Living in Bangkok

Roman had a few days off for New Year's, so we decided to travel to Hua Hin for the long weekend. It's a seaside town that's popular with Thai families who want to escape Bangkok for a few days.  Our first glimpse of the sea The Airbnb we originally rented had some kind of water damage, so the owner upgraded us to a small two-bedroom condo in the same building, which was more than we needed, but cute. Roman welcoming me to the living room The living room and connected bedroom The second bedroom It has a giant, snaking pool, surrounded by greenery. I was, to be honest, a little disappointed with the location of our condo. I hadn't realized this when I booked it but, though it's close to the sea, it's a good thirty-minute walk to the more interesting, walkable parts of Hua Hin (where you can find the night market and old buildings and street food). And of course, I have a tendency to want every vacation to be perfect! But after settling into our condo, we walked i...

Merry Christmas from Bangkok!   How about some photos from the holiday? Here's what Roman was up to at school... Here are the cinnamon rolls I made (mid-process)... And at breakfast Christmas morning... Here we are with our stockings... And in Chinatown for lunch... Here are the mini pecan pies just out of the oven... And our dinner (pork ragu with egg noodles, green salad)... I got super overheated and did not want Roman taking a picture of me... But I felt better once I started to eat. Here's dessert as we ate it... Merry Christmas!

It’s my last full day on Koh Chang! I made this list of things I didn’t want to forget to do today: Oh, island life. For breakfast, I had the (far more reasonably sized) French toast, which came with bacon (and sliced raw tomato?). Then I had a long walk on the beach. I passed a crab in the sand… And the resident beach dog joined me, to lead the way. We walked all the way to the end of the beach, then turned around. We encountered the same crab on the way back. The dog just didn’t know what to make of it. Eventually I left him to puzzle it out. I walked to the other end of the beach, then crossed the resort grounds to check out another beach on the ocean side. And then I took a long swim in the bay. In the morning, the tide is in and the water is deeper, but I didn’t see any fish (unlike yesterday afternoon). Still, it’s incredibly easy to swim in the clear water—I’ve never had such an easy time swimming the ocean—and I swam up and down the bay with my...