Carnesville: The Mall and the Planetarium

Once we got our visa sent off, we started planning how to fill up our days. It wasn't hard, because this city seriously has a TON of great stuff to do for kids! I never liked Bangkok the previous times we passed through because it was SO hot and super crowded. I really only liked getting to eat at Outback, but even that was a terribly long walk to get to. I got over the crowds quick once I looked at a map and started getting my bearings, and because we were there in December, the weather was perfect!! Every day felt like a perfect summer day. Thailand is hot all year long, but in the 'winter' it's a bearable hot. I honestly looked for ways to get out every day because the weather was so amazing...even me, the introvert and homebody. It was so wonderful getting away from our cloudy and cold weather. It actually snowed a little in our city while we were gone. My skin craved the sun every day. Oh how I long to be back swinging in the back yard of our guest house! One of the first things we did was get our bearings with the sky train and check out one of the biggest malls in the world. There's 3 buildings with 6+ floors in each one! Discovering the food court level was the happiest part of the day! I just enjoyed looking at Burger King, Subway, McDonald's, Cinnabon, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme all right there together. Just a dream. We also found an amazing imax theater on the 6th floor and an aquarium on the bottom floor. So, we started making plans :o) The next day we headed to another area where we heard a science planetarium was and was really cheap. Certainly fun for the kids but not worth much more than the buck we paid to get in!

This is one entrance to the gigantic mall.

This is the first of many trees you'll see throughout our trip. I loved being in another place with so many unique and beautiful Christmas trees. Though it was 85 degrees outside, it still felt like Christmas.

We tried looking around for some stuff for Christmas and went into a Sport's store. Their aisles so reminded me of a store my dad used to take me to growing up to get new running shoes. Then I would always take a lap around the aisle/track. Amazing the memories that can pop up around the world.

Back on the streets, you'll never go out your door and not see a motorcycle. They're everywhere.

Yay! Another tree already! Luckily the boys hopped right up on these boxes and gave me a smile.

The next day we went to the planetarium and looked forever for it because nobody seemed to know where it was. We even asked people right next door, and they didn't know! But we came upon it and thought, "Wow, for $1 this isn't bad." There were 4 buildings with different activities. There was a science building, the planetarium, an aquarium, and natural science building with a playground (the main reason we went). Right outside there were some activities too. Caden hopped up on this thing, then when Britton did the top started raising up and he started going down. It was quite funny. We didn't know that it was an experiment!

We went into the science building first. There wasn't a ton to do there, but there was this awesome spinning apparatus. Caden was so excited and hopped right up there. Unfortunately, he was just too little to take it for a spin, but he enjoyed watching his daddy go for a round. He wanted me to try it too, but my daring spirit went away after having kids. My equilibrium isn't quite the same.

This is the start of the videos that you saw very brief clips from in our movie trailer of the whole trip! Now you can see all the videos. Here's a video of Britton spinning. There's also a video of a freaky Thai talking tree that a worker turned on when Caden was right in front of it. He ran away crying, which you'll hear. The last video is in the natural science museum looking at the dinosaurs. Caden loves dinosaurs!

There was also one of these acupuncture beds. I don't think Britton laid on it correctly. He was in pain the whole time.

We tried going to the planetarium next, but of all things it was closed!! I thought Caden would love looking at the stars since we never see them in the city! The aquarium was basically a long hall, but Nemo was at the end, which Caden was excited about.

After the aquarium, Caden wanted to play outside a bit and loved these robots.

We finally headed to the natural science building where the playground was only to find out it was closed for renovation! They had another area set up as a temporary play place. Definitely nothing impressive, but again, the kids had fun and that's all that mattered. I love Caden's face looking at this dino.