Sawasdee, Bangkok: Wednesday

I've gotten lots of updates via email from Mama, who is on her third (or is it fourth? or second?) full day in Bangkok visiting her large, extended family (including her 90-year old grandfather, our kids' Lao Gong, and her mother's 6 sisters and brother, and dad's sisters and their children) for the first time in several years. Here's a taste of what she's doing:

• visiting wats, or temples, which are particularly important to her family, including the wat where her father was a monk (a common, temporary practice in Thailand, not at all like becoming a Catholic monk or a Zen priest) and the wat of Gu-pau-tai, the goddess from Mama's family's province in China, as well as the temple of the Emerald Buddha and the temple of the Chinese Lion
• visiting her father's family's factory to wai, or honor/pray to, her deceased patneral grandparents
• trips to restaurants, malls, and markets
• eating a ton of wonderful food, including three different kinds of fish, picked ginger
  (thai/chinese, not the pink stuff), radish, pork jerky (like she
  have at home, but better, pork jerky (flat and crunchy-- 2
  different kinds), fish soup- balls, fish wonton with a slightly
  slippery slimy wrap, in a rugby shape, with fish balls rolled
  (almost cigar like) around a piece of cilantro or celery
• attending an important (is it formal?) traditional Thai dinner with her Lao Gong

We've been emailing her now, since her cousin-in-law gave her an "air card" for email access, but will continue to post on the blog since she's checking that too. For the most part, today, we are hanging around the house, perhaps inflating the little pool, making popsicles in the zoo pop molds, having a deli lunch picnic, etc etc etc. A nice, restful and relaxing day. Hopefully.