Friends in ALL places

So, I get a message from Bryn this week, "we have a PLI team from TX and WI visiting Bangkok this week and they would like to meet up with you and Sarah or anyone else there if you have time, let me know if it will work."

....I still don't know what a PLI team is, BUT we met some of them today and had a great time! Pastor Wayne Braun and his wife Linda from Texas along with Pastor John ? and his wife Stephanie from Milwaukee treated us to lunch at their hotel, and man was it a treat. They stayed at the Bangkok Marriot on the Chao Praya River. Sarah and I got off the train just in time to catch the river taxi over there. On the way there we got fresh, cold towelettes that smelled like lemons to refresh ourselves. The weather was absolutely beautiful today probably because it was cloudy making it not so hot.

Their hotel was really nice. We met them upstairs in the lobby and then ate at the buffet lunch. I can't remember the last time I ate that much food. I really enjoyed chatting with them and getting to know them. They were so friendly. After lunch they wanted to go to shopping at Siam, so we went with them. Once again I got to be Tour-Guide-Barbie-Betsy as Sarah Steiner calls me. I love knowing a place well enough that I can make visitors enjoy their time there. I think it just makes the experience all the more meaningfull and enjoyable. Plus it was the first time I felt like this was my city; neat! So the first place we went to at Siam was in the Paragon food hall. I bought them some fried bananas which they loved and then we watched the chef's make roti (and then we ate it of course). They were looking for more Thai souvenir stuff, so then we took them to MBK. Even if you don't buy anything there, it's still an experience in itself. It's like wall to wall stores ranging from Jewelry and shoes, to cell phones and pirated movies. It's not quite a flea market or market, but it's not like an established store in the states. I mean, no one walks into Old Navy and tries to barter the price of a shirt with the sales clerk. Even though the stores are semi-questionable occasionally MBK is a very modern building and thousands of people go through it every day. Quite the difference from our version of a shopping mall. Stephanie was looking for shoe's, but struck out. By the time we made it through the souvenir area, we were all pretty tired and it was already 5pm. They had dinner reservations and we had to head back. We parted ways at the Siam interchange station, glad to have made 4 new friends. Here's me with John, Stephanie, Linda and Wayne.