6 December 2015 - Happy 18th Wedding Anniversary to us - not everyone gets to spend their anniversary in Bangkok!

It is hard to believe we have been married for 18 years and harder to believe we have just spent a year waltzing around the world with three children!  Spending our anniversary in Bangkok with our children was not exactly a romantic getaway but certainly one to remember!

We wanted to go back to Christ Church where we had visited several times before when  we stayed in Bangkok. It is much further away from our current accommodation so we took a calculated risk and boarded a bus and still had a little walk, but it was on familiar roads.

Bus ride to church

Christ Church

Luke, along with other children, was invited to ring the church bell which was pretty exciting! He joyfully skipped out to the Children's Program having met a friend, Joel.  Not only did he have a great time, he and Joel had lots in common being youngest boys with much older siblings and had both been home schooled this year.  It is such a shame that we didn't meet Joel last time we were there and we could have kept up some kind of correspondence.

Ringing the bell

Luke and Joel (whose parents work in a slum here in the Place of Grace)

As is the usual practice at Christ Church, there was lunch provided for a small contribution and today it was delicious thick rice noodles with chicken and pork.  Over lunch we chatted to some interesting folk.  Tom, 97, and his wife, Iris, 95, married for 74 years, moved to Bangkok from the Lakes District, UK, 8 years ago! They live with their son, his Thai wife and grandchildren, have a carer each and love life!  What gorgeous elderly people they were!  They recommended that everyone should have a son to look after them!!  Fancy leaving your home in your late eighties and moving to Bangkok!

The other woman I spoke to, Bani, had a sadder story.  She was a refugee from Sri Lanka, a Tamil, whose husband and other family members had been killed by a bomb and she had been raped by the army and said she was never safe at night.  She has two children and from what I could work out with her limited English, she lives in a room with her children, has health issues and struggles daily.  She learns English at Christ Church once a week but life is tough and often she doesn't make it to the church because she can't afford the bus fare.  My heart really went out to her as she showed me her UNHCR paper to show me she was a refugee, and an ECG to show me she had heart trouble.  Probably, her whole life was in her bag.  Luke had been playing with her son so that was good.  Her children go to school in Bangkok and are happy enough.  She holds it all together.  She told me that her UNHCR lawyer is Australian.  I am glad our paths crossed, I will think of her and pray for her.

We also had a lovely catch up with Bridget and Mike Blackburn who were so kind to us last time we were here and showed us around their home and school for disabled Thai children and youths and also showed us around Ko Kret, a little island near to their place.

Lumpini Park

Pedalling our swan!

 From Christ Church we walked via Lumpini Park, where we hired pedal boats (swans) for 40 Baht for 30 minutes, to "Super Rich Thailand" which offers the best exchange rates to change our Swiss Francs into Baht for the last few days here.  Back to Pantip Plaza to show Karl the techno stuff and return a faulty DVD and buy another.  Round and about and back to Lumpini Park to catch the festival activities of the evening: drumming acrobatics, a fire juggler and other minor acts.  We hopped on a bus and hopped off a km or so too early but made it home finally.  Annika had a rotten headache so she was upset that we could have taken the bus a bit further - poor girl. 

Swan Lake? Lumpini Park

Drumming parade - noisy and fun and acrobatic!

Graceful statue

After dinner, while Annika rested, the rest of us had a mandatory dip in the pool.  Such an opportunity can't be missed.