Having a baby in BKK

Having your baby at St. Louis Hospital is one of the best things I've ever spent my money on while in Thailand. A vaginal delivery package (2nights 2 days) 29,900baht ($900). Includes:

For mother a single room, meals and nursing services. 2. delivery room services, medical supplies and facilities. 3. medicine and medical supplies during hospitalization. 4. Obstetrician fee. 5 and much much more.

For baby incubator and newborn nursing care. 2. laboratory examination for newborn baby: ABO blood group, Rh, TSH, PKU, and hearing test. 3. Medicine and medical supplies for baby and home medication. 4. Vaccubes for baby: BCG and viral hepatitis B. 5. Pediatrician fee. 6. Birth certificate and photo. Our bill came to 30,050 baht, which is a bit more because we drank some juice, made a phone call and got Ahmalie a blood test. Pretty freaking good for how I felt after leaving the hospital. I was able to recover faster and got plenty of rest while I was there. There were some strange moments like when I had three nurses looking over me. One other thing they do this hot light treatment to heal the area.

Glad to be home and learning how to be a mom to a newborn baby again. I forgot how much and often they eat. I am about 95% recovered. Amazingly fast compared to the first time. Sending out hugs and kisses to all my Seattle people. I wish all of you guys to see her. Adi is so good. He has been so helpful. He wants to help do everything. Feeding, washing, and holding her. Wiley has flash backs of the good old days of not sleeping. Love it when old memories kicks in.

More uniforms

As a child that could go to school in jeans with holes and ratty hair, the whole school uniform concept fascinates me. These kids actually have more than one uniform for almost every day of the week. Monday is traditional dress day. Tuesday is PE day (with the lovely pink polo). Wednesday is swim day, where the kids bring their swimsuits to school under their normal uniform (PK noted this in an older post). Thursday and Friday are normal uniform days. Note the special black Ultraman shoes (yes, we had buy these, too - but every kid wears the same shoes, takes them off before going into the classroom, and I think Adi brings home a different pair of shoes every day.)

I am beginning to think that this array of uniforms is a test of the parents of these children rather than to the children themselves. The parents that have the ability to figure out this uniform schedule and make sure that the uniforms are washed and ironed in time for the 7:30 AM motorbike departure are the real champions here.

I forgot to mention the rental bed that they have at school, which is also part of the uniform. Adi brings the bed home every week to be washed. Also the school issued backpack. Also, Adi wore this blue T-shirt home the other day with the school's name on it - apparently it is used for some sort of all school (pre k - year 6) games. I wonder if the schools here are actually some sort of clothing mafia.

Adi's swimsuit for school

Adi loves to try on this outfit on but will not go swimming at school. His school has swimming lessons every Wednesday. I hope he will jump in at least once before his quarter ends.

found the store for pregnant ladies

Yes it took me almost two months to find where all those pregnant ladies get their dresses. It's at JJ Plaza ladies.

the best crab curry stir fried ever

My aunt Na Peed makes the best food ever. Her famous crab curry stir fried is sweet, salty and full of favor. One dish one can never get enough of.

The two and an a half hour drive to get there is worth it.

Thai teacher

She is making sure we get our tones right. Ar Thing comes to our house twice a week to teach Wiley and I how to read Thai. It's so cool to be able read signs and menus. Love learning.

Learning things the Thai way

Now that we are settled into our new house I would like to enjoy my cup of coffee. I love a good strong cup of coffer with a splash of 1/2&1/2 in the morning. Well after spending days looking for 1/2&1/2 or cream I realize that there is no 1/2&1/2. Every one uses evaporated milk here or condense milk. Learning something everyday right.
We bought an hot water maker made by Sanyo at Lotus on the 26th of last month and guess what the pump broke already. Wiley and I are learning that in Thailand there really isn't any good mid range priced items to by and use. When it come to buying thing for the home. The items can not be returned nor refunded. Cheap is Crap oh except for food.
When it comes to auto mechanics the rule holds true for all of human kind. When you find a good one you can trust tip him well because he is worth it. I just found out that our first mechanic who fixed our Audi did very little to the car. He charged us lots of money for nothing. Good news is we found an honest man to work on our car now. His name is Soom. Soom lives within walking distance from us so it's real easy for us to call him for help. My entire family uses Soom.
Today: The Audi broke down without a fight. We lost our minds trying to deal with this Lemon. Moving on now. We spent too much time and money on this thing. We spent a weeks day trying to sell it. Comes to find out no one wants it. Then we spent way too much trying to fix it. It's time to set it free from our lives. Happy to know we still have a nice cool house to come home too. We got back today at about 8pm. Oh we had to catch a bus from Pattay to Bkk then a taxi home. We had new Air conditioner installed while we were gone. A very nice investment.

department store

Central Rama II try to find Wiley in the video.