#22. Parks, Pagodas, Play dates, and Passports!!

Monday March Through the Park

Our goal of getting out of the apartment has been achieved each day this week.  It's been nice to get out a bit, but carting two twins in a stroller or carrying them in their portable bassinets definitely takes its toll on two dads. On Monday, we headed to Lumpini Park,

Park gate

which is the park I have been jogging in the past few weeks.  The park is Bangkok's largest outdoor public space and is a popular place in the late afternoon when the sun begins to fade.

Ready for a lap around the park

I like how the park frames parts of the Bangkok skyline.

Bangkok's 'Central Park'

Chris and Luke with Bangkok buildings behind

Apparently the park wasn't too exciting for the 16-day old crowd,

Beginning of the park loop...

since the twins slept through the entire walk.

...and end of the park loop

We enjoyed the walk, however.  There are many interesting sculptures,

Row of hearts

Dunno what this is about

 gym equipment,

Crossfit didn't prepare me for this

and the Chinese Pavilion.

Still snoozin'...love Clare's pose

We couldn't find a taxi that would take us home after our trip around the park.  Bangkok traffic is so bad in the late afternoon that nobody wanted to travel down our gridlocked street.  We were denied by a couple of drivers, so we walked home instead.  Even though the park wasn't interesting to the twins, it seemed to motivate Clare in her early evening naps.  I caught her in a couple trademark Clare sleeping poses.

Playin' Super Mario Bros. in her sleep 

Rocky pose

Temple Tuesday

On Tuesday, we decided to take the twins to their first temple.  We headed to Wat Traimit near Bangkok's bustling Chinatown area.  For this trip, we took the kids in their bassinet carriers.

Luke and Clare...reporting for (sleeping through) another adventure

Wat Traimit is the temple built to house the 'Golden Buddha'.

Bring on the gold

Before we could head inside to see the Buddha, we were flanked by folks more interested in our babies than the gold.  This included some sweet temple workers who were absolutely smitten by Luke and Clare.  After they took a photo for us,

Wats up Knapp-Heald family??

they begged us to hold the twins, and we could not refuse these two friendly Thai women.

Clare and Luke making new friends

They even asked if they could 'take just one'.  After we stole our babies back, we headed up the stairs to see the famous Golden Buddha.

Worth its weight in gold

This statue is 700+ years old and was actually only recently discovered to be 'golden'.  At one time, it had been covered in plaster to hide its identity from looters.  In the 1950's it was moved and dropped, cracking the plaster and revealing its 'golden-ness'.  It weighs 5.5 tons and is estimated to be worth $40 million.

The Bangkok trinity...me, Bubba, and Buddha

We had plenty of time to inspect the Buddha since another temple worker (unprompted) took care of watching over and fanning the twins while others took photos and fawned over our two golden buddhas.

Can we take this nice woman home with us?!?

It took awhile to exit the temple as the amassed entourage said their goodbyes to Clare and Luke.  We also had a lot of luck wished upon us.  We enjoyed interacting with the locals who absolutely adore children. After viewing the temple, we walked into Chinatown

Crazy, chaotic, Chinatown

in search of the indoors to cool off.  Chris had his typical watermelon drink, I had my Thai iced tea, and the twins had their 2+ ounces of formula.

Luke lounging indoors

Clare cooling off

Papa Chris performed his first public bathroom diaper changes at the indoor establishment.  Luke enjoyed the experience so much, that he wanted a return trip right away!  After we all cooled down, we headed back out to the humid streets to have a look at the scenes and markets in and around Chinatown.  We saw this vendor selling durians.

The controversial fruit banned from public transport for its awful smell

We also saw many markets selling gold, souvenirs, toys, fruits, vegetables, seafood,

Dried seafood to be exact...

unidentifiable body parts of animals, identifiable body parts of animals,

Pretty sure this is duck...maybe not

and much more!  The streets were narrow and crowded and the smells were, unfortunately, free.  It didn't take long for us to call it a day and head back to the comforts of our apartment.

Hanging out on the big bed

Welcome to the 'Burbs Wednesday

Yesterday, we started our morning with a special Face Time session with our dog, Trig.  It's hard to believe we have been away from her (and our house for that matter) for a whole month now.  We miss her so much and can't wait to see her slam that happy tail against the walls when we get home.

Thanks for the Face Time assist, Uncle Steve...we miss you Trig!!

In the late morning, we headed out to the Bangkok suburbs for Luke and Clare's first play date.  It was the first time the twins got all dressed up,

Dressed to the nines

 even though one of them was none to happy.

Auditioning for The Crying Game sequel?

We met Marc and Zac's dads a couple of weeks ago for dinner in the city.  While the kids 'hung out',

Zac, Clare, Luke, and Marc...guess which pair of twins was sleeping??

the adults enjoyed having pizza and sharing stories of what the first two weeks of fatherhood (that can be remembered given the sleep deprivation) have been like. We also got to meet the two family dogs, which made us even more excited to be closer to seeing Trig again.  Thanks guys for a fun afternoon at your home!

Finally, we have some really good news.  The passports are in!!  We headed over to the US Embassy to pick them up this morning.

One step closer to home

Clare and Luke are now officially able to leave Thailand! We will be working on organizing our flights to come home for sometime next week.  Our days in Bangkok are coming to a close.  More to come on our return details in the near future...