For Part I Click Here.
After a wonderful week in Phuket we went back to Bangkok to visit family. My family living in Bangkok is all on my mother’s side. I currently have three uncles there, which I talked shortly about in a previous blog .
Now Phuket was relaxing, and Bangkok was anything but relaxing. I don’t mean that we didn’t have a good time because we did, immensely, but we kept a fast pace the whole time we were there. Once we arrived in Bangkok we were stuck in traffic for nearly three hours. It made me feel like I was back home on the I-5.
The original plan was to stay at one of my uncle’s condos. That plan had to be scratched because the condos were going through some renovations. So my uncle, being the Thai Tycoon that he is, arranged for Katie and I to stay at one of the finer Resorts in Bangkok. When he first called to make the reservation, he found out that the resort had no rooms available, but guess what? My uncle is a close friend of the owner of the hotel, and the owner opened up a room for us. Yes, my uncle is very well connected in Thailand (and that’s an understatement). My uncle owns the top Fireworks Company in Bangkok. He also has real estate investments and other business ventures that are too long to list here. I predict that he’ll own half of Thailand by 2016.
My uncle is extremely generous. Actually, he was so generous it was down right overwhelming. I kept thinking about God’s goodness and how the Lord enjoys showering us with His blessings. I’m my uncle’s favorite nephew. I’m his big sister’s son and he loved his sister (my mom). As far as he’s concerned, I’m just an extension of my mom.
The first night we were in Bangkok, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, did some catching up and went over the plans for the rest of the week. Afterwards, he just handed me a large sum of money. I didn’t want to take it but he wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Then I thought to myself, “I can’t believe I was penny-pinching while I was in Phuket.” For example, the resort we were staying at had an arrangement with the local taxi(s). The taxi(s) were not allowed to pick up anyone, which resulted in us basically being forced to use their taxi to the airport. And yes, it was expensive. I thought to myself, “Wait a minute! This is Thailand! There’s got to be someone willing to bend the rules for a discount.” As I walked around town talking to cab drivers and telling them about our plight, one finally said (translated), “Okay, meet me down the hill and make sure that no one sees you.” I replied, “Okay, give me twenty minutes to meet at the rendezvous.” Katie and I proceed to gather our luggage and check out of the resort. As we were walking out to the lobby the resort staff quickly began to usher us to their taxi service like ushers at church putting you in a seat you don’t want to sit in. We told them, “No thanks, we’re going to have a look around first. We’ll be back . . . [the next phrase I said under my breath] in a few years.” As we were carrying all our luggage down this steep hill, I look back and see my wife being a good sport carrying all she had while trying to keep her balance and maintain a good attitude. I yelled back at her, “Remember honey, WE’RE SAVING MON-EY!”
Once we hit the meeting point, the cab driver immediately pulled up in his cab, parked his car in the middle of the street, and popped open the trunk. We started throwing all our bags into the trunk like we were stealing large sums of cash, slammed the trunk, jumped into the back seat, and burning rubber leaving skid marks while making a quick get-away. Total savings? $8.00. While we looked behind to see if anyone was following us I kept saying out loud, “We saved $8.00!!!” You might be thinking, “Why go through all that to save a measly $8.00? That’s not even enough for a coffee date.” Actually, after my uncle simply handed me some cash for just being his nephew, I was thinking the same thing.
As we continued to enjoy the evening my uncle would recall for Katie how difficult I was to please when I was a child, always refusing to eat Thai food and only wanting McDonald’s or steak. Yes, I was a brat. Now that I’m a bit older we actually had adult conversions talking about future plans, business ideas, and retirement. It was a new experience for me to talk about “adult stuff” with my uncle. It was great. It made me appreciate all the things he’s done in his own life and inspired me to do the same thing back home. Katie got a kick out of my interaction with my uncle. She said, “If I were to picture you as a 60-year-old Thai-man with limited English you would totally be your uncle.” After a wonderful dinner and some time catching up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin Pink we were off to bed. The next day began our second leg of the trip.
Click here for part III.
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