Approaching The Finish Line...and Beyond!: #12. Fathers Last Freedom

The last 24 hours have flown by and we continue to get closer to bringing Clare and Luke home from the hospital. In the meantime, outside of our hospital visits, we have been trying to get out and enjoy Bangkok and our (soon to evaporate) free time.

Sunday Night

Last night we had dinner with another surrogacy couple who both live in Bangkok. I 'met' one of the guys on a Thai Surrogacy forum several months ago. We corresponded often throughout our pregnancies, sharing ultrasound updates. He actually gave me a lot of comfort the past few months by sharing first hand information about the IVF Clinic and his surrogate's check ups. He was kind of my surrogate for our surrogate! It was great to meet up with these two guys and share our journeys to having children. Their surrogate was scheduled to give birth on July 31, but SURPRISE!! She went into labor this morning and they are now parents a little sooner. Congratulations, guys!! Clare and Luke have some new friends in the nursery tonight.

On our way home, Chris and I had a drink at a place called the 'Moon Bar' on the 63rd floor of a hotel. This is one of the things I wanted to do that I previously hadn't in Bangkok (if you saw Hangover II, you saw a Bangkok 'sky bar'). The bar was neat with an amazing view of the city and all of its high rises. The menus were lit up

This feature probably cost us 100 baht alone

and the views were spectacular.

Chris beaming at the Moon Bar

Monday

After our hospital visit today we had a couple of hours to kill before a meeting at the IVF Clinic. So, we took to the Sky Train.

Yep, we're in Thailand

View from Sky Train stop...how many 7/11's can you spot?

We decided to fill that time with a trip to MBK...an enormous shopping mall with 6 or 7 floors.

MBK

I call it 'mall on crack'. Think of a normal mall with 3 times as many shops per story fit into the same amount of space. MBK has everything...clothes, electronics, souvenir stalls, jewelry shops, just about any type of store you can think of. We had lunch at the famous 6th floor food court where you have to pre-pay and then buy things from the various food areas.

Plenty of options

We didn't end up doing much actual shopping (outside of buying 6 dvd videos...we are going to be staying in a lot over the next few weeks!), but we found my favorite store in the mall (I stumbled upon this shop 10 years ago when I visited...it's actually a pharmacy).

We couldn't find a July 19 store, but we found the store for my birthday!

We have been picking things up along the way for the nursery back in Chicago. By things, I mean elephants...they are everywhere here in Thailand. The kids will have quite a stash by the time we come home. This will represent their 'wicker' version (we are getting a little crazy about the elephant thing) of the elephant.

What if they don't like elephants?

Luckily, we made it home in a taxi before rush hour started. This is one thing we are learning...no taxis between 4 and 8 PM.

Nobody's going anywhere...as seen from our balcony

After being flanked by about a dozen or so people inviting us to naughty, naughty places (I won't even begin to share the names of these places and what we have heard happens at these places), we had dinner at a Japanese steak place,

I want meat and I want it now

Ok, here you go!

which might end up being a meal we title, 'The Last Supper'.

Hence, the 'tall' Singha

We headed home to work (Chris)/blog (me)

Chris, practicing his walk over the bridge with baby in tow

maybe for our last night of a full night's sleep for awhile!

Tuesday

Today we decided to head out early to take in a few more sights before heading to the hospital to 'determine our fate'. We started by taking the river taxi up to Wat Pho, the temple that has an enormous reclining Buddha.

Welcome mat

After entering the temple complex,

Chris at Wat Pho entrance

we saw a photo showing we weren't the first American celebrities to visit this place.

Buddha likes us better

The grounds of Wat Pho are pretty amazing. There are chedi's (or stuppa's) of all sizes everywhere.

Stupefying Stuppas

There are also crazy amounts of Buddhas. There are non-stop rows of Buddhas,

Biggest Buddha collection in Thailand

fantastic Buddha scenes in sanctuaries for people to worship,

Take your shoes off and stay awhile

and Buddhas handing out high fives.

Giving a good 'ole Matt Ross (no touch) high five

But, everyone comes to Wat Pho for the Reclining Buddha. At 150 feet long and 50 feet tall, it's pretty impressive.

Big headed Buddha

From head to toe

The feet of this Buddha are mother of pearl inlay with various images. Really cool.

There are 108 of these on the Reclining Buddha's feet

After leaving the temple, we took our first tuk-tuk in Thailand (we have been using cabs...a cab has a meter where as you have to bargain with a tuk-tuk driver...we are growing tired of bargaining). It was a fun little ride but felt a little bit like we were on a 'Sizzler'.

We walked through an older area of Bangkok called Banglamphu, and down the famed Thanon Kao San road.

Thanon Kao San

It was a little too touristy (meaning we were being hawked by tuk-tuk drivers every 10 feet, asked if we wanted custom suits made, and had every tour guide ready to take us to places we had just been) for us. We didn't stay long, but long enough to buy some tank tops. Bangkok is so unbelievably sweltering hot (and humid) at times that we finally broke down and bought some sleeveless shirts. It didn't take long for Chris to change into one of his during today's touring.