..SouthAsiaRocks..

Exercise is funny in this country. They don't totally get it yet. They sell some funny gadgets on TV and people buy them... and not just some people - LOTS of people. The Sauna belt is very popular here (we know a bunch of people with them - you know the belt you wear that makes your stomach hot and you "lose weight"?). Anyway, we saw this funny exercise machine in a store the other day - vibrating to lose weight :)

We came home from Thailand with rats again... They come up the drain in our kitchen. We have a bunch of pipes that have to go down the drain and we need it for drainage, so we haven't been able to figure out how to close it up. Anyway, we came home and saw evidence in our kitchen that we had a rat. Luckily we had the kitchen door closed while we were gone, so he didn't go past our kitchen. We cleaned our kitchen (scrubbed and scoured) the next morning and thought he must be gone... until that night.... Our friends Joe & Amberley were over and we ordered out (still a little afraid to use the kitchen). As they were leaving that night, Joe saw the rat and showed Adam... You can see him in this picture below on top of the pink bucket. I know it's hard to see, but I'm taking this picture through the screen on the kitchen door... I didn't want to go in there :) This rat was the biggest yet. You can't really tell from the picture because only his rear end...

There is a really cool park in Bangkok called "Lumphini Park". It's a really big park and reminds me a little of Central Park (even though I've never been there). You can read about it here if you're interested. Anyway, it's a neat park that has all kinds of things in it. Food places, big areas to run or bike, exercise areas (even a free weight area), and a lake in the middle. Around the lake there are tons of Monitor Lizards. We had heard about them, so we just had to go see them.... Anyway, when we got to the lake area we started looking for the lizards. The first one we saw was a baby. he had a little crab in his mouth - it was cool! Then we saw a big one - MAN! Those things are HUGE! Diya wasn't sure what to think about them :) At the lake they had all kinds of paddle boats. We rented one for the hour and paddled around the lake. Aashini sat in the middle and steered. She thought it was fun :) See... I really did paddle! :) It was cool to ...

We love going to Bankok. It is quite a unique city. This trip was a little different. A few months before we came there was some political unrest in Bangkok. It was lead by a group called the Red Shirts . You can click on that link and read about them if you're interested. Anyway, they burned down a lot of really cool stuff in Bangkok... it was sad... This below is one of the biggest malls in Asia (it is really HUGE! I've only seen some of it). From what I heard, about 1/3 of the mall burned. They have the whole mall closed down and they're working on fixing it now. Here's some pictures for those that are interested. They covered the front of it with these billboards to cover it up while they fix it. You can see left-overs from the fighting. These are holes from rubber bullets. Another burned building... And another picture... Sorry for the depressing post :) A friend wanted to see pictures... it's pretty crazy!

The Sunday Night Market is a fun place to hang out :) There are tons of unique things to see, eat and buy :) One of the nights we were at the market, there was a lip-sync/dance competition. There was a boy group that did awesome! All I got of them was this blurry picture, but they were great. The next group was a girl group and they weren't very good, but still fun to watch. Here's a video in case you want to watch it: I thought this path was really cool... This little girl and her mom are always in this market. The mom plays music and the girl dances to a totally different kind of music. She's cute :) This lady is so cool. She rolls around in her wheel chair with all the things she's selling attached (and an umbrella!). She's really old, but folds this special grass stuff into all kinds of animals. It's really intricate and I'm not sure I could do it, but this lady makes them super fast! It's cool!

This year for the 4th of July we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The American Consulate threw a big party that was catered by a restaurant called Duke's (that most foreigners love). We got there and Aashini had a blast playing. Here she is with her buddy Callie (behind her). They got to play together a lot while we were in Chiang Mai. They had fun together :) Aashini really enjoyed this bouncy house :) I think this mid-air picture :) haha! her look of determination in this picture is so funny :) She got to dress up and get her picture taken. I took a few pictures of that that I will post later. We never got the pictures that the man took because we had to leave early. Diya had fun drinking water and eating ice - her new favorite thing (the girl loves ice!) Aashini got her face painted for the first time. She loved it! So, the party was a bit of a flop. They didn't expect the amount of people that came, so the food lines were about an hour long each (one line for sides...

One of our days in Chiang Mai, we went to a waterfall. There is one that is up high on the mountain that was supposed to be bigger and cooler, but since half of our family gets pretty car sick, we decided to go to one that was close by :) It wasn't a very big waterfall, but we didn't have to walk far to get to it and it was fun to play in :) Aashini had fun sitting in the stream playing with the rocks and looking at water bugs (the girl loves bugs!) :) She had a great time playing in the water. It was fun :)

We were in a market the other night and walked by this Buddhist Temple. There was a guy out front selling things and taking donations and he kinda made me laugh... He kinda looks like Elvis :)

In most markets here in Chiang Mai you can find fried bugs to eat. We always see them and always say that we're going to try them sometime, but haven't yet. I really craved crickets when I was pregnant with Aashini, but never ate them when I was craving them.... so, when we were at a waterfall the other day and saw some fried bugs, we decided it was time :) Adam went first and got the biggest grossest bug there (in my opinion) :) He had a hard time biting though the wings - gross!! He said it was OK.... Next I tried my cricket. It actually tasted OK. It wasn't bad, but the cricket leg stuck in my throat wasn't that great... :) Aashini tried one too :) She liked it :) She thought it was funny to eat bugs :) On the way home, she got hungry and found the bag of bugs and just started munching on them - it was hilarious - she loved the grubs the best - haha! Yesterday she was hungry and asked for some bugs to eat!! What a funny third-culture kid we have :)