I spent the entirety of last Saturday searching for houses in the downtown area with the company provided assistance broker. They were great. My broker's nam is Pat and she did a great job of showing me tons of apartments, penthouses, and homes in the downtown area. They were all great, but I couldn't really see my family living in the hustle and bustle of the city. Besides looking at tons of homes, I was blown away by driving in downtown. Ever been on Mr. Toad's wild ride at Disneyland? Yea, something like that.
On Sunday I caught a taxi and made it to our local congregation of church. It was nice to meet a bunch of folks from around the world and take a little break from the exhaustion of Saturday. By this time, my jet lag had full hold on me and I was really tired. I think I averaged about 4-5 hours of broken sleep a night during the whole of the week. Ugh.
The traffic. Wow. The rumors are true! I've never, ever seen consistent, bumper-to-bumper traffic like here. Funny thing is, you rarely ever hear a horn honk. I think the moped drivers all have a death wish.
On Monday, Pat picked me up and we toured a downtown school (NIST) and then headed up North about 15 miles to another school, ISB. It's in the middle of an expat community, Nichada Thani. Wow. Nothing compares. It's an amazing school and the community feels much more like one my family would enjoy. The kids can ride their bikes around, it's much quieter, and lots of families from around the world to play with. I was sold within 5 minutes. I'm told if I leave earlier (~6am), the drive to downtown is about 40 minutes. That's actually about the same commute time as several of the homes in downtown.
Lucky for us, one of the families we've been communicating with from my company over here will be moving about the time we arrive. I toured a bunch of homes up in Nichada, but I really liked theirs and Pat said we could likely get it for the same rent the other family is paying. That would be wonderful and really simplify things for us. We may even be able to buy their car from them. Several families have told me that their maid is one of the best in all of Nichada, so we're going to see if she'd be willing to stay on as our family's helper.
So happy day! I think we found a house, school, car, and help. Woohoo! By the end of Monday, I was really, really tired.
The rest of the week was meeting my local team at the office, doing all day meetings, working late into the night to solve work problems, and doing FaceTime with the family to communicate how great Bangkok is. The week was the most exhausting of my life.
I took today, Saturday, off from craziness. I caught a taxi up to the weekend market, Chatuchak. Wow! The world's largest outdoor weekend market. Kilometer after kilometer of small stalls of everything you could possibly imagine. Seriously, I don't think there's anything they don't sell there. After a few hours of shopping for the family, I decided to brave the subway and skytrain back into town. It was surprisingly easy and really, really clean. The Thai's have a great public transit -- only wish it were more widespread.
I wrapped up the day at an indoor market, MBK. I grabbed a few more things and then took the skytrain back to my hotel's neighborhood. I did a quick dip in the pool and can't wait for a good night's sleep.
The weather is indeed hot and humid, but I've found that light clothing and the breeze make it entirely doable.
So it's been a good first week in Bangkok and I was able to get a lot of what I had hoped done. I know my family will love living here. The people are wonderful and Bangkok is a great city, with smells, colors, and more smiles than I've ever seen before. Sawadeekrap!
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I am loving these updates! Sounds like you are making great progress in preparation for your family to arrive. Hope your sleep routine works itself out soon.
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