When you fly into a new city and it’s already dark, you are afforded a unique opportunity of completely immersing yourself in a place before you actually get to see it. So when you wake up in the morning and look out, you’re in the middle, surrounded by the cityscape. If you land during the day, first you get the 1000 foot impression, then the drive from the airport (usually on the periphery of a city) into the core. Your first impression is a progressive one.

We landed at night. So when I (Amber) awoke this morning and pulled back the curtains, I was able to take in Bangkok from an inside point of view. As we stepped out onto the pavement this morning (to go find coffee), I was hit first with a wave of warmth and humidity, then the sounds of a city waking up: car horns, motorcycles, construction, birds, wind in the palms we walked past, the clicking of women’s heals as they walked past on their way to work, I assume. After fifteen minutes on the street, I turned to Matthew and declared “I love cities”. There is energy and motion in a city that I find life giving – both Matthew and I do. In that same fifteen minutes I noticed a slight smile across Matthew’s face, I commented saying “you’re just loving this, right?” to which he responded with enthusiasm and sincerity “I really do!”.

Some of my initial thoughts:
1. Every Thai person I had contact with today was polite, kind and courteous.
2. I’m going to need to adjust to the heat and humidity (though apparently today was about 5 degrees cooler than normal and had a nice breeze!).
3. Our kids are going to LOVE taking rides on the river boats.
4. We have some MAJOR decisions to make about a school for our kids and location to live.
5. Thailand has JIF peanut butter available here… this is amazing as you can’t buy JIF in Canada.
6. I’m never going to cook again because eating out here is delicious and affordable.
7. There are some amazing coffee shops.

More to come in the days ahead!

Amber