Music

Nalin started taking piano lessons this semester. She's only had two, but so far she's like it, and she also really enjoys playing the recorder in her music class.

Yesterday she got her first keyboard. I went and bought it over at Central. Central is the premiere chain of "malls" in Thailand. The one near our house is Central Chaengwattana, Chaengwattana being the street on which the mall is located. Only its not called a mall, because there is another mall that is named "The Mall". So if you say you are going to Central, you are really going to the mall. Although, there is also a department store within Central named Central, because in fact the Central "malls" started off as a department store. Sometimes they refer to the mall as a plaza, but not always.

Shopping center nomenclatures aside, Nalin really seems to enjoy her keyboard. We set it up in the girls play room. Our place has four bedrooms, but Nalin and Aleena share a room, and the other room has some of their toys in it. I'm going to buy Nalin some headphones so that she can practice some of the time without everyone else hearing, particularly early in the morning. Nalin is an early riser, especially on weekends, and is not always quit.

New Route & Near Fatality

Yesterday I set out to find a way to the new Central Plaza via the backroads. Without traffic, I can get to the mall via Chaeng Wattana within ten minutes. Sometimes Chaeng Wattana Road is seriously congested, and the short trip could take twenty or thirty minutes.

There are three gates into Nichada. The Samakee Road gate is probably the "main" gate where traffic enters. There is a gate that gives easy access to express (which requires you to be a member of the health club). The last gate is the Seechaithong Gate. Beyond the Seechaithong Gate is a Thai neighborhood of somewhat narrow streets.

I hopped on my bike and exited the Seechaithong Gate. It took me thirty or so minutes to find how to get to the mall through these back streets. The actual ride, once I knew the route, only took ten or so minutes. The challenge was that not all the streets go straight through, most of them dead end.

Today decided to go grocery shopping at the Top's grocery store at Central Plaza, and to drive the back route. I was driving about 20 mph when I approached a four way intersection with no traffic signs or signals. The other road seemed smaller, so I assumed that I would have the right of way. A motor cycle flew out in front of me traveling at about 40 mph. I slammed my breaks and only just missed him. If I had arrived a second earlier, I would have hit him. Had I arrived three or four seconds earlier, he would have slammed into me. Neither would be my idea of a good time.

New Central Plaza

On Thursday, a new mall opened on Chaeng Wattana Road. The name is Central Plaza, and it is run by the premier plaza group here in Thailand. Here they use the term plaza instead of mall because some company has the trademark to mall or some other such nonsense.

The new Central Plaza is very nice. While its not quite as nice as the Central World downtown, it is very solid. It has two book stores that sell English books (Asia Books sells exclusively English language books) and there is even a pretty decent camera store there. There are a lot of good restaurants renting space as well. They have a movie theater on the seventh floor. Of course, there is the Central Department store anchoring the whole thing. Central is kind of like the Macey's of Thailand.

The Top's grocery store on the bottom floor is a huge plus. Its a lot easier to grocery shop there if I also need to pick up other non-grocery items.

The one thing I wish it had was a Toys-R-Us. Still, Central has a decent, albeit expensive, toy section.

If traffic is light, I can probably get to the mall within five or six minutes. I visited on Friday afternoon, and there was not a lot of traffic. In the evenings,h however, Chaeng Wattana can be quite busy. Tim and I, however, think that we can actually get there via some back roads, which would make traffic even less of a concern. If that is true, I could even ride my bike there.