A little bit of my thoughts about Thailand

 I wrote a letter to a friend last night, telling her about Austin's plans and also explaining who some of my special Thai friends are.   She asked me if I had blogged all of this, and if not, I should.  I may have written all of this before, but here it is (again?)

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Austin is gearing up for his trip to Thailand.  He leaves here on the 18th- just ten days from now.  he has corresponded with Ampia, my one time maid and best friend when we lived in Bangkok.  I have been to visit her a couple of times in Thailand and her daughter stayed with us in Australia for a couple of weeks when she was around 13.  

When we got to Bangkok, it was our first Foreign Service posting.  Nick and I had studied Thai for 10 months, so my Thai was very good.   I was at home with Ampai pretty much all day every day.  We are the same age, so, even though she did everything (cleaning, shopping, cooking), we hung out a lot.  She was there when I lost my first baby.   Even though she had a visa to go to the States= she was engaged to an American -who she is married to- but she refused to leave me when I was pregnant with Courtney.  She stayed until we left when Courtney was 4 months old.

Anyway, Ampai has been in touch with Austin and Ampai's daughter- who was born in the US so is American and Thai, is going to act as tour guide for Austin and Kristen,  They are invited to stay with Ampai.   I am attaching a picture of Ampai and Ashley. 

Also Alex (pronounced Aleck) and his wife Julie are in Northern Thailand.  They are a married couple who were our maid and gardener.  His mother came to the US to be the nanny of an American State Dept family and she got Aleck and Julie to come to the US too..  Aleck worked as a mailman living in Springfield, VA for 20 years.  They now have a US Post Office pension and are back living near Chiang Mai.  

Austin and I face timed with them this morning.  They remembered when Austin and I visited them in Chiang Mai (before the moved to Virginia).  Austin was 2 at the time.  They had a little dog and Austin kept feeding the dog hot dogs and then laughing and laughing.   Good memories!   Their daughter, Ann, was Courtney's playmate and best friend when we were there.  Ann if going to arrange all sorts of sightseeing for Austin and Kristen.

We took them (Aleck and Julie) to lunch in March 2020 just before the pandemic hit and as they were getting ready to move back to Thailand.

I am attaching a picture of Nick and I with Julie- I think Aleck took the picture!  They are the ones who told me that we raised our children like Thais- sleeping with them and nursing on demand.

I am somewhat envious.  I wish I was going.  But honesty, at the moment I don't think I could handle a trip like that.  It must be nice to be so young!

Well, this is much longer than I planned for it to be.  I guess I had a lot to say after all.