We thought it was a bit crazy in Southeast Asia- people wanting to take photos of the kids all the time, but it is worse in India where people want to take photos of all of us, then individual ones. They don’t take no for an answer. We have to say “no, that’s enough. Leave us alone.” It is ridiculous. You have to be on guard for pick pocketers and beggars. Wild stuff. Sometimes they try to put their sunglasses or their hat on you. What’s up with that?!
We went the a medieval-like fortress in Old Delhi called Red Fort. It has a 10 meter deep overgrown moat around it that has been dry since 1857. Drawbridges were once the main means of entry. The walls of the fort extend for 2km. Shah Jahan constructed the fort between 1638 and 1648. Back in the day- it was overflowing with gold and jewels. It was described as paradise and heaven on earth. Invading armies came at different times in history and stripped the buildings of all their glory- but they still remain beautiful today.
This is our view from the hotel in Delhi. Pretty swanky, huh? The other picture is of a mouse poop Emerson found while pulling up the sheets!
I had asked them to bring us a cot because we only had a queen size bed for all of us. He brought up an old dirty comforter and put a sheet on it, waved his hand fancily and said, “as you wish.” Emme shot me a quick glance and we tried so hard not to laugh. Luckily, we were so tired and knew we only had two nights there- it was all good. We did make sure we spent a majority of time NOT in the hotel!
I took the picture of the kids on the plane with the ipad- that’s why it didn’t turn out so well, but they were laughing hard about something. i love it.
The hand photo was taken at the Delhi airport and the pic of Emerson is at a vegetarian restaurant where we ordered a lot but had no idea what we were getting. Turns out everything was incredible!
We were driving down a street when Emerson started yelling at me to get the camera out to take a picture for the Fixman boys. Turns out, they have a “kaka” shop in Thailand and, no, JJ- we did not go in! Always thinking of you guys! Wishing you lots of love and all things silly!
There were many signs around this hotel stating all of their rules. Some were funny and some were downright rude. I took pictures of a few but stopped when the front desk lady gave me a dirty look.
Jesse and I stayed in The Atlanta hotel in Bangkok back in 2000. It looked exactly the same. It is a bare bones hotel. The rooms are like a dorm room with a toilet and small shower in the room. There is no tv, fridge, etc- just beds and a couple towels which is pretty much all you need anyways. The lobby and the pool is what, I think, is remarkable. It hasn’t been changed since the early ’50s. It’s like walking into a time warp. They have the old fashion telephone operator wall where they plug into different lines. They have beautiful old desks and a spiral staircase.
In one display case are books that have been written about famous guests who have stayed at the hotel. A couple of the books have letters from the authors accompanying them stating that they started writing their novels while lounging poolside at The Atlanta.
It was quite a swanky place back in the day. It had the first pool in all of Thailand and the first kiddie pool. It also had the very first movie screen – which was super impressive at the time since there wasn’t a single television yet in all of the country!
We all loved jumping/diving off the rock wall and were contemplating jumping off the roof- but decided against being obnoxious.
They aren’t kidding about the hot springs being hot. Just to sit in for a few minutes, I kept chanting ‘Mind over matter. Mind over matter!’ Whew! The geyser reached heights of about 6 feet- nothing too crazy but beautiful just the same.
He said we had to go back and see her. She looks just like our dog, Kiko, but she is smaller! Hard to believe. Although we haven’t seen Kiko in a while and Grammy and Grampy night have fattened her up by now. We may go back to a little chublet!
The first time we went to visit Mini- we sat and played with her for a long time. The kids would lay down and she’d jump up on their chests. She loved burying her face in Lennon’s curls, then biting them! We didn’t have a camera, so we asked Jesse to walk down later and take a photo (which he did.) Later on in the day- Em and I were packing up and the boys ran out to get some fruit shakes. They stopped by one more time to hang with Mini. Smallest dog I’ve ever seen and such a sweetheart.
If while reading this- any rat comments come to mind- I hope you know you just earned some bad karma points! ha
marschmadness 