Thailand was, of course, awesome.

We loved our time here, and it was great to get back to Bangkok, as well as visit some new places that being Ayutthaya and Pattaya.

In saying that, our feeling is that Ayutthaya is only worth a day trip.  It is lacking tourist infrastructure, and not in a good way.  The attractions are easily visited in a day, and really we can think of no reason to stay longer, especially for a young family.  It is a nice place to visit though, and we do recommend it as a day trip.

Pattaya was fun and a nice stop.  I think it would be even nicer for people who are travelling without children as it looks like lots of fun.  Like I said in the Pattaya entry, I don’t feel it lived up to its sleazy reputation, so please don’t be turned off by it.

Jomtien Beach

Bangkok was its usual crazy, chaotic, but totally awesome self.  I love this place.  It has a great energy and I feel energised just thinking about it!!  It was more challenging with young kids as getting around can be slow and full of stairs, but it is still worth the effort.

So come to Thailand!!!  Why wouldn’t you really?!

How are things going two weeks in?

Things are going well!!

I am not quite as enthusiastic as when we left KL as S has been more challenging.  She has been more demanding, and definitely more tantrum throwing than she was earlier in the trip (although perhaps similar to bad patches at home), and this had an effect on all of us.  We started being more strict and consistent with rewards for good behaviour and punishments (time out) for bad behaviour, and, thankfully, things have already improved.  There is a lot of whinging still, from both her and Z.

Z has also been frustrated regularly.  Now that he can crawl and move around, he doesn’t like being as constrained.  He does LOVE all the attention he gets from people though, so that can help diffuse his frustration.

The good part is that S is definitely getting used to walking further and sleeping in different places.  It is definitely doing wonders for her vocabulary and talking (not that it was at all bad to start with), and she just seems so much older and grown up than two weeks ago.  She only had her first toilet accident yesterday.  She really is doing an awesome job, which I remind myself whenever she gets frustrating.  It is very easy to forget she is only two.

The bad part is that she has just started asking to go home.  The first time it was because she wanted to play with her play-do, and she has two times since (although one of those was saying her teddy wants to go home to his friend, Lennox, one of her other teddies).  I really hope it doesn’t keep happening.  She has stopped asking to go to child care to see her friends.    She does also talk about missing her “friends” at our “last holiday” which are the stuffed toys in the hotel room in Pattaya, so perhaps it doesn’t mean much.

I have managed to make a reasonable start on my university assignments – I will be happy when they are finished!!  We have had to spend a bit of time planning our upcoming time in Taiwan, but otherwise we are having a great time lapping up all the quality family time and exploring where we are.

Overall, I definitely find it easier than being at home when it is usually just me alone with the kids. Being away is also full of distractions, so I don’t concentrate on the bad bits as much which is doing wonders for my state of mind as well.