The Polar Vortex Comes to Bangkok

This winter, Michigan and many other states have experienced their lowest temperatures in 20 years. Meteorologists, or maybe just the media, have called it a Polar Vortex. But Michigan, this winter you've got nothing on Bangkok. 

In January of 2003 I visited my grandparents in Florida for a weekend. The temperatures were in the 60's and low 70's, which I of course thought was wonderful. My grandma? Not so much. One evening I was getting ready to set the table for dinner when I asked her whether we would be eating in the dining room or out on the lanai. She scoffed at me and told me we were eating inside because "It's too damn cold outside!" I thought she was crazy, but I obliged. 

Well, I spent my entire morning today wearing a big fuzzy hooded fleece. Usually winter in Bangkok is something like that feeling you get when you walk past an open refrigerator: brief, cool, but not really all that refreshing. This year, however, we've had an unseasonably long and cool winter. For weeks now we have had overnight temps in the 60's and daytime highs in the 80's, with low humidity.  I have used more Chapstick and lotion in the past 2 months than the past 2 years put together. And I'm still dry (and yes, the same thing happens every summer in the US). I haven't use the AC in who knows how long and I keep waking up expecting to find that it all disappeared overnight. Instead, I just wake up cold. 

This week I have even quit using the AC in my classroom and opted for open windows. I keep trying to open the doors as well to get a cross breeze (a room full of middle school students needs some kind of air movement) but yesterday they were asking me to close the door because it was too cold. 

So there I was this morning, walking to work in my wooly fleece feeling ridiculous. But later in the day I found out that this morning's 15.4C/60F was the lowest recorded temperature in Bangkok in 30 years. So now, I don't feel quite so ridiculous. Why? Because it's too damn cold outside. 

The Olympics Are Coming!!

I love the Olympic Games. I love the sports, I love the international community, I love the victorious winners and the kids from some distant land who only swim in preliminary heats and finish last. I even love the touching stories on NBC. In less than three weeks, the winter games will kick off in Sochi 

Russia and I will kick off my two week marathon of couch viewing. While there aren't a ton of sports I follow year round (skating  and baseball) I will watch just about anything in the Olympics: curling, fencing, rowing, luge, even biathalon (okay, maybe not too much biathalon). The winter games are, of course, better than the summer games, for the simple reason that they contain the Queen of Olympics sports: my beloved figure skating. This year, with the addition of the figure skating team event, there will be even more skating to watch!

I'll get to watch some of the afternoon events live, since Sochi is only 3 hours behind Bangkok, but probably not much of the later evening prime time stuff. I never seem to land in the right continent at the right time to catch winter Olympic action in a decent time zone. When the 1998 games were in Asia, I was in Michigan. The next games were in Salt Lake City, but I was in Europe. Four years later the games were in Italy and I was in the US. By 2010 the games were in North America (west coast) and I was in South America (an hour ahead of NY). Now, the games are back in Europe, and I'm in Asia. Sigh. But at least they are in the eastern side of Europe, as a 3 hour difference is definitely better than any of the others. 

A Post-vacation Vacation

After Mike and Sara headed back to Michigan's arctic vortex, I took an extra day in Singapore and then took a short ferry ride to Batam Island, Indonesia and spent two nights at a lovely spa resort nestled in the jungle. In addition to my session at the spa, I read books, watched movies, took naps, and tried to sit by the pool. The first two days I was there were sadly kind of cloudy with drizzle, but the last day was sunny and beautiful. It was great to have some green introvert time before coming back to the concrete jungle and real life. 

Tempat Senang Resort and Spa

NYE in Bangkok

Normally, I like a pretty quiet NYE: dinner at home with friends, a toast at midnight, and off to bed. Last year I had a great barbecue dinner on the beach with my mom and Matt and then we watched the fireworks off the coast of Koh Chang. Mike and Sara chose to spend New Years in Bangkok where we had dinner at the restaurant of Thailand's newest celebrity chef, which did not disappoint. We rang in the new year from the rooftop of a nearby hotel where we could see some of the fireworks going off across the city. A memorable night to be sure! 

NYE dinner part 1 

Part 2 

Singapore with Mike and Sara

Mike and Sara finished their trip with two days in Singapore. Within hours of arrival they had tried the signature dish of Singapore: chili crab, and also given durian a chance (none if us really liked it). The next day we visited the wet market in Chinatown then ate at a few vendors and did some shopping. We also walked around and ate in Little India before finishing off the day at a Lim family favorite Indian restaurant. On their second day we had pork rib soup for breakfast before visiting a few coffee shops to sample espressos and then went to the Malay neighborhood, an area that was new to me. One last coffee stop and then Cantonese dinner (well, some of them ate dinner- you can ask Sara or I for more details on that!) before they were off to the airport. Quite a whirlwind visit! 

As ready as we will ever be to try durian! 

Foodie discussion at the wet market 

Masala tea and roti :) 

Breakfast!?!?!

Haha, we posed kith this guy outside a "rainforest cafe" in Little India