Hanging out with mom in Bangkok was lots of fun. I don't think mom was all that impressed with Bangkok- it is a big polluted city after all- but I think she will really like the north. It's more the quintessential Asian experience. Rice paddies and mist hanging in valleys lined with rolling hills and limestone cliffs, etc. We did have fun together though and I know she was really happy that we got to spend those few short days together. Luckily her tour leader was really nice and friendly and let me join in with all their activities. So I played tourist with her for 2 of the days- visiting a flower market and a couple of temples, and then going on a day trip to the floating market and a place called the Rose Garden (there were some flowers but mostly it was a place to learn about Thai culture- they have a little village set-up and put on a cultural show). On our time off I introduced mom to the heart of Bangkok- MBK, the shopping mall extravaganza. As such, she also got to experience the sky train and taxi service in Bangkok. She wasn't too keen on the sky train since it involved packing onto a train with just about every other person in Bangkok (after all, you have to experience the crowds for the true Asian experience), but the taxi was more her style. Air conditioned comfort for a mere 75 cents each. I told mom that Thailand is very inexpensive, but I don't think she realized just how inexpensive until she got there!

So what else did we do? I took mom out for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Cabbages and Condoms. Despite the name, mom quite liked the restaurant and has enjoyed trying all kinds of new Thai food. And I made sure to order everything NOT SPICY because, for the novice, Thai spice can be really hard to take.

Other than that, we mostly just had lots of time to talk and hang out! It was really nice :-) Too bad the time flew by so quickly though.