view.... Some views you can see the river through town which is very unique...

It's Saturday night... and if you're planning on visiting us in Bangkok, we think we know where you will lay your head!!!! You can check out the website here and be amazed like we were and are. Our friends, Erik and Melanie, hope to live in this builiding as well. It's an beautiful, new, one of a kind building with everything we were looking for. We all were literally smiling after seeing this place.The building is called: Amanta Lumpini

The search began on Wednesday, continued on Thursday, was off Friday, and ended today. Our days have been long, hot, and tiring. The goals of the trip have been accomplished: Get to know Bangkok (a little) and find a prospective place to live. Check. Check.

We are unwinding here tonight and tomorrow we get to explore on our own. We will do some shopping and ride on the subway and skyway system to try getting around. Tomorrow is our last night here at this hotel and then we have one night back at the fancy hotel by the airport. Our flight leaves at 6am Tuesday. We get back just half a day later, Tuesday afternoon in Minnesota.

We are ready to be home (for around 24 hours) and we are very excited about Bangkok being our new home for the next couple years.

Feelin' HOT HOT HOT

Here's me on the elephant. This was Monday. If I look terrified, I was...

We took a boat tour on the river in this boat. It was great! Look at the giant lizard we saw in the water. We also saw people swimming in this river....

This is Jintana in front of the Saturday Buddha. There is a Buddha for every day of the week. In some areas, there are Buddhas for everyday of the year.

Greg at the feet of the reclining Buddha

We had a very long busy day yesterday (Tuesday). We were picked up at 8:00am and did not arrive home until 7:30pm. We had a guided tour of the palace, saw lots of Buddhas, and learned a lot about the Buddhist culture. Our tour guide, Pam, was very resourceful and we got her information to contact later to hire as a tour guide for anyone visiting us. For around $50 a day, Pan will show you around the sites of Bangkok. Here are some pictures below of the palace:

June 14, 2553

Today is June 14th, 2553 in Thailand and we are getting ready for our second day of touring. Yesterday we spent the entire day being oriented to this city (see Buddhas above and ruins below) and today we head to Bangkok. Our tour guide is Jintana, HTI's human resource person here in Thailand. She is a great person to have with us these first few days. Since we are visiting the temple and palace we were told to wear pants and shirts with sleeves we plan on sweating a lot. Today is supposed to be near 40 (Celsius). It's reassuring that this is the hot season here, it doesn't get much worse. Rainy season starts next month.

Here's some updated pictures, but check back again because the one of me on the elephant is on Greg's camera and those pictures aren't loaded yet.

Lots of ruins....

The new HTO (HTI Operations in Thailand) Plant:

Good Morning Thailand

We are here and loving it so far. We arrived Saturday night at 11pm. We stayed at a hotel near the airport our first night and traveled to our hotel in Ayutthaya this afternoon. Our first hotel was beautiful and we enjoyed a nice buffet lunch that included frog legs, fruit that we didn't know the name of, and other Thai dishes.

Our second hotel is where we will spend the rest of the week. By the time we got settled we walked across the street to a mall. In the basement was a supermarket that we ended up eating dinner at. We ended up getting 3 dishes to share between the two of us, plus a beer for a total of $4. For my meal I had Som Tom (fresh papaya salad with fish) made with only 1 of the 4 Thai red peppers that lady wanted to put in it. For me it was perfect. Greg got the help from a local that wanted to help and ended up with 2 Pad Thai dishes. We ended the day with a swim on the roof top pool with the many lizards on the walls around us. Welcome to Thailand.